Maggie For Hire (Maggie MacKay, Magical Tracker; book 1) by Kate Danley
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Edition Reviewed: Ebook
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Goodreads: Maggie For Hire (1)
When monsters appear on Earth, Maggie MacKay is on the job. No one is better at hauling the creepy crawlies back where they belong. No one, that is, except Maggie's dad, who vanished in the middle of an assignment. Now, an elf named Killian has shown up with a gig. Seems Maggie's uncle teamed up with the forces of dark to turn Earth into a vampire convenience store, serving bottomless refills on humans. Ah, family...
The only hope for survival lies in tracking down two magical artifacts and a secret that disappeared with Maggie's dad.
WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.
Review:
It's clear from my reviews that I have not been doing well with indie/self pub books for Urban Fantasy. That said I enjoyed the humor immensely in this book, and the grammar was clean. Wow, what a nice little twist. Sadly it felt like non-stop jokes. Which is a sad coincidence as I was talking to some Goodreads friends about how of late Urban Fantasy authors seem to think snarky/witty jokes is the way to go. Completely leaving character development and world building in the background. Which also led to how snarky humor may not be witty, but simply rude.
Thankfully it comes off witty in Maggie For Hire. Sadly the writing is bare bones. When I read a book the words need to transport me into the world. Where all I can visualize is this world. Taste, smell, feel, and just be in a freaking book coma. Where I don't need to eat or sleep because the author is providing all my needs. Maggie was a stranger going into the book, and coming out of it. She has a great since of humor. Yeah. None of the other cast of characters stood out much. And no I didn't find the elf sexy. With poor writing. Or I should say it's “telling” writing. Don't tell me how hot and sexy this elf is, make me believe it through the writing.
Now the plot. Nothing special. Runs like an uninspired UF, with nothing new. In fact, there is so little new material here that this is how it goes: chasing, little mini fight, find some one, ask questions. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. By the end of the book I skimmed. GASP! Yeah, me the advocate of no skimming. Sorry, by the last 50% I know longer cared. And actually considered exercising my “Did Not Finish” powers. But I wanted to get the last few jokes in.
Come for the jokes, and stay for them. Because you're not going to get much else out of this. There are some amazing authors out there, especially in the UF genre, and I know what I want. Sadly Maggie For Hire may have some solid writing—especially compared to some of the shit ARCs lately—but it's not quite there yet. A bit more work with world building, characters, and not telling the story is needed. Right now the book is free on Amazon for Kindle, try it out don't be shy. I read this as a group read and there were many readers who enjoyed it and moved on the the next books. For me, I want more. Nay, I need more.
Sexual Content: Sexual jokes, a few. Clean, cleaner than most YA.
2/5- Average/disappointing, library check-out.
| Previous book(s) in series: | ||
| Reviewed on BW: | Amazon: | Goodreads: |
| Maggie For Hire (1) Maggie Get Your Gun (2) Maggie on the Bounty (3) M&K Tracking (4) The M-Team (5) | Maggie For Hire (1) Maggie Get Your Gun (2) Maggie on the Bounty (3) M&K Tracking (4) The M-Team (5) | Maggie For Hire (1) Maggie Get Your Gun (2) Maggie on the Bounty (3) M&K Tracking (4) The M-Team (5) |
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