Series: Industrial Magic #2

Charlotte's brother, Ben, is now working for the Royal Society in a mill (driven magically, naturally) and asks her to come visit him in Manchester to help him investigate the cause of some mysterious accidents at the mill. Apparently Socialists are suspected. Charlotte finds out that this is dead wrong, of course, and learns more about the Royal Society and Latents (latent magical users).

I still don't like Ben. He's very comfortable with using Charlotte, let's just say, and he always seems to get more out of her successes than she does (which she realizes as well). And even after seeing what working in those conditions does to her, he writes it off as she's just not used to hard work, not that there's something inherently unfair in the conditions at the mill. Poor Charlie.

I enjoyed this novella even more than the last, so I look forward to the next installment!

Actually, a pre-read for Halloween Bingo to bring me back into the world of one of my books. It's been a while since I read this so had to refresh myself before going on to the next. One of the things I like about Armstrong is her ability to create well rounded characters, most especially the women. In fact, thinking on the Bechdel Test I realize that it would pass with flying colors. There are more than two named female characters who hold significant conversations that do no revolve around personal relationships/men. Looking closer at the characters, I also noticed that the more two dimensional characters seem to be the men. Lucas is a good example. He trusts Paige and loves her and supports her, from a mostly "got your back" position. There isn't any development of his responses or feelings to the action of the book, especially to the changing status of the relationship with his father and Paige's beginning relationship with the same person. He seems to be there more as a sounding board or resource center than an active partner, despite what descriptions are used. 

In spite of some flatness of secondary male characters, the story itself is quite good. Revolving around a case where teenage children of Cabal (supernatural Mafia) children are being killed, it develops the action quite well, reads easily and is very engaging. Since not every character has to have huge dimensions, the relative flatness doesn't detract much from the story. Don't read this if you're looking for a romance. Read this if you want a good adventure story with an amazing female protagonist.

While I am usually very strict about only reading series in order, for some reason, I’ve skipped around in this one a lot. Maybe because different books are from different perspectives? Anyway, I picked this up after being away from this series for a while, so it took me a bit to figure out exactly where I was in each character’s storylines. Having already read sequels, I must say it was way too much fun meeting Jaime the necromancer for the first time. Her first impression is as ridiculous and wonderful as I wanted it.

This book is a fun mystery/thriller with supernatural aspects involved, and of course, it includes all of our favorite characters from the Otherworld series; I love that the werewolves make an appearance in this novel. (Since the series started with Elena, I have a feeling that she and Clay will always be my ultimate favorites.) But I really would recommend this book for thriller lovers, I kept referring to it as the “supernatural serial killer” novel I was reading, and it fits so perfectly. Basically, Paige and Lucas agree to help the Cabals (supernatural mafia-like groups) to help find the person who’s been killing teenagers of Cabal employees. It follows the typical thriller-style of stories where they think they have the whole thing solved, but it turns out that they were missing a couple pieces of the puzzle, which makes for an interesting, surprising read.

The serial killer stuff was great, but my favorite development for the series as a whole was getting to see Paige and Lucas’s relationship develop. They’re finally talking about the important things and finally start admitting that things are serious with each other, which creates for some fun situations and some hilarious conversations/jokes about how they’d run their own Cabal if they were really able to be in charge.

Overall, it’s a solid addition to the series, which I really do believe is a must-read for supernatural fans (the genre, not necessarily the show). I love that while we were introduced to a new character or two, for the most part, this novel just worked on developing the relationships between characters we already know. Genuinely enjoyed every minute of reading this.

Brother's Ruin was a wonderful short book and a great start to the Industrial Magic series, which kept myself asking only one thing: Where/When can I get the next one? and Is it going to be a full length book? (Okay, these are in fact multiple things but certainly show my enthusiasm).

It had everything in it to make it a very nice read for me. Set in a Victorian England with a Royal Society which enlists everyone with magical abilities, I knew from the start I was going to like it. The Gunns have fallen on some hard times, as a good price is paid for a talented mage, their worries seem to be over when their son Ben seems to develop magical abilities. He's eager to try out, but what he doesn't know is that he's not the mage, his sister is, and she's been hiding it for years.

I was surprised at how much story fitted in the limited amount of pages this book has. Still, I would have loved to see it as a full length novel. The scene was set nicely, and you can see Charlotte struggling between the desire to keep herself safe (and her life predictable) and helping her family. I'm extremely looking forward to the next novel. I would certainly recommend it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I'm not sure I understand the logic behind not being able to pay the debt.