Pistols, potions, and private armies… Madison Mosby is tired of going nowhere in life. Living in the shadows of her grandmother’s culinary success, she trudges around one of the many kitchens within her vast empire, swimming in debt and despair. Enter a mysterious man with a proposition that changes everything…Suddenly, Madison finds herself thrust into a civil war of sorcerers, magical drug … war of sorcerers, magical drug cartels, and private armies. Enemies are closing in from all sides. All eager to claim her grandmother’s coveted potion, known as the Rose Widow.
To save her family’s magical legacy, can Madison learn to navigate the ways of the Rose Widow? Or will the malicious forces of the Finale shatter all their family has built?
more
A pretty good read with a bunch of action. I loved getting to know the characters and found the heroine to be relatable. However, this book is quite a slow starter. Takes a few chapters to really get going.
An original story
Madison is snarky, kickass, and unconventional and she’s no stranger to self-deprication. Not everything about her was realistic though. And I’m not talking about the magic. I actually found myself liking Sarah more than Madison.
Overall, the pacing was good, but at times the story dragged a bit. It was engaging all the same. Original. I really liked it and I have high hopes for the sequel.
I really enjoyed this one – despite an abundance of typos (mostly spelling or homonyms, but also a lot of extra/missing commas) and a slightly unlikely arc for the protagonist. Madison Mosby is a fantastic character – her snark and blatant disregard for every societal norm jump off the page from the opening lines and make for some fantastic and hilarious sequences. I loved that – she’s a take-no-prisoners character, and her wry acceptance of her crap life (which she has, self-admittedly, brought on herself) is refreshing and self-deprecating and fun(ny) to read. Until all of a sudden it isn’t, and it becomes overwhelmingly “woe is me” and the recitation of horrible drunken escapades and regrets starts weighing the story down…
Frankly, the story could use a strong edit in that regard. It’s one thing to have a screw-up character make good – that’s a common enough story arc but it works (most of the time). But this time it felt like the screwing up just kept dragging on and on, and it slowed the narrative pacing quite a bit. Particularly when blended with the Finale/mercenaries chapters, which I understand are necessary to set the stage but which trudge along a bit in the beginning. It wasn’t until the connection between the Finale and magic is solidified in the prison sequence that the Finale-focused chapters started to really engage me. From then on, the back-and-forth felt much smoother and more involved and the story read a lot more consistently for me.
The overall story is a cool one, full of original concepts and a novel slant on magic and how it enters/leaves the world. Madison is surrounded by some very interesting side characters – particularly Langston and (surprise of all surprises) Sarah, who actually turned out to be one of my favorites by the end. The development of those two proceeded really well I think, with tidbits being teased out throughout the course of the book. Madison herself eventually gets over herself and comes into her own, but does so rather abruptly in a manner that required me to suspend disbelief rather a lot. She’s a drunken mess for the majority of the book, then suddenly – WHAM! – she’s a bad-ass who stops drinking almost instantly and pulls rabbits out of her hat time and again to defeat the bad guys. It was a sea change that didn’t ring entirely true – although the new and improved Madison was so cool that I kind of sort of didn’t mind.
This is a series with great potential. The characters and plot are engaging, interesting, and – most importantly – feel original and fresh. With a bit of editing, I think this could really be a hit… I’m definitely in for book two!
My review copy was provided by Reedsy Discovery. It’s a new and very cool service that offers publishing, editing, and review options to indie authors. Check them out!
This book starts slowly, building up the background for the main character Madison. It took a while for me to get through that buildup to the start of the story line, but once the action began, it took off like a rocket. This is very much a rags-to-rich-via-crime sort of story . What makes it particularly engrossing for me is that you can see Madison changing page by page from a down-and-out minimum-wage worker to become a hard-nosed kingpin. If you like the Bourne Identity, you will find this up your alley.
I received a copy of this novel from Enchanted Quill and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
quite the unexpected interesting fun read. fast paced story, complex characters, very entertaining.