Author: Olivie Blake
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Retelling
Publication date: January 30, 2019
Book description (from GoodReads): In New York City where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures. On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan.
After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out.
If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.
Review:
Is this supposed to be a Romeo and Juliet retelling? Oh yes but the twist is to add witches and Russian/Slavic folktales- Baba Yaga and Koschei monikers mentioned in every other page (paragraph).
Anyhow I have mixed feelings with this story. The characters are unliakable, the strong independent woman act? She come off as rude and pretentious, Sasha is the youngest and of course she comes across the youngest of the Enemy family- the knight in shinning armor, lame but still he helps her out and she is a douch to him every step of the way. What did he fall for? She's hot, other than that nothing. Buit all the relationships felt flat, forced or just too unbelievable. I get a lot of second hand embarrassment so that didn't help.
All the characters felt lacking, the relationships were bad, the overly dramatic and drawn out plot. It felt like too dramatic to be fully enjoyed in my opinion. The crime families, the council of witches, the use of magical drugs and the expansion of the market- the rest of the plot seemed promising- I had hopes for it. At least I did complete it, it wasn't totally awful.
The most interesting characters were Masha and Dima probably- even if their devotin to their mother/father respectively was borderline obsession and definitely unhealthy. But it was again very well done, the whys, the hows and the fall out once the children decide to break free from their toxic family ties- that aspect was awesome, totally loved it.
The secondary couple, Sasha and Lev- they felt forced, too insta-love (the bad kind), overly dramatic and again if your lover who was dead suddenly shows up and starts talking to you- how the fuck do you not believe it possible if you are a walking example that the dead can be brought back? Who the fuck made you so unique that even if you were risen from the dead you can't accept that other people can be revived as well?
They were the least likeable part of the story.
I wish we had spent more time exploring the rest of the sisters, they had very unique powers.
So the set-up and all the references or homages? Great, it made me smile each time I cam across one. The unique take so it didn't feel like a direct retelling? Even better. The twisty familial ties and bonds? Fun because neither side were the "good" guys.I'm all for morally gray characters, its more believable that people are not 100% good or bad, come one. The family were deeply invested with one another, I would not call that love, but obsession, but each their own.
Also I feel like halfway through the story I had forgotten Baba Yaga's whole motivation slash enterprise goal unless it was just general New York/world dominion. Which kind of ties into the whole what was known to the world vs not when it comes to magic and creatures. The world was kind of just started but then half way though being explained, as it was not fitting into the love setting.
I'm sure people loved this book, if you fall for the characters or if the romance portrayed calls out to you, it would be one of the best reads ever!
This was my first book by the author, I need to read a bit more by them to decide if she's for me or not.
This book was picked dby chance and was not part of any of my challenges. A nice extra book that squeezed in.
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