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A review by gothradiohour
The Prince of Prohibition by Marilyn Marks
2.0
The marketing around this book was phenomenal. High Fae court set in the 1920s NYC, yes please sign me up. I even requested my library purchase this title I was so sure it would be a smash hit...
Marks does an excellent job in the beginning chapters setting up the very small world the MC, Adeline, lives in. Uber religious family, not allowed to leave the property for fear of devil creatures in the woods, she only learns to read from her father and brother. Even in these early chapters I could feel the schlockiness beginning. Like when the MC describes how her brother liked to read her war stories but she preferred poetry. How did she know what poetry even is, if it's just her brother and father reading to her. Its back filled in 200 pages later that her father had an extensive library in their large farm home. When Tommy, the MC's brother gets drafted into WW1, which the characters shouldn't know it WW1 because WW2 hasn't happened yet, and yet Adeline calls it such later in the story. Adeline makes a deal with mysterious creature one night to being her brother home safe in exchange for the bargain that she will die in childbirth. He comes up disfigured and hard of hearing. Apparently, their rural town in Georgia is able to supply him with multiple earring aides, and he can hear when people shout to him. This literally is the last it comes up since all proceeding chapters its explained he can just read lips super well. Not a fan of how Marks handles this real-world disability.
We never learn what her father did for a living, but apparently, they were drowning in debt when dad dies, Tommy takes a job with the FBI and moves to NYC. As expected, Adeline is super freaked out being in the large city, and she sees "devil folk" aka Fae folk everywhere. Her brother has never believed her about seeing Fae everywhere so when he leaves for Chicago she loses her mind, locking herself in her apartment.
Somehow this gets her to having dinner with landlord / wealthy mobster Jack. This was a very rushed and confusing chapter, but I pushed ahead. Jack is also the devil she's been seeing in her dreams every new moon. Just has been happening, no explanation. Turns out they are fate bonded, and she is glamour-touched making her the super special girl. Who honestly is TSTL, and yet comes up with the plan to black mail a powerful gangster to get money to leave for Chicago. Where she even learned the concept of blackmail is beyond me. For the rest of the book, she swings between knowing nothing and somehow having a ton of gumption.
Around page 200 is where I started to heavily skim, by page 300 I just started jumping chapters. I really didn't like the first sex scene; she's drunk, he's 500 years old, Marks uses the term "wound" to refer to her lady parts, just ick.
They go on odd quests to find the magical items to make Adeline a druid without the old gods, yada-yada McGuffins ahoy. Other reviews I read said the ending really picked up. Meh.
Too many long wandering descriptions, inconsistent characters, while its clearly advertised as being set in prohibition era New York this rarely impacts anything in the plot. The characters speak in modern language.
I try not to judge a KU title just for being available on KU but more often than not they have a certain flavor, and that flavor is not being edited enough. Maybe if the author had gotten this monster down to 300 words, I would have read all of it.
1.5/5 stars.
Marks does an excellent job in the beginning chapters setting up the very small world the MC, Adeline, lives in. Uber religious family, not allowed to leave the property for fear of devil creatures in the woods, she only learns to read from her father and brother. Even in these early chapters I could feel the schlockiness beginning. Like when the MC describes how her brother liked to read her war stories but she preferred poetry. How did she know what poetry even is, if it's just her brother and father reading to her. Its back filled in 200 pages later that her father had an extensive library in their large farm home. When Tommy, the MC's brother gets drafted into WW1, which the characters shouldn't know it WW1 because WW2 hasn't happened yet, and yet Adeline calls it such later in the story. Adeline makes a deal with mysterious creature one night to being her brother home safe in exchange for the bargain that she will die in childbirth. He comes up disfigured and hard of hearing. Apparently, their rural town in Georgia is able to supply him with multiple earring aides, and he can hear when people shout to him. This literally is the last it comes up since all proceeding chapters its explained he can just read lips super well. Not a fan of how Marks handles this real-world disability.
We never learn what her father did for a living, but apparently, they were drowning in debt when dad dies, Tommy takes a job with the FBI and moves to NYC. As expected, Adeline is super freaked out being in the large city, and she sees "devil folk" aka Fae folk everywhere. Her brother has never believed her about seeing Fae everywhere so when he leaves for Chicago she loses her mind, locking herself in her apartment.
Somehow this gets her to having dinner with landlord / wealthy mobster Jack. This was a very rushed and confusing chapter, but I pushed ahead. Jack is also the devil she's been seeing in her dreams every new moon. Just has been happening, no explanation. Turns out they are fate bonded, and she is glamour-touched making her the super special girl. Who honestly is TSTL, and yet comes up with the plan to black mail a powerful gangster to get money to leave for Chicago. Where she even learned the concept of blackmail is beyond me. For the rest of the book, she swings between knowing nothing and somehow having a ton of gumption.
Around page 200 is where I started to heavily skim, by page 300 I just started jumping chapters. I really didn't like the first sex scene; she's drunk, he's 500 years old, Marks uses the term "wound" to refer to her lady parts, just ick.
They go on odd quests to find the magical items to make Adeline a druid without the old gods, yada-yada McGuffins ahoy. Other reviews I read said the ending really picked up. Meh.
Too many long wandering descriptions, inconsistent characters, while its clearly advertised as being set in prohibition era New York this rarely impacts anything in the plot. The characters speak in modern language.
I try not to judge a KU title just for being available on KU but more often than not they have a certain flavor, and that flavor is not being edited enough. Maybe if the author had gotten this monster down to 300 words, I would have read all of it.
1.5/5 stars.