Vowed by Liz de Jager

The Blurb On The Back:

The Blackhart Code: Don’t let the monsters grind you down

A Blackhart can see the supernatural behind everyday crimes. But some crimes hide even greater evils.

Kit Blackhart must investigate why children are disappearing from a London estate. Their parents, the police and Kit’s fae allies claim to know nothing. And as more children disappear, the pressure mounts. Luckily, or unluckily, government trainee Dante Alexander is helping Kit with the case. Yet just as her feelings towards him begin to thaw, his life falls apart. As Kit struggles to unravel Dante’s problems and solve their case, she meets fae Prince Thorn in her dreams – but their relationship is utterly forbidden.

Then Kit digs too deep, uncovering a mystery that’s been hidden for one thousand years. It’s a secret that could just tear down our world.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second in Liz de Jager’s YA trilogy is a mixed and, at times, slightly muddled affair that shares the breadth of ideas and fine use of folklore as BANISHED but lacks the structure and writing polish. The main problem for me lies in Kit herself. Although she’s supposed to be fiery and brave, her self-admitted brattish tendencies grated on me, especially her refusal to seek or accept help when she needs it. She also has a strange tick of identifying magical things or emotions as “weird” when, given her family history, she really shouldn’t be surprised or thrown by them. The obligatory hint at a YA love triangle with Dante didn’t excite me and I found the scattered Thorn scenes to be confusing – especially the end where his explanation of his actions made little sense. Similarly the story itself has an uneven pace – the missing children plot should be front and centre but there’s no urgency to Kit and Dante’s investigation and the Glow investigation sits uneasily alongside it while the resolution to both is ultimately unfulfilling (and I say that as someone who likes low beat endings). This is a shame because de Jager excels at incorporating folklore elements – I particularly loved the Pied Piper reference – and her depiction of the frigid, capricious but always dangerous fae is quite chilling at times. Ultimately, there’s just enough here to make me read the trilogy’s conclusion but I hope the plot hangs together more tightly.

I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork

The Blurb On The Back:

Twelve days to go. Twelve days until ex-detective Mia Kruger plans to die. Her beloved sister has already gone, and soon she will join her. This is what she wants to do.

But veteran police investigator Holger Munch is about to save Mia. He must convince his ex-partner to come back and work just one more case.

Because a six-year-old girl has been found murdered, hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which reads, ‘I’m travelling alone.’ She is the first.

And Holger knows that only Mia’s brilliant but troubled mind can fathom the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of their careers …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

I’M TRAVELLING ALONE is the first in a new Nordic Noir crime thriller series from Samuel Bjork (the pseudonym of Norwegian novelist and playwright Frode Sander Oien). It has all the familiar Nordic Noir elements – troubled detectives with tangled personal lives, dark and twisted murders and an insane serial killer and that’s precisely the problem – it’s very formulaic. This is noir by rote, a checklist of elements that never spark into life and which is further hampered by too many plot lines and too many characters, which makes it difficult to empathise with the leads because they’re not on the page for long enough. This is particularly true in the case of a plot line following an abused boy who decides to investigate a Christian cult living deep in the woods – although potentially fascinating, the time jumps make it difficult to keep track of what’s happened and there simply isn’t enough on it on the page to maintain tension. Mia and Holger are both stock characters – particularly Mia who doesn’t convince as the genius investigator with a unique eye for detail and a fan following on Facebook and her guilt over her sister’s death left me yawning. Holger’s not a lot better – an overweight divorcee who’s emotionally estranged from his daughter but devoted to his young granddaughter. The serial killer’s motivation is contrived and for all the careful planning they display in the novel, they end up as a stock loony on a mission in the final pages. The translation from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund is fine, although there is a heavy reliance on fragmented sentences, which I found grating. Ultimately there just isn’t enough that’s new or original for me to continue reading this series, but fans of the genre may feel more charitable.

I’M TRAVELLING ALONE will be released in the United Kingdom in July 2015. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.