I received this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable anti-hero romp!

I really liked the concepts in this and found the magic particularly fascinating. It does take a little while to get properly going - there’s a lot of world building needed to get us to the end, but it’s definitely worth it. The finale, in particular, has such a great cliffhanger.

Tavia is probably my favourite character, but Wesley really grew on me!! I loved him by the end! I liked all the characters, but those two definitely stood out.

I can’t wait for book 2, because I want more on Saxony’s kin, and also for the crew to win! (I hope! lol)

Where do I even start? I LOVED THIS BOOK! I loved how the perspective changed between different characters - although I was always hoping the next chapter was going to be from Tavia or Wesley because I needed to know what happened next in their relationship. Wesley's story line almost destroyed me. I NEED the sequel now to find out what happens next to him! I read a few reviews before starting this one and some said that the plot was almost predictable - well I applaud anyone who saw all of that coming because I certainly didn't!

Thank you NetGalley and Hot Key Books for the eBook review copy!

Sadly it just didn't work for me. To Kill A Kingdom was a great retelling of The Little Mermaid, but Crooked Place felt like it was being forced into a retelling of Six of Crows. It needed a lot of tightening up; there was far too much telling us about complicated relationships and very little convincing material building the world and the magic system. Confusing and it really dragged. So sad.

Tavia Syn knows how to survive on the magical streets of Creije. She sells dark magic on the streets for the kingpin, keeps to herself, and counts the days until her debt is paid and she can leave that life behind. However, when new magic is introduced to the streets, she uncovers a sinister plot that threatens the whole realm. In a desperate attempt to stop her kingpin’s plan, she makes an unlikely alliance with criminals even more dangerous than her.

Into the Crooked Place is an intriguing fantasy full of crime magic and fighting to protect what is yours. I know a few people are comparing it to Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows but I would actually say that this will probably appeal to fans of Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody more. It has a similar atmosphere, a unique magic system, and a city full of crooks. Unforutnately, Into the Crooked Place just didn’t really… grab me. I’m a huge fan of Christo’s other novel To Kill a Kingdom so I am super dissapointed I didn’t enjoy this one more!

One of the best things about Into the Crooked Place was the characters and the group dynamics. I loved Tavia and Wesley’s complex relationship and I loved their questionable morality. That is one thing that Alexandra Christo does really well – morally grey characters. So if that is something you love in a fantasy, then this is a book you need.

Into the Crooked Place isn’t a romance heavy novel, but it was enough for me. It features a f/f romance between Saxony and Karam, a complicated romance with a complicated history. I liked it. Then there was a m/f sort-of-romance between Wesley and Tavia who also share a strong connection and a complicated past. I also really liked that romance too.

Unfortunately, it was the worldbuilding and plot that really let this book down. There was so much room and opportunity for more detail to go into the worldbuiding but it just didn’t feel as developed or well done as it could have been.

Overall, Into the Crooked Place hooked me with it’s characters and group dynamics but lost me a little with it’s worldbuilding and plot which was lacking.

Into The Crooked Place was unique, plot-heavy and also terribly slow. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite get into this one and I was left feeling very disappointed. My first tip for this book would be to dive in not knowing much. Simply because everything hits ten times harder that way. But a caveat, a lot of the tropes in those book have been seen many, many times in YA fiction; so you're bound to get recycled character dynamics. This was my main issue in why I found the book to be very slow, it felt like I already read all of its elements before! This was very similar to a lot of releases in the past year or so; Ace of Shades (gangster fantasy), Six of Crows etc.

Unfortunately, this tale of a bunch of misfits and forbidden magic just wasn’t for me. It felt, at it’s heart, rather generic and unoriginal which meant that nothing ultimately stood out and made it memorable. 

The pacing and writing are good, and I got through this quickly - although I found the writing tended to lean more towards the younger end of the YA spectrum, without that ‘grittier’ edge I like in my fantasy writing. It’s just the plot itself, and it’s characters, that ultimately let the story down. The characters are a little ‘trope’, and have all been seen before in some form or other in better YA fiction. There was no real depth to them. That said, I enjoyed the female/female romance and tension created between them - it felt mildly different, although got repetitive after a while. I liked that the story, behind this, didn’t really fall on the ‘romance heavy’ elements we normally see in YA. 

The world building, like the characters, could have been developed more. I wanted more information about why magic was outlawed and how the ‘new’ magic was created. A lot is left to the reader’s imagination when a more solid explanation would have been helpful, as at times I struggled to understand the surroundings. 

An ok YA fantasy that’s decently written, but it lacks any real originality in a heavily saturated market.

I absolutely adored To Kill A Kingdom and was really looking forward to this book and while it was not wholly disappointing it didn't live up to the standards I had for it

It took a while to get into but once I did I loved the world-building and magic but I just wasn't as invested in the characters as I wanted to be.
I wouldn't cancel this book off your tbr as I still enjoyed it just not loved.

This is a really interesting world with some fascinating magical aspects, but the plot was a little bit predictable and sometimes felt a little disjointed. We follow our four main characters as they undertake a journey to acquire the magic necessary to defeat the kingpin of their city. Things I liked: I thought the characters were well drawn and all had believable motives for their actions, which always felt true to character. I loved the world building and expect that the concluding book will explore some areas in more detail. I thought the magic system, with a finite number of magic in existence, very interesting and again, hope this is explored more in book 2. I also enjoyed the quest narrative aspect of the plot and thought the way the crew came to support each other was well done. Things I didn't like: I found the conclusion really predictable and therefore, a little uninspiring. I also thought that the plot got quite muddled at times, with the action jumping around and no indication given for the passing of time. What I would say is that I think this is set up really well for the concluding book, which I will be looking forward to.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I definitely did like this book but it did take me a while to get into it. I wasn't particularly invested in the characters or their plight and thought the story was on the more "Young" spectrum of YA which was a little bit tricky for me to get into. 
That being said, i did enjoy this overall and i thought the magic system and the world building was very good. I really liked the premise and i thing a younger audience would really like this story too.

I also read To Kill A Kingdom by the author, and I guess my feelings are the same. For some reason, the books don't Wow me. The plot, the characters and the writing feels 'meh' and I end up saying, I could read another book. 
I guess her writing isn't for me. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't a book that I was looking forward to go back to. 

Thanks a lot to the publisher and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved To Kill a Kingdom ( which came as part of a book box subscription) so when I saw this I was excited. 

I could picture the characters quite easily in my head, and the storyline was easy to follow. I didnt read it as quickly as I thought I would ( which isnt always a bad thing), The problme was I wasnt rooting for any of the characters so if someone was in peril I wouldnt have had to read the next chapter, and the next and the next. 

I did enjoy the book and I think it is more young adult then alot of books these days which are put in the genre, which makes it feel a little simple.

I actually liked this book more than I had thought I would. That's not to say I thought I'd hate it! I just wasn't sure how I'd feel about Christo's writing when removed from the framework of a retelling. While To Kill a Kingdom is (in my opinion) the stronger book of the two, I thought that this book had some great elements and is, overall, a strong read. 

I thought that the magic system for this book was cool! Long time readers of my reviews will know that a unique and/or interesting magic system is always good news to me and I thought this worked. What I thought was particularly interesting, and something I hope we'll see more of in a later book, was the idea of a black market for magic. It's not something I've never seen before, we've all read a forbidden magic book, but this was one where things felt particularly 'organised' which I enjoyed. 

One of the reasons I think I didn't connect with this book as much as I would have liked was the characters. Don't get me wrong, I loved Tavia and would have quite happily read just her story (although Karam and Saxony have my heart too). No, it was the fourth in this gang of magical misfits that bothered me. I think (and I could be wrong) that Wesley was meant to be one of those 'you know he's bad but you can't help but like him' kind of characters, perhaps akin to a Locke Lamora or Kaz from Six of Crows. Alas, at least for me, I did not like Wesley. Maybe it is my gut reaction to the name Wesley, maybe it was that I never felt like there was a moment where he was truly vulnerable - all those moments felt like he still wanted something. Perhaps in a re-read, knowing I ought to feel for him, I might be persuaded but my first impression was that I didn't want to root for or care about a character who didn't care about other people. 

I did think that the plot was good, it got a little confusing and hard to follow at times (sometimes that was my fault, I'd drift off a little and suddenly they'd be on a train), but overall I thought the very disparate stories of these four characters were drawn together in an interesting way. I'll be intrigued to see where this plot goes in book two. 

Overall, this ended up being a fairly 'good but not great' read for me. I have a feeling this will be one of those books that is made or broken by the second book, where the characters have more room to develop and get into their backstories and their futures  - you know what I mean? I'll definitely be re-reading this and looking forward to the sequel when it comes out! 

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Into the Crooked Place is available now!

I was hugely excited for this one after giving Christo's first book 5 stars. This one isn't a bad book but just isn't working for me. I've been struggling through but making little progress so I've decided to DNF. My rating reflects my feeling about the part I read.

I find it very difficult to review books that mostly leave me with the feeling 'eh, it was okay'. Into the Crooked Place wasn't terrible by any stretch, but it has the difficult issue of being positioned alongside Six of Crows as 'gangster fantasy' and while Leigh Bardugo does not have sole rights to the pack of misfits trying to commit heists and survive in a darkly magical world trope, Six of Crows was, in my view, excellent and casts a rather long and dark shadow. And Into the Crooked Place didn't really compare.

Which is very much Not Fair as a criticism, because everything should be judged by its own merit, but I couldn't help thinking 'Six of Crows did this better' almost all the way through.

There were some excellent ideas at play. I loved the idea of Magic being a finite resource, infinitely used and reused by crooks trying to sell it to tourists, mostly using tricks and sleight of hand to make it look more impressive. The characters all had their own agendas, those agendas often being at odds with each other, providing plenty of opportunity for conflict. There were some creative set pieces for battles - the author making the most of her world set up and magic systems.

However, the plot was uneven, with some points lingered over unnecessarily, while others were rushed past. The plot twist at the end was signposted so obviously, I can't believe anyone didn't guess it, and the consequences of any of the actions taken by the main characters just didn't really hit home for me. They did terrible things and none of it really mattered in the end. The worst things to happen happened off screen while the main characters were somewhere else, and it was difficult to care about them.

Overall, this was entertaining enough to keep reading. If it was the first gangster fantasy I'd read, I'd probably like it more, but with so many other, better examples, I can't say this one adds much to the genre. But perhaps the second book in the series will prove me wrong on that.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an addictive read!!! I spent a weekend reading and enjoying Into The Crooked Place and I can’t wait to read the sequel. The plot is captivating and magical, the characters are fantastic, and it ended with a fantastic and shocking cliff-hanger that left me desperate for more.

The protagonists are four crooks: Wesley is the underboss in Creije, the kingpin’s golden boy, but with his own plans for the future; Tavia sells magic hoping to gain her freedom; Karam is a fierce guard with a secret to hide; and Saxony is a fighter looking for revenge. They form an unlikely team and go on a dangerous and revealing journey to get rid of the cruel kingpin and save the kingdom.

First of all, I loved the characters. Wesley, Tavia, Karam, and Saxony are engaging and very well-crafted. They argue, they support and protect each other, they are loyal. Even when they argue, I side with each of them. They all have a dramatic and horrific past that it is slowly unravalled and make for a serious and thought-provoking read while the easy banters and the witty exchanges between the characters made me smile. The story is told from different points of views so that the reader gets to know the characters’ dynamics as the story develops and really appreciate them. My favourite character is Tavia. She is stubborn and determined and I admired her loyalty to Wesley.

There is magic, there is adventure, there is romance, and there is friendship. The writing style is clear and captivating, the plot is intriguing and full of surprises, and, as I said, the characters are awesome. This is my first novel by Alexandra Christo so now I am going to read her debut novel To Kill A Kingdom, while I wait for the sequel to Into The Crooked Place which I highly recommend to all fantasy lovers!

I'll admit that I didn't really know much about what I was getting into with Into the Crooked Place, it was a book that I had been seeing lots about by way of pre-release hype, I found the authors first book To Kill and Kingdom pretty enjoyable so I thought that this would be a great read.  Sadly this book didn't quite hit the spot for me.

The start is so very strong though, I was totally drawn into the world and there were the makings of some great and interesting characters and an out of this world sounding magic system. Creije has a very typical fantasy feel to it, a slightly historical vibe with a bit of Victoriana. I honestly didn't feel like there wasn't a single character that I didn't connect with and for that I would say that this is more of a character driven piece, every backstory is so intricately woven with real emotion and feeling, and actually the notion of family is actually very strong which I loved as so often it's all about characters going it alone. The story is strange in that we are fed pockets of information at various stages which sort of works when you're in the moment. I absolutely adored the part involving a mini heist (I do love a heist and even more so with a rag tag team behind it) but there are also some amazing existential moments that are brimming with creativity with their dreamscape elements - also another firm favourite of mine. The magics really come into their own having more and more life breathed into them at each stopping point in the journey our group finds themselves in, it's so creative! The parts of the story that I really enjoyed however, were the almost interlude moments when we were transported to a POV away from our normal narrators, this sections were full of genuine unease and a show of promise to the strength of writing below the surface.

But when the middle part starts that's where it starts to feel a bit off for me. The characters are moving from place to place but there is no drive behind them, lots of really great stand alone things are happening that just didn't feel cohesive and for me the middle of the book just didn't really work at all, which is a real shame as this is where we really get to learn about depth of the magics. As is now Christo's style, we have a steady route to get to a goal, the goal here being the end battle which was a whizz and a blur of action. As with TKAK, the battle felt confusing yet so full on with every member of the team getting their part, I wish that it felt more structured and less hectic - this I know is mainly my fault as I nearly DNF'd this book and skimmed for a bit, but even so I think I still would have felt this way had I savoured every word. I have to say that I am baffled by the comparisons to Six of Crows - that book doesn't hold the copyright on street urchins with a plan, I think Oliver Twist has a fair shout on that - I just didn't get that vibe from it at all.

As usual though with series books, this does end with a doozy of a closing stage to really drag you into wanting to come back for more, I knew what was coming in the last chapter which had an almost epilogue feel  and I did find it quite delicious - if only that shame chill and intrigue had woven its way a bit more into the pages.

It does have a great premise though and the foundations of some great world building that could do with being built on substantially to give the next book in the series the rounded feel it deserves - I'm not giving up hope because of such promise and I do genuinely like some of the characters especially with some of the latter revelations about them. I would love for this series to reach its potential more fully in the next book, because this has the potential to become spectacular.

I was so excited to receive this book, I loved To Kill a Kingdom and was sure I would love this too.
However it took me a while to read as I wasn't as invested in the story or the characters as much as I wanted to be.
Although I liked the new magic system and how it is used in this book and the characters all had their own distinct personalities, but it all felt a bit flat and predictable.
Will I read the next book? I probably will as I want to see how it all works out in the end, but won't be in a hurry to pick it up. 🥺
A copy sent to me by Hot Key Books for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo so when I heard she was coming out with a new series I knew I had to read them and was lucky enough to be able to get this arc! 

Alexandra has a way of completely captivating you into the world she has created with her beautiful writing style and I found myself hooked from the very beginning. This is basically a gangster fantasy and I am here for that! Give me a rag-tag bunch of misfits who are on a mission and you have me hook, line and sinker. 

I really enjoyed the magic in this world and found it so interesting but for me it was the characters that made this book. I really loved the banter between the characters but I think my favourite was Tavia. She wasn’t unique in the sense that she was good at hand to hand combat or had magical abilities, she was just a busker who wanted to leave her life of crime behind her. She’s such a strong character who constantly fights for what she believes in. 

I did really enjoy this book but found myself unable to give it five stars. I found myself comparing it to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo as the two have similar main characters, mainly Wesley and Tavia who reminded me a lot of Kaz and Inej. Another small issue I had with the book was that I managed to guess one of the biggish plots quite early on which always makes the reveal anti-climactic and slightly disappointing! 

However, I still really loved this book. It was fast-paced, action packed with slow burn romances mixed in. Plus, as I mentioned before, give me a gangster fantasy book and I will always read and love it! 

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I find this book very hard to rate as I didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it. A very much middle ground opinion best described as ‘meh’. I struggled through this for a few days pf picking it up and putting it down again. I found it hard to connect with any of the main characters, and found the story aimed towards a much younger target audience despite the cursing in text.

As always Alexandra’s beautiful writing style pulled me in from the very beginning, I just find it so magical how she can make me feel, see and know exactly what she wants me to. This heist/gangster fantasy is just so wonderful, well imagined and constructed, but unfortunately comparisons to Leigh Bardugo’s six of crows are unavoidable and it seems so similar in very many ways, the characters the plot and sadly for me I am a bigger fan of Six of crows than I was this. Being constructive and trying to be unbiased I can’t tell if I’m just comparing this too much, as I loved To Kill a kingdom so much, don’t get me wrong it’s great, really entertaining and well written, I think I’m just too much of a Leigh Bardugo fan to give it a full 5 stars, but it’s definitely 3.5 to 4 stars

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion