An Easy Death

Listened via audiobook.

I enjoyed this book a lot! I loved the alternate history premise with a fantastical twist and the main character's hard wit. It was an engaging read that kept me relatively hooked. Ignore my read dates, I started the book and then got distracted, but I sat down and began to listen to it regularly.

Lizbeth Rose is a gunnie, a gun-for-hire mercenary living in an alternate history version of the United States, where parts of the country are territory for other countries. After completing a job that went haywire, Lizbeth goes home to find two Russian wizards–called “grigoris”–who hire her for a dangerous job. They travel across the territories of North America, looking for something very particular. I won't spoil past that, because part of the book's engagement was hearing things unravel and they went along.

I was legitimately very interested in this alternate version of the United States. The addition of magic was an intriguing twist. There's no explanation for the magic, though, so if you are coming in expecting a detailed magic system, you'll be disappointed. I wasn't at all bothered by it. The main character herself felt like someone who wasn't too invested in magic, so it made it feel authentic to her perspective. It's a relatively fast-paced book with great action and tense scenes. Lizbeth herself is a fun character to read about. She's no-nonsense, clever, and tough. My favorite thing about Lizbeth? She's the perfect example of a character who actually is badass. She doesn't need to tell the audience and try to convince them. It's painted clear as day with her actions, and I respect that so much. She doesn't undergo any significant character development during the story, but there wasn't a point in the book where she felt stale to me.

My main criticism of the book is that Lizbeth's narration could get a little too dry and could bog down the scenes with all of her clipped sentences, though that might be just how it felt with the audiobook narrator. There's a few scenes/developments in character relationships that felt like they came out of nowhere and it gave me a bit of whiplash.

All in all, a solid book and one that I enjoyed.