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novelsbycaitlin's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of this book was pretty great. It built up to something dangerous and risky in both mortality AND morality matters but once it hit its destination--these characters finally crossing paths--it grew flat. I wanted to enjoy it, searched for that spark that smoldered in the first half but I the end it just died out. I scammed the last 20% seeing the end a mile away. If only this was a series. This could have developed into so much more!
triggerkat's review against another edition
5.0
THAT ENDING. WHAT.
It was good, just totally unexpected. A great book with magic, romance, and danger.
It was good, just totally unexpected. A great book with magic, romance, and danger.
raeanne's review against another edition
4.0
A Criminal Magic was a fantastic read. I was especially impressed with the ending, how it all worked out, and how satisfying it actually was. I'm not usually one for loose ends.
It starts out slow, building the world around Joan and Alex.
Alex is a sort of prodigal son, a tarnished golden boy in a downward spiral of his own making. Joan on the other hand, is dealing with the destruction of her family with abuse, death, addiction, and her own damned magic.
It was interesting, but REALLY took off when Alex and Joan met and when their settings finally line up. From there it was a race to see how'd the twists would turn, who'd lived and died, who'd fried and who was freed.
But I was disappointed how white it all was, how racism was ignored despite how important a factor it is in Prohibition then and continues to influence. How would've racism played into sorcery? And sexism and misogynoir? DC is has and always been at least 50% black, where'd they all go in A Criminal Magic? Voodoo gets dragged as usual as demonic. But most black people are Christians, so where are they and how'd they reconcile their magic and religion? How'd it have changed slavery?
Couple of articles to pursue on Prohibition, Racism, and How White Women Fuck Everything Up:
Rational Wiki on Prohibition
Why Racism Flourished Under Prohibition
Prohibition, Racism and Class Politics in the Post-Reconstruction South
Prohibition: Speakeasies, Loopholes and Politics.
It starts out slow, building the world around Joan and Alex.
Alex is a sort of prodigal son, a tarnished golden boy in a downward spiral of his own making. Joan on the other hand, is dealing with the destruction of her family with abuse, death, addiction, and her own damned magic.
It was interesting, but REALLY took off when Alex and Joan met and when their settings finally line up. From there it was a race to see how'd the twists would turn, who'd lived and died, who'd fried and who was freed.
But I was disappointed how white it all was, how racism was ignored despite how important a factor it is in Prohibition then and continues to influence. How would've racism played into sorcery? And sexism and misogynoir? DC is has and always been at least 50% black, where'd they all go in A Criminal Magic? Voodoo gets dragged as usual as demonic. But most black people are Christians, so where are they and how'd they reconcile their magic and religion? How'd it have changed slavery?
Couple of articles to pursue on Prohibition, Racism, and How White Women Fuck Everything Up:
Rational Wiki on Prohibition
Why Racism Flourished Under Prohibition
Prohibition, Racism and Class Politics in the Post-Reconstruction South
Prohibition: Speakeasies, Loopholes and Politics.
kimreadsthings's review against another edition
2.0
DNF at 25%.
Apparently even when it's genre I just can't enjoy NA. This is boring. The writing style is trying too hard, and not succeeding, at utilizing an authentic feeling 20s dialogue. And I haven't felt any sense of atmosphere for the time and setting. Also, nothing has happened so far. My interest is not piqued, so I see no reason to continue on.
I think the most difficult hurdle for me is that one of the main characters, and love interest, is a huge jerk. Be a jerk MC fine, but don't also be the love interest that I'm supposed to want the heroine to fall in love with. I skimmed ahead a little and I'm not impressed with
Apparently even when it's genre I just can't enjoy NA. This is boring. The writing style is trying too hard, and not succeeding, at utilizing an authentic feeling 20s dialogue. And I haven't felt any sense of atmosphere for the time and setting. Also, nothing has happened so far. My interest is not piqued, so I see no reason to continue on.
I think the most difficult hurdle for me is that one of the main characters, and love interest, is a huge jerk. Be a jerk MC fine, but don't also be the love interest that I'm supposed to want the heroine to fall in love with. I skimmed ahead a little and I'm not impressed with
Spoiler
the fact that Joan takes a turn to the dark side, while Alex becomes the "good guy" who must save her for her own good. Blah.ndiganci's review
I couldn't make it through this book. It was supposed to be set in 1920s America, but except for a brief mention of a Model T, it could have been set last year. I think the author could have put more into the setting to really make it feel like The Roaring Twenties. And the language the characters used sounded more like modern language with none of the slang and catchphrases common in the 1920s.
And speaking of the characters, I really couldn't get into them. They're both sorcerers, but Joan is willing to just perform in a magic speakeasy? At least as far as I got, she didn't seem to consider anything else she could have done with her magic to make her situation better. They were both just kind of bland.
And that's another thing - magic is real, but sorcerers are content to just perform and run illegal magic? What about taking over, robbing banks, ANYTHING else one would expect someone who can throw up subterfuge and distractions would do.
And speaking of the characters, I really couldn't get into them. They're both sorcerers, but Joan is willing to just perform in a magic speakeasy? At least as far as I got, she didn't seem to consider anything else she could have done with her magic to make her situation better. They were both just kind of bland.
And that's another thing - magic is real, but sorcerers are content to just perform and run illegal magic? What about taking over, robbing banks, ANYTHING else one would expect someone who can throw up subterfuge and distractions would do.
charbee1's review against another edition
3.0
Don’t judge a book by its cover they say. Nope. This book was exactly what the cover gave me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but it just really didn’t do much for me. There were moments, mostly the descriptions of big magic usage, that I thought were really great but overall I just felt meh.
missprint_'s review against another edition
3.0
Thanks to the passage of the 18th Amendment, magic is finally illegal. But making something illegal doesn't make it disappear--it just makes it sexier and, for two unlikely sorcerers, that much more dangerous.
Joan Kendrick has seen firsthand how damaging magical shine can be. It is more potent than liquor, more addictive than narcotics, and in the wrong hands it can be deadly. When it looks like magic might be the only way to save her family's home, Joan forges a risky bargain. If Joan can learn to harness her magic it could change everything. But only if she can stay alive long enough to enjoy it.
Magic has taken everything from Alex Danfrey forever changing the trajectory of his life, landing his father in prison, and even ruining Alex's own good name. Alex never wanted to work as an undercover prohibition agent--certainly not one peddling magic for the head of the Shaw crime syndicate. But who is he to turn down the one chance he has to turn his life around?
Joan and Alex are on opposite sides in a battle that's been threatening to erupt for years. When lines are drawn both of them will have to determine where the others' loyalties--and their trust--truly lies in A Criminal Magic (2016) by Lee Kelly.
Kelly's unique vision of magic and magical distillation adds an interesting element to the world here, as do the complex illusions Joan learns to peddle as a speakeasy performer. Unfortunately so much time is spent explaining the internal logic of the magic systems that much of the plot's forward momentum is lost in these technical details.
One of the main tenets of prohibition, in retrospect at least, is the fact that much of the movement was grounded in false logic. For example, removing a man's access to liquor would not make him less likely to hit his wife (the movement was very interested in stopping domestic violence). Instead it makes it more likely for him to hit his wife while sober.
What happens, then, if the idea of prohibition is actually grounded in fact? Kelly spends a lot of time telling readers that magical shine is as dangerous as everyone fears--something shown repeatedly in the story as peripheral characters suffer through addiction and withdrawal. While this concept is interesting it is never fully explained or explored in the narrative never doing anything new or fully addressing the inherent tensions of the time period.
A Criminal Magic is a heady blend of historical fiction and fantasy whose main characters have obvious chemistry albeit in an often under-utilized setting.
Possible Pairings: Westside by W. M. Akers, The Diviners by Libba Bray, Storm Front by Jim Butcher, The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, Priest of Bones by Peter MacLean, Iron Cast by Destiny Soria
Joan Kendrick has seen firsthand how damaging magical shine can be. It is more potent than liquor, more addictive than narcotics, and in the wrong hands it can be deadly. When it looks like magic might be the only way to save her family's home, Joan forges a risky bargain. If Joan can learn to harness her magic it could change everything. But only if she can stay alive long enough to enjoy it.
Magic has taken everything from Alex Danfrey forever changing the trajectory of his life, landing his father in prison, and even ruining Alex's own good name. Alex never wanted to work as an undercover prohibition agent--certainly not one peddling magic for the head of the Shaw crime syndicate. But who is he to turn down the one chance he has to turn his life around?
Joan and Alex are on opposite sides in a battle that's been threatening to erupt for years. When lines are drawn both of them will have to determine where the others' loyalties--and their trust--truly lies in A Criminal Magic (2016) by Lee Kelly.
Kelly's unique vision of magic and magical distillation adds an interesting element to the world here, as do the complex illusions Joan learns to peddle as a speakeasy performer. Unfortunately so much time is spent explaining the internal logic of the magic systems that much of the plot's forward momentum is lost in these technical details.
One of the main tenets of prohibition, in retrospect at least, is the fact that much of the movement was grounded in false logic. For example, removing a man's access to liquor would not make him less likely to hit his wife (the movement was very interested in stopping domestic violence). Instead it makes it more likely for him to hit his wife while sober.
What happens, then, if the idea of prohibition is actually grounded in fact? Kelly spends a lot of time telling readers that magical shine is as dangerous as everyone fears--something shown repeatedly in the story as peripheral characters suffer through addiction and withdrawal. While this concept is interesting it is never fully explained or explored in the narrative never doing anything new or fully addressing the inherent tensions of the time period.
A Criminal Magic is a heady blend of historical fiction and fantasy whose main characters have obvious chemistry albeit in an often under-utilized setting.
Possible Pairings: Westside by W. M. Akers, The Diviners by Libba Bray, Storm Front by Jim Butcher, The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, Priest of Bones by Peter MacLean, Iron Cast by Destiny Soria
lautir's review
2.0
I started at very excited for the book. I was quickly hooked on the idea of blood magic and the prohibition settings but, things kind of fell apart for me.
It took a while for the main dramatic arc to be introduced, everything felt dragged out, and I quickly became bored with the main characters.
This all could have been saved by the setting but after it was established very little more was done to really make the setting come to life. I wish there had been more historical factors or details because I really thought there was promise there, but everything felt glossed over.
The plot quickly became predictable, the minor characters were treated exactly like minor characters, no depth, barely contributed to the story. There was some redeeming character development in the last few pages for the MCs but it took forever to get there.
It took a while for the main dramatic arc to be introduced, everything felt dragged out, and I quickly became bored with the main characters.
This all could have been saved by the setting but after it was established very little more was done to really make the setting come to life. I wish there had been more historical factors or details because I really thought there was promise there, but everything felt glossed over.
The plot quickly became predictable, the minor characters were treated exactly like minor characters, no depth, barely contributed to the story. There was some redeeming character development in the last few pages for the MCs but it took forever to get there.
joie881's review against another edition
4.0
booksoffox's review against another edition
3.0
Did I loved it? No. Did I liked it? Yes. Could it be better? Yes. So three stars.