This is the second of Harper's series I've read (after "The Lazy Witch's Guide to Magic") and so far I can say I enjoy her style.

Also full disclosure, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and in particular the episode "The Vistor" gets lots of props in this book, so honestly that deserves five stars by itself.

While I didn't immediately gel with Integrity, I was interested to see where it was going. It's a bit Mary Sue - Integrity (aka "Tegs", which is what I call my sister so it's weird) is damned good at a lot of things with really only one glaring flaw. I'm frankly shocked she couldn't read people/situations better than she did. ( )

Alright, I am going to say it. I won't be ashamed! I find these stupid dad-jokes hilarious. There, I said it. I expect a lot of people complained about them but I loved it.

Onto the review.

Helene Harper's characters are as expected internally consistent and feel very human.
Not many liked the inappropriately timed jokes the MC cracked but I can totally see her doing that. It fits into her personality very well even if it felt somewhat uncomfortable in some situations.
I almost expect illogical decisions by the MC to move the plot along at least a few times, and it always bugs me if it happens, but it just never does with this author. Maybe that is a strength of hers or maybe I am just on the right wavelength and "get" her characters. I am not sure.
The plot while not being a sherlock holmes masterpiece still has all kinds of twists and turns and is complex enough to be actually taken seriously while not seeming forced which is quite rare in the pnr/uf genre. It's an example of a mystery where you as the reader simply don't have the necessary information to predict the final twist but that didn't bother me as it is otherwise pretty well constructed and the book didn't implicitly prompt the reader to guess uselessly.

What annoyed me the most is a part of the formula Helene Harper always seems to use namely the annoying sidekick. Annoying the MC is one thing but I will never be able to laugh if he endangers people by fooling around. I find that kind of character repugnant to the point that I am willing to drop a series just so I don't have to listen to his bullshit anymore and I came close in this one.
Using it as a joke is not funny and using it as a plot device to create contrived drama is even worse.
If those are the only reasons for characters to behave like that just discard it. Well, I guess it's a taste thing like so many things but I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.

So far the author was able despite the powerful magic to keep it all in check with typical tricks like power limiting areas.
But you can use many of these only once before they rapidly begin to feel contrived. I have trouble believing the author will be able to balance the magic in a believable way in future books of the series. Either she has to arbitrarily add contrived limitations constantly or things will get very interesting very fast. Teleportation is just too powerful in comparison to the other stuff we have seen so far. I would love to read a revenge power trip with an unlikely powerful mc that ultimately dominates everyone but that isn't the style of this author so it will probably end badly. Why add that kind of magic if you have to artificially limit it every step of the way later on?
Somewhat related to that is my next doubt. I just can't see how this "true names have power" business can possibly work out in this fae world. Having spies in enemy camps would be incredibly easy for example. Just capture someone, torture the name out of him and voilait, you have your sleeper agent.It's even pretty close to what the mc does! How is this not a huge deal?!

There were a few popular stereotypes that just rub me the wrong way. "The Crew" or the "Team of Friends" or however you wanna call it was definitively present here. It wasn't as painfully obvious as it usually is but it still bugged me.
The plot setup for the following books (I can't really call it a cliffhanger, it's too mild for that) was good enough but the outline sounds so dated I am not very interested despite a good presentation. I've just read it too many times before which is always a somewhat weak complaint as that isn't really the fault of this particular book I guess.

Edit:
Sadly it turns out this is yet another example of the Helen Harper pattern.
Good first book, lacklustre second one and just straight-up bad third one. ( )

I enjoyed this story.
Normally I don't do Farie stories but I seem to be on a trend lately. ( )

I enjoyed this book a lot, while being a typical novel length 90,000 words it just is very quickly paced. Loved the main character Integrity, nice name choice as the character picked it for her own and the first chapter has her breaking into a bank. Integrity is loyal, smart and funny, she tells horrible jokes and is a science fiction fan girl, she's also a master thief.

I listened to the audiobook and Saskia Maarleveld did a wonderful job as the narrator the characters all sounded distinct and had a marvelous accent.

I'm starting on book 2 as soon as I finish this review. ( )

4 stars

Well for once I'm really glad I got past the most-liked reviews because the book turned out to be much more pleasant than I expected it to be!

The setting is quite nice, and I like that we progressively learn more on the Sidhe as we follow the main character's POV, but at the same time we don't know much about the other species existing in the world depicted by Helen Harper in this series as Tegs (I like her nickname way better than her name) already know them and thus doesn't dwell on what that entails. Her friends are amazing, I really hope to see more of them and especially all of them together again in the following book.

Integrity (that name... for real?) is not as bland as I thought her to be, and is actually quite catching. Sure, her jokes are getting too much, but we know that it's done on purpose, that the others don't like really like them and don't even pretend they do, but it's still part of her personality. So, although I want to kick her every time she starts a new one, I still appreciate that it's an aspect of her personality we got to witness, and to see she's not just "gifted" as the title suggests.

There something off about Tegs and Byron's "relationship" though. I'm still curious about it, but there something that I don't really like about it, although I can't pinpoint what it actually is that I'm having trouble with. I'll see how it goes in the next one!

It's the first book and it was good, but not magnificent or anything. It's only the beginning of the series, though, so I'll start reading the next one, hoping it gets to the next level now. ( )