Review: enjoyable
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 3, 2012
This is the first volume of a Y.A. oriented urban fantasy series. It is fairly long and currently reasonably priced. The rest of the series has not been published yet.The story is set in present-day Manhattan but the city is hardly relevant as most of the action takes place in private mansions. Though the cast is ethnically diverse and politically very correct -one of the leads is also out and proud gay- everyone is filthy rich, at least by proxy.I guess the idea was that of creating the equivalent of the traditional court setting of some sword and sorcery where characters hardly need to worry about things such as daily life and can concentrate on becoming heroes. I am joking, but just to point out that urban fantasy settings are supposed to be a little more realistic than that.That said most of the themes -parent-child relationships, heartaches and friendships, bullying and violence- are easily relatable and will probably be of interest for those readers still in or freshly out of their teens.As another reviewer has pointed out already one could wish for a tighter plot. At the beginning of the book there are several clumsy asides meant to give background information, but throughout the book Angelica (the main character and POV bearer) is prone to musings that occur at the worst and least realistic of times.Beside that there are some unnecessary and rather wordy descriptions and action scenes that are not entirely well managed. Action scenes are not that many, by the way: there are many musings, many characters introductions and not so much of a plot. This of course might change in the next instalments. Some plot twists seem a bit too random or convenient -the behaviour of Angelica's mum is erratic to say the least- but of course there is ample room for explanations later on.The supernatural lore is only partly revealed but what we glimpse is the well known mesh of the newagean need for balance only updated with some SF and distopian elements. The main villain is duly despicable and mysterious while one of his drones, who is someone very close to Angelica, is so obvious that her not pinning him down halfway through the plot is quite annoying.All considered this is a nice enough read but it will probably please teen more than adult readers. Some grammar mistakes (not too obvious but still there), typos, name switches (these are quite annoying) and a clumsy use of Spanish and Italian loanwords should be corrected as soon as possible.