Raven Crawford knows better than to venture into the seductive world of the dark fae or agree to any of their salacious promises. She plans to pay off her debts so she can get on with her life and stay far away from the denizens of the Underworld.Unfortunately, her numbskull twin steals from the most tempting and lethal fae of them all. Now, Raven must help the Lord of Shadows get back what her … what her idiot brother stole. Her only weapons? Just a little ingenuity and a whole lot of snark. It’s suicide for sure, but she’ll do anything to protect her twin.
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Packed with thrills! 4.5 stars
This is my first read from this author. I like paranormal romance so I decided to give it a try to J.C. McKenzie’s book ‘Conspiracy of Ravens’, the 1st story in her new series. If you like stories set in the Underworld filled with paranormal beings and creatures such as shifters and dark fae lords, then you are in for a treat! You won’t be disappointed!
Raven Crawford’s ex has left her with lots of debts, so she has to work two jobs. Working as a waitress at her brother Mike’s diner, she encounters a TDD…Tall, Dark, Dangerous man! Let’s mention that members of her family are fox shifters, however, Raven is not like them, but it’s related to her name. I won’t add any details to spoil her character. Raven and Bear are twins and half fae. Suddenly, two dark fae, threaten her because they are searching for her other brother Bear who has stolen something precious from them. That’s when the search filled with lots of twists and turns starts. Raven will do anything to protect Bear.
On a personal note, when I read a paranormal fantasy, I prefer a book that is shorter than 250 pages, because I lose interest if it’s like 400 pages like this one. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind reading them however they tend to be filled with too much details. Also, I didn’t quite expected the surprise ending!
Three and a half
Can we just stop and admire that cover artwork because it’s truly beautiful and definitely caught my eye. This world the author has created has outed the paranormals in it due to the fae going to war and as this story begins its only because to the powers of Odin that an uneasy accord has been reached. Most humans quite rightly fear the fae but there appears to even be hatred for witches and shifters too. Raven is something special although most believe her to be a Fox shifter like her family. She’s actually half Fae so when she does shift it’s not into what you might expect. She’s struggling to make ends meet due to her scumbag ex boyfriend but too proud to admit it. What she doesn’t need is two scary powerful dark Fae lords tracking her down believing she knows where her twin brother Bear is. Turns out light fingered Bear has taken something valuable and Raven makes a deal that will change her life !
I loved the ideas in play here but sadly the execution let it down. The first half was so slow with superfluous, drawn out scenes that felt clunky and just didn’t move the plot along. Happily the second half was much better and we finally got more information about Bear and what he had supposedly stolen. There is romance here but you have to wade through Raven making googlie eyes at Cole for an awfully long time before anything happens. The author clearly wanted to make Raven cool and the dialogue reflects this but for me at times it just felt like too much unfortunately but I did enjoy thirst I’m glad I persevered and would be interested in reading more about Raven .
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair
3.5 Stars
The story line and character work were good. The book had a fairly smooth flow to it. While I enjoyed the book, I felt that the book would have been better with some further editing just to get rid of some parts that did not add to the story in any way.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.