Novella Review: Brother's Ruin by Emma Newman

Brother's Ruin
(Industrial Magic #1)
Emma Newman
Release: March 14, 2017
Goodreads Amazon

The year is 1850 and Great Britain is flourishing, thanks to the Royal Society of the Esoteric Arts. When a new mage is discovered, Royal Society elites descend like buzzards to snatch up a new apprentice. Talented mages are bought from their families at a tremendous price, while weak mages are snapped up for a pittance. For a lower middle class family like the Gunns, the loss of a son can be disastrous, so when seemingly magical incidents begin cropping up at home, they fear for their Ben's life and their own livelihoods.

But Benjamin Gunn isn't a talented mage. His sister Charlotte is, and to prevent her brother from being imprisoned for false reporting she combines her powers with his to make him seem a better prospect.

When she discovers a nefarious plot by the sinister Doctor Ledbetter, Charlotte must use all her cunning and guile to protect her family, her secret and her city.

Brother's Ruin is the first in a new gaslamp fantasy series by Emma Newman.

Review:
I'm going to be honest. I'm sad that I didn't enjoy this novella as much as I wanted to. It had the potential to be great (the series still has the potential to become great as this was only the first book), but I was left disappointed by the end. And most of my disappointment revolves around one thing that happens about halfway through. 

Brother’s Ruin started out fantastically! It started with great family dynamics where everyone cares about each other and put each other first. It's not often that you read a book where the heroine is driven to do things in the best interest of herself and her family. I really loved the brother and sister relationship between Charlotte and Benjamin.

I really liked Charlotte at first. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to work for it. She isn't afraid to go against societal norms. And I adored that she was happily engaged to a guy of her own free will and choice. It’s so rare to read a story where a girl is looking forward to her upcoming nuptials and not trying to get out of them. It was really refreshing that she was in love with a guy already when the story starts.

As I said, I loved her at the first. Then the thing happened about halfway and it drained all of my enjoyment out of the story. What's that thing you ask? Charlotte meets this handsome guy and it's like her personality did a 180. She's suddenly a different person from the one that I liked so much at first. She becomes infatuated with this guy and the story just went down hill from there for me. Can fiction quit it with the freaking love triangles already?!? This story would have worked perfectly with a nice guy she doesn’t have any feelings about whatsoever. There are such things as platonic relationships but instead we have to suffer through a love triangle.

Overall, I liked the story. The world and the magic system was great and the mystery was good. This series has potential to become something amazing. I'm just not sure I want to continue because of the borked romantic plot line. I'll probably wait to make that decision after people I trust have read book two.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

  

  3 / 5 Stars

Release Day Review: The Undying Legion by Clay and Susan Griffith

The Undying Legion
(Crown & Key #2)
Clay and Susan Griffith
Release: June 30, 2015
Goodreads Amazon

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.
 
With a flood of dark magic about to engulf Victorian London, can a handful of heroes vanquish a legion of the undead?
 
When monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane comes across the gruesome aftermath of a ritual murder in a London church, he enlists the help of magician-scribe Simon Archer and alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther. Studying the macabre scene, they struggle to understand obscure clues in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics carved into the victim’s heart—as well as bizarre mystical allusions to the romantic poetry of William Blake. One thing is clear: Some very potent black magic is at work.

But this human sacrifice is only the first in a series of ritualized slayings. Desperate to save lives while there is still time, Simon, Kate, and Malcolm—along with gadget geek Penny Carter and Charlotte, an adolescent werewolf—track down a necromancer who is reanimating the deceased. As the team battles an unrelenting army of undead, a powerful Egyptian mummy, and serpentine demons, the necromancer proves an elusive quarry. And when the true purpose of the ritual is revealed, the gifted allies must confront a destructive force that is positively apocalyptic.

Review by Rose Red: 

About half way through this book, I had a realization. The story was kind of like reading a gaslight fantasy version of The Mummy with a slightly larger cast of characters. It's also been pointed out to me that it's almost like a Victorian version of Scooby Doo and the gang which I can totally agree with as well. In other words, this book was great! Seriously. It was yet again another fast-paced, action-packed adventure that hurtled you through the story at breakneck speed! It was such a delightful read! 

Victory against the big bad in The Shadow Revolution was bittersweet for Simon and Kate. They may have defeated Gretta's werewolves and the homunculi of the evil Dr. White, but it wasn't without some loss. Nick has abandoned them for safer pastures and Imogen's transformation appears to be permanent, and they are nowhere close to discovering the purpose of Simon's mysterious key.

While out hunting the last of the rogue werewolves in London, Malcolm discovers the aftermath of a particularly gruesome ritual murder in a local church. More murders follow and clues indicate they are part of a larger necromantic ritual. The London they know is crumbling around them as dark magic covers the city and the dead rise from their graves. Like Nick said in the first book, sometimes taking a stand draws the attention of evils far greater than what you are prepared to face.

Demons, demigods, cults, conspiracies, and the undead abound in the second book of this series. This story is very much a plot driven one and I enjoyed the heck out of it. It kept me guessing. The twists and turns are cleverly done and the ending was a complete surprise. I like being surprised. Husband and wife authors, Clay and Susan Griffith, create a mystical world filled with intrigue, secrets and danger. After the last book, we have no clue who is on the side of right outside of our little group. Then again, right and wrong is all a matter of perspective, right?

We start to see more character development in our ever growing cast. We learn more about each of these characters individually and how their pasts tie them together. The characters are getting more and more complex, with their own unique strengths and vulnerabilities. And we're starting to see more relationships form as they ragtag lot becomes more of a team. They have to work on trusting and relying on each other. I particularly enjoyed getting to see more of the delightful inventor, Penny, in this book as well as the girl werewolf, Charlotte. There's still a lot of unknowns in the story and several untold secrets that will leave you wanting more. The ending of this story pulled me deeper into this series because there are some major consequences of that last major battle in this book that will undoubtedly throw a wrench in things in the next book.

What I really liked about this book is how well-developed the scenes are in these books. They are well written and easy to visualize. The fight scenes are particularly great! The frantic pace mirrors the group's desperation as they try to prevent London from becoming a battleground for two powerful and very destructive forces. The book was like a movie playing in my mind. The characters are easy to picture and each of the places in this book are memorable. It was all way impressive. 
  
The Undying Legion combines a thrilling well-developed plot with spectacular action sequences with witty banter and unlikely heroes that are fabulously unique and fascinating. It all works together to bring this steampunk story to life. I enjoyed it immensely and I can't wait to see what comes next in the final book of the trilogy! Fans of gaslight fantasy, urban fantasy and steampunk will love this series!

Recommended for fans of: 
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne

An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

    

  4 / 5 Stars

My reviews of other books in this series:
The Shadow Revolution by Clay and Susan Griffith

Release Day Review: The Shadow Revolution by Clay and Susan Griffith

The Shadow Revolution
(Crown & Key #1)
Clay and Susan Griffith
Release: June 2, 2015
Goodreads Amazon

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.
 
They are the realm’s last, best defense against supernatural evil. But they’re going to need a lot more silver.
 
As fog descends, obscuring the gas lamps of Victorian London, werewolves prowl the shadows of back alleys. But they have infiltrated the inner circles of upper-crust society as well. Only a handful of specially gifted practitioners are equipped to battle the beasts. Among them are the roguish Simon Archer, who conceals his powers as a spell-casting scribe behind the smooth veneer of a dashing playboy; his layabout mentor, Nick Barker, who prefers a good pub to thrilling heroics; and the self-possessed alchemist Kate Anstruther, who is equally at home in a ballroom as she is on a battlefield.

After a lycanthrope targets Kate’s vulnerable younger sister, the three join forces with fierce Scottish monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane—but quickly discover they’re dealing with a threat far greater than anything they ever imagined.

Review by Rose Red:

The Shadow Revolution is a fast-paced, action-packed book that can be classified as a combination of Gaslight Fantasy, Steampunk, and Urban Fantasy with a dash of Horror. As the synopsis says, it will most certainly appeal to fans of Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey, Jr. I’ve never seen Penny Dreadful but I can see why it was compared to Downey’s Sherlock. It has the same fun, flashy style it did plus lots of fun steampunk gadgets. There’s not a lot of substance to this book. It’s just a plain fun read and we all need those some days. At least, I do. I really enjoyed this book a lot, though it was somewhat difficult to get past a couple of things that hindered my enjoyment.

The first forty pages or so of this book nearly made me give up. I think part of the reason this book was so hard for me to get into is that we get thrown right into the middle of this world with very little introduction to it. It took me those forty pages to work through my confusion. Once I got through them though, I couldn’t stop reading!

The plot was so full of action that there was no lull in the story. It was such a fun read! The worldbuilding is subtle and tended to be thrown into the story in chunks and not fed to us a little at a time. I loved the dark, Victorian-esque feel of this world and it worked awesome with the plot. I’ll be honest; the authors’ writing style took some getting used to and wasn’t as tight as I’ve become accustomed to in other books. That being said, the plot and the characters worked together in such a way that the weakness in the writing and the hard to get into first forty pages were things that became easy to overlook as I read.

One of the best things outside of the story in the book for me was the characters and their interactions with each other! They were written is such a way that they were flawed and yet they were strong. This applied to both the female and male characters. I loved that the relationship emphasis in this book was on the relationships between family and friends and not lovers. We’re first introduced to Simon who is not what he seems despite his lovable playboy manner. He is a little self-centered but he has a good heart. I loved that he had a unique type of magic and I was intrigued as we learned more about his power. I found it hilarious that his partner-in-crime is the magician equivalent of a Jack-of-all-trades. I liked the relationship between Nick and Simon, but I’ll admit that Nick was not my favorite character. Don’t get me wrong! I like him! I just like the others more like Malcolm. I loved this grumpy, Scottish man! His role in the story had me intrigued from the moment he was introduced.

I loved the women in this book so much! They’re strong and have talents outside the womanly arts. They’re intelligent and I loved that they could hold their own in a fight! I really liked Kate’s character! She’s a brilliant alchemist and is okay not being an active member of society. She tended to be a little overbearing in parts but she was not afraid to do what she needed to do. She especially went to great lengths to take care of her sister, Imogen. The character that stole my heart from the first page we met her was Penny! I loved that she was an engineer with all sorts of steampunk devices that she had invented. I wish that she had had more page time in this book that she did.

My favorite part of this was the banter between the characters. Everyone spoke in a manner that seemed appropriate for high society people, which is something a lot of authors don’t get right. Most of the characters especially Simon were witty. Simon was also quite hilarious at times with his quips and one-liners. I literally laughed out loud several times while reading this book and that was not something I was expecting to do. There is some romance in the story, but it is the slow burning type that I love. I will say that I totally ship the romance pairings we see developing in this book. I was afraid from the synopsis of the book that there was going to be a love triangle but luckily that was not the case.

The magic system was interesting but we didn’t learn much about it in this book. I’m hoping we’ll learn more about it in the next installments of this series. I would like to know more about scribes and how they differ from other kinds of magicians.

In any case, as I said, I enjoyed this book a lot despite the rocky start I had. This was a highly entertaining steampunk/paranormal romp. There were werewolves, druid magic, steampunk gadgets, and alchemy in this story all wrapped up in a mystery. It was an incredibly fun read! This was a great first book and an excellent start to what I think will be a fun series to read. I can’t wait to read the next book in the story! I’m intrigued to see where they’re going to go with the story!

Recommended for fans of: 
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne

An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

    

  4 / 5 Stars