I clicked for the cover and blurb--I'm a sucker for a simple, bright graphic cover and a flawed narrator.
Then I realized I was reading a noir fantasy with a female PI in a magical boarding school. Color me happily surprised! The writing style is solid, lots of very descriptive passages without going overboard on the adjectives or venturing too far into noir tropes. The main character, Ivy Gamble, is just likeable enough and the magical world she finds herself dealing with seems (as much as you can determine from a short excerpt) to be solidly built. The pacing seems a bit inconsistent, but I have hope. I look forward to the release.
Then I realized I was reading a noir fantasy with a female PI in a magical boarding school. Color me happily surprised! The writing style is solid, lots of very descriptive passages without going overboard on the adjectives or venturing too far into noir tropes. The main character, Ivy Gamble, is just likeable enough and the magical world she finds herself dealing with seems (as much as you can determine from a short excerpt) to be solidly built. The pacing seems a bit inconsistent, but I have hope. I look forward to the release.