Monday, March 30, 2020

Review: Magic for Nothing (InCryptid #6) by Seanan McGuire

About the Book
Improbable, adjective:
1. Not very likely to happen; not probable.
2. Probably not a very good idea anyway.
3. See also “bad plan.”

As the youngest of the three Price children, Antimony is used to people not expecting much from her. She’s been happy playing roller derby and hanging out with her cousins, leaving the globe-trotting to her older siblings while she stays at home and tries to decide what she wants to do with her life. She always knew that one day, things would have to change. She didn’t think they’d change so fast.

Annie’s expectations keep getting shattered. She didn’t expect Verity to declare war on the Covenant of St. George on live television. She didn’t expect the Covenant to take her sister’s threat seriously. And she definitely didn’t expect to be packed off to London to infiltrate the Covenant from the inside…but as the only Price in her generation without a strong resemblance to the rest of the family, she’s the perfect choice to play spy. They need to know what’s coming. Their lives may depend on it.

But Annie has some secrets of her own, like the fact that she’s started setting things on fire when she touches them, and has no idea how to control it. Now she’s headed halfway around the world, into the den of the enemy, where blowing her cover could get her killed. She’s pretty sure things can’t get much worse.

Antimony Price is about to learn just how wrong it’s possible for one cryptozoologist to be.


My Thoughts

Not gonna lie, Antimony has never been my favorite Price sibling, so I wasn't really looking forward to a book from her POV. I actually started Magic for Nothing a few years ago and then set it aside about thirty percent into it because Annie was really getting on my nerves. But I thought I'd give it another chance because it's such a fun and interesting series. And I missed it. Plus, the newest book, number nine in the series, follows Sarah and I'm super curious what it's like inside the mind of a Cuckoo. But to get there, I need to read Annie's books first.

Did Annie still irritate me? Yep. But I just embraced the fact that she's got a prickly personality. That it's just a part of her character and I was able to really enjoy the story a whole lot more. And, I've gotta admit, somewhere along the way she really started to grow on me. By the end, I understood her a lot better and could see where she was coming from. Plus, she had a lot of personal growth.

There's some massive fallout from the stunt Verity pulled at the end of Chaos Choreography and Antimony has to clean up the mess her sister made. Because she doesn't look like the rest of the women in her family, Annie's tasked with infiltrating the Covenant of St. George to find out what they're planning for North America and her family. I'll just say that things get complicated real fast.

The stakes have never been higher. Annie's cover could be blown at any time. The tension was off the charts and I couldn't reach the end fast enough. This was another stellar work from Seanan McGuire. I'm anxious to get my hands on the next book.

NOTE: This book does contain some strong language. 

4.5 Stars

2 comments:

  1. Glad you got through this one this time around. And now you've got the next one to look forward to...which is always a good thing. Have a happy Tuesday! :D

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    1. Definitely! Hope you have a happy day, too, Lark! :D

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