Jordyn

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC to review.

The Conductors has rather a lot going for it – a story of POC triumphing over the great evil that was the South in the Restoration era of American history. The general plot is about two underground railroad conductors solving a series of murders in their hometown. Oh, and there's magic.

However despite the extremely promising premise of the novel, I found this book to be lacking more than a few ways.

First off – the magic system is FRUSTRATINGLY vague. There is literally no explanation of how magic works. There's two different kinds of magic in The Conductors. Celestial and Sorcery. Celestial is only done by Black people, and Sorcery usually only done by white people. There is almost no explanation as to why. No explanation of what specific spells do, or how magic is controlled, or who has magic, etc. Celestial magic has the makings of a REALLY cool system...if we had more information. This is my biggest complaint of the book. We didn't need an info dump, or pages and pages on it, but some information sprinkled here and there would have done a WORLD of difference.

Secondly – The Conductors is supposedly in the adult novel category, but I found the writing to be more on edge with a YA or new adult novel. The writing is a little towards the simpler side, with very, very few descriptions of anything. I had no idea where the novel was set until I was already 40% of the way through the book. I would have love more descriptions on what the Philadelphia of this time period looked like. What did their boarding house look like? What was the weather like, how do the characters appreciate/hate their surroundings? It made the novel feel very bland.

Third – the relationship between Hattie and literally any of the characters was TOLD rather than shown until over halfway through the novel. Hattie calls several people her friends, and we see almost nothing to prove that true. Hattie is rather standoffish throughout the whole book. It makes her less than likeable as a character UNTIL we finally see her open up a bit. Her relationship with Benjy wasn't believable until (again) towards the end of the book.

The Conductors is a slow read – things happen but they happen in far apart beats. Nothing is seemingly urgent, there's no real page turning action in here. This could be a great book! It has the makings of one! There's just a lot missing. Two and half stars, rounded up.

look this is literally just monster smut with the barest, tiniest, little hint of a plot somewhere in the background if you squint.

four stars.

I FINALLY FINISHED THIS ONE. It took forever (about a week) due to children, work, chores, and being flat out exhausted. BUT IT'S DONE, AND WHAT A BOOK IT WAS.

We saw Carl, Donut, Katia, and even Samantha grow so much. We're introduced to former crawlers, we see some horrifying things happen, along with some really nice things, too. Donut grows up quite a bit, and you all know how I feel about her. I want to give her a big hug and cuddle. Poor girl needs some snuggle time, I think. Carl needs a year-long vacation, an open bar, and a full body massage.

Anyways, I enjoyed this one so much – probably about as much as I enjoyed the first one. There's a lot going on in this (rather long) book, but it's all worth it for how this wraps up. This is the Faction Wars, people, and we meet so many cool people. SO MUCH HAPPENS. I know I said that already, but oh my god I MEAN IT. So much. So much happens. I literally cannot wait to find out what's gonna go on next. WHEN IS THE NEXT ONE COMING OUT, I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!

Side note – anyone know how many of these Dinniman is going to write??

I finally picked this one up, and finished it! Uprooted has been recommended to me about a million times over, and for some reason or another, I never actually dived in. (I think I might be the last person on here to read this book?) I'm glad I did. This wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, but I still enjoyed it. I think I was looking for more romance, but there just wasn't a whole lot of it in here. My fault for thinking it would be – this one is NOT listed as a fantasy romance. It's a retelling of Polish myths. It's exceedingly well done, just not quite what I was expecting.

I did love Agnieszka very much. She's stubborn, but airy. She's of the earth, and absolutely not bound to any rigid rules about magic. She baffles The Dragon very much, and I loved watching that dynamic play back and forth between them. I loved that her magic flowed, and wasn't really forced in any way whatsoever. The Dragon is very much a mimic (not copy) of Howl Pendragon, and I did like him but I really, really wanted to see more of a softer side of him. At least in a more obvious way than what we are given.

Kasia, I adored. She spent her whole life thinking one thing was going to happen to her, and when that didn't happen she didn't just wilt and give up. She kept going, kept searching for her freedom. I loved that Agnieszka was able to save her, that they both were able to get what they wanted at the end.

Four stars, and I do recommend it if you haven't read this one yet!

In a word: fun. This is not high-brow, need-to-think-on-it-awhile literature, people. But who needs that all the time? No one. This was just fun, a classic sword-and-spell kind of adventure with a lot of longing and hot steamy bits. And the most important bit? It's well-written, which means you can dive right in without having to justify your interest in the story. You wanna read fantasy romance that doesn't take too long to get to the good bits? Here you go, pick this one up right off of Kindle Unlimited.

The main male character, Kael, is a barbarian/warrior/conqueror who has a secret soft heart for his people. The main female character, Anja, is a warrior-ish princess who at first absolutely does not like our conqueror, but then (of course) grows to love him as she learns more about who he actually is.

Four absolutely fun stars. I think I'll read the rest of these when I get the chance!