Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Dead God's Heart series. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I have read a couple other series but Saintcrow and she's very hit or miss. I really enjoyed her early novels in the Dante Valentine series but really disliked her Bannon and Clare series. I keep meaning to pick up the Jill Kismet series but just never have. I was excited to see a new urban fantasy by her but this was an odd book. It reminds me of a combo of "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman and The Nightside Series by Simon Green but it isn't as good as either of those.

I think of "American Gods" because the main character, Nat, is dealing with old gods and divinities and finding gods of different aspects of American life. I also think of The Nightside Series because of the way surreal and strange things are thrown at the reader in rapid succession. I know a lot of people don't like The Nightside series but I have a strange fondness for it because of the creative craziness that went into that series and the over the top characters.

In the beginning I was drawn into the strangeness and creativeness of it all. I enjoyed Nat's plunge into this insane world of divinities. I did struggle some with how disconnected the story felt and how hard it was to picture some of the situations Nat ends up in because they just weren't described very well.

As the story went on it got kind of boring. Nat is a very bland character and the thief divinity she travels with, for all his viciousness, quickly went from intriguing to bland as well. Then the story just stops pretty much in the middle of things with a "To Be Continued" at the end, which was irritating.

This is definitely not Saintcrow's best work. I liked the idea behind it and some of the creative scenes and surreal-like plunge into a divinity underworld. However, the story felt scattered and it was hard to picture the surroundings and follow what was going on. Towards the end it just got flat-out boring.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a bit disappointing for me. I did finish it, it was a pretty quick read. I initially enjoyed the concept and some of the crazy situations Nat is thrown into. Unfortunately, my pace of reading definitely slowed down in the second half of the book and I just got very bored with it all. I don't plan on picking up any more books in this series; the writing was just too sloppy. ( )

Spring's Arcana
By Lilith Saintcrow
This book was a long but wild ride! A young woman's mother is dying in hospice and she send her to a strange woman for help. The woman agrees to help but she must bring the item back to the woman. Her mother said to bring it to her. The woman is sending a man with her. He said he will take the item when she gets it and kill her. Wow! I don't think I would bother with the trip!
Seems her mother was cruel to her all her life. Never loved her. Her mother stole a heart, the heart of the guy going with her! From the strange lady!
The adventure is full of magic and danger! Once on the trip, she has a motorcycle that turns into a horse. But then it was a bit unwilling to go back to the ranch after she found one of the pieces she needed. The characters are great, unique story and fantasy, and enjoy the suspense.
It was an enjoyable read but it just stopped. Not a cliffhanger but it just stopped. I really, really hate that. It would have been a 4 star book to me before that.
I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this fun and exciting book. ( )

This book ends on an abrupt, not really a cliff hanger, but also not a real ending. Kind of like the whole story was written and they decided to break it up into two books. Just picked the half way point to stop the story.

Had 60% of the pages not been info dumping, and flowery writing that focused on stuff not important to the scene, the book might have been able to fit Nat's full journey within it's pages. So needless to say, once I hit the 70% mark I realized we weren't getting the full story, and hoped it would at least end on a climactic ending. But it was really just eh.

If you have seen the John Wick movies, this book feels like a rip from that. But instead of a man out for revenge, it's a teenager *surprise you have magic* on an adventure to save her mom who is likely, probably, going to kill her anyway if she succeeds. But you only get 1/2 of the adventure, which is mostly just world building (lots of great potential with the Russian folklore and such) and long monologues about the un-natural world from multiple POVs.

It was intriguing enough to keep me picking up between other reads, but not interesting enough to make me want the second half of the story. (NOTE: It also didn't help that the copy provided to me by NetGalley / TOR Publishing Group wasn't properly formatted. So there were numbers, and odd spacing throughout making for a distracting read.)

The characters all had personality, but they were very predictable if you've watched / read any paranormal stuff like Supernatural, etc. Very YA, and very lackluster main character.

You'll enjoy this book if you enjoy magic in plain sight stories based in Russian folklore. Colorful writing, with the world building being it's own character to follow throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Publishing Group for providing me an early copy of this book. ( )