Arcadia Bell series

The Arcadia Bell series is written by Jenn Bennett.

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Adult Urban Fantasy

Series Description or Overview[]

✥ Description by Author: It's about an occult mage who owns a tiki bar in central California that serves Earthbound demons. It’s also about a girl who falls in love with a divorced dad twice her age, and the ensuing trials of establishing a new family with him and his teenage kid. It’s also a love letter to Thelema and medieval demonology, and an exploration of race and culture and good and evil. Whichever level you want to read it on it is fine by me. ~ Bastard Books Interview: Jenn Bennett

✥ When we first meet Cady in Kindling the Moon, she is forced to re-visit the fact that her parents, both powerful magicians in their own right, were framed for murders they did not commit. For the past seven years, Cady has been able to slip under the radar, conducting an incognito livelihood as a bartender—but now, she unexpectedly is forced to prove her parent's innocence. ~ Ivy Book Bindings: Series Review

Lead's Species[]

Mage

Primary Supe[]

Mages and demons

What Sets it Apart[]

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

First person narrative told by Arcadia "Cady" Bell.

Books in Series[]

Arcadia Bell series:

Kindling the Moon (2011)
Summoning the Night (2012)
Binding the Shadows (2013)
Banishing the Dark (2014) ~ final

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

2.5. Leashing the Tempest (2012)

Other Series by Author[]

Roaring Twenties Trilogy (PNR) set in 1920s San Francisco with a medium, ghosts & magic. (GR)

World Building[]

Cady - Arcadia Bell — Arcadia Bell — Author Jenn Bennett's drawing for trading cards

Lon Butler — Jenn Bennett — Lon Butler — Author Jenn Bennett's drawing for trading cards

Jupe - Arcadia Bell — Jupe Butler — Author Jenn Bennett's drawing for trading cards

Setting[]

Set in the Big Sur area on California's Central Coast—in the fictional town of Morella, in which Arcadia lives.
Primarily set in two fictional cities on the central coast of California: Morella, and the nearby beach community of La Sirena.

Places:

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Mages, magicians, witches, demons, telekinesis, empathy, persuasion, ✥ There are two main types of supernaturals: magicians (similar to mages or witches) and demons. Each supernatural person/creature has his or her own particular knack—a magical ability (e.g., empathy, telekinesis, persuasion ). They gain the ability to change back and forth from human form and demonic form using a powerful spell.

Glossary:[]

The demons are divided into two types:

Earthbound demons: look like regular mortals but have various magical powers. They gain the ability to change back and forth from human form and demonic form using a powerful spell.
Æthyric demons: who live in another dimension and look like the huge, mythic scaly, horned creatures. They can be summoned by magicians who have enough power.

Groups & Organizations:[]

World []

Humans who don't believe in the existence of Earthbounds, magic, or anything else supernatural are called savages. If a child has one Earthbound parent and one human parent, he or she is always human and is called an "Ugly Duckling." Each demon has a colorful halo (similar to an aura), but most magicians don't, so Arcadia's silver halo sets her apart. ~ from: Fang-tastic Fiction: Jenn Bennett: Arcadia Bell

Protagonists []

ARCADIA: This series follows the adventures of Arcadia ("Cady") Bell (aka Seléne Duval), a 25-year-old magician with developing powers and a tragic family history. Arcadia has a magical helper in Priya, her personal guardian, an Æthyric messenger spirit that can be called on for information or help. As the series opens, Priya appears to Cady in the form of a noncorporeal hologram that has a birdlike head and a unisex body. Priya is important to Cady because of its ability to relay messages across and within the Æthyr.

Arcadia has been on her own and on the run for seven years, ever since her parents were accused of the brutal, magical murders of four leaders of several magical orders. Her parents faked their own deaths and escaped together. They faked Arcadia's death, too, but left her behind to be looked after by the Ekklesia Eleusia (E.E.), the occult order to which they belonged. Arcadia has gone through a series of faked identities, and now she finally has settled down into a life in which she feels relatively safe—as the half-owner of a tiki bar where she works as a bartender and bouncer. Arcadia can cast powerful spells, but she is a self-taught magician, without much training. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction

Sidekick[]

Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:

Characters Chart[]

Characters	What	About
Arcadia "Cady" Bell (aka Seléne Duval)	25-year-old magician with developing powers	Cady owns and works in the Tambuku Tiki Lounge with Kar Yee.
Kar Yee	former college roommate	works in the Tambuku Tiki Lounge with Cady
Priya	Æthyric messenger spirit	Cady's magical helper, personal guardian; can be called on for information or help.
Ekklesia Eleusia (E.E.)	occult order	Cady's parents left her with them when they escaped
Caliph Superior	E.E.	Arcadia has known and trusted since childhood—he gives Arcadia two weeks to prove her parents' innocence.
Lon Butler	Earthbound demonologist	has a huge, mostly stolen, library of ancient demonic texts. Helps Cady identify the demon possibly responsible for he murders her parents are accused of.
Jupiter ("Jupe")	Lon's son

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.

ARCADIA BLUE DRAWING - Arcadia Bell — Arcadia — Author's drawing

Lon red sketch - Arcadia Bell — Lon — Author's drawing

Author[]

Jenn Bennett

Website: Jenn Bennett - main page
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Parnormal Romance, Young Adult

Bio: Jenn Bennett is the author of the Arcadia Bell urban fantasy series from Pocket Books and the Roaring Twenties historical paranormal romance series from Berkley. Born in Germany, she’s lived and traveled extensively throughout Europe, the U.S., and the Far East. She currently lives near Atlanta with one husband and two very bad pugs. ~ [ABOUT]

Cover Artist[]

Artist: Tony Mauro — Source: Bibliography: Cover: Kindling the Moon

Publishing Information[]

Publisher: Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster
Author Page: Jenn Bennett | Official Publisher Page
Series Page: Jenn Bennett Books - Simon & Schuster

Kindling the Moon: Paperback, 358 pages, Pub: June 28, 2011—ISBN: 1451620527
Summoning the Night (2012)
Binding the Shadows (2013)
Banishing the Dark (2014)

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✥ BOOK ONE—Kindling the Moon: Meet Arcadia Bell: bartender, renegade magician, fugitive from the law. . . . Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn't easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia 'Cady' Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she's carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge. But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can't clear her family name soon, she'll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time. ~ Kindling the Moon (Arcadia Bell, book 1) by Jenn Bennett ~ FF

✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Summoning the Night (2012): MAGICAL TRICKS. DEMONIC TREATS. After narrowly escaping her fate as a sacrificial scapegoat, Arcadia Bell is back to normal. Or at least as ordinary as life can be for a renegade magician and owner of a tiki bar that caters to Earthbound demons. She's gearing up for the busiest day of the year—Halloween—when a vengeful kidnapper paralyzes the community. The influential head of the local Hellfire Club taps Cady to track down the fiendish bogeyman, and now that she's dating red-hot Lon Butler, the Club's wayward son, she can hardly say no. Cady and Lon untangle a gruesome thirty-year trail of clues that points to danger for the club members' children. But locating the person behind the terror will require some metaphysical help from Cady's loyal bar patrons as well as her potent new Moonchild powers—and she'd better figure it out before the final victim disappears and her own darkest secret becomes her biggest enemy. ~ Goodreads | Leashing the Tempest (Arcadia Bell, #2.5) by Jenn Bennett

✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Binding the Shadows (2013): In the third book in this beloved and “riveting” (Romantic Times) urban fantasy series, demon-friendly tiki bar owner Arcadia Bell discovers more about her own evolving, and possibly destructive, magical abilities when her bar is the target of a demonic crime wave. Renegade mage and bartender Arcadia Bell has had a rough year, but now the door to her already unstable world is unhinging. When a citywide crime wave erupts, Cady's demon-friendly tiki bar is robbed by Earthbounds wielding surreal demonic abilities that just flat-out shouldn't exist. With the help of her devilishly delicious boyfriend, Lon Butler, Cady sets out to find the people who wronged her—but her targets aren't the only ones experiencing unnatural metamorphoses. Can Cady track down the monsters responsible before the monster inside her destroys everything—and everyone—she loves? If she survives this adventure, one thing is certain: it's last call for life as she knows it. ~ Goodreads | Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell, #3) by Jenn Bennett

✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—Banishing the Dark (2014): The fourth and final installment of a "riveting" (RT Book reviews) urban fantasy series about a renegade mage and the demons who love her. Complicated does not begin to describe Arcadia Bell's life right now: unnatural magical power, another brush with death, and a murderous mother who's not only overbearing but determined to take permanent possession of Cady's body. Forced to delve deep into the mystery surrounding her own birth, Cady must uncover which evil spell her parents cast during her conception…and how to reverse it. Fast. As she and her lover Lon embark on a dangerous journey through her magical past, Lon's teenage son Jupe sneaks off for his own investigation. Each family secret they uncover is darker than the last, and Cady, who has worn many identities—Moonchild, mage, fugitive—is about to add one more to the list. ~ Goodreads | Banishing the Dark (Arcadia Bell, #4) by Jenn Bennett

First Sentences[]

Kindling the Moon (2011) — I knew better than to be preoccupied when Tambuku Tiki Lounge was over capacity.
Summoning the Night (2012) — Jupe pinched himself on the arm and grinned from the passenger seat of my Volkswagen.
Binding the Shadows (2013) — I scrambled through the second-story window and balanced on a square section of slanted roofing above a portico on the first floor.
Banishing the Dark (2014) — Jupe crouched in the shadows, watching a pair of nurses stroll down the hall.

Quotes[]

Jenn Bennett Quotes
Arcadia Bell Series ~ Shelfari

Read Alikes (similar elements)[]

Awards[]

Trivia[]

~ #49: Best Urban Fantasy SERIES (359 books)

Notes / Commentary[]

✥ "Let me begin by saying that I really hate to see this series end. It has been a reliably exciting and suspenseful series with skillfully drawn characters, intricately crafted plots, and an intriguing series story arc. The heroine has just the right amount of angst in her interior monologues—not the endless wallows of self-pitying anguish that we sometimes see, but enough that we admire her ability to keep moving forward, despite her tragic childhood." ✥ "This is a terrific ending for a wonderful series. I can't say enough about Bennett's skills in character building and plot development." ~ Fang-tastic Fiction