Not your average warlock
Meet Eddie Lancaster. That’s me. I’m annoying, rude and I’m not sorry. I’m also a warlock. Not just any warlock. I’m a warlock for hire. Need magical assistance? I’m your guy. Whatever you need: spell, cures or potion, I can provide. For a price. 

My life gets tad more difficult when one particular customer comes knocking. She’s sexy, mysterious and incredibly dangerous. I should have turned her away but I just can’t resist a good mystery. So I poked my nose where it doesn’t belong and landed myself in trouble with a malignant seer. I have to do as he says or people are going to die. I’m not really known for cooperation so I just have to find a way to kill him before he kills the people I care about.

But how do you beat a man who sees every move you make before you’ve even decided to make it?

I’m Eddie Lancaster and I’m totally f***ed. 

How was it?

I’ve read many stories about characters who are the engineers of their own problems but this character has a level of stupid that I can’t really get behind. This whole book and the Warlock himself remind me of the famous quote “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.“

Having him admit how careless and stupid he’s been could have been forgivable if not endearing but he wasn’t. If any attempts were made to make him so I didn’t see them. The fact that Eddie – that’s the Warlock’s name, I had to check – breaks the fourth wall by directly speaking to us could have been great, however here it only highlighted the problems with the character and the plot. It is difficult to root for him, he seems to know all his faults but does nothing to be better, and he is oblivious to things that a guy in his circumstances wouldn’t be.

If this book was longer I probably would have dropped it, in fact, I paused this book for months after 1/3 of it, I needed the breather. The world-building is shaky and seems unreliable. The story itself is light leaning toward fun but Eddie’s “understandable” immaturity makes it worse. He’s annoying, seems to be failing upward, stumbles into situations of his own making, and gets out of them by sheer luck disguised as clear plans.

Warlock for Hire is a decent idea that seems to be cobbled together a few weeks before a deadline. If didn’t already have the first three books of the Arcane Inc. series I’m not sure I would have continued with these books.