Review: Empire of the Dawn

Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dear Mister Kristoff:

Fuck.

My.

Face.

Review: The Impossible Fortune

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Thursday Murder Club returns after a brief hiatus for the fifth mystery in the series, and this one’s a 3.5 rounded up to 4 in large part because returning to these characters is a stark reminder that Osman utterly goofed it by pivoting to We Solve Murders and its much more annoying cast of characters last year. By now, this series is so well lived in that I’m much more invested in them than ever, even Ron whom I disliked so much at first. This book does a great job picking up the pieces after the personal tragedies of The Last Devil to Die, and reminding us all of how much life goes on even when another big crime is right around the corner.

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Review: Locked in Pursuit

Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The fourth Electra McDonnell promises quick resolution to the dramatic reveal from the very end of the previous book, and delivers there. What it doesn’t deliver on as much is its promise of traveling to Lisbon, capital of the neutral (though still fascist) Portuguese state, as part of Major Ramsey’s ongoing investigations into Nazi spycraft. Luckily, the ending of this book suggests there might finally be more travels to Lisbon in store, but it also ends on a personal low note for Ellie. Which makes me hope more than ever that the final book ends the series as satisfactorily as it deserves…

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Review: Every Spiral of Fate

Every Spiral of Fate by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tahereh Mafi’s fourth book in her lavish Persian style fantasy series - now being marketed more heavily than ever as romantasy these days - takes everything on the drama scale up a few notches to the greatest effect yet. From a long awaited and long dreaded wedding to an expedition across the most far flung reaches of the empire, leading to some revelations I didn’t see coming…let’s just say that while Mafi planned this book as the penultimate in the series, it would also make just as much sense as the finale. Which makes me really wonder what kind of surprises she has in store for our heroes in the fifth book…

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Review: Playing It Safe

Playing It Safe by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Electra McDonnell’s third mystery is a bit more of an adventure as Major Ramsey brings her to the northern English port city of Sunderland, away from the ongoing London Blitz (it’s still 1940 here in the timeline). While there’s still a bit of Nazi bombing threat to this important shipbuilding harbor, the Nazis’ true intentions here are far more insidious, as they’ve started counterfeiting national ID cards to help their spies blend in. Once Ellie learns how to spot these fakes, she needs to infiltrate the local social circles and find ways to sneak into everyone’s purses, because as the bodies start to mount, everyone in town is a suspect. Engaging in its mystery and romance alike, this book truly earns its way back to four star territory with its huge cliffhanger ending that completely turns Ellie’s world upside down.

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Review: The Key to Deceit

The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second novel of five in the Electra McDonnell series is all too brief, but still quite classical in its stylings, as Ellie and her family get swept into another assignment from the utterly straitlaced Major Ramsey: a dead woman with some very interesting jewelry found on her body. The setting remains very unique for this genre, amidst the Blitz, although since we’re still in 1940 here, it leaves me to wonder how far in the timeline Weaver will ultimately get by the time of the fifth and final book. But hey, the chemistry between Ellie and Ramsey sparkles as much as it did in Book 1, and that, I’m certain, will have a very satisfying ending by the time I reach that final book.

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Review: Red City

Red City by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s easy to look at Marie Lu’s adult debut and think it might still be more teen friendly at the start, since we begin by following our two protagonists Sam and Ari from a very young age when they were both immigrant children in Angel City (the DC Comics-like alternate Los Angeles of this book). But it becomes very clear, very quickly, that once we we move into their grown up lives, they really do deal with grown up concerns.