Rating: 2/5
Book Blurb: Luck is its own kind of magic, in this first book in an electrifying new contemporary fantasy series from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Hollows novels.
Petra Grady has known since adolescence that she has no talent for magic—and that’s never going to change. But as a sweeper first-class, she’s parlayed her rare ability to handle dross—the damaging, magical waste generated by her more talented kin’s spellwork—into a decent life working at the mages’ university.
Except Grady’s relatively predictable life is about to be upended. When the oblivious, sexy, and oh-so-out-of-reach Benedict Strom needs someone with her abilities for a research project studying dross and how to render it harmless, she’s stuck working on his team—whether she wants to or not.
Only Benedict doesn’t understand the characteristics of dross like Grady does. After an unthinkable accident, she and Benedict are forced to go on the run to seek out the one person who might be able to help: an outcast exiled ten years ago for the crime of using dross to cast spells. Now Grady must decide whether to stick with the magical status quo or embrace her own hidden talents . . . and risk shattering their entire world.
Review:
A new urban fantasy series featuring a girl who finds herself with magic she never new she had and dealing with working with her ex best friend who might have created something that could destroy the world. Petra Grady is a Sweeper first class, she is tasked with cleaning up mage's spells and dross, the damaging, magical waste made from mage's spells. Sweepers are considered as second-class but Petra is an extremely talented one. When she is forced to work with Benedict Storm, her childhood friend turned nemesis who broke her heart and destroyed their friendship, she is not excited. Benedict is working on research that could render the Mages' dross inactive and make Sweepers obsolete. Petra knows this is an impossible task and that whatever Benedict is doing is going to end up being dangerous and a failure, yet her team wants her on the project to oversee what is happening and give them insight. Benedict doesn't understand dross the way Petra does and strange things are happening around Petra, from her roommate acting weird to her neighbor being around her more... not to mention the fact that Petra might have to finally get out of her own shadow and reveal her talents... which could shatter the world. This book is the first book in a series and unfortunately I don't think I will be continuing on with this series. The book had an interesting world at first but then I found myself disliking the characters and not at all caring about what happened to them or the world. The magic system was unique and I liked the urban fantasy setting. I however, did not like Petra at all. Petra made terrible decisions that had me frustrated and honestly I couldn't care less about the other characters and what they were doing. It felt like a drag trying to get to the end of the book and I so badly wanted to DNF it many times but kept pushing myself to finish in hopes that maybe it would get better (spoiler: it did not). I feel that if you like slow moving urban fantasy novels with a pretty naive and young protagonist and no romance, give this one a go, maybe you'll have a better time with it than I did.
*Thanks Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group, Ace for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
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Check out my review of Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison
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March 2024 Reading Round Up
Stand Out Books from March
Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison
New world from the author of the long running Hollows series! I loved the world building here, just the mechanics of magic and how you get an advanced degree in magic when the general public doesn't know magic exists. Really fun!
The Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Raney
Y'all, this was FUN. This book is bonkers, but in a very, sure, of course that's the next logical step once you've introduced superheros and cloned dinosaurs. I rooted for Rex so hard and I love the way her city and friends love her.
What I'm Reading Now
I started Babel and I'm going to try to finish that in the next few days before it goes back to the library. I can tell this book is going to get difficult and I've been procrastinating it a bit because of that, but I don't want to wait several weeks to get it back from the library if it goes back. I'm also almost done with a re-read of the manga Dengeki Daisy. I love how much it shows when it was written, it's all about hacking and so clearly right at the early internet. Otherwise, I'm in the middle of a couple of series, an academic book about Medieval spices, and still going through the webcomic Digger.
What I'm Looking Forward to in April
I've got the last volume of Kaguya-sama: Love is War sitting on my shelf. My husband and I have watched the anime and been reading through all the manga together, so it's a little bittersweet to see it end. I just finished Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to the sequel. I've also got the new T. Kingfisher What Feasts at Night on hold at the library, so that will be fun!
Reading Challenges
I'm a little ahead on my Book Riot Read Harder challenge, so being a little picky about what to read next. I'm trying to decide if Babel counts as a book about books, or if it's really a book about words. We'll see as I get through it and I might pick something else for that prompt. For my Reading Around the World challenge, I've got The Tower of the Antilles by Achy Obejas on hold for Cuba.
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Three Kinds of Lucky
I didn’t dislike this book, I was frustrated by it quite a bit, but I didn’t dislike it and I still feel a little like the review feels more negative than I intended it to be. It’s one that felt like it could be more than it was, and I think that was my big issue with it. I want to see Kim Harrison write outside of urban fantasy at some point, I think, it feels like she could do solid horror.…
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FINALLY STARTING KIM HARRISON'S NEW BOOK THREE KINDS OF LUCKY WHEN WILL THIS WOMAN STOP OWNING MY LIFE
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REVIEW:
THREE KINDS OF LUCKY (The Shadow Age 1) by Kim Harrison at The Reading Cafe:
' a very good start to new series: well written'
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Waiting on Wednesday!
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Hello, hello! I hope you’re all having a great week so far. For…
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I've been thinking about how the Amell Warden and Hawke are related, and that house Trevelyan is technically distantly related to house Pavus, with a number of distant relations spread all across Thedas (Phillam, Lord Albrecht, Lady Osher...), and now I can't shake this feeling that I really, really want house Trevelyan to also be related to whatever the human Rook's last name is going to wind up being.
It just really tickles me to imagine my Inquisitor shrugging, like "Yeah, their family and us Trevelyans have about as much to do with one another as the Pavus and the Trevelyans. Or the Couslands and the Trevelyans. Or the Bayarts and the Trevelyans. The De Ghislain and the Trevelyans. Us Trevelyans have had fingers in a lot of metaphorical pies, so to speak."
(and then Dorian can have a cute moment, and say a little quip about how he's not surprised that his amatus comes from a long and prestigious line of heartbreakers, heyoooo)
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