Crescent City Book 1
I’m giving another series by this author a go because I enjoyed “A Court of Silver Flames”.
As typical of this author, they open with layer upon layer of exposition and it takes a long time for any interesting action to begin.
I nearly gave up early on because the story was only inner monologue, description, and exposition, as part of the world-building and character history. Every new character POV dumped paragraphs of inner monologue on the reader telling their history or their perspective of the world. There’s so much detail given in big chunks it’s hard to follow and piece together, plus the author uses multiple names for the different races or beings and I could barely keep track of it all.
I would describe this as urban fantasy, combining fantastical elements like magic, angels, demons, Fae, shifters, plus elements of the modern world like human technology. Humans and non-humans live alongside each other and there’s enough tension to keep the reader curious about how things work in this world.
We finally get some action to raise the stakes, but once it’s over the pace slows down again. We’ve got more POVs and more exposition that gets repeated throughout. Conversely, the climax is sooooo drawn out, despite being crammed with action, it made me wonder if anything was ever going to be resolved.
This book felt like a long slog. It was not because the story was long either. I’ve read 800-page books within 3 – 4 days in the past, but this one took me 3 weeks. I’ll admit, my reading time was limited to one or two chapters a day, but still, this felt drawn out and I can’t help but suspect if the story had been a bit more engrossing, then I would have delved into it more frequently. I will happily prioritise reading an engaging book over housework, exercise, and even paid work.
I think the problem lies with the storytelling. The narrative dawdled along as though it had all the time in the world to get to the point. However, I liked the romantic plot. It was a good kind of slow-burn where the characters start with a tense relationship which subsides once they get to know one another, and I felt the reader could sense the transformation to friendship, affection and love.
However, the murder mystery was the bad kind of slow. It kept stopping and starting, got sidetracked by alternate sub-plots, and then returned to the main plot.
I did like all the characters, but I can’t say I’m fond of the use of the unreliable narrator. Both Bryce and Hunt don’t reveal everything to each other, or the reader, while this may make a good plot twist when things are revealed, I felt betrayed. How the hell am I supposed to feel empathy for, or trust, a character when they lie to me?
As usual, I have issues with this author’s writing style, and this is crammed with incomplete sentences which could easily be taken out of context because they don’t hold up on their own.
This book had such a great premise. The story could have been really good if it wasn’t allowed to get bogged down with exposition and wandering narrative. The rich and engaging characterisation was also let down by the overuse of inner monologue. Heat-wise, it’s medium to low, despite the attraction and tension between Bryce and Hunt.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️
