Book Log 2021 #22 - BETWEEN TWO THORNS ny Emma Newman
2021 booklog #2 BETWEEN TWO THORNS by Emma Newman
A light entertaining mixture of fae fantasy and mystery. Starts off with two magic-themed mysteries, gives us two great characters in the forms of Cathy, a woman with a very strange past that gets her into present trouble, and a detective with a gargoyle sidekick, who I’d love to see done in a TV series.
From there on in it splits in style, between the mystery element with magic and characters dealing weirdness, and of course a gargoyle sidekick, and the machinations of posh families that feels like Pride And Prejudice And Fae. Newman’s style is pleasant and accessible throughout, but the two plot strands are sufficiently different that I enjoyed the one side way more than the other.
It’s thankfully not the typical fae/human story I’d half expected, and so I did enjoy it a fair bit - there’s some good dialogue - and I like the lead characters too. The other downside, however, is that there comes a point where you realise only one of the two main mysteries is solved and there isn’t enough book left for the other one, so it ends of a somewhat artificial cliffhanger for a sequel, and actually forgets in that cliffhanger all about a giveaway from early on that ties in. That makes it feel like it’s been written as one volume and been retroactively split as an editorial decision. I’ve no idea if that’s what happened, but that’s what if feels like.
Nice, fun, but annoyingly incomplete.
A light entertaining mixture of fae fantasy and mystery. Starts off with two magic-themed mysteries, gives us two great characters in the forms of Cathy, a woman with a very strange past that gets her into present trouble, and a detective with a gargoyle sidekick, who I’d love to see done in a TV series.
From there on in it splits in style, between the mystery element with magic and characters dealing weirdness, and of course a gargoyle sidekick, and the machinations of posh families that feels like Pride And Prejudice And Fae. Newman’s style is pleasant and accessible throughout, but the two plot strands are sufficiently different that I enjoyed the one side way more than the other.
It’s thankfully not the typical fae/human story I’d half expected, and so I did enjoy it a fair bit - there’s some good dialogue - and I like the lead characters too. The other downside, however, is that there comes a point where you realise only one of the two main mysteries is solved and there isn’t enough book left for the other one, so it ends of a somewhat artificial cliffhanger for a sequel, and actually forgets in that cliffhanger all about a giveaway from early on that ties in. That makes it feel like it’s been written as one volume and been retroactively split as an editorial decision. I’ve no idea if that’s what happened, but that’s what if feels like.
Nice, fun, but annoyingly incomplete.