this would have been SO MUCH BETTER if riss had been brown but scott is half-egyptian and WONDERFUL so it's not a total loss. this also falls into one of my FAAAVE tropes -- riss and scott broke up a couple years ago, but had to work together to rescue a slew of their kidnapped breathren and realized how much they still loved each other. god bless this trope.there's a lot of mention of repeated rape and forced impregnation of and scientific experimentation on a large number of side characters, so be careful reading this if any of that is something that could trigger you. the writing gets a little sloppier towards the end, and i knew halfway thru the book (at the absolute latest) who the traitors were (one of them wasn't actually announced in this book but the ending makes it pretty clear, even if the characters don't seem to realize it). nonetheless this was a rly fun read. ttly here for this whole fury thing, i was intrigued by that the second i realized it. her magical girl transformation from regular marissa to Fury Marissa was silly but delightful (i'm pretty sure if u cut me i would bleed sailor moon). plus she's a fury investigating the disappearance and apparent murder of her sister fury and best friend, AND it takes place in boston, my favorite city in all the world besides worcester lmao. (what can i say, i'm a proud massachusetts girl at heart.) looking forward to more of this series, hopefully they'll be even better than the first one. :) I wanted to like this book, as it had a great premise, particularly because there's not a lot out about furies, especially as a main character. But this book just fell flat. So much so, I really had to push myself to finish it just to find out who was the ultimate baddie. Sadly, I say save yourself the trouble. First, the writing was disjointed, and in many places, sounded very juvenile. First person narration can be tricky, especially with providing background and world information. This book clearly demonstrates the pitfalls of first person narration. Too much glossing over, too many assumptions, and the reader is left a bit confused as to why this world is as it is. Then many names and words were shortened (weps for weapons) for no apparent purpose. It didn't add to any one character's personality, as they all seemed to do it one time or another, and sounded rather dumb and awkward in places. The writing was disjointed enough that I ended up skimming most of the last half of the book. The characters, particularly the main character Riss (short for Marissa, which you don't learn until later), all felt very one dimensional to me. Riss was too wishy-washy: a take no prisoners bad ass investigator one moment, then a whiney juvenile the next. While the author tried to explain this away to the fact she was a Fury, most of the time felt as if Riss was really two characters - either 100% bad-ass or 100% wimpy, and neither one had any depth. Plus, Riss didn't seem like she'd make a good investigator at all (so no idea how she had become Chief Magical Investigator), because most of the time she was too caught up in her own drama. Overall, Riss was just annoying. I couldn't like her, and her dialogue was awful. Then Riss's so-called romance with her ex Scott just had no oomph. The character of Scott was rather meh, and I really didn't understand why he would want to be with her. There was no heat in the "steamy" scenes between them. The apparent sexual "tension" was flat, flat, flat. And after setting the story up that Riss was in the wrong as to why she bailed (in high drama), there's a big scene where *he* apologizes to her. It made no sense. As for the other characters, many were almost pointless. The author sets up potential issues/conflicts, such as the one between Riss and Scott's little bro Sean, but then Sean simply disappears. This happened to several other characters. Major issues with Ellie were alluded to more than once, but never developed. Ellie continued to be there, but was pushed into the far background. So conflict was alluded with several characters, but then that character disappeared. If they returned, there was no mention of aforementioned conflict. I don't know if this was because the author ran out of time, the conflict scenes were edited out after the fact, or there is an intent to discuss it in future books. But it came across as if these alluded conflicts were simply dropped, which made no sense and seriously detracted from the overall story.As for the plot and the storyline. The descriptions focused too much on inconsequential areas and not enough on the places that were important. The background story (the war between arcanes and humans) was weak, almost as if it really wasn't thought out, The background seemed more created as the story went along to justify the current plot, which made it inconsistent and fall apart in some places. The description of the world and why it was the way it was (arcanes vs. mundanes) was rather glossed over, as if the reader should simply know the various races, their powers, and the dynamics between them all. Many places it was difficult to understand. Overall, I felt the background and description of this world was unfocused, disjointed, and slapped together just to support the plot - all of which contributed to it falling flat. While the plot was intriguing, there were too many holes, too little explanations on key points. Combined with a fractured background story, a weak world description, the book just failed.
What do You think about Red Hot Fury (2010)?
Loved this book! Bought the next two in the series right after I finished this one.
—2KJB96
I really enjoyed this book a lot. I hope to read more from this new to me author.
—jon
Intriguing setting, well written, and I'm looking forward to reading book two.
—browninggirl17
