Annie Bellet

Interesting. I was afraid, for most of the book, that it would be a classic Celtic myth/fairy tale - those usually end very badly for everyone. This one didn't exactly end well, but given enough time things pretty much worked out - at least, for the main characters. The Other World was true to the Celtic view of Fae - weird, cold, and un-moral. The tasks Seren sets Aine suit her style (and she suits the Other World); Aine's reaction and choices shift a lot. Real, solid self-sacrifice for the show more smith - but once she actually has a choice about doing her tasks, she seems to get a lot more careless about the long-term effects. What would Seren do with the hair, for instance - besides free the twins, if she did do that? Aine doesn't even seem to think about what she's giving Seren. The Ravens' intervention is interesting, but it only seems to solidify Aine's choices. And the last task...the only hope I have is that she thought, or knew, that the children would rise again. The mother is a tree, after all. But that's not supported in the text; she just makes that choice, the one that lets her go free, despite her training as a Wisewoman. And the story skims over the whole thing - Aine's unhappy as she goes back, but as soon as she has the charms the matter's done with, and we're back in the standard fairy tale pattern. Seren's last trick fits that, and the way things worked out with the twins. And the more-or-less happy ending. It's a weird interval, in the Other World. We don't even see enough of Aine afterward to find out if she's irrevocably changed - more than being willing to settle down. Hmm, was part of the point to make her shed her Wisewoman self, to settle down? If so, it didn't really work. She'd made that choice already. Very strong story, very rich, not quite as depressing as I'd expected. I'm definitely looking for more Annie Bellet - her stuff is always worth reading. show less

Nice. It's a short book, I discovered when I looked at the page count - I didn't think of it that way while I was immersed in the story. Interesting setting, great worldbuilding (without infodumping - I have no idea why or how three sapient species share this city, but I want to know more!), good story. The twists on magic are elegant - that's _not_ what I've ever thought of a blood mage as being/doing! - though it's a little odd how they share that aspect. It's a police procedural, down to show more the paperwork, but set in a world with quite a few differences from ours. New partners integrating, with old baggage and ongoing secrets interfering. And politics - that's a universal, I guess. I like Zhivana a lot, and by the end of the book I was starting to like Par - it was hard, earlier on (he's grieving his old partner, who died, and seems to have decided that sulky is the best protection against...everything and everyone, pretty much). Definitely a world and characters I want to see more of; this book is worth rereading, too. Which seems to be a recurring theme with Bellet, for me. show less

I didn't used to write 'bad' reviews of books, or even rate them, but having got more involved in the social side of Goodreads, it's less easy to just let those books you didn't enjoy slide off into merciful oblivion. It's embarrassing on my side, and probably on the other side, when someone recommends me a book and I have to explain that I already tried reading it and didn't like it.

So if I don't like a book, I either stick it on my DNF shelf unrated or give a rating and no review - show more especially if I can't think of anything nice to say.

But this one is different, because much of what made me give it two stars is related to why I should never have read it in the first place, not because I objectively think it's a bad book.

The Positive Side
Annie Bellet can obviously write. The storytelling flows nicely, without the weird lumps and bumps you get when the author could have used a better editor.

As an aside - many reviewers complain that this is very short. It is. It's more of a novella than a novel, and I think it would be fairer to make that clear to readers. However, it's better to have a story done with the right number of words for the amount of tale to be told: there's no point padding out a little story into a novel. The way it's written, this is a very little story. Dragging it out to novel-length would not have improved it.

Why I Should Not Have Read This Book
Gaming. That should have been an immediate turn-off. However, Jim Butcher (until recently) has managed to put in his pop culture references with a light enough hand that it doesn't bother me, so I decided to give this book a chance. Bad decision on my part. If you like gaming and comics and so on, then you might be part of the audience for this book. If, like me, the whole thing leaves you cold, the continual gaming/comic/pop culture references are more likely to be annoying.

Insta-Lust. I believe in love at first sight. However, lust-at-first-sight does nothing for me - particularly when the MC has a tough-looking guy with a gun and an attitude walk into her shop, and all she can think about is how sexy he is. No worry about her personal safety, or anyone else's safety. No, just instalust.

Juvenile Characters. In general, I do not read young adult. I'm too old and too bitter and too cynical. Despite the fact that at least three of the characters had to be in their late twenties at least, and probably older (MC at least is 'closer to fifty than thirty'), they all spoke and acted as if they were in their teens or early twenties. I truly could not see the MC as a woman in her forties - certainly not a woman who has spent twenty years in hiding.

And while we're on the subject, MC keeps referring to the big-bad-sorcerer, who is centuries old, as 'her ex'. If he's that old, there's a lot more to him than just being 'her ex'. And, if he wants to track her down and eat her heart for the power, then it's not about past relationships. It just seemed weird that in her mind, he's just 'my ex' rather than 'the terrifying sorcerer I'm fleeing for my life from'.

Plus, I'm rather fed up with heroines who have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the action. Give me Harry Dresden, and his determination to protect his city at any cost, any time.

Conclusion
This is a light urban fantasy that - despite the lack of sex in this one - seems destined to be more on the paranormal romance side. Recommended for people who want that sort of book, and who also enjoy gaming/pop culture/comic references.

Will I be reading any more of the author's work? Probably not. She clearly has talent, and I hope she succeeds - but no author is going to appeal to everybody, and I'm obviously not in her audience sector. show less

Jade didn't run away when after she'd exposed herself to the sorcerer who wants to kill her. Instead she chose to stay and fight for her found family. Not long after her biological family shows up asking for help--the family who threw her out of their cult (as she calls it) for not being a crow shapeshifter. She wants to say no, but she can't resist helping. For a short piece, this novella was packed with adventure and had a very solid plotline. I like this series quite a bit.