My verdict on The Lies of Locke Lamora, plus two more reviews

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It's been a while since I last posted here and the reason for that is mainly that it took me so long to finish Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and then even longer to write a review about it.

The first part of the book was rather slow and whenever I put it down I didn't feel particularly compelled to pick it back up again. But about half-way through The Lies of Locke Lamora the pace accelerated and the story got exciting enough that I finished the book in a couple of sittings. But then I spent a couple of weeks trying, rather unsuccessfully, to write a review of the book. I'm not sure why this review was such a struggle, more so then any other book review I have written so far. Part of the problem was that it took me a while to pinpoint what my exact feelings about the book were. While I enjoyed the storyline and the wild schemes cooked up by Locke Lamora and his fellow thieves, the lack of character development held me back from really loving the book and the characters. You can read my review of the Lies of Locke Lamora here.

This past week I read two other books, The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde and Blue Diablo by Anne Aguirre (aka Ava Gray).


The Eyre Affair is a quirky alternate history novel that I would probably never have read if it wasn't recommended by Books on the Nightstand, a weekly book blog that I follow religiously. Despite it's similarity in style to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of my favorite books, the fact that The Eye Affair is also categorized as a mystery would have turned me off (I don't do mysteries). But it was a delightful and very enjoyable read that I highly recommend, if you appreciate the unconventional. You can read my review of the Eyre Affair here.





The second book, Blue Diablo, is a romantic urban fantasy that I saw described on a website that I was passing through and it looked intriguing enough that I decide to give it a try.

Blue Diablo introduces Corine Solomon, a woman who can learn the history of any inanimate object just by touching it. Corine, and her boyfriend, Chance, would use Corine's special ability to help track down missing people, but when one such case almost cost Corine her life, she decides to make a break from this dangerous lifestyle and from Chance, who only seemes to want her for the strange ability that she possesses.

Corine moves to Mexico where she reinventes herself as a redheaded pawn-shop owner and does her best to forget her past life. But almost a year later, Chase shows up on Corine's doorsteps and begs her to help him one last time, because this time it's his mother who has gone missing.

Blue Diablo is one of the better urban fantasies that I have read recently, though the constant repetition of certain phrases throughout the book really irritated me. But other then that, the story is well paced and skillfully told and I believe most fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance would enjoy it. A review of Blue Diablo can be found here.