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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
This book is just a mess. It starts out as a cookie cutter urban fantasy- a hidden magical world existing alongside our normal modern world, a protagonist with magical powers that doesn't know much about this world but has a mysterious secret backstory and special extra-magical powers, a mystery with monsters and betrayal and so on. Unfortunately the story just keeps getting more and more incoherent as the book goes on to the point where I am now at 90% of the book in the middle of the final confrontation and everything is so nonsensical and boring that I am seriously considering dropping the book altogether. Going over the various aspects of the book that left me disappointed in no particular order:
The mystery is a total failure. Once the villain was very abruptly revealed, the book had to hit the breaks and spend a few pages with the villain monologuing to an auditorium full of people because *almost none* of the who, how and why of the mystery had been previously set up. This is by far the clunkiest least satisfying "reveal" I've run across in years.
Characters' emotions and motivations are all over the place and constantly change. As a lazy shortcut to actually descriptive writing, our character is an empath so instead of observing people she just *knows* what they are feeling. Disappointing as that is, I could accept it except there are several people whose emotions she specifically cannot sense *at all*. This is just a clumsy solution to still having a "mystery" when your protagonist can effectively read everyone's mind. The issue is that these characters that she supposedly can't read were still *constantly* described in the same way e.g. "She couldn't sense his emotions at all but she could still feel that his anger was hiding a deeper sense of bla-bla-bla..." If our character can't read them then why are we getting an inventory of their emotions at any given moment?
Meanwhile our protagonist's emotions are all over the place. The last page I read before writing this review had her boiling with rage, driven by grim determination, frozen with fear, filled with hope and stunned with shock all in the scope of a hundred words or so. Its enough to give you emotional whiplash and while this was perhaps the most egregious example, its fairly representative of how her emotional state constantly and massively fluctuates.
The magic and the world make very little sense. What and how people can do is just totally random and the story flip-flops between everyone learning the exact same rigid spells with only very advanced "magicals" being able to invent new ones and everyone having their own unique abilities that others can't copy. At one point the "good guys" summon the spirit of a powerful deceased witch and wrestle with an ancient monstrous god in order to obtain ingredients for a spell but those ingredients are available for about $40 at a pharmacy or jewelry shop and they are all rich so its totally unclear why they decide to risk their lives *twice*. Said spell is really dangerous and only available from a forbidden library yet our newbies perform it in about a minute with no preparation and everyone recognizes the spell on sight. Meanwhile our protagonist switches between fighting homicidal monsters that are very hard to subdue and being the worst student in a class of 12-year-olds.
Finally, the action scenes are really awkward and confusing which is a problem because there are a lot of them. There is just no proper sense of space or time so its impossible to imagine what is actually going on, who is winning and who is in danger. There is also no real sense of danger- a leg gets paralyzed with poison then the character is running in the very next sentence, someone gets "engulfed in flames" while grappling someone else and the second person is unharmed, a character feels "all her knuckles breaking from the punch" (huh?) and it is never mentioned again. Its essentially just random disconnected descriptions.
So in short terribly executed "mystery," flat and nonsensical worldbuilding, emotionally inconsistent characters and poor writing especially obvious in the action scenes.
The mystery is a total failure. Once the villain was very abruptly revealed, the book had to hit the breaks and spend a few pages with the villain monologuing to an auditorium full of people because *almost none* of the who, how and why of the mystery had been previously set up. This is by far the clunkiest least satisfying "reveal" I've run across in years.
Characters' emotions and motivations are all over the place and constantly change. As a lazy shortcut to actually descriptive writing, our character is an empath so instead of observing people she just *knows* what they are feeling. Disappointing as that is, I could accept it except there are several people whose emotions she specifically cannot sense *at all*. This is just a clumsy solution to still having a "mystery" when your protagonist can effectively read everyone's mind. The issue is that these characters that she supposedly can't read were still *constantly* described in the same way e.g. "She couldn't sense his emotions at all but she could still feel that his anger was hiding a deeper sense of bla-bla-bla..." If our character can't read them then why are we getting an inventory of their emotions at any given moment?
Meanwhile our protagonist's emotions are all over the place. The last page I read before writing this review had her boiling with rage, driven by grim determination, frozen with fear, filled with hope and stunned with shock all in the scope of a hundred words or so. Its enough to give you emotional whiplash and while this was perhaps the most egregious example, its fairly representative of how her emotional state constantly and massively fluctuates.
The magic and the world make very little sense. What and how people can do is just totally random and the story flip-flops between everyone learning the exact same rigid spells with only very advanced "magicals" being able to invent new ones and everyone having their own unique abilities that others can't copy. At one point the "good guys" summon the spirit of a powerful deceased witch and wrestle with an ancient monstrous god in order to obtain ingredients for a spell but those ingredients are available for about $40 at a pharmacy or jewelry shop and they are all rich so its totally unclear why they decide to risk their lives *twice*. Said spell is really dangerous and only available from a forbidden library yet our newbies perform it in about a minute with no preparation and everyone recognizes the spell on sight. Meanwhile our protagonist switches between fighting homicidal monsters that are very hard to subdue and being the worst student in a class of 12-year-olds.
Finally, the action scenes are really awkward and confusing which is a problem because there are a lot of them. There is just no proper sense of space or time so its impossible to imagine what is actually going on, who is winning and who is in danger. There is also no real sense of danger- a leg gets paralyzed with poison then the character is running in the very next sentence, someone gets "engulfed in flames" while grappling someone else and the second person is unharmed, a character feels "all her knuckles breaking from the punch" (huh?) and it is never mentioned again. Its essentially just random disconnected descriptions.
So in short terribly executed "mystery," flat and nonsensical worldbuilding, emotionally inconsistent characters and poor writing especially obvious in the action scenes.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Hilarious Sassy and magic
Harley has some hilarious snark. I love labels, when they're depictions people make of themselves. Labeling someone as less just because they might not have the same potential as others is just asking to be disproved. I love the hints, was sad about the culprit and truth of rumors. Hopefully we find out more about the parents!
Harley has some hilarious snark. I love labels, when they're depictions people make of themselves. Labeling someone as less just because they might not have the same potential as others is just asking to be disproved. I love the hints, was sad about the culprit and truth of rumors. Hopefully we find out more about the parents!
Potential I see a lot of potential with this series… was this a slam dunk the first time out for me? Nope but it wasn’t a dud either so that’s a plus side. This is targeted as being a Harry Potter type book for adults and I really wish publishers, and such would stop doing that, saying a book is like another to pull people in. Yes, this book has magic, and evil magic, and a secret society, but it also has new things that Harry Potter didn’t have and guess what it centers around adults. Or they were supposed to be adults. I am not harping on the fact or age of these characters but there was a ton of “did not, did too” in this book which go repetitive.
Harley was a cool main character having grown up with non-blood related family and dealing with some different “powers” she doesn’t know what to do with. I rather enjoyed her first encounter with Wade and how she got frustrated with his non answers… I did get pretty frustrated with her back and forth on the being dense thing. I couldn’t tell at first if it was her powers or she just really wasn’t good at reading human reactions. We never did get an answer on either one. I did however like that she kept striving to be better and didn’t take no for an answer. She wanted to help and figure out what was going on.
There were a ton of side characters in the Rag Team was I a little bit upset that we didn’t get some of their POV yes, but I understand it would’ve made the book a ton longer. There were some inconsistencies that made me want to put down the book sometimes but there was just something about the magic system and the other characters that made me want to keep reading. I will of course read the second book because I’m no invested on finding out what happens. The book just felt off and I can’t put my finger on it, I’m not sure if it was the pacing or the childishness of the characters. Mind you these characters are supposed to be in their twenties so a little bit of melodrama is okay in any book but you can kind of overdue it some. The magic system was cool, world building inside the coven was amazing, outside was normal city
Harley was a cool main character having grown up with non-blood related family and dealing with some different “powers” she doesn’t know what to do with. I rather enjoyed her first encounter with Wade and how she got frustrated with his non answers… I did get pretty frustrated with her back and forth on the being dense thing. I couldn’t tell at first if it was her powers or she just really wasn’t good at reading human reactions. We never did get an answer on either one. I did however like that she kept striving to be better and didn’t take no for an answer. She wanted to help and figure out what was going on.
There were a ton of side characters in the Rag Team was I a little bit upset that we didn’t get some of their POV yes, but I understand it would’ve made the book a ton longer. There were some inconsistencies that made me want to put down the book sometimes but there was just something about the magic system and the other characters that made me want to keep reading. I will of course read the second book because I’m no invested on finding out what happens. The book just felt off and I can’t put my finger on it, I’m not sure if it was the pacing or the childishness of the characters. Mind you these characters are supposed to be in their twenties so a little bit of melodrama is okay in any book but you can kind of overdue it some. The magic system was cool, world building inside the coven was amazing, outside was normal city
I gave this book two stars because it lacked originality and tried to make up for that by comparing itself to Harry Potter. It is definitely not that! What we have is a cheeky sass pot trying to find herself. Will not be reading book three.
This book had potential, but the story writing is just lazy and underdeveloped. The authors tells when she should show. The internal monologue is embarrassing to read at times. The author overall has some good ideas, but she needs to do a better job to develop plot points and characters. The editing is also atrocious. This book read as a really good first draft.
I started this audiobook while on a short road trip with my mom. She fell for Harley quickly, enjoying her spunk and sass. I ended up putting the book down and only picking it up later when I’d had some sleepless nights recently. The storyline itself is pretty good. No wild and crazy new concepts, but a formula sure to entertain.
The characters were not super well developed, but most were likeable, except for Harley. She was immature and quite annoying to me. She’s the teenager (or adult) who says snide little things just to get a rise out of someone, even if it serves no purpose. Harley put people down again and again, even those who were friends. She was rewarded for that behavior again and again in this story, and I just did not like it, nor did I understand why the other characters really cared for her.
Lastly, the writing started off okay, but was really not good by the end. Some sections drawn on over explaining a simple issue, others gave barely enough information to keep up. I did not enjoy the dialogue at all. In addition to Harley’s snips and quips and rude remarks, most of the book’s dialogue was made up of characters bickering. What’s the fun in that?
All that said, I did keep reading to the end, and I was intrigued by the other characters as well as the little bit of lore scattered throughout. Unlike my mom, I don’t think I will continue reading this series, but I wish it and all the Harley Merlin fans well.
The characters were not super well developed, but most were likeable, except for Harley. She was immature and quite annoying to me. She’s the teenager (or adult) who says snide little things just to get a rise out of someone, even if it serves no purpose. Harley put people down again and again, even those who were friends. She was rewarded for that behavior again and again in this story, and I just did not like it, nor did I understand why the other characters really cared for her.
Lastly, the writing started off okay, but was really not good by the end. Some sections drawn on over explaining a simple issue, others gave barely enough information to keep up. I did not enjoy the dialogue at all. In addition to Harley’s snips and quips and rude remarks, most of the book’s dialogue was made up of characters bickering. What’s the fun in that?
All that said, I did keep reading to the end, and I was intrigued by the other characters as well as the little bit of lore scattered throughout. Unlike my mom, I don’t think I will continue reading this series, but I wish it and all the Harley Merlin fans well.
I was recommended to read this bc, "it's Harry Potter series for adults." No. Plot is extremely predictable, and the writing is bad. It also kind of feels like Harry Potter fan novel
2.5 stars on this one. Interesting premise, but the writing was weak. It was Scattered with painful dialogue, and the ending felt hurried. I’d pick up the next in the series if I’m searching for an easy read.
Wow Wow Wow......
Now i had tried this Author hot bloods series the first book and really wasn't for me..... So i put this author aside a few years back... however this book fit a challenge i was participating in so thought i would give it a go....
Its not your typical YA the heroine is Mature (for the most part) brilliantly written and doesn't fall in love at the first set of Green eyes.
Its like Ghostbusters and Harry potter had a lovechild.....
Harley Smith is an orphaned empath (and some) working for a casino to find people trying to cheat. After a good payout nights work she stumbles across a monster and the handsome Wade who seems to have certain capabilities similar to her own.....
After that a whole world open up and Harley is thrown headfirst into its underbelly.
I can see certain aspects where the Author has been influenced from other stories but she has combined it with her own unique imagination making it a world i devoured in a day... on to book 2
Now i had tried this Author hot bloods series the first book and really wasn't for me..... So i put this author aside a few years back... however this book fit a challenge i was participating in so thought i would give it a go....
Its not your typical YA the heroine is Mature (for the most part) brilliantly written and doesn't fall in love at the first set of Green eyes.
Its like Ghostbusters and Harry potter had a lovechild.....
Harley Smith is an orphaned empath (and some) working for a casino to find people trying to cheat. After a good payout nights work she stumbles across a monster and the handsome Wade who seems to have certain capabilities similar to her own.....
After that a whole world open up and Harley is thrown headfirst into its underbelly.
I can see certain aspects where the Author has been influenced from other stories but she has combined it with her own unique imagination making it a world i devoured in a day... on to book 2