This book was solidly okay. I enjoyed it as a light read, I liked the continuation of this series and I would still recommend it to fans of Quick...it just didn’t feel as good as so much of her previous work.
For the positives! The characters are delightful archetypes as always, you can't have a spooky society without some quirky “protagonists with vague but troubled pasts.” I enjoy the time period, fans of vintage 20’s ephemera will love this setting. The romance is sweet and sexy with our hero showing off some very impressive skills in the consent and contraception departments. That is always a winner! It was genuinely enjoyable to read- relaxing, fun and exciting enough that you definitely wanted to keep reading.
The not-so-positives. The romance was very much predicated on the fated-mates intuition that gets hand waved away by the series’ elusive “psychic stuff.” The relationship doesn't really develop beyond being a plot device for each character to share their backstory. The plot is both predictable, yet the twist relies on making a pretty big jump that the reader only gets because it is handed over in a final climax showdown. I prefer mysteries where you may have to work for the solution, but solving the case shouldn't rely on the sudden discovery that the characters have info that isn't shared with the reader. Lastly, the peripheral characters only lend to the story if you know the background from other novels, this isn't a stand alone book. It belongs to a series, so that is fine, just means that the plot development seems even less meaningful if you don't know the backstory.
All in all, I still enjoyed the book and would say that fans of Quick, and this specific Arcane Society set of stories, will still enjoy it. I am still excited for more books by this author in this series, even if this one isn’t a five-star read.
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