thelibraryofminds 's review for:

A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly

2.0

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So, I picked this up through overdrive because I thought "hmmm this sounds pretty awesome. I like the Night Circus, and I think the idea (20s prohibition but for magic with dueling magicians) is awesome. And I was right, the idea is pretty cool. The first part of the book hooked me-I liked that it wasn't alcohol that was banned but sorcerer's shine, and how that played into bosses and how this plays with addiction and who is really at fault here. The first part of the book where this is set up is so strong, and I think the descriptions of magic and the illusions and how the group of people work together to form their show is really interesting, BUT it started to lose me the moment the romance started. It started to feel really cliched and I didn't really buy the romance all the way or the stakes-I just didn't care about it as much as anything else but it took over the story and I think it just really weakened it and tainted my enjoyment of the book. I want to hear more about the dueling magicians and underbosses and less about how these two teenagers truly deeply looooovvveeee each other even though they just met. It also didn't help that I was reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here and the descriptions of the indie kid's romance lives was just so close to what was actually happening here, so yeah.
Read if you enjoy heavy YA romance with a cool idea-not quite the Night Circus level in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.