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cover- this is a pretty cool cover, except for...something about the bustline on this lady bugs me. I would love to tell her all about a great bra for support...I know this is totally shallow of me, and I shouldn't be hung up on looks but I can't help it. I want to put a good bra on her. On the other hand...her left one in fact, there is a pretty cool looking tatto on her arm. This lady is also supposed to have some piercings on her face - being a rebellious daughter of a filthy rich family - but it's hard to see, and by that I mean I don't think there is a piercing depicted here. However, the background of the cover is great. Look at the old time feel of the buildings. This is the magic quarter, where ---oh my god, I forgot the woman's name. where she has rented an apartment....the first mundane to live in the magic quarter.
The premise behind this novel is interesting. An alternate reality in current times. New York has a magic quarter, where magic people/creatures that resemble what we've come to known as fae live and work. There's a whole history that Ms Collins has worked out for the series and bits and pieces are given to us here and there throughout the story. The people/creatures inhabiting this section are amazing - people with catlike tendencies who have a rather strange diet. Shapeshifters and people who take advantage of shapeshifters. There are two rival biker gangs - women, lesbians. I would have liked to read more on them - they seemed more interesting than the main characters. There's a whole large market place where different magic users sell magic and magic services to mundanes (humans) And of course there is the bigotry between species. In fact, there is bigotry between thee magic users - right hand magic users (good magic-to over simplify) and left handed magic users (sinister magic) Ms Collins has managed some great worldbuilding and has a pretty intriguing plot...(Which I don't feel like going into) however
I found reading the story itself kind of sedate. The whole novel to me, read a little too sedately for my taste. I don't understand, because everything else combined should have made for a very interesting book. I was looking forward to it because I'd read in a few blogs about how Ms Collins was a great writer (She is pretty good) and she did write the Sonja Blue series (about a vampire? vampire hunter? I have vague knowledge about this series, really) I was disappointed in the way i felt about the novel. I expected more, and after I finished it felt I could have taken or left it. And there is a sequel coming out - Left Hand Magic. Not sure if I want to buy it.
Good premise, good plot, great worldbuilding and characters (as far as all the different species went) but the writing itself left me almost bored. I made myself finish the book. I'm glad I did, because there is this kickass fight scene toward the end. There WERE some parts that I enjoyed, but on the whole, the feeling I was left with was...sedate. I don't want to be sedated.
Anyone want the book? Want to try it out? You might like it way better than I did. It could be that I was just more interested in all my science fiction books at the time and not really into this type of novel...but then I loved the Ilona Andrews book which came out during the summer. If you want to try it I'll be happy to send it on. Just no complaining online about the condition of the book when I send it - it IS used in a house with grandchildren running about.
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