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A review by mafiabadgers
Roulette by Ash Fitzsimmons
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
First read 09/2024
He was an elf, she was a girl,
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a narc, she painted all day,
What more can I say?
He wanted her, (she was not particularly subtle about her feelings, frankly)
and secretly she wanted him as well!
But all of his world chose deprivation
They had a problem with her filiation...
A really solid sequel to A Rose Among Thorns; if you liked that, you're sure to enjoy this one too. More evil magical drug dealers are afoot, this time resulting in a few humans getting bonus appendages, and a handful of deaths. The problem very conveniently begins amongst some friends of Rose's; since we know she's related to some extremely powerful people who view her as an embarrassment to their families, I thought this might turn out to all be a conspiracy to get her quietly locked away for political reasons. It wasn't, though. It was just a massive coincidence. That said, it didn't make the book any less fun to read, and it's very much the sort of thing that prioritises entertainment value over strict plausibility. Since it was, indeed, entertaining, I'm willing to overlook it.
Rose and Yven's non-relationship has deepened significantly inbetween the books, which becomes very obvious in the first few pages, and it's stupendously good fun. I do hope something a bit more exciting happens between them in the next book, though, as I've never been much of a fan of the interminable will-they-won't-they thing. But in the meantime, they're more delightful than ever, which is intriguing, as their romance seemed to be petering out into a solid friendship as the last book went on. Over the course of the book, Rose develops a degree of conscious control over her powers, which I thought was a shame—being entirely unconscious of their usage, as in the first book, struck me as a really intriguing angle to take, with lots of opportunities for hidden meanings that only become clear later on.
In other coincidences, no one who died at the party was too close to Rose, so she doesn't have to spend much time grieving; her powers consistently don't work, until she hits the point where they consistently do (they then wrap up the plot nicely); the DPP seem just clueless enough about humans and the human world that it's necessary for Rose to act as their interface in almost every aspect of the investigation. But seriously, I enjoyed it. The characters are not particularly deep, but it's fun to see them interact—they have a great coworker-y feel to them. And we got lots of Pars, so I'm a happy bunny.
My reviews for the rest of the series:
A Rose Among Thorns
Silent Siren
Floodtide
He was an elf, she was a girl,
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a narc, she painted all day,
What more can I say?
He wanted her, (she was not particularly subtle about her feelings, frankly)
and secretly she wanted him as well!
But all of his world chose deprivation
They had a problem with her filiation...
A really solid sequel to A Rose Among Thorns; if you liked that, you're sure to enjoy this one too. More evil magical drug dealers are afoot, this time resulting in a few humans getting bonus appendages, and a handful of deaths. The problem very conveniently begins amongst some friends of Rose's; since we know she's related to some extremely powerful people who view her as an embarrassment to their families, I thought this might turn out to all be a conspiracy to get her quietly locked away for political reasons. It wasn't, though. It was just a massive coincidence. That said, it didn't make the book any less fun to read, and it's very much the sort of thing that prioritises entertainment value over strict plausibility. Since it was, indeed, entertaining, I'm willing to overlook it.
Rose and Yven's non-relationship has deepened significantly inbetween the books, which becomes very obvious in the first few pages, and it's stupendously good fun. I do hope something a bit more exciting happens between them in the next book, though, as I've never been much of a fan of the interminable will-they-won't-they thing. But in the meantime, they're more delightful than ever, which is intriguing, as their romance seemed to be petering out into a solid friendship as the last book went on. Over the course of the book, Rose develops a degree of conscious control over her powers, which I thought was a shame—being entirely unconscious of their usage, as in the first book, struck me as a really intriguing angle to take, with lots of opportunities for hidden meanings that only become clear later on.
In other coincidences, no one who died at the party was too close to Rose, so she doesn't have to spend much time grieving; her powers consistently don't work, until she hits the point where they consistently do (they then wrap up the plot nicely); the DPP seem just clueless enough about humans and the human world that it's necessary for Rose to act as their interface in almost every aspect of the investigation. But seriously, I enjoyed it. The characters are not particularly deep, but it's fun to see them interact—they have a great coworker-y feel to them. And we got lots of Pars, so I'm a happy bunny.
My reviews for the rest of the series:
A Rose Among Thorns
Silent Siren
Floodtide