The Diviners | Review

 

Set in the 1920's we are introduced to a world very much like our own. Small towns have big drama and small problems. New York is the city of lights and opportunities. And things go bump in the night. As we follow a unique and diverse cast of characters we are further inducted into a world where creepy crawlies are more than just ghost stories.

The atmosphere of this book is incredibly set up in my opinion. We mostly follow Evie O'Neil, as she Nancey Drews her way through New York, helping her Uncle try to solve a dangerous and cryptic new serial killer.

Evie is a Diviner, a person with special powers, hers being the abilities to see the past and memories of an object she touches. I very much enjoyed Evie. She is a brash and blunt young woman with alot of spunk (sometimes too much as it usually ends up getting her into trouble.) We watch as she tries to deal with the trauma of losing her brother in the war and struggling with whether or not to hide her powers.

There is a larger cast of characters we switch to every so often. Each character has their own past and the chapters that peel back their layers get you very invested in them.

The pacing can, at times, be a little slow. The spooky creepy parts are the most interesting as we sometimes get a glimpse into what the killer is doing, and their past. But even when we aren't focused on that I really enjoy the 20's atmosphere the author creates.

Besides some pacing issues, I'm not a fan of some of the romance directions and have me worried for how they will be addressed in the future books. There are demons and ghosts in the world! We dont have time for love triangle drama!

Overall Im very invested in the Diviners and learning more about them. Toward the end we don't really have almost any closure on some characters, just a wrap up on the main plot. So this has me excited to continue the series, I just may want to get to them soon as I can see myself losing interest.

Sorcery of Thorns | Review

Sorcery of Thorns introduces us to Scrivener, our special orphan is (luckily) special because of where she happened to grow up rather than because she was born that way.

In this world magical Tomes are Sentient. They have personalities and souls of their own. But they are also dangerous, so they are housed in great libraries and protected my librarians. Scrivener being one of those librarians.

The only people that can use said tomes are magicians, and magicians can only have their power by summoning demons and conscripting them to their service, bargaining for a price. So because of this librarians are wary of them, thinking them evil even though....they work in a library with books....created by magicians...for magicians?

The plot kicks off when a saboteur of these great libraries is going around sabotaging the libraries. Scrivener gets caught up in one of these incidences, and manages to beat one of the evil books. So she is then under suspicion of doing...such evil? So she is going to the main city to be put on trial...or something

For too long of the early parts of the book she believes the magician escorting her, Nathaniel, is the person who ACTUALLY sabotaged the library. But since the reader isn't an idiot we know this is just a waste of time and OH LOOK, she figured it out...

We also meet Nathaniels demon, Sylas, who is the best character of this book.

Scrivener continues to fumble along this plot of conspiracy, sabotage and danger. Confusing the reader to who the real enemies are. Is it the tomes? the magicians? the demons? the people? the political maneuvering? Who knows?

That is until near the end, with a plot twist that is so grand that you'll be thinking, how did we get here? why are we going here?

Some stories just don't need to be tales about the end of the world.

By my description you may tell that I am just a bit underwhelmed by this story. To be blunt, I really couldn't care for what was happening most of the time.

The characters, I just didnt care for. Scrivener was not interesting to me. Nathaniels back story was very compelling but how he was used in the plot, not interesting. Like I said Sylas was the best character, but I didn't fully understand what it really meant to be a demon and his struggle by the end. Is he compelled to be evil? Did love change his blackened, old withered heart? I dont know, but he was enjoyable.

The world gimmick, that being the sentient grimoires, was cool. But I feel like they should have been focused on more, because they were the best part of the world. Everything else was odd, like I pointed out, Magicians are feared, even though the libraries are for the magicians.

Lastly the Villain was nonsensical. He had the "You dont understand why Im doing this, but Im doing it for right reasons." The reasons were not clear, or he just didnt have any. So we couldn't sympathize or believe him, so he was just one of those generic mustache twirling folk.

Also as a pet peeve, there was a romance slipped into the pages of this book, and I wish it was ripped out. But thats just a preference, it didnt effect my rating.

It was just not for me, a solid 3. The tome aspect of the novel will probably stay in my brain but everything else is forgettable and underwhelming.

(P.S. LOVE the cover. I usually unhaul my 3 star and below books, but I think Ill hang on to this one)