Reviews

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

rebeccacider's review against another edition

Not my usual cup of tea, but this started out as a fairly witty and imaginative urban fantasy. But the slow pacing and low stakes really got to me; the book feels like the setup for a series instead of a fun story of its own. Also, the very. slow. reveal. of information our characters already know becomes wearing after the first act.

onceuponasarah's review against another edition

2.0

This was an okay book, but I had no desire to read the other books in the series. The characters felt flat and I did not like them much. Maybe it's because I'm comparing it too much to Brigg's Mercy Thompson series, but this just never went anywhere. It did have funny parts, I'll grant that it was witty and it had a distinct writing style. The one thing that cannot be forgiven is that I never understood the plot or the characters fully because it was never explained. There were no rules for the world, and no explanation of exactly what the main characters are. It got so frustrating, because the 'surprises' (about choosing a Gale woman for example) weren't surprises, they just made the story confusing and upsetting for me. I think this could have been a lot better with a development (or even exposition) of the world, so that I was interested in the story and not trying to figure out just who or what all these things were. Sorry for the rant. Others liked this, but I wouldn't recommend it.

cj13's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jsmithborne's review against another edition

4.0

I grabbed this at a clearance sale because I thought I remembered hearing that is was a YA book that Jaden might like. I'm SOOOOOO glad I read it before I passed it along to him!! It's a really fun, absorbing story, but there is a LOT of sex--it's fundamental to the way the family in the story manages their power. Jaden would have been VERY confused.

tecovb's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest

fallingaster's review against another edition

adventurous funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

sbbarnes's review against another edition

3.0

So, urban fantasy sure is a thing. It's not my thing, but it's a thing. Don't really know what to say here. This is an okay book. It's not terribly good, it's not bad either. It's eminently readable and goes by fast, but I can't say I care much about it. There are a lot of characters - so many that I had a hard time telling them apart for a while, especially the allegedly rare men. I really liked that the magic system wasn't clearly explained for so long and was only fed in chunks. It's really sex-oriented, though, which is an interesting choice but sort of makes it read like a pulpier novel than I think it was intended to be.

I hate to throw the terms out there because I honestly believe strongly in the literary merit of a lot of fanfiction but parts of this just read like bad fanfiction. For one, the incessant pop culture references - especially heavily fandom-oriented pop culture, like Torchwood and Stargate. For another, the fact that the two main female characters, Allie and Charlie, really didn't have much by way of character? Allie was just kind of a blank slate. I guess she was feisty? powerful? Charlie had weird hair and music. Graham also didn't exactly have many qualities, let alone redeemable ones. Using the "power attracts Gale girls" thing means that you're left with attraction rooted in not a whole lot of substance based in character. And as for the aunties, they read like a mix between a penthouse letter and a Terry Pratchett book, which, tbh, I am so down for actually.

iffer's review against another edition

2.0

This wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't recommend it. The book is not written tightly, to the point that I thought that I was missing parts of it, only to find out that the story and world-building weren't written clearly. In general, I'm not the type of reader to who likes info-dumps, and who enjoys being immersed into the action and setting right away. However, how the magic system works in this series is never really explained other than implications that power = sex, particularly with family who are genetically different enough to mitigate the worst effects of inbreeding :/ Bleh. Why are there so many fantasy series, especially UF and PNR that seem like excuses for repressed women to be able to read/use as a a springboard for sexual fantasies without reading books clearly classified and marketed as explicit romance/smut/erotica?

laphenix's review against another edition

4.0

Quirky and fun! The cover does it no justice! The characters are amazing, the plot is exciting, and the nerd references are great!

snazel's review against another edition

3.0

Okay, so, I really like Tanya Huff's writing style. I like her humour, her voice, and her insistence on a network of people conquering an evil, not just a single hero. However, I'm not a fan of magic systems that involve the exchange of bodily fluids.

So there's that.