The Unknown Beloved by Amy Harmon

  

 My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Content: Strong language; Sex that is not described in detail, Gruesome killings

Chicago, 1923: Ten-year-old Dani Flanagan returns home to find police swarming the house, her parents dead. Michael Malone, the young patrolman assigned to the case, discovers there’s more to the situation—and to Dani Flanagan herself—than the authorities care to explore. Malone is told to shut his mouth, and Dani is sent away to live with her spinster aunts in Cleveland.

Fifteen years later, Michael Malone is summoned to Cleveland to investigate a series of murders that have everyone stumped, including his friend and famed Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, now Cleveland’s director of safety. There, in a city caught in the grip of a serial killer, Malone’s and Dani’s paths cross once again.

Malone is drawn to Dani and her affinity for the dead and compassion for the destitute. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that she could help him solve his case. As terror descends on the city and Malone and Dani confront the dark secrets that draw them together, it’s a race to find the killer or risk becoming his next victims.

 

I rarely read straight up historical fiction. I usually need some mystery or romance added in and this book had both of those things, plus it's Amy Harmon so how could I go wrong? Well, to start off I'm going to say that I have never read any of Amy Harmon's historical fiction novels. I've read quite a few  of her fantasy and romance ones and loved them. This book had a different feel to it from those books, but that wasn't completely unexpected since it's a different genre. 

I think this book is darker than her other books. It's based on a true crime that Eliot Ness was involved in trying to solve, that involved a serial killer that did gruesome killings, so I think that made the book feel even more different than I was expecting. I've read books with gruesome killings before and I don't particularly enjoy them, but this one was pretty mild in the descriptions compared to those. We never get into the head of the killer or have anything described as it's happening, just what's left to be found later. To me that was a good thing. 

The investigation was at times interesting, and at times too long and drawn out. I'm always cautious about reading something fictional about someone that was real, but I thought the real people were blended into the story well. The story is very character driven and I like character driven stories. Dani and Malone were both interesting characters and I liked that we were able to slowly peel the layers off of who they were. Their relationship was sweet and slow burn, but at times I found it frustrating because Malone didn't want to involve Dani in his life. 

Mostly what I didn't like about this book were the huge coincidences, the fact that there were so many elements in play, and the snails pace the plot moved at. Along with the historical, mystery, and romance elements, Dani also has some psychic abilities, and there is a bit of what feels like fate in play as well. It felt like the author crammed a few too many ideas into the book, but it wasn't bad and I did end up liking this book. 

I wouldn't recommend this as the first book to read by this author. While I mostly enjoyed it, I feel like others are better. If you've never read Amy Harmon I would suggest starting with Making Faces, or if you like fairy tale type fantasy, start with The Bird and the Sword.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

 

 

 

  

March 2022 Book Club: Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards, #1) by Jennifer Estep

  

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Brutal murders

 

Gladiator meets Game of Thrones: a royal woman becomes a skilled warrior to destroy her murderous cousin, avenge her family, and save her kingdom in this first entry in a dazzling fantasy epic from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Elemental Assassin series—an enthralling tale that combines magic, murder, intrigue, adventure, and a hint of romance.

In a realm where one’s magical power determines one’s worth, Lady Everleigh’s lack of obvious ability relegates her to the shadows of the royal court of Bellona, a kingdom steeped in gladiator tradition. Seventeenth in line for the throne, Evie is nothing more than a ceremonial fixture, overlooked and mostly forgotten.

But dark forces are at work inside the palace. When her cousin Vasilia, the crown princess, assassinates her mother the queen and takes the throne by force, Evie is also attacked, along with the rest of the royal family. Luckily for Evie, her secret immunity to magic helps her escape the massacre.

Forced into hiding to survive, she falls in with a gladiator troupe. Though they use their talents to entertain and amuse the masses, the gladiators are actually highly trained warriors skilled in the art of war, especially Lucas Sullivan, a powerful magier with secrets of his own. Uncertain of her future—or if she even has one—Evie begins training with the troupe until she can decide her next move.

But as the bloodthirsty Vasilia exerts her power, pushing Bellona to the brink of war, Evie’s fate becomes clear: she must become a fearsome gladiator herself . . . and kill the queen.

 

Gladiator meets Game of Thrones? Yeah right... That comparison is kind of laughable. This is like kindergarten compared to both of those. I wanted to like this book so much, but unfortunately it wasn't what I was wanting or expecting.
My biggest problem with it is that the main character is an idiot most of the time. She completely ignores the obvious so many times in this book I lost count. Also, pie baking and complaining is not a good way to open a fantasy book. The main character comes off pretty whiny as she complains about having to bake pies, and royal protocol when there are people who have much bigger problems in her world. Needless to say, this did not draw me into the story at all.

There were a lot of things that bothered me about the main character, but these are a few examples of what I really didn't like-

-She has a very heightened sense of smell. She can smell things no one else can, like people's emotions, the magic in gemstones, and poisons, but somehow doesn't realize there is poison in the drinks that kill a lot of people, even though it's the poison that killed her own parents. That just doesn't make sense.

-She decides to kill the queen, as the title eludes to, and rightly so after the queen has done so many horrible things. But her big reason for wanting to do this is because she was bullied by her, not because of all the murders she committed. This was a little disturbing because it seemed to unintentionally send the message that it's ok to kill someone who is bulling you.

-Don't even get me started about the dumb dance thing, that coincidentally ends up saving everyone's life later in the book. I couldn't take it seriously.

This book reads so YA while adding in a protagonist who is supposed to be well into her 20s. She came off so much younger than that. There is also quite a bit of adult language in this book, mostly in reference to the main character wanting to hook up with someone, and calling other women bitches over and over. If that was supposed to make it feel more adult, it didn't work. It felt juvenile to me. I'm sad to say this series has been added to my abandoned pile.

 

 

February Reading Challenge

 

 

In February the challenge was titled Short Month, Short Books, and we read as many short stories and novellas as we could. I had quite a few of them on my to-read list, and while I didn't get to all of them, these are the ones I did read.

 

First, I picked up Small Magics by Ilona Andrews. It's a compilation of all their stories related to Kate Daniels and a couple of unrelated ones. I had read most of them but had missed reading the prequel story to Magic Breaks in the Curran's POV Collection, Grace of Small Magics, and Of Swine and Roses. 

 

Grace of Small Magics by Ilona Andrews

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

 

Grace has always known she wasn’t like everyone else and that her family has magic abilities. After flying to meet the head of Clan Dreoch in order to fulfill her families’ “duties” as servants, Grace finds herself in the middle of a mage clan war…

 

I enjoyed Grace of small Magics, but I think it would have been better without the rushed romance, or instalove. Since it's a short story it's too hard to fully develop a romance and have it feel believable. I would have probably liked it better if there had just been the beginnings of romantic interest between the characters without them acting so in love so quickly.

Of Swine and Roses by Ilona Andrews

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 

A young adult short story about a girl, a pig, some magic, and the worst date ever.

Chad Thurman is a thug, who carries brass knuckles in both pockets and lays magic traps for intruders into “his” neighborhood. The last thing Alena Kornov wants to do is to go on the date with him. But when her family pressures her, she can’t say no. Now the ice-cream is absent, the pig is running for its life, and we won’t even mention the dead guy… 

 

This was a really cute story and I think the only YA story I've ever seen by Ilona Andrews. The magical mafia type culture was kind of interesting. I especially loved Alena's personality and how she took it upon herself to save the pig.

There are a lot of stories I've yet to read in Arcanum Unbounded but I did get a few more of them read in February. I always enjoy reading the author notes that Sanderson includes with his stories.

 

The Hope of Elantris (#1.5) by Brandon Sanderson 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

"There were always a few holes in the manuscript where I decided not to include viewpoints or sections of explanation in the name of streamlining, particularly at the end. In the back of my mind, I knew what happened. This story talks about one of those holes; it is meant to be read after you've finished the novel and takes place during the events of the climax. In the annotation, I've written a further explanation of why I wrote this piece. Some of you may find it interesting to read this ahead of time; I put it in the annotation, however, as I know others would rather enjoy the story without bias beforehand, then read my thoughts afterward."  ~ Brandon Sanderson.

 

It's been a long time since I read Elantris, but I remembered enough to read this and place it in the context of the story. It's from the point of view of a girl who was not in the book, and while I thought the story was very enjoyable, it was made even more enjoyable after I read the annotation Sanderson included afterwards, which tells why he wrote the story in the first place.

 

The Eleventh Metal (Mistborn #0.5) by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 

"This story was written specifically for the Mistborn Adventure Game, a tabletop RPG. Please keep in mind that the story was intended to help a GM bring his players up to speed on the world if they haven’t read the books. There are a few goodies for those who want to know more about Kelsier, but this story is not meant to stand wholly on its own."
~ Brandon Sanderson.

This was an enjoyable glimpse of Kelsier before the events of Mistborn. It shows how he gets the whole idea for his plan and also introduces us to his mentor Gemmel.

 

 

 

The Debt Collector: Lirium, Season One (Debt Collector #1-9) by Susan Kaye Quinn

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Prostitution, Sex

 

What's your life worth on the open market?

In this sexy, gritty future-noir, debt collectors take your life energy and give it to someone more "worthy"... all while paying the price with black marks on their souls.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat and jackboots—he's just in it for his cut, ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, people who will make the world a better place with their work and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's girls keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone—a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

 

I wasn't expecting to like this nearly as much as I did. I picked up the first story, Delirium for 99 cents because it sounded interesting. I knew it would be dark and gritty, so I wasn't sure about it, but the dark, gritty, noir-like setting really pulled me in. This was a cool mash up of urban fantasy and cyberpunk (a genre I haven't had a lot of success with), and it worked so well for me. The story overall had a sexy feel to it, in the vein of noir type fiction. After I finished Delirium, I saw that all 9 books of Season One were free in this omnibus, so I downloaded it and kept reading. I believe this was originally published as a web serial, so each part is pretty short, with the whole season being around 430 pages. I'm not going to review each one of the stories separately, because they work well as one volume. Some stories I think are worth 4 stars and some 3, so my rating as a whole is 3.5.

 
I enjoyed the main character, Lirium a lot and also the side characters, especially Elena, or apple girl, as Lirium likes to call her. After Delirium, there is the second part called Agony where Lirium meets Ophelia. I thought the parts with Ophelia were good and I liked her character, but the feelings developed there felt unnecessary to the story arch. I think he thought he was falling in love with her, but I don't think he really was. I kept waiting for him to get back to apple girl, so I was a little impatient through these parts of the story.

Overall I enjoyed this, but I do feel like there were several flaws in the story as a whole. I won't get into them because of spoilers, but honestly I didn't really care. I just went with it and, for the most part, enjoyed the ride.

 

Professional Integrity by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language 

 

Several years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start their thieves-for-hire organization better known as Riyria. Things have gone well enough for the team as they do "jobs" for various nobles throughout Elan. Usually that means stealing something, but when a young heiress asks them to steal her…well, that's a first for the pair. All is not as it seems, but Royce is determined to get the bottom of what's actually going on. After all, he has his professional integrity at stake.

 

Next I picked up this one short story I had missed reading in Michael J. Sullivan's world of Riyria. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but then I always enjoy reading about Royce and Hadrian. There were some very amusing parts and a nice twist.

 

 

 

  

The Last Witness by K. J. Parker

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 

When you need a memory to be wiped, call me.

Transferring unwanted memories to my own mind is the only form of magic I've ever mastered. But now, I'm holding so many memories I'm not always sure which ones are actually mine, any more.

Some of them are sensitive; all of them are private. And there are those who are willing to kill to access the secrets I'm trying to bury...

 

I liked the concept a lot, but the main character wasn't very likable. The story overall was a bit sad and depressing. I also found my mind wandering throughout the story for some reason, and I would have to backtrack to see what I had missed. So, a bit of a disappointment for me, but I did like the narrator for the audio.