Isobel (Izzy) was an indentured servant since the age of 2. She gains her freedom on her 16th birthday. She then opts for a Bargain (this is for life) to serve the devil (that's what he is called) as his Left Hand.
Gabriel is an experienced rider and his expertise is enlisted to help Izzy learn the ropes. The world was confusing at first- this is a re-imagining of the old west. The US exists east of the Mississippi River and everything to the west is either under Spanish protection (CA, AZ, NM, parts of TX), unclaimed (WA, parts of OR, ID), or part of the devil's territory. The US and the Spanish are trying to expand into the Devil's territory.
This had an interesting start but then got very slow. There was Something going on, but they were consistently arriving after the fact. Lots of traveling, but not actually doing anything useful. The big thing was figuring out Izzy's new role and talents. And at the end, it was still unclear (at least to me).
This is a trilogy with a few short stories too. While I liked Izzy and Gabriel, this was too slow for me and I don't care to continue.
For Romance-opoly Journey's End sun track.

" Staying Dead" is the first book in an Urban Fantasy series. It has a lot of the right elements for success: originalish magics, sassy heroine, creepy baddy and lots of foreboding but, about a third of the way through I wasn't sure I'd continue.

 

The opening assumes an engagement with what happens to Wren, the magic-using thief, that I just wasn't feeling.

 

Things got better at about the half-way mark as the world-building and plot complexity ratcheted up with the introduction of a powerful secret society and more focus on how Wren came to be where she is.

 

There are some good action scenes, a wide variety of players, some intriguing rules for using magic and, in the end, I quite liked Wren and her partner. The novel does have a plot with reaches a spectacular, violent but clever resolution but on the whole it felt like a series Pilot, loaded with more that-could-be-interesting ooh-what-will-they-do-with-that stuff that the plot itself could sustain. It reminded me a little of Jim Butcher's first Harry Dresden book, "Storm Front" so I'm hoping there are good things to come.

 

A couple of things distracted me. Firstly the names. I still don't know what the title means? Perhaps the publishers thought it up to sound noirish? And the series title, "A Retriever Novel" gives me images of dopy dogs fetching tennis balls. And the secret society is called "The Silence" which is the sort of name I associate with 1970's college bands that used a Moog and released concept albums with a straight face.

 

Secondly, the formatting of the ebook is careless.  Laura Anne Gilman uses a lot of sub-chapter shifts in point of view and action which I think work well but there is nothing in the layout to tell you when a shift is happening. How hard would it have been to add a few blank lines between shifts? Not doing it seems disrespectful to both writer and reader.

 

I've bought the next book in the series because I'm hoping that I've found something good here that just got off to a slow start.

" Staying Dead" is the first book in an Urban Fantasy series. It has a lot of the right elements for success: originalish magics, sassy heroine, creepy baddy and lots of foreboding but, about a third of the way through I wasn't sure I'd continue.

The opening assumes an engagement with what happens to Wren, the magic-using thief, that I just wasn't feeling.

Things got better at about the half-way mark as the world-building and plot complexity ratcheted up with the introduction of a powerful secret society and more focus on how Wren came to be where she is.

There are some good action scenes, a wide variety of players, some intriguing rules for using magic and, in the end, I quite liked Wren and her partner. The novel does have a plot with reaches a spectacular, violent but clever resolution but on the whole it felt like a series Pilot, loaded with more that-could-be-interesting ooh-what-will-they-do-with-that stuff that the plot itself could sustain. It reminded me a little of Jim Butcher's first Harry Dresden book, "Storm Front" so I'm hoping there are good things to come.

A couple of things distracted me. Firstly the names. I still don't know what the title means? Perhaps the publishers thought it up to sound noirish? And the series title, "A Retriever Novel" gives me images of dopy dogs fetching tennis balls. And the secret society is called "The Silence" which is the sort of name I associate with 1970's college bands that used a Moog and released concept albums with a straight face.

Secondly, the formatting of the ebook is careless. Laura Anne Gilman uses a lot of sub-chapter shifts in point of view and action which I think work well but there is nothing in the layout to tell you when a shift is happening. How hard would it have been to add a few blank lines between shifts? Not doing it seems disrespectful to both writer and reader.

I've bought the next book in the series because I'm hoping that I've found something good here that just got off to a slow start.

" Staying Dead" is the first book in an Urban Fantasy series. It has a lot of the right elements for success: originalish magics, sassy heroine, creepy baddy and lots of foreboding but, about a third of the way through I wasn't sure I'd continue.

The opening assumes an engagement with what happens to Wren, the magic-using thief, that I just wasn't feeling.

Things got better at about the half-way mark as the world-building and plot complexity ratcheted up with the introduction of a powerful secret society and more focus on how Wren came to be where she is.

There are some good action scenes, a wide variety of players, some intriguing rules for using magic and, in the end, I quite liked Wren and her partner. The novel does have a plot with reaches a spectacular, violent but clever resolution but on the whole it felt like a series Pilot, loaded with more that-could-be-interesting ooh-what-will-they-do-with-that stuff that the plot itself could sustain. It reminded me a little of Jim Butcher's first Harry Dresden book, "Storm Front" so I'm hoping there are good things to come.

A couple of things distracted me. Firstly the names. I still don't know what the title means? Perhaps the publishers thought it up to sound noirish? And the series title, "A Retriever Novel" gives me images of dopy dogs fetching tennis balls. And the secret society is called "The Silence" which is the sort of name I associate with 1970's college bands that used a Moog and released concept albums with a straight face.

Secondly, the formatting of the ebook is careless. Laura Anne Gilman uses a lot of sub-chapter shifts in point of view and action which I think work well but there is nothing in the layout to tell you when a shift is happening. How hard would it have been to add a few blank lines between shifts? Not doing it seems disrespectful to both writer and reader.

I've bought the next book in the series because I'm hoping that I've found something good here that just got off to a slow start.

This book reminds me of those mass-produced-in-Dutch-greenhouses-tomatoes that look perfect but don't deliver real flavour.

 

I was about to DNF it at the 50% mark when a group called "The Silence" was introduced.

 

Apart from the fact that "The Silence" is the sort of name I associate with 1970's college bands that used a Moog and released concept albums with a straight face, this organisation sounds intriguing so I'll stick with the book a little longer.