Review - One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake

 

 

 Title: One For My Enemy

Author: Olivie Blake

Pages: 413

Publisher: Tor Books

Release Date: 14th June 2022

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes a tale of two rival witch families in modern day New York City, fighting to maintain control of their respective criminal ventures.

On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters, each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless, and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan.

After twelve years of tenuous coexistence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out.

If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.

 

 

 

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My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley*

There are two magical families in New York who have been at war for over a decade.

The seven Antonova sisters are led by their mother, who is known as Baba Yaga.

The head of the Fedorovs is called Koschei the Deathless and he has three sons.

The enmity between the families is reignited, and loyalties are tested.

Which family will come out on top?

Having read a few of the author's other books and being disappointed, I was a little wary to pick up this one. However, the blurb intrigued me, and I thought I would give it a go.

There are several protagonists, and while Sasha was probably my favourite, I didn't feel that I connected with any of them. This made it hard to care about what happened to them.

I wasn't a big fan of the romance - it was way too instalovey for me, as I prefer a slow burn.

There wasn't much world-building, and I don't recall the magic system ever being explained.

I enjoyed the plot to begin with, but as it went on, I found myself losing interest and I ended up being glad when the novel finished. I wasn't invested in what happened, and I thought the novel could have been made shorter. It felt like a lot of things happened, but also at the same time that not much happened. Some of the events were a bit random to me, and I didn't understand the motivations of some of the things that happened.

I'm not a big fan of the writing style, and it will take a lot of persuasion for me to pick up another book by this author, as I think perhaps they're just not for me.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Overall, this was a mixed read.

Review - Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

 

 

 

Title: Alone with You in the Ether

Author: Olivie Blake

Pages: 272

Publisher: Tor Books

Release Date: 1st June 2022

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone With You In The Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.


Chicago, sometime —
Two people meet in the armory of the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy.

After their meeting, those things do not change. Everything else, however, is slightly different.

Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth—that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage—means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes.

 

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My Review:

 

 *I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Tor and NetGalley*

Charlotte Regan is a volunteer tour guide at an art museum who has been in trouble for making counterfeits.

Aldo Damiani is studying for a PhD in maths and is obsessed with bees and time travel.

When the two meet, they are instantly drawn to each other.

Aldo and Regan both have their own struggles, but can they make things work between them?

I wasn't a big fan of the previous book that I read by the author, but I decided to give them another go and requested a copy of this book on NetGalley.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. It felt rather messy at times, but it was also very honest about mental health struggles.

I didn't feel that I particularly connected to either Aldo or Regan, but out of the two of them I preferred Aldo. I did find Regan to be an interesting character at times, and I did feel for her, but I didn't find her very likeable.

The plot was mixed for me. I definitely preferred the first half as it felt like not much happened during the second half and I lost interest a little.

I struggled with the writing style at times, especially at the beginning, and I wasn't sure I would even end up making it to the end.

I am disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more, but I have to admit that I did go into this book thinking that I probably wouldn't love it.

Overall, this was a mixed read.

 

 

 

Review - The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) by Olivie Blake

 

 

Title: The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)

Author: Olivie Blake

Pages: 384

Publisher: Tor

Release Date: 28th September 2021

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

 The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.

Goodreads | Storygraph | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley*

 

 Every ten years, six talented magicians are hand-picked for the chance to be initiated into the secretive Alexandrian Society.

The Society guards knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else, and offers its members the chance to develop their abilities.

The new candidates include Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, who are physicists able to affect the world around them; Parisa Kamali, a powerful telepath; Reina Mori, a naturalist able to grow and understand plants; Tristan Caine, able to see through illusions; and Callum Nova, an empath with the dangerous power to persuade people to do what he wants.

All six of the candidates were chosen by Atlas Blakely, the Caretaker of the Society. He has given them one year before five of them will be initiated, and one eliminated.

Is the Society all that it seems?

Who will be eliminated?

 

Having heard a lot of hype around this book, I was very excited to read it. Unfortunately, I ended up being disappointed.

The characters were an interesting mix, with Nico and Reina being my favourites. Their chapters were the ones I looked forward to the most. There weren't any characters that I particularly disliked, but Callum was my least favourite of the main characters.

The abilities of the characters, and the concepts in the book were interesting and unique.

The plot was slow, and for me it felt like not very much actually happened and that the book could have been a lot shorter. I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than the second half, which I found rather boring. I even contemplated DNFing the book but kept on reading in the hopes it would pick up.

I think this was an occasion where the writing style just didn't work for me, as it meant the book was very character-focused (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and I struggled to gel with it, not really caring what happened to the characters.

It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity as I liked the concept, but I seem to be in the minority with most readers enjoying this book. I'm disappointed that this didn't live up to my hopes.

 

Overall, this was a mixed read.