CBR17 Book 20: "To Steal from Thieves" by M.K. Lobb

Page count: 400 pages (DNF at 35 %)

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for this ARC. My opinions are my own. 

In an alternate version of Victorian London, magic exists and can be used to improve technology. It's known as alchemology, and requires the magic-user to sacrifice some blood and life force to create the magical element known as primateria. It means that alchemologists tend to have shorter lifespans, which was certainly the case with Zaria Mendoza's father. Now she's an orphan struggling to complete her father's outstanding commissions to unsavoury individuals in the London underworld. Soulsteel, the material required to create primateria is rare and expensive, and she keeps having to postpone her rent payments. If her landlord wasn't the father of her best friend, she would probably be out on the streets already.

Kane Durante has been tasked by his patron, the sinister underworld kingpin Ward, to find a particular necklace coming in on one of the boats in the port. He and his best friend, Fletcher, have been working undercover on the docks, trying to intercept the necklace before it goes on display at the Royal Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, because having to steal it from such a public place will be a nightmare. Unfortunately, neither he nor Fletcher are successful and it seems like they have no choice but to pull off a dangerous, nearly impossible heist. If Ward doesn't get his necklace, he promises to do all manner of unpleasant things to Fletcher. So a-heisting they will go.

Having fetched a magical firearm from Zaria while undercover, he decides she is essential to the success of their endeavour, and manages to persuade her to cooperate through a combination of threats and promises. Zaria desperately needs enough money to get her and her best friend Julian out of London, and if she can help Kane rob the Crystal Palace, her share of the loot will be enough for them to live comfortably and get away from the squalor that is their current lives. 

Of course, Kane and Zaria are both cynical, distrustful individuals used to relying on no one but themselves. They both plan to betray the other before the end of the heist, with no misgivings about how this could affect the other. 

Does the heist succeed? Do Kane and Zaria turn from reluctant allies who snipe flirtatiously at each other to potential lovers? Does Kane discover that his patron and boss, Ward, clearly had more to do with his parents' death than has previously been revealed?

I don't know, because I just couldn't with this book. While I thought the magic system introduced was really interesting, I really didn't care about Kane or Zaria at all. It's nice that they both have a platonic best friend they're willing to risk everything for, to the point of stupidity (it's obvious that both Jules and Fletcher would be deeply unhappy knowing how many dangerous things their friends are willing to risk for their sakes), but having spent three days forcing myself through only the first third of the book, I decided to peak ahead to see if things got more exciting further on in the book - and I still wasn't convinced. 

From what I can see, the book ends in a way that suggests at least one sequel (or the ending will be very unsatisfying), but I have absolutely no wish to read more books about these characters. Both the characters and setting felt like they were strongly inspired by Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, but unlike those books, where I pretty much gave up on food and sleep to get through the books faster, there was nothing here to hold my attention. I haven't read anything else by M.K. Lobb, so I can't say if the writing style is similar to their previous works, or something new they're trying. I'm sure this will make for an exciting heist narrative for another reader, but for me, this was a DNF. 

Judging a book by its cover: I'm guessing the necklace that dominates the centre of the cover is the item they're planning to steal. I'm not entirely sure why the cover artist chose to portray him looking like a spoiled prep school boarder, but that's just not at all how he's described in the book. The girl, who I'm guessing must be Zaria, appears to have her own wind machine since her curls are so out of control. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 19: "Love at First Flight" by Janine Amesta

Page count: 257 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Books Bingo 2025: Book Dedicated to a Parent

Thank you to Janine Amesta for granting me this ARC. It has not influenced my review, my opinions are my own. Thank you also, Emmalita, who tipped me off about this author. 

Selah Moreno's beloved stepfather always wanted to be an airline pilot, but couldn't become one for a number of reasons. So he flew hot air balloons instead. Selah trains to become a pilot instead, but when her father unexpectedly dies, and her mother and younger sisters need help, she puts her dream of flying planes on hold to take over the air balloon business. Things are not made easier when she discovers that the man she idolised made several unwise financial decisions shortly before his death. Now the family business is in serious trouble.

Selah meets the handsome park ranger Dex Westerly when he books a hot air balloon ride to propose to his influencer girlfriend. The proposal does not go well, and when the balloon lands at the end, some unexpected complications result in Selah landing on top of the humiliated man, in what would otherwise possibly have been quite an interesting embrace. When Selah and Dex next meet, he's still processing his failed relationship, but the spark that was obvious when they first met is still there. Selah doesn't have the time or inclination to become anyone's rebound girlfriend, but the park ranger is handsome and they keep running into each other. She also finds his unusual roommate, Harper, a rescued crow, amusing.

Dex and Selah agree to work together to try to raise money for a wildlife rescue program in the park. It will also help raise the profile of the Moreno family's air balloon business, which really needs more customers. The initial event is a hit, and soon, thanks to a social media post by Selah's sister which goes viral, a lot of people think that there is a budding romance between Selah and Dex, and they get more than one enquiry from the media to appear on air.

Selah has been bottling up her emotions about her father's passing since his death since she has had to be the one keeping the business afloat and supporting her mother and sisters. Nevertheless, she has made no attempt to hide that she plans to go off to be an airline pilot as soon as she can find someone suitable to help her family with the business, and her 'one foot out the door' attitude is really impacting her relationship with her sisters. 

Dex is dealing with the aftermath of his rather humiliating breakup but discovers that he doesn't really miss the woman he was trying to propose to. He is sad that he won't have a chance to build the life with her that he had been envisioning (without really ever considering her wants or wishes at the time, she clearly did not want cosy domesticity with a dude whose half-tame crow shows up to cause chaos pretty much daily). Having grown up with very distant and rather cold parents, he's drawn not just to the vibrant Selah, but her loving and affectionate family as well. 

The main complications in this story are caused by Selah being so set on fulfilling her stepfather's lost dream of flying airplanes, that she won't let herself ever consider a different future for herself. Her mother is still struggling with coping without her husband, and her sisters feel like she is rejecting them and their family by planning to leave the second she gets the chance. This also means she's unwilling to really commit fully to her relationship with Dex, even though the man is clearly a treasure, telling herself that it's only a temporary, rebound relationship anyway.

Thankfully, as is always the case in romance, they find their happy ending. Harper was a cool and unusual animal companion, clearly not actually a pet, but a discerning (she didn't like Dex' ex much, but clearly loves Selah) and amusing presence in the story. After losing my own mother two years ago, the exploration of grief in books always hits me a bit differently than it used to, but there was nothing too triggering here. 

Selah's relationship with her sisters and mother was very well done, I thought. Her youngest sister comes across as rather irresponsible and bratty at first, but Amesta takes the time to make the reader (and Selah) understand why she has been acting the way she has, and the sisters find a deeper understanding of each other over the course of the book. I'm very excited to see her sisters find their own happy endings in the coming books, and will absolutely be checking out the author's previous romance novels. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read