The Bartered Brides

I picked up this book out of curiosity, not having read the others in the series but familiar with Mercedes Lackey's fantasy. I found it a little hard, as an incoming reader, to suss out exactly how the magic works; but the characters were all distinct and easy enough to follow.

In the end I had the same problem that I had with Lackey's fantasy, which is that she gets too graphic/dark for me. That's a personal preference, though. Aside from that any fans of Sherlock and magic might find this series an interesting one!