Ash
DNF @ 15%I quite enjoyed Polk's other Regency-inspired fantasy story, [b:Witchmark 36187110 Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle, #1) C.L. Polk https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505338133l/36187110.SY75.jpg 57809962], but Midnight Bargain feels like it was written by a different person. I understand that Witchmark is marketed as adult SFF, while this one is YA, but I still found the writing here too juvenile compared to the author's other works. For example, right from the beginning of chapter 1 we are bombarded with a bunch of exclamation marks... and to what effect?The doorbell jingled as Beatrice crossed into the book-keeper's domain. Harriman's! O dust and ink and leather binding, O map-scrolls and star-prints and poetry chapbooks–and the grimoire, somewhere within!Who writes like this? And worse, who thinks like this?? Beatrice sounds like an overly excitable tween, which is not supposed to be her personality since she is a young woman on the cusp of marriage. The faux-Regency language is exaggerated, and anyone who has read an actual Regency novel knows this. This I find is a pitfall of many faux-Regency novels, but that might be more of a personal preference thing.The fact that the story jumps right into the romance is also a bit jarring as it feels like there's no set up for the magic system, nor any time for the reader to discover who the characters are. From the first few pages I could already guess the whole plot, which is obviously not a very exciting read. Beatrice's meeting with the siblings is so contrived, it's hard to suspend disbelief. This random guy declares that a nobody (Beatrice) and his aristocratic sister should be friends because they want the same book... yeah, ok, and the sister, who is a witch and logically can sense Beatrice the same way Beatrice senses her, decides to play the ignorance game because....???Like I said at the start of this ‘review,' I like Polk's adult books, but this YA one just doesn't hit the same way. There are some fantastic YA fantasy books out there, but this one doesn't make my list.
DNF @ 15%I quite enjoyed Polk's other Regency-inspired fantasy story, [b:Witchmark 36187110 Witchmark (The Kingston Cycle, #1) C.L. Polk https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1505338133l/36187110.SY75.jpg 57809962], but Midnight Bargain feels like it was written by a different person. I understand that Witchmark is marketed as adult SFF, while this one is YA, but I still found the writing here too juvenile compared to the author's other works. For example, right from the beginning of chapter 1 we are bombarded with a bunch of exclamation marks... and to what effect?The doorbell jingled as Beatrice crossed into the book-keeper's domain. Harriman's! O dust and ink and leather binding, O map-scrolls and star-prints and poetry chapbooks–and the grimoire, somewhere within!Who writes like this? And worse, who thinks like this?? Beatrice sounds like an overly excitable tween, which is not supposed to be her personality since she is a young woman on the cusp of marriage. The faux-Regency language is exaggerated, and anyone who has read an actual Regency novel knows this. This I find is a pitfall of many faux-Regency novels, but that might be more of a personal preference thing.The fact that the story jumps right into the romance is also a bit jarring as it feels like there's no set up for the magic system, nor any time for the reader to discover who the characters are. From the first few pages I could already guess the whole plot, which is obviously not a very exciting read. Beatrice's meeting with the siblings is so contrived, it's hard to suspend disbelief. This random guy declares that a nobody (Beatrice) and his aristocratic sister should be friends because they want the same book... yeah, ok, and the sister, who is a witch and logically can sense Beatrice the same way Beatrice senses her, decides to play the ignorance game because....???Like I said at the start of this ‘review,' I like Polk's adult books, but this YA one just doesn't hit the same way. There are some fantastic YA fantasy books out there, but this one doesn't make my list.