A.A. Aguirre

Upon finishing, I actually said out loud, "Thank goodness that's over."

I was really disappointed in this. On paper - and cover - it looked so interesting. Steampunk fairyland featuring a woman-of-colour police detective! (And, look, she was great. I really wish the book had been about her, instead of shunting off-stage all her development that wasn't lavish agonising over her partner's sixpack.)

The pacing of the book was a strange combo of lingering and lurching that seemed to rush interesting developments and spend pages on boring details. It proceeded through a murder investigation that was probably quite realistic in its laboured chipping away at leads, but that gave no scope for deep mental engagement. Add in a major subplot, wherein a new point-of-view character had a romance almost vampiric in its fey formality, and about which I couldn't care less, and this book was a genuine chore to read.

I was mildly engaged with ours heroes UST, but that was flogged to death by endless self-aware asides and introspections. (The aforementioned agonising over sixpacks, and lots of "but we mustn't"-style denials. Yawn.)… (mer)

It's been weeks and it's time to admit it, I'm not going to finish this book. I absolutely hate to say this--and can't believe I'm saying this because it's co-written by Ann Aguirre whose books I adore--but this book is boring. There's very little suspense, which for a book about two people investigating a series of murders and one person very obviously targeted for murder, is not a good thing.

Everything about this book gave me a feeling of "almost, but not quite." I almost feel like I know the main characters because I've been told things about them, but at 74% into the book I still don't feel like I know them. I almost feel like I understand how this particular world differs from ours because I've been told certain things that happened, but I don't see those things playing out. It's that way with most things; very tell instead of show.… (mer)