Eye Spy (Valdemar: Family Spies) (utgåvan 2019)

A good addition to this fine series. Abi has a special gift, and she is not even a herald. Training with the Artificers enhances her gift; that of identifying stresses in structures providing new challenges for the daughter of Valdemar's spymasters. ( )

The latest follows another one of Mags kids that turns out to have a unique talent for finding stresses in buildings. She joins the Artificer students and has a run in with a rich kid and that kid gets kicked out of the school. The only reason this comes into play later on there are more run ins with the family to get revenge on her for having the boy kicked out under truth spell. There is a small mystery at the end of the book but the overall story feels more geared to a YA audience instead of an adult one.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
( )

A very good book - much better than the last several Valdemars. I got completely caught up in it, nearly missed an appointment. I really like Abi, and I find the "small" stuff she deals with more interesting than the big evil magic Perry crossed in the last book - or, for that matter, more interesting than what she's dealing with at the end of this book (though the original mission would have been fun). The political jokes/snark somewhat detract/distract from the story - obnoxious Dudley Remp of the very small hands, and Judge Bader Genberg...sheesh. Turns out Abi is asexual, which is excellent - that's not a point of the story, or anything of importance, it's just a fact about her which gets uncovered quite late and makes sense (in her mind) of a great many earlier things. I only noticed in retrospect, after the reveal, that in this story the main character never drops everything to gush about a partner or potential partner - something that annoys me every time. There were a few editing errors - typos, mis-named characters (and having two major secondary characters named Tory and Trey also thoroughly confused me at the beginning!), minor stuff. I am delighted at this latest Valdemar book, and looking forward to the next the way I haven't in years. ( )

Readable mostly quick moving mostly cookie-cutter installment of Valdemar stories, though the central character is not herself a herald. The last few chapters, with the most action, somehow are the ones which drag the most, as Abi goes south on a mission. ( )

Those gifts keep morphing!

A new gift! Queen's spymaster Mag's daughter, Abi, finds herself with a different gift, seeing and feeling abnormal stresses in constructions. A bridge is about to collapse and Abi is able to save the day.
Off to School of Artificers, for her, with training in construction and with a talented healer. Stresses in bones and illnesses being likened to stresses in architecture.
Of course there's a conflict with a snotty nosed highborn but given her background, Abi has more than a few tricks up her sleeve.
Then events take Abi beyond the Valdemar border and face to face with some nasty mages.
The ending was a bit flat, and really, although I quite enjoyed aspects of the story it was just not all that different from previous tales.

A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley ( )