The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive.

Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her.

Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him.

Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself.

And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge.

Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.

Struggled to get through this one. Found I didn’t care about any of the characters. ( )

After the tension and mystery in Christo's To Kill a Kingdom, Into the Crooked Place is a disorganized disappointment. It reads like many other YA fantasies on the market in the last five years, with a rag-tag group of criminals teaming up to take down the Big Bad, but it doesn't bring enough of a unique spin to set it apart.
Further, Christo doesn't seem to have the skill to carry four different POVs while building the world. She tells the same history several times and while it does make sense that each character would view the same events differently, it bogs down the story right when you need it to hook the reader.

I stopped reading at about 25% after two attempts to read it (one as a digital ARC from the publisher and one as a purchased audiobook).

if it's Alexandra Christo, I'm in.

Going into this book I thought that it would be a fun read, I had enjoyed Christo’s first book ‘To Kill A Kingdom’ and when I read the blurb for ‘Into The Crooked Place’ I didn’t hesitate to request it.

The characters are all intriguing, with their own secrets and are all a little bit crazy in some way. But I think that living in Creiji, a city that seems to be ruled by crime and illegal magic. The four main characters all deal with illegal magic and the criminal underworld of the city in some way, from being one of the leaders, reluctant busker, fighter/bodyguard and a bartender that’s got a secret that might just change everything and all of their lives.

I enjoyed reading this book but I wouldn’t say that it was amazing. It was a fun read that was very enjoyable, although I did think that it dragged a bit at times.

I really liked the character dynamics in this book. The four main characters all begrudgingly worked together, I really liked that none of them got on or even liked at least one other character and only put up with them because they were important to someone else that they did care about or because the were important to the “mission”.

And the pining. Oh, the pining was great. It was so well done and I loved it.

I think that my favourite character was Wesley.

I felt like there was a large amount of character development, the plot was very character driven, but I felt like there wasn’t enough world building. I couldn’t really imagine some of the places in this book that well either, I would have liked a bit more detail and description.

Even though I liked this book I’m not sure if I’m that interested in reading more in this series. The ending was really good, but I’m just not sure if I’m that bothered about seeing where the story is going. I’m not dying to read the next book but I might do when it comes out. ( )