Somehow this didn't quite draw me in and I don't know why. The story is nice, characters as well, the relationships are healthy. I think maybe it was too much of a detective story for me, which I enjoy on TV but not so much in books. Because of that it was more of a 3.5 for me, but I'm rounding up because of the healthy relationships. At least in this book, everything stays platonic, and even if it's going to move towards romantic in later books, it's good to see respect and getting to know each other first instead of instalove. ( )

Overall I had a good time with the book.
There were quite a few somewhat minor gripes I want to mention though.

First, the POV and worldbuilding. If you already start your story with one of your main characters being stranded in a new world, why would you not use this perfect opportunity to have the reader discover the new world together with said character?
Instead of using this perfect template for organic world-building, we end up with tedious and very unnatural dialogue which is clearly only there to explain stuff to the reader because most of the book is told from Henri's POV who is a native to this world.

Another problem I had was how perfect Jamie was. While it was far less annoying than it could've been it still was rather unbelievable especially because of the universal admiration she gets from everyone that has even half a brain. Mary Sue much?
Mary Sue is problematic because it makes a character uninteresting. Even a perfect character can be made interesting. With her superior scientific understanding in a 1900s world, the MC could've gone through lots of interesting and entertaining situations. In this case, the book mostly ignores this huge opening. That is not to say the actual Mystery isn't interesting, it is, but it's still a wasted opportunity.

A very specific detail that frustrated me a lot was CPR. CPR has a success rate of only about 12%. Even if you adjust that number for improper application as well as hopeless cases the number is still very low. The book makes it sound like: he drowned? no biggie, let's just CPR him back to life real quick. That is not how this works.

Something that worried me but wasn't yet a huge issue in this book is how carelessly the author is with the rules of magic. It very much feels like she just makes shit up as she goes. I don't have enough information yet about the magic to spot major inconsistencies but I feel like it's only a question of time before contradictions start to pile up.
One thing can be said for sure. A world with that kind of magic would never go through the kind of industrial revolution this world is currently in. So the whole premise is already very much flawed. It's a classic case of taking the real world and putting magic on top without any consideration of how that kind of magic would change society as well as technological progress.

After having read the initial setup I expected this to be much more interesting than it turned out in the end. I will probably try the second one but I am not too optimistic. ( )

I love Jamie and Henri and their interactions. I love the world where Jamie finds herself in and I really love the story. Just bizarre enough to grap my attention and at the same time real enough to care about the characters and what's happening. I will bingeread this series. Already busy with book 2. ( )

New author for me. Even though I don't tend to like books in the first person (or first person(s) as occasionally happens in this book, this one was fun. ( )

Interesting characters, an interesting mystery, in an interesting world. What made it more charming is the developing relationship between the main characters.

An FBI agent (and a pretty damn good one, too) gets pulled from our world by a malicious witch into another world to be fodder for the witch's experiments. She escapes and kills the witch, but remains stuck in that world. And then she starts to revolutionize it. If that were all there were to the story, well, yawn, there's several thousand other books just like that, starting with "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." But that's actually not the focal point of the story; that's just background.

This story is actually told from the viewpoint of a detective in that world, a brilliant magical theorist who just happens to be paired up with this enigmatic FBI agent on an important case. (And why would this exile from our world be a detective in that world, when she is already makes tons of money porting technology? That's an insight into the enigmatic Shinigami detective right there.) What makes the book interesting is not so much the case (though it is a fine mystery) but the developing relationship and the unfolding character of the FBI agent. She's quite a hero, and not just in flashy ways: clearly bold and capable, but also has a pretty decent understanding of character and her own path of duty.

She's not the only interesting character. Henri Davenforth, the character through whose eyes we are mostly seeing the world, is the detective who happens to be paired with the ex-FBI agent, and is himself fascinating. He's a loner, a brilliant man with a sarcastic inner monologue, yet dapper and charming and non-judgmental to everyone he meets. And about halfway through the book we encounter another intriguing character, a very powerful magician who certainly doesn't quite fit the stereotype.

The world is fairly interesting, as fantasy worlds go; there's clearly a science to the magic, even though we only catch a glimpse of it. There's only a few minor places where my suspension of disbelief was broken by magic that's just too convenient; all in all, the limits are decently worked out. The author follows the mystery writers' rules pretty well: even though there's magic, the reader understands enough of how it works so the ending could have been anticipated.

This book didn't totally blow me away, and wasn't really full of heart-pounding drama. There are a few action scenes, but I found the quiet scenes to be more interesting (that's a sign that the characters and the relationships are very good). It was one book that left a very pleasant aftertaste with its gentle humor and good relationships, and that has not always been the case for me with other books by Honor Raconteur. I don't feel immediately addicted to the series, but I'll definitely get back to the other ones when I want to revisit these characters. ( )