This review is going to be extremely unfair because I read In a Fix shortly after reading and reviewing Seanan McGuire’s Midnight Blue-Light Special.

 

The premise of In a Fix is that there are people called “aura adaptors” who have the ability to “borrow auras” from other people and somehow acquire their physiological characteristics. How something presumably non-physical can affect someone’s physical appearance is not adequately explained. The author hand-waves any explanation by having the heroine scoff at the idea of molecular-level shapeshifting, then a few chapters later has the heroine acquire the physical characteristics--including size--of a small child so that she can escape a pair of handcuffs. (No, I am not sure how that works.) 
 

The Papal Stakes is mostly about various attempts to rescue Frank Stone and his wife. It is also about pope Urban trying to decide whether he wants to accept the help of the USE. In addition, we have a great deal of debate on whether or not Grantville is part of some vast plot conceived by Satan. (The debate is not very interesting or exciting however.)