Black Heart, by Holly Black

Girls like her, my grandfather once warned me, girls like her turn into women with eyes like bullet holes and mouths made of knives. They are always restless. They are always hungry. They are bad news. They will drink you down like a shot of whisky. Falling in love with them is like falling down a flight of stairs.

The third and concluding book of Holly Black's Curseworkers trilogy. The series is noir contemporary fantasy in a world in which magic is illegal, and so ends up controlled by organized crime. It's slick but heartfelt, an unusual combination. The first book in particular has a lot of very clever fairytale references, while the second digs into and deconstructs the trope of soulbonding and other forms of magically induced love. It's not very much like Black's other books stylistically, and I would recommend it even if you're not a fan of those. (That may go in the other direction as well.)

There is very little I can say about this volume that is not spoilery, other than that I enjoyed it a lot, despite some missteps, and the conclusion was enormously satisfying.

Black Heart

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( Spoilers indulge in elaborate blackmail plots )