Marion Deeds

I liked this book quite a bit, but ultimately, it was way too short to actually rise to its full potential and that prevents me from rating it higher.

The characters, the plot, and the magical worldbuilding were interesting, especially set within the 1920s. However, the biggest flaw is that none of these were truly fleshed out. There are hints to the background of the ostensible main character, Dolly White, but they're not fleshed out. All the characters suffered similarly; there's a lot of raw material to work with but Deeds never quite manages to elevate them to fully realized characters you genuinely care for.

An extra 150-200 pages expanding the characters lives and their world would have made this an absolutely cracking fantasy book, but as it stands Comeuppance Served Cold was whelming.… (altro)

This is a great heist/mystery/revenge novel set in the Jazz Age in Seattle, WA. I particularly enjoyed the storytelling style, where we start (nearly) at the end of the story and then the book's timeline jumps backward until we can see the full measure of the plot. It was masterfully done—several times I thought I knew what was going on, only to have a switch pulled so that the resolution was something other than what I had expected. Even though there were multiple twists, though, I never felt like the author was trying to pull a fast one or just add a twist for the sake of a "gotcha" moment. This really worked for me, and I loved it.

One warning, though, for those who like heist novels: this *is* a heist novel, but very little of the storyline is actually dedicated to the heist itself. More of the plot surrounds the mystery behind how the person (or people, I'll leave that for you to decide which is more appropriate) gets away with the job. It worked for me, because I was caught up in the mystery and the character development, but if what you're looking for is a detailed description of how the job is done this might not be the book you're looking for. (I would venture to say it is worth reading anyway, just adjust your expectations.)

I loved how vivid the jazz age setting was, and how realistic all of the characters felt even though they came from such different backgrounds. While it feels very much like a standalone novella, I would be happy to read another story featuring the main character... either with what they get up to in the future, or what happened in the past to bring them to this point in life.… (altro)