Title: The Girl at Midnight (The Girl at Midnight #1)
Author: Melissa Grey
Published: April 28, 2015
Blurb (taken from Goodreads): Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known. Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act. Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants... and how to take it. But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.
Rating: 4 stars
Review: When I first started reading The Girl at Midnight I wasn't that enthralled, and I remained that way for about the first 100 or so pages. Don't get me wrong, I loved the main character Echo right away, I just didn't really care for the story. But by chapter 15 (page 109 in the hardcover US edition) the book really picked up for me. The story picked up in pace and I became increasingly more interested in the other characters, especially Caius. I thought all of the characters where unique in their own way. I loved Echo's voice and thoughts. I really liked how she was written. The relationship and the interactions between Caius, Dorian, and Jasper reminded me of the relationship and interactions between Jace, Alec, and Magnus from the Mortal Instruments series; I really enjoyed it. I also began to appreciate the switching POV's, and I started to understand the fantasy elements a lot more. I breezed through the rest of the book and finished it in one sitting. I just had to know what was going to come next. I became so interested in finding the firebird. By the way I felt with the beginning of the book I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to continue the series, but now I'm really anticipating it.
The only issue I had with this book was it was hard for me to imagine how the characters looked. The author does a good job at describing them, I'm just confused as to if they're supposed to be bird-people and dragon-people? I'm not sure, but that's eventually how I pictured them.
I thought this was a great debut novel by Melissa Grey. The second book, The Shadow Hour, is due out June 2016.
Buy this book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Author: Melissa Grey
Published: April 28, 2015
Blurb (taken from Goodreads): Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known. Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she's fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it's time to act. Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, though if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it's how to hunt down what she wants... and how to take it. But some jobs aren't as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire.
Rating: 4 stars
Review: When I first started reading The Girl at Midnight I wasn't that enthralled, and I remained that way for about the first 100 or so pages. Don't get me wrong, I loved the main character Echo right away, I just didn't really care for the story. But by chapter 15 (page 109 in the hardcover US edition) the book really picked up for me. The story picked up in pace and I became increasingly more interested in the other characters, especially Caius. I thought all of the characters where unique in their own way. I loved Echo's voice and thoughts. I really liked how she was written. The relationship and the interactions between Caius, Dorian, and Jasper reminded me of the relationship and interactions between Jace, Alec, and Magnus from the Mortal Instruments series; I really enjoyed it. I also began to appreciate the switching POV's, and I started to understand the fantasy elements a lot more. I breezed through the rest of the book and finished it in one sitting. I just had to know what was going to come next. I became so interested in finding the firebird. By the way I felt with the beginning of the book I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to continue the series, but now I'm really anticipating it.
The only issue I had with this book was it was hard for me to imagine how the characters looked. The author does a good job at describing them, I'm just confused as to if they're supposed to be bird-people and dragon-people? I'm not sure, but that's eventually how I pictured them.
I thought this was a great debut novel by Melissa Grey. The second book, The Shadow Hour, is due out June 2016.
Buy this book from Amazon | Barnes & Noble