The truth is, when you banish the gods from the world, they eventually come back—with a vengeance. In the near future, Justin March lives in exile from the Republic of United North America. After failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims, Justin is surprised when he is sent back with a peculiar assignment—to solve a string of ritualistic murders steeped in … murders steeped in seemingly unexplainable phenomena.
Justin’s return comes with an even bigger shock: His new partner and bodyguard, Mae Koskinen, is a prætorian, one of the Republic’s technologically enhanced supersoldiers. Mae’s inexplicable beauty and aristocratic upbringing attract Justin’s curiosity and desire, but her true nature holds more danger than anyone realizes.
As their investigation unfolds, Justin and Mae find themselves in the crosshairs of mysterious enemies. Powers greater than they can imagine have started to assemble in the shadows, preparing to reclaim a world that has renounced religion and where humans are merely gamepieces on their board.
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I really liked this book but the series IS NOT FINISHED!! Which is very very upsetting!!
I love Richelle Mead!!! But am upset that it hasn’t been finished.
Loved it. Excellent world building, good characters whose actions make sense in the context of the story, and very entertaining story. Loved this and the second book in the series, and desperately wish the third book would be published to finish the story.
I must preface with two things:
1. I am a fan of Richelle Mead and have read almost all (need to finish out the succubus series) of her works thus far – Both in the YA and Adult genres.
2. I did not ‘read’ the book but instead listened to it via Audible. (Please excuse any misspelled names, terms, etc. as I had nothing but my imagination to go off of)
My overall feel of this book is that it was a good book. I wouldn’t say it is one of the better of Mead’s work but it was an enjoyable read… if you are patient.
Like most readers I found the story to be confusing at times and the world building a bit rough. This story does not flow as well as other works by Richelle Mead. I was often confused on if we were in current time or reminiscing on the past. It took at least half way through the book to understand what all the acronyms were or what happened to the world to make it become this new world structure. And even further into the book to understand the rating scales of people and what a castel was and why they were allowed to exist. I am not a fan of stories that info dump at the beginning (hello boring), and appreciate an author who can provide the information that you need on background etc. as the story goes on. Leaves a bit of mystery as you read and lets you learn about characters through experience. I think that is what Mead was attempting in this book but I think we needed a bit more information at the beginning. Maybe an intro explaining what happened to the world? And how people are rated? I was really confused on that front and ended up reading some spoiler reviews to get a better understanding of the world before I continued on with the story.
So what did I like about it? The plot and the world built by Mead are very intriguing and I enjoyed a new type of story from her. The mystery kept me intrigued (although that story line did get lost when we went off on tangents) and I wanted to know when the two protagonists were going to finally end up together again. I am a sucker for bad ass females and loved that Justin let Mey be the bad ass no question asked. I enjoyed that he was actually confident and wasn’t just projecting confidence to cover up his sad story of internal struggle. It allows him to not be intimidated by such a strong female and doesn’t try to push her aside. His confidence also helped him not look weak despite hiding behind Mey to let her do the fighting. Now that I have knowledge of this new world, I am excited to see what happens to these characters in the next installment of the series. Although this book only received a 3 from me, I think the series could get a 4 overall. I have hope.