I was attracted to this book because of the setting, and wow this book delivered. I have an unabashed love for out-in-the-open urban fantasies, and this book mixed it with a kind of dystopia/quasi-apocalypse feel. Everything was dirty and gritty and dangerous and falling apart, but the book toed the line of making it hard without going so overboard that it went into melodramatic. I loved a lot of the details in here, and their society makes sense.Our two main leads were fun, as we got to watch them muddle through attempts at mutual lying and secret-keeping. Each of them has a hidden agenda, and that made for some good tension in the relationship. Again, without going completely over-the-top with it, though. Kudos. I thought Silas was a bit bland, with really nothing to set him apart from all the other muscle-y, brooding guys in this genre. On the other hand, if that’s your type, he does fill it out rather nicely. Jessie had the more interesting conflict, and I did greatly reading the chapters that were focused on her. The two of them had decent chemistry together, but…the sex scenes really put me off. Not because they weren’t hot, but rather because they kept bumping uglies at the most inappropriate times possible. Why have a sex scene in the middle of a murderous chase when five pages later they’re back in a safe house? Why not just have sex there? Maybe it’s just me, but that level of self-destructive lust always feels disingenuous. The plot had a lot of action to keep it moving along, with the romance tucked in here and there but rarely slowing things down. Although I can’t say I was very invested in the mystery. The whole thing was so fantastical that there was no way for me to even try to figure it out. Usually with mysteries the thing keeping me going is seeing if I guessed right, but in this book, that wasn’t an option. Dead bodies all around? Well, it was something magic that we haven’t explained yet, so your only option is to wait in the dark.Overall a good start to what promises to be an interesting series. I enjoyed the read, but I think Jessie wasn't quite strong enough for me. I know she showed certain signs of strength, and maybe that will be shown more completely in other books in the series, but in this one, I didn't see it. Silas was a jerk to her. Her brother was a murderous jerk to her and others. Witches wanted to kill her. Witch hunters wanted to kill her. She ran and hid from everyone. She was a witch herself, but never seemed to amass enough power to do anything, unless being rescued and abused by others is a power. Even when they treated her like crap, she still went back for seconds.What I did like about the book was that you understood everyone's motivations. You understood the characters' actions even if you didn't agree. I just don't know how much I liked the heroine. That's why it's hard to rate, for me. If the heroine had been just a little stronger. If she'd used some sort of power to knock one bad guy off their butt. If she'd hid less. Ran less. I definitely would've given this book a higher rating.
What do You think about Fegefeuer (2012)?
This book hooked me from the start. Loved it.
—ayanialexis
