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Originally from small-town Iowa, A. R. Kahler attended an arts boarding school to study writing at the age of sixteen. Since then, he has traveled all over the world, earning a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Glasgow and teaching circus arts in Amsterdam and Madrid. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington. For more information, please visit www.arkahler.com.
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2.0 out of 5 starsThis book was pretty disappointing. At the start
Reviewed in the United States on 9 October 2016
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This book was pretty disappointing. At the start, the heroine is faced with a choice that isn't really a choice at all -- after being placed under a magical contract that robs her of her free will, she has to decide whether to kill her mother, who is... inevitably dying anyway, thanks to some events set in motion by accident. And despite there being no choice to make, she spends the entire book making it. If you want to find out what happens after she makes the choice... well, that's apparently what the next book is for.
Add in the fact that the heroine's emotional life is a grating broken record of shallow, uninterestingly written self pity (killing people over minor crimes for stress relief, looking down her nose at dreary suburban humans and their meaningless lives, then moping about how no one loves her because she's an assassin) and you get a pretty tedious read. I did enjoy the first book, so I'll probably press on with the series to see how it wraps up, but this was definitely a painfully long and drawn out "will the heroine do the thing" sort of book without much to offer except empty suspense.
I dislike the main character in this series so I suppose thats a major contributor of why I've rated it poorly. I read the Immortal Circus series first and thought it was brilliant. I had high hopes of this series as it was a continuation of sorts but the writing doesn't seem to have the same magical quality that the first series had. The main character is really whiny and goes around claiming to be a bad ass but that's not shown in the action. feels more like I'm being told rather than shown her character.
Sigh, I'm still ploughing through the second book because I have a tiny spark of hope that the plot will be worth it. But I am skipping through paragraphs of the annoying narrative :(
This was a great three book series! The first book pulls you in to this world and the remaining two books carry the story to a great "Hollywood" ending. I liked that it's a departure from the traditional with a female assassin as the main protagonist and her demonic side-kick. The worlds of this story are full of characters that are interesting. After the first book, I finished the next two books in a long weekend. It's a quick read and thoroughly enjoyable.
4.0 out of 5 starsI loved the book as a whole but dang it Claire ...
Reviewed in the United States on 27 February 2017
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I loved the book as a whole but dang it Claire pissed me off. I realize that she had some growing up to do but she wasn't as strong as she was in the first book. She was too much of a cry baby but then again if I had just had to kill my girlfriend and had really no choice in a terrible decision ahead, I might be a little upset too. I loved all the different settings in this book. We got to see new parts of the castle, modern surburbia, the circus, and the forest. I was SO HAPPY we got to back to the circus and see some of the old characters. And Kingston! Ugh I just love him so much. I loved seeing more of his background. The book overall was a good follow up to the first book and set up what could be a fantastic ending in the last one. I can't wait to read it!