You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
A really good start to this series. I have been waiting to find a fresh new urban fantasy series. Harmony Black is an FBI agent who specializes in catching the things that go bump in the night. In this novel she must find a boogeyman who is stealing infants but it turns out when she was six a boogeyman stole her sister. This novel kept me fully engaged and I looked forward to reading it. I will definitely read the next book!
Serious yet sassy
I got this book as my Kindle First choice for January and absolutely loved it. Harmony Black is a serious character but so relatable. Well worth a read if you like detective fiction with a side order of supernatural.
I got this book as my Kindle First choice for January and absolutely loved it. Harmony Black is a serious character but so relatable. Well worth a read if you like detective fiction with a side order of supernatural.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Overall, a really tight thriller with some fantasy elements. This definitely got me interested in the series and the other works by the author. Looking forward to reading more! There were a couple times where it felt like things were dragging on to just take up time, but that was usually overshadowed by the excitement of the case.
I'm a big fan of Craig Schaefer's Faust series, so I thought I'd give one of his other works a try.
I appreciate the idea of getting a new perspective on the character of Harmony Black ... and I like the nods to the other series, but over all, I just couldn't feel anything for Harmony or her team-mates :(
The protagonist feels like a side character in her own story. Harmony in the Faust series was an interesting addition. (Up until she started harassing him all day every day, but I'm biased.) But this Harmony just feels ... flat. She's a skilled witch, but her lack of knowledge is highlighted in the Faust series. Personally, I want either a protagonist who is versed and knowledgeable or one with team mates who can fill in the blanks. This book left me without an anchor to trust, if that makes sense.
That being said, I enjoyed the plot of the book,and i'm curious to see where the shadow conspiracy goes... But on the whole, I found myself skimming more pages waiting for interesting things to happen.
I'm going to read the next novels, because I'm a sucker for a long complicated back-ground conspiracy :) So I'd still recommend the book, but I'll take a new Faust novel over a Harmony one any day.
I appreciate the idea of getting a new perspective on the character of Harmony Black ... and I like the nods to the other series, but over all, I just couldn't feel anything for Harmony or her team-mates :(
The protagonist feels like a side character in her own story. Harmony in the Faust series was an interesting addition. (Up until she started harassing him all day every day, but I'm biased.) But this Harmony just feels ... flat. She's a skilled witch, but her lack of knowledge is highlighted in the Faust series. Personally, I want either a protagonist who is versed and knowledgeable or one with team mates who can fill in the blanks. This book left me without an anchor to trust, if that makes sense.
That being said, I enjoyed the plot of the book,and i'm curious to see where the shadow conspiracy goes... But on the whole, I found myself skimming more pages waiting for interesting things to happen.
I'm going to read the next novels, because I'm a sucker for a long complicated back-ground conspiracy :) So I'd still recommend the book, but I'll take a new Faust novel over a Harmony one any day.
It never really seemed to reach a peak, every chapter a new twist was turned, which is nice, but leaving so many unsolved titbits makes the ending rather unsatisfying. Also, apparently you can overcome a wizard by not making hard choices like shooting your friend? You can talk down a monster present in someone that's uncontrollable, despite just meeting them two days before? It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief.
On a different note, the 'romance' element was rather stupid. What was the point, exactly? It added nothing to the story at all. I was waiting for it to become relevant in the whole "introduce a cannon, better fire it by the end" sort of logic. If he wasn't going to be plot important, her and the wolf had quite a lot more chemistry.
I did like this, but it's incredibly short. So if you're one of those crazy people thinking about pennies per page, maybe it's a little disappointing. I got it for free through Kindle First, like most of the people thus far.
On a different note, the 'romance' element was rather stupid. What was the point, exactly? It added nothing to the story at all. I was waiting for it to become relevant in the whole "introduce a cannon, better fire it by the end" sort of logic. If he wasn't going to be plot important, her and the wolf had quite a lot more chemistry.
I did like this, but it's incredibly short. So if you're one of those crazy people thinking about pennies per page, maybe it's a little disappointing. I got it for free through Kindle First, like most of the people thus far.
Good world-building and character introductions right off the bat. Good plot, decent action scenes. Nice build-up. Nothing earth shattering, but solid writing. Enjoyable.
I could have done with more visual information about the looks of the main characters. Especially Harmony was a little hard to grasp for me. At some point in the story she kisses someone and I was genuinely surprised that she had to get on tip-toes for that. Was he that tall, is she that short? But that's a minor thing. Overall I liked the characterizations. Jessie and Abby are probably my favourites and I am looking forward to meeting them again. I didn't mind that Harmony is too straight-laced (according to the author), it does not make her uninteresting or boring. It's a nice counterpoint to the anarchy and slight craziness of her colleagues. And she has plenty going on inside.
The plot has good tension from the beginning. It didn't feel slow or boring at any point. The suspense was good, the story wasn't too predictable, although there were no major plot-twists or "oh shit!" moments.
Think female version of The Men in Black with snark and demons instead of aliens. UF with demons, witches and some nicely creepy horror elements.
The ending gives a nice glimpse of things to come and I have been sufficiently primed for the next books. I haven't read his Daniel Faust series yet, but if I like the second Harmony Black book as much as the first, I will definitely pick that one up as well.
This was fresh and avoided a lot of the typical UF tropes. Maybe the author being male makes all the difference. Thumbs up!
4.5 demonic stars.
I could have done with more visual information about the looks of the main characters. Especially Harmony was a little hard to grasp for me. At some point in the story she kisses someone and I was genuinely surprised that she had to get on tip-toes for that. Was he that tall, is she that short? But that's a minor thing. Overall I liked the characterizations. Jessie and Abby are probably my favourites and I am looking forward to meeting them again. I didn't mind that Harmony is too straight-laced (according to the author), it does not make her uninteresting or boring. It's a nice counterpoint to the anarchy and slight craziness of her colleagues. And she has plenty going on inside.
The plot has good tension from the beginning. It didn't feel slow or boring at any point. The suspense was good, the story wasn't too predictable, although there were no major plot-twists or "oh shit!" moments.
Think female version of The Men in Black with snark and demons instead of aliens. UF with demons, witches and some nicely creepy horror elements.
The ending gives a nice glimpse of things to come and I have been sufficiently primed for the next books. I haven't read his Daniel Faust series yet, but if I like the second Harmony Black book as much as the first, I will definitely pick that one up as well.
This was fresh and avoided a lot of the typical UF tropes. Maybe the author being male makes all the difference. Thumbs up!
4.5 demonic stars.
I don't know why I didn't love this. I SHOULD have loved this! It has all the elements I usually love in paranormal fiction. There are scary monsters going after the world, there are kick-ass female "special" agents fighting the scary monsters, and doing it together with smart, well-written characterizations and plot points.
There is action and suspense, there are good secondary characters. There is well-thought out world building.
Honestly, I have no idea why I wasn't crazy about this book and its characters. But, I wasn't. I couldn't connect to or really care about Harmony, so I just wasn't all in on this story. I'm sure it was me and not the book. For whatever reason, it just didn't connect for me. But its a good story, at least the almost half I read. If this is your type of genre, give it a try. Just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for others.
There is action and suspense, there are good secondary characters. There is well-thought out world building.
Honestly, I have no idea why I wasn't crazy about this book and its characters. But, I wasn't. I couldn't connect to or really care about Harmony, so I just wasn't all in on this story. I'm sure it was me and not the book. For whatever reason, it just didn't connect for me. But its a good story, at least the almost half I read. If this is your type of genre, give it a try. Just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for others.
I loved Harmony Black and her ability to push through everything she encountered. I had no idea that this book was actually a spin-off from the Daniel Faust series, so I think I'll have to go back and read that series to better understand the world Schaefer has built. That said, this book had me hooked from the very beginning, I almost couldn't put it down.
I thought this book was really fun to read. I got to read it as part of Amazon's Kindle First program -- didn't even know that was a thing, but yay! I devoured the whole thing in a day because I kept wanting to see what happened next.
It reminded me a lot of the television show Supernatural - and I love Supernatural. And like Supernatural, this book scared the bejeezus out of me, forcing me to sleep with the lights on and annoy my husband. Normal people would not be scared, but I am a delicate flower.
Loved the quirky main character, Harmony Black, along with the teamwork and snarky conversations she had with her work partner, Jessie (Woo hoo - FBI ladies in charge, amiright?) The paranormal elements were fun and spooky (at least, I thought they were spooky.) Only downers were a lame attempt at a romance and some plot elements that fell flat.
It was definitely a fun, easy urban fantasy to read - can't wait for book 2!
It reminded me a lot of the television show Supernatural - and I love Supernatural. And like Supernatural, this book scared the bejeezus out of me, forcing me to sleep with the lights on and annoy my husband. Normal people would not be scared, but I am a delicate flower.
Loved the quirky main character, Harmony Black, along with the teamwork and snarky conversations she had with her work partner, Jessie (Woo hoo - FBI ladies in charge, amiright?) The paranormal elements were fun and spooky (at least, I thought they were spooky.) Only downers were a lame attempt at a romance and some plot elements that fell flat.
It was definitely a fun, easy urban fantasy to read - can't wait for book 2!
This reminded me a little bit of the Supernatural/Winchester boy's origin story. I enjoyed it and look forward to the rest of the series!