The Shadow Revolution By Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith

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Genre: Urban Fantasy, Steampunk

Pages: 320

Point of View: Third (Simon, Kate, Gretta, Malcolm)

Released: June 2nd 2015

Series: Crown & Key 1

Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: Netgalley

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

My Summary:

A werewolf is loose in London and Simon, a magician and playboy, is after it for personal reasons.

Kate, the daughter of a rich adventurer, intends to discover what’s been done to her sister.

My Review:

This book took me longer than I expected since I couldn’t read it at night. (Nightmares) It’s rather violent, gruesome, and has scary monsters. (Although I am a wuss.)

At the beginning some of the lines were so over the top I couldn’t tell if the authors were serious, (Grins that blazed in the darkness, and striking cavalier poses) but the writing quickly improved.

Simon’s a party boy, and a womanizer, and at first I couldn’t stand him, but over the course of the book he grew on me.

Malcolm said it best:

“Once I thought little of you, but I was wrong. You are an honorable man, and while there are times I would as soon throw you through that window, I’d stand with you if you need me.”

Kate’s fiery and strong, and exactly my kind of heroine. I wasn’t sure about her judgment, being attracted to Simon and all, but she proves herself to be a smart woman. My favorite character was Simon’s best friend Nick. He’s a slob who would rather use magic to change his appearance than dress up and he always calls Simon on his failings. I wish he had a point of view too! He’s a much needed bit of comic relief. Malcolm the solemn werewolf hunter and Penny the spunky mechanic were also nice additions.

Simon’s potentially the last scribe, and uses runes to invoke magic. Nick’s a jack of all trades when it comes to magic and is Simon’s teacher. Kate practices alchemy, but despite her father’s vast travels, she’s never encountered magic before. If you ask me, magic needs limits. Those limits were unique here, as Simon acts drunk when he’s used too much magic!

There wasn’t much mystery, but I didn’t have a clue what the villains were up to. (And still mostly don’t) I prefer a little more story with my action, but the action well done so I can’t complain.

All three books of this trilogy come out in the month of June!

I probably should’ve rated this higher, but the gruesomeness was a bit much for me. I always feel guilty rating a good book lower for personal reasons. Do you rate based on your personal opinion?