{"id":3087,"date":"2017-05-25T21:30:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T21:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2017-05-25T21:30:28","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T21:30:28","slug":"urban-fantasy-review-rivers-of-hell-by-marina-finlayson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2017\/05\/urban-fantasy-review-rivers-of-hell-by-marina-finlayson\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban fantasy review: ‘Rivers of Hell’ by Marina Finlayson"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the third of the Shadows of the Immortals<\/em> series, and it\u2019s another action-packed and dramatic installment. This one is, as you might suspect from the title, set in the underworld, as Lexi and friends try to remove the magical collars that restrict the powers of god Apollo and Lexi\u2019s cat-shifter friend, Syl. As always, there are plenty of twists and turns along the way, and Lexi and hot fireshaper Jake inch a little closer towards the inevitable romance.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m going to be honest. I\u2019ve never read a bad book by Finlayson yet, and this one doesn\u2019t break that winning streak. It\u2019s the usual well-written roller-coaster ride, lurching from one crisis to the next, yet always in a way that makes total sense within this world, and with that trade-mark Aussie humour – lovely! But\u2026<\/p>\n

It lacks many of the elements that made the previous two books amongst my favourite reads. Lexi\u2019s ability to communicate with animals, for instance, which produced some creative moments in the first two books, is very muted in the underworld (with one glorious exception). Then there are those delightful thought-conversations with cat-Syl, which so enchanted me. None of that here. And finally, that tantalising backstory about Lexi\u2019s mum – where is she? Why is everything different in her home town? I really, really, really wanted to know about that, and with Lexi stuck in the underworld, that didn\u2019t happen. All of this is perfectly understandable, but disappointing.<\/p>\n

So this was still a very enjoyable read, and highly recommended, but for my personal choice, I\u2019d have liked a touch less relentless action and a little more of the quirky charm. Four stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third of the Shadows of the Immortals series, and it\u2019s another action-packed and dramatic installment. This one is, as you might suspect from the title, set in the underworld, as Lexi and friends try to remove the magical collars that restrict the powers of god Apollo and Lexi\u2019s cat-shifter friend, Syl. As always, there are plenty of twists and turns along the way, and Lexi and hot fireshaper Jake inch a little closer towards the inevitable romance. Now, I\u2019m going to be honest. I\u2019ve never read a bad book by Finlayson yet, and this one doesn\u2019t break that winning streak. It\u2019s the usual well-written roller-coaster ride, lurching from one crisis to the next, yet always in a way that makes total sense within this world, and with that trade-mark Aussie humour – lovely! But\u2026 It lacks many of the elements that made the previous two books amongst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3089,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions\/3089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}