I can't finish this. Only 20% in and I'm not only confused, I'm bored and mildly baffled at Sarah's character. I'm not a prude, but the sheer amount of sexual tension/acts in the first part of this book really threw me off. I'm just done.

Read this review and others like it at my blog Brains and Beauty.

I thought New Year's Eve was an appropriate time for a retrospective of my 2013 reading.  Although I usually end up with about 150 books a year, I didn't keep track by numbers this year, instead by memories.  I tend to read so fast and so much that sometimes, unless the book is really memorable, I can't tell you what I'm reading. This year was a bit different for that.

I had a banner reading summer.  I got on a novel and historical fiction kick, and found some really great books, reading out of my usual "comfort zone" of cozies.   Three of the standouts were Left Drowning by Jessica Park,  The House at the End of Hope Street by  Menna Van Praag, and City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte. Not that there weren't standouts in cozies, too, there definitely were, but the non-cozies were what stuck in my head.

They were all very different, and all excellent. 

I also started really trying to write reviews in 2013. I hate writing reviews. I know authors love it when you do, though.  Look at the near-celebrity status of Dru Ann L Love in the cozy community if you don't believe me.  Her review blog gets thousands of hits, she does guest columns on the cozy blogs, and is universally loved by all the cozy authors and fans.  It's well deserved, Dru Ann's a great person and writes a killer review, plus that, she keeps it positive and is just a sweetheart.  But I digress - I hate writing reviews. But becoming a librarian and signing up for NetGalley and Edelweiss sort of forced me into it. I like to think I'm getting better at it, but who knows?  After the Goodreads debacle this fall, I sort of stay over here at Booklikes and mind my own business, so I'm thinking my reviews aren't getting a ton of exposure.

My TBR (especially for ebooks) is overflowing more than ever - it apparently is a side effect of being in a library all day around all those books - and my physical shelves will soon be overflowing as well.  If 2014 keeps the momentum going, I'll run out of shelf space!

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I've been acquiring books at a rather alarming rate lately, both ebooks and physical ones, I'm currently in a bit of a reading slump.  I'm blaming it on the holidays and just being busy; and so tired that when I do sit down with a book, I go almost straight to sleep.  i'm hoping that once the holidays are over, and winter socks me in, I'll have more time and inclination to read some of my backlog and find some more memorable stories to inspire me.

This is the second in a series and contains minor spoilers.

Well, I liked this book a bit better than the last one, City of Dark Magic. It wasn’t as all over the place with 50 different things going on at once.

Sarah has traveled back to Prague to help Pollina. Pols, the 13 year old blind musical prodigy is dying. She has a rare infection that only one person can possibly cure, a Czech doctor named Bettina.

She is immediately plunged into mystery involving alchemy (again) and history and drugs and music and science. It starts with a brief meeting with the doctor at a ball in Vienna followed by mysterious text message from Bettina asking Sarah to do something that almost gets her arrested. Followed by another mysterious text message that ends up with Sarah handling a stolen artifact from the British Museum and a drug that makes her orgasm spontaneously (go ahead, laugh. I did)

Meanwhile, since him and Sarah broke up, Max has been sleeping with a somewhat famous British historian that, clearly, has bad intentions. Pollina doesn’t like her, which should be a sign not to date a person since Pollina is the smartest, most sensible character in the book.

Nico is also searching for a cure but also searching for a cure for his immortality. Someone is beating him to the ingredients (he refers to this person as his Moriarty. As much as I love Nico, he is no Sherlock).

During all this, Sarah stills finds the time to bang some guy in a horse stable, because ya know, priorities and all.

There are weird breaks into different points of view, which is a bit annoying at times but I guess it gives better insight.

You have to suspend your belief a lot with this book. The historical part of it is amazing. That’s really what drew me into the second book. Someday I shall visit Vienna and Prague! But other than that? Meh. I don’t really like Sarah. Some of her choices make no sense to me. She tends to be obnoxious and pretentious yet really stupid at times.

Max not really in this one much and when he is it’s usually a sex scene but he’s still kinda lackluster. He doesn’t really have a personality, which is a terrible waste of a character.

Pollina, the thirteen year old, is by far the most mature of the bunch. Though I really don’t understand her parents. She’s blind and dying and they don’t live with her? Like…wth? They just leave her in Prague with a nanny and a man they barely know (Max)? That just doesn’t make sense!

Alessandro is a doctor, graduated from an American school but can barely speak proper English? I don’t think so.

Anyways, the book has some beautiful descriptions and some great imagination. It moves along pretty fast, some decent action. The ending was…really weird.

This was an okay book. Not great but decent enough I suppose. If there is another book I’ll probably read it because I’m already two books in.