All Is Fair by Emma Newman

The Blurb On The Back:

The Duke of Londinium is dead.

Long live the new Duke.

Sam, a stranger to the world of the Fae, finds an unexpected offer from one of the Elemental Court’s most enigmatic Lords turns out to be far more than he bargained for.

Meanwhile, Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is getting closer to uncovering who is behind the murder of the Bath Chapter.

Can he stay true to his sworn duty without being destroyed by his own master, whose insanity threatens to unravel them all?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The last book in Emma Newman’s SPLIT WORLDS TRILOGY is an ultimately disappointing affair as the plot sprawls out to bring in new elements while the central mystery gets a rushed and unfulfilling conclusion. This is a shame because there’s so much interesting world building going on in these books and I would have easily read a series of 6 or 8 because Newman does well at investigating and challenging the social and political landscape of her world and I really enjoyed the sinister revelations that come about the Agency and how it operates. I also enjoyed the expansion into Oxford and it’s mirror city and I especially liked its sorcerer Rupert, who shares Ekstrand’s eccentricity but is more amenable to modern technology. However, the developments with Sam come very late in the trilogy and the introduction of the Elemental Court – though potentially interesting – doesn’t have the room to make as much of an impact as it should. I was also very disappointed to see no mention or fall out from the rape in book 2, which left me very uncomfortable, particularly because of the way the book ends for the two characters concerned. What really annoyed me though was that the denouement to the mystery about the attack on the Bath Chapter was so poor – the antagonist literally doesn’t get introduced until the final quarter and we never find out what the motivation for it all was (only what Max and the gargoyle assume it could be). I wonder how much of this is expanded in the short stories and although this book didn’t work for me, I’d be interested in reading both them and a follow on trilogy.

As Red As Blood by Salla Simukka

The Blurb On The Back:

Lumikki Andersson is familiar with secrets and lies, but she also has a rule not to mind other people’s business.

When she discovers a lot of money – hanging, blood stained, in her school darkroom – that rule is put sharply to the test.

Lumikki is quickly drawn deep into the heart of Finland’s criminal underworld, caught in a dangerous web of corruption, deceit and murder.

She is no longer an observer, she is a target. And she needs to out-smart a ruthless killer.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Salla Simukka’s Scandi-noir YA thriller (the first in a trilogy), is a dark and dangerous story filled with murder, drugs and corruption and seen through the eyes of an intriguing main character who has a backstory filled with mystery. The translator, Owen F. Witesman, has done an excellent job with the translation, which is lean, mean and stylish. Lumikki is an intriguing and resourceful heroine who’s clearly suffered some serious trauma and heartache in her past (which I hope will be expanded upon and explained in the later books). I particularly enjoyed the reluctant way she is drawn into a friendship with the self-absorbed Elisa and the way the two girls find common ground with each other as they try to unravel what happened to the money and why. I also enjoyed the way Simukka also weaves in the story as seen from the villain’s point of view, which really fleshes out the situation and adds a sense of danger and intrigue. The criminal empire created by the Polar Bears is very interesting, especially the way it’s permeated the different social layers of Finnish society and I hope that this is again, something that gets explored more in the later books. That said, I did find one of the twists disappointingly easy to guess (and the implications of it get rather brushed beneath the carpet when it could have added more emotional oomph to the story) while the male characters of Tuuka and Kasper don’t get the page time needed to flesh them out and make them more rounded – indeed, this is a very short book and I’d have happily read something twice the length. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy this book and it will certainly appeal to any teen fans of THE BRIDGE or WALLENDER. I will definitely be checking out the next book in this trilogy.