This was an impulse pick up in the new releases sections of my local library. Only regret is that it's the beginning of a series that is still being written. #fantasyreaderproblems

Kalyna’s family have been traveling soothsayers for generations, never laying down roots, making money off their Gift. Until Kalyna that is. She does not have the Gift but still has to support her ailing father and cantankerous grandmother. So she uses informants, educated guesses, her wits, and sometimes outright tricks to make her prophecies. Unfortunately, her skills are good enough to catch the attention of a noble. Kalyna is “voluntold” that her skills will be used to uncover threats against a king. Turns out, that doesn’t even scratch the surface. Kalyna and the royal court are about to get way more threats than they bargained for.

I did not expect what I got. There was a lot of world building and tons of political intrigue. But it wasn’t heavy handed in the way that some fantasy novels can be. We all know the ones. We dive in head first and so excited only to get stalled out by some long ranting description of area history. Spector didn’t do that. His world building was interspersed throughout the novel in small doses that made sense with the narrative. And while the book was only broken into large parts, each part has subchapters that made me feel like I was reading so fast.

Only thing that slowed down my reading on this one was pronunciations. I was so engaged that I felt like I had to get each character’s name just right so that meant I would sit there and say the name outloud a couple times until it sounded right. But then again, this is another fantasy reader problem and didn’t detract from the overall story.

When I describe Lucy Foley’s books, I’ve been relating them to one of my favorite thriller tropes: locked room mysteries. While Foley’s book doesn’t take place in a locked room per say, they definitely happen in a specific location with a finite number of suspects. A mystery in a controlled environment doesn’t mean that there are twists and turns because there most definitely are.

Jess has been having a rough go and needs to lay low for awhile. She calls up her half brother Ben in hopes of staying with him in Paris for a while until she can get things straightened out. Ben begrudgingly agrees because after all family is family. Which makes it all the more surprising that when Jess arrives at his apartment, Ben is nowhere to be seen. A building full of cagey people who clearly want her to leave won’t deter Jess from finding out what happened to Ben.

Maybe I read too many mystery/thrillers, but I definitely found myself getting annoyed with Jess periodically. She made some classic “girl in a thriller” mistakes which is to be expected. But the way her character is described, I expected more from Jess.
But other than that, I felt this was a solid thriller. Foley once again dropped twists and “gasp” moments throughout the book making it hard to put down. And talk about that ending reveal. Everything wrapped up nice and neat.

Sometimes I think it might be nice to be an influencer, or at least work for one. Their social media lives are so shiny and enviable. And talk about perks! Well after reading I pretty much changed my mind.

Harper is in her late 20s and her life is definitely not what she thought it would. She is followed by a string of failed jobs and has not had any serious relationships since her college boyfriend moved back home. So when she finds a job ad online for someone that is looking to be a boss babe and turn her life around, Harper thinks what the heck and applies. Less than 24 hours later, Harper’s life changes drastically. New job with a women’s empowerment influencer (that she’s never heard of) with nebulous description of her duties. Will she drink the kool aid and become just as enthusiastic as her new coworkers? Or will Harper remain true to herself?

I got definite cult vibes from this book but that might have been kind of the point. And I could totally empathize with Harper. She felt like everything was going wrong so when she found something that might be able to go right, she clung to it like a life raft and gave it her all. We’ve all had that feeling where we get so hyped about something that other things in our life get moved to the back burner for a bit.
Wasn’t a big fan of the ending. I wanted there to be more detail regarding the events leading to the end. There was so much description throughout the book that the ending felt slightly rushed to me.
I would definitely love to see a special edition of some chapters in the books from the perspectives of the other employees and former employees.