Provided by the publishers as part of the Library Thing's early reviewers.

More information on both the book and the publishers can be found here:

http://www.clarionpublishing.com/books/downside-girls/

The book is a set of 4 short stories, 3 of which have been published previously and which are linked with Angels - state sponsored assassins - as some of the primary characters.

The 4th story is set in the same world, touches briefly on Angels, but is about a musician and follower of one of the planet's religions.

One of the questions I ask myself when reading short stories is: would this story have made it in a full novel length?

Of the four stories, I think the last one was marginally weaker than the others, in that it was, perhaps a little too short (better at Novella length perhaps?).

The other stories however were much stronger at their presented length and I dont think they would have made it to novel length.

Whilst the stories here are perhaps at the right length as short stories, I think this is a very strong world to build upon, and I would be interested to see if Jaine can/will/has already built a set of stories set in this world. ( )

Provided by the publishers as part of the Library Thing's early reviewers.

More information on both the book and the publishers can be found here:

http://www.clarionpublishing.com/books/downside-girls/

The book is a set of 4 short stories, 3 of which have been published previously and which are linked with Angels - state sponsored assassins - as some of the primary characters.

The 4th story is set in the same world, touches briefly on Angels, but is about a musician and follower of one of the planet's religions.

One of the questions I ask myself when reading short stories is: would this story have made it in a full novel length?

Of the four stories, I think the last one was marginally weaker than the others, in that it was, perhaps a little too short (better at Novella length perhaps?).

The other stories however were much stronger at their presented length and I dont think they would have made it to novel length.

Whilst the stories here are perhaps at the right length as short stories, I think this is a very strong world to build upon, and I would be interested to see if Jaine can/will/has already built a set of stories set in this world. ( )

Although I enjoyed the stories, I did not like the style in which the book was written. I felt as if the stories needed to be longer. They were only a taste of a story in order to tempt the reader. ( )

I received a copy of this book for free via Librarything, in exchange for an honest review.
I have not read any previous novels by Jaine Fenn but if the well written and intriguing four short stories are anything to go by I will be reading more of her books.
All four stories entwine the lives of humans and Angels living in above and below/ rich and poor cities. The writer has made the female characters stand out in each of the four stories. All together a very good book and hard to put down until it is read from cover to cover. ( )

Set in Fenn's City of Kesh, a 'double sided' city that floats above a hostile word, this series of four shorts tell the separate stories of four characters as they struggle to make their way in a very dangerous world, especially for denizens of the 'downside' – the poor, disinherited… struggling section of the society.

The prose is tight, the pace as befits short stories is fast, and all but the last of the four stories leave the reader satisfied at the telling of a good tale. Unfortunately, the last of the four shorts feels in some way unfinished and was therefore the least satisfying of the four, it was also the only one of the stories that, although set within the same world, did not revolve around the 'angels' of Kesh City, but one of the city inhabitants.

The world, however, is well imagined and richly detailed, and overall the stories are very entertaining, however I couldn't help but feel they were either meant as teasers for the longer novels set in the same world, or backstories for extant characters of that would, that Fenn somehow couldn't include in the main novels, but wanted to tell. ( )