Reliquary (Reliquary #1) by Sarah Fine

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Title: Reliquary (Reliquary, #1)
Author: Sarah Fine
Series: Reliquary #1
Published by: 47North
Release Date: June 4th, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 331
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: CC's Goodreads Reading Challenge, CC's Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

Mattie Carver’s engagement party should have marked the start of her own personal fairy tale. But when her fiancé, Ben, is violently abducted the next morning, her desperate quest to find him rips her away from small-town life and reveals a shattering truth: magic is real—and Ben is hooked. It’s not the stuff of storybooks. It’s wildly addictive, capable of producing everything from hellish anguish to sensual ecstasy almost beyond human endurance.

Determined to find out who took Ben and why, Mattie immerses herself in a shadowy underworld and comes face-to-face with the darkly alluring Asa Ward, a rogue magic dealer, infamous hustler…and her missing fiancé’s estranged brother. Asa has the power to sense magic, and he realizes Mattie is a reliquary, someone with the rare ability to carry magic within her own body, undetected. Asa agrees to help find Ben on one condition: Mattie must use her uncommon talent to assist his smuggling operations. Now, from magic-laced Vegas casinos to the netherworld clubs of Bangkok, Mattie is on a rescue mission. With Asa by her side, she’ll face not only the supernatural forces arrayed against her but the all-too-human temptation that she fears she can’t resist.

My Review:

Man, this book was awesome. It was so awesome I immediately read the rest of the series back to back. And if you know me at all, I rarely do that.

This book had such an original plot to it.  Magic being addictive, it took hooked on drugs to a whole new level. And I really liked the parallels it had between real life and fantasy.  Just wonderful all the way around.

Now Mattie was a terrible female lead IMO. But I liked her enough to finish the book. Mainly because the plot and supporting characters carried it.  You know we love growth and depth of characters but she was about as deep as a puddle folks.  So, I read on because I wanted to see how the author would make her grow. She didn’t, at least not enough for me to like her all that much by the end of the book.  Her character was a bit flat for me. She was immature, naive and quite boring to be exact.

The real hero of this story is Asa. This is not unusual for me to like the male lead more than the female lead. I am pretty hard on my own sex for some reason.  I always end up expecting more from them I guess. Anyway, Asa was the hugest asshole you ever laid eyes on. He was not what I call ‘book’ attractive. He was what you would assume someone looked like who had been rode hard and put away wet if you know what I mean. (and if you don’t, google is a wonderful tool for research) I especially loved how he lived his life. How he was able to be in the magic world, be a part of it yet keep a significant distance from it at the same time.  I mean, once you you are an addict, you are always an addict, you just find different coping mechanisms to deal with it. And Asa was the poster child for coping mechanisms.  I identified with him so hard! I loved his edginess, how it contrasted with his love for his dog.  How he bitched about being a sucker for doing the right thing yet always ended up doing it. He was like the anti-hero! It was just a great book.

 

This book satisfies a spot on my #SFvFBingo Reading challenge. I’m gonna put it in the Alternative Reality spot.