Balthazar’s Bane by Kat Ross is sixth in the delightfully dark Gaslamp Gothic series. This book, as the title suggests, focuses on Balthazar and his ward Lucas. When Balthazar kills a necromancer with a debt, and gets tangled up with said necromancer’s daughter, he ends up kidnapped by jinn and taken to a mythical city to work off the necromancer’s debt still owed to the master of the city. In an attempt to win his freedom without turning tricks, Balthazar agrees to enter a contest to retrieve a mystical sword. Can he survive the arena and claim the Emerald-Studded Sword from the demoness Fulad-zereh?

I greatly enjoyed journeying with Balthazar this go-round! He’s certainly a complex and complicated character. The most exciting part of this story, though, was seeing all the other unusual people. From Taj the daeva, and the jinn who serve him, to Fulad-zereh the demoness, and the archangel who ‘guards’ the hidden city, there’s a great deal of variety here. I always enjoy the daevas when they appear. Taj is a great counter to Bathazar, and certainly lives up to the arrogance that the daevas can fall prey to. It’s great that each learns a measure of forgiveness for one another. To be fair, Taj has a very good reason to loathe necromancers, even as he uses them to gather talismans. The humour is wonderful! The interactions between Taj and Balthazar and between Balthazar and Lucas are priceless. Highly recommended; a great addition to the series!

***Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed via XPresso Blog Tours