Deadly Curiosities (Gail Z. Martin)
3.5 stars
Well, first thing first ... the blurb is slightly misleading!! I thought that the story would be mainly of Cassidy and his business partner, Sorren. But Sorren didn't appear until about 1/4 of the story and most of the times, I felt that he did things out of Cassidy's reach. Instead, Cassidy mostly gathered the information with her assistant manager, Teag. I wonder why Sorren get the bigger portion in the blurb? Is it because vampire is more someone with supernatural 'Weaver' magic??
Anyway -- for the most part, I did enjoy the story. Cassidy's psychometric talent was amazing; and Gail Z. Martin was able to interestingly blend the historical stories alongside the supernatural stuffs. Some of them were creepy as hell. I mean, the part where Cassidy must faced the evil ghost at the haunted museum part of The Historical Archive was vividly scary!! I got goosebumps just reading about it!! I also liked the way Cassidy and Teag worked on their way to find information regarding the demon and the connection between the people from long-time past.
Unfortunately, I also felt the story as rather sluggish. Maybe because Cassidy's power, to me at least, was basically 'passive'. Her power was more about getting stories from items. Teag's power as well, he was able to data bits to find information, but this was more of 'research' power. So I felt like I was missing the action. Sure, Cassidy then could use some of the magical items to attack and defend, but she wasn't really a 'warrior' in that sense. I guess after a while, reading the flashback on items that Cassidy's touched started to bore me.
It was a nice urban fantasy though -- and I'd love to read more about the team. I see that there are almost 11 short stories released in this 'world' each cost 0.99. I prefer to wait for the next novel though :)
Well, first thing first ... the blurb is slightly misleading!! I thought that the story would be mainly of Cassidy and his business partner, Sorren. But Sorren didn't appear until about 1/4 of the story and most of the times, I felt that he did things out of Cassidy's reach. Instead, Cassidy mostly gathered the information with her assistant manager, Teag. I wonder why Sorren get the bigger portion in the blurb? Is it because vampire is more someone with supernatural 'Weaver' magic??
Anyway -- for the most part, I did enjoy the story. Cassidy's psychometric talent was amazing; and Gail Z. Martin was able to interestingly blend the historical stories alongside the supernatural stuffs. Some of them were creepy as hell. I mean, the part where Cassidy must faced the evil ghost at the haunted museum part of The Historical Archive was vividly scary!! I got goosebumps just reading about it!! I also liked the way Cassidy and Teag worked on their way to find information regarding the demon and the connection between the people from long-time past.
Unfortunately, I also felt the story as rather sluggish. Maybe because Cassidy's power, to me at least, was basically 'passive'. Her power was more about getting stories from items. Teag's power as well, he was able to data bits to find information, but this was more of 'research' power. So I felt like I was missing the action. Sure, Cassidy then could use some of the magical items to attack and defend, but she wasn't really a 'warrior' in that sense. I guess after a while, reading the flashback on items that Cassidy's touched started to bore me.
It was a nice urban fantasy though -- and I'd love to read more about the team. I see that there are almost 11 short stories released in this 'world' each cost 0.99. I prefer to wait for the next novel though :)
3