Inkspot Fancy

This book is a mixed bag for me. Once I got into the story, I found I liked most of the characters, even though the main couple failed to fully engage me. I'm not usually a fan of main characters though, so that's a grain of salt sort of complaint.

The mythos it draws from is Egyptian tales, and there's an interesting focus on antiques and old powers which I really liked, but the whole light vs shadow thing is a little overdone for me, especially with as hard-line as this story takes it. The idea of weapons specifically attuned to light or shadow was really neat though, and it worked here in a way I usually only see in video games.

At times, the little details in the story itself was clever and interesting. At other times... well, let me just quote from the very first page.

"She knew they were on an island as they'd had to reach it by boat."

I guess it's a small thing, but it sort of threw me out and the book lost me for the first 20 or so pages. Does she mean she saw that the only way to get there was by boat? If so, then she didn't know it was an island because of the boat thing, she knew it was an island because she *saw* it was an island. If she meant she knew it was an island because they'd arrived by boat, well, there's more problems with that. It's awkward, imprecise language, and it crops up infrequently but more than I'd like.

Still, the bits I liked, I liked well enough to enjoy the book overall, and while I won't be running right out for book 2, if the opportunity to pick it up presents itself, I'll probably give it a go.