ksbrennan's review against another edition
4.0
"You're going to fall in love today, she'd said when they first met, but how could he love the end of the world, the bringer of so much destruction."
I don't often prefer sequels to the original, but Blue Magic proved the exception, and blew Indigo Springs out of the water. A.M. Dellamonica really brings these characters to life - every person, no matter how peripheral they are to the story, feels like they have their own motivation and story. Even the ones I don't like, I can understand. The new characters introduced this book were great, Juanita in particular, and returning characters were given more depth, with Mark and Ev standing out. It also feels like a really mature look at how complicated adult relationships can be, the baggage we bring in to them, and how each of our choices changes them in unexpected ways.
Blue Magic also did a great job with the tension building, and Dellamonica writes some really great action scenes. I found Indigo Springs dragged a bit, and the storytelling structure removed some of the sense of urgency, but Blue Magic is exciting all the way through, and has a great momentum that makes it hard to put down.
I would definitely recommend this book.
I don't often prefer sequels to the original, but Blue Magic proved the exception, and blew Indigo Springs out of the water. A.M. Dellamonica really brings these characters to life - every person, no matter how peripheral they are to the story, feels like they have their own motivation and story. Even the ones I don't like, I can understand. The new characters introduced this book were great, Juanita in particular, and returning characters were given more depth, with Mark and Ev standing out. It also feels like a really mature look at how complicated adult relationships can be, the baggage we bring in to them, and how each of our choices changes them in unexpected ways.
Blue Magic also did a great job with the tension building, and Dellamonica writes some really great action scenes. I found Indigo Springs dragged a bit, and the storytelling structure removed some of the sense of urgency, but Blue Magic is exciting all the way through, and has a great momentum that makes it hard to put down.
I would definitely recommend this book.
adancewithbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I’m sad to say that the sequel to Indigo Springs, and the second book in the Astrid Lethewood duology, was a bit of a disappointment to me. I was looking forward to immerging myself back into this world and to see how Astrid’s story would unfold. But the spark that was in the first book, was completely lost to me.
The book felt incredibly messy. I’m not sure what my expectations was about Astrid reshaping the world, but this certainly wasn’t it. The operation she had, carried so many characters it was confusing to follow. I could not keep track of all those minor characters, and they did not stand out all that much in personalities.
I still like the magic system in this series. However this book showed one negative to me. It is almost as if everything can be done with it. I don’t think there are enough limitations for Astrid. I was looking forward to getting to know more about the witch hunters, but I was a bit let down in that regard. Honestly, I could have done with one of the point of views being from a witch hunter. There was also apparently a prophecy that was thrown in halfway through, but it got such little attention that I wondered what the point of adding it really was.
One of the things that was different from Indigo Springs was the point of view. Now after finishing the first book I knew they couldn’t tell the second book the same way. So instead of the Will I pov interview setting with Astrid’s flashbacks, we got four points of view. Will, Astrid, Ev and a new character Juanita. I enjoyed getting Ev’s point of view. I wasn’t expecting it, but I think it was a nice addition. Was it completely necessary for the plot? Probably not, but it brought other things to the story. One of these things was transgender. This part of Ev was already present in the first book, but never mentioned as such. I don’t think I’m the right person to judge if it was done well, but I was glad to see it in here.
Getting Astrid this way was different from the first book and I had a hard time connecting with her in this book. Will remained a solid character throughout. He had his highs and lows. Juanita was not a character I was very drawn to however. I wasn’t sure about what her role was to be until they mentioned one thing from a prophecy and I knew that she was going to be it.
The romance! The romance sucked!
The book felt incredibly messy. I’m not sure what my expectations was about Astrid reshaping the world, but this certainly wasn’t it. The operation she had, carried so many characters it was confusing to follow. I could not keep track of all those minor characters, and they did not stand out all that much in personalities.
I still like the magic system in this series. However this book showed one negative to me. It is almost as if everything can be done with it. I don’t think there are enough limitations for Astrid. I was looking forward to getting to know more about the witch hunters, but I was a bit let down in that regard. Honestly, I could have done with one of the point of views being from a witch hunter. There was also apparently a prophecy that was thrown in halfway through, but it got such little attention that I wondered what the point of adding it really was.
One of the things that was different from Indigo Springs was the point of view. Now after finishing the first book I knew they couldn’t tell the second book the same way. So instead of the Will I pov interview setting with Astrid’s flashbacks, we got four points of view. Will, Astrid, Ev and a new character Juanita. I enjoyed getting Ev’s point of view. I wasn’t expecting it, but I think it was a nice addition. Was it completely necessary for the plot? Probably not, but it brought other things to the story. One of these things was transgender. This part of Ev was already present in the first book, but never mentioned as such. I don’t think I’m the right person to judge if it was done well, but I was glad to see it in here.
Getting Astrid this way was different from the first book and I had a hard time connecting with her in this book. Will remained a solid character throughout. He had his highs and lows. Juanita was not a character I was very drawn to however. I wasn’t sure about what her role was to be until they mentioned one thing from a prophecy and I knew that she was going to be it.
The romance! The romance sucked!
Spoiler
I will not hide that I am an avid Astrid x Jacks supporter. But no, Jacks is pretty much nonexistent in this book. Instead Astrid gets glimpses of the future where she was involved with Will. And so now she goes for Will based on that. Excuse me? This felt so incredibly forced I could not be on board with it for even a moment. Will had the right response initially to that, but then went on board with it rather quickly. I didn’t feel enough of a connection between the two in this book for that. If the author had continued to weave from the basis that was present at Indigo Spring, this might have worked, but not this way.bibliotropic's review against another edition
4.0
The sequel to A M Dellamonica’s Indigo Springs, Blue Magic picks up right where the previous novel left off, with almost no gap in time between one book to the next. Magic is still loose in the world, Sahara is still head of a goddess cult that worships her, Astrid is trying to hold onto reality enough to make things right, and Will has found his world turned upside down by the implications of all that’s happening.
Add to that the fact that people transformed and held within the previously frozen vitagua want to carve their own place in the world, and to get vengeance for past wrongs committed against them, and things get a touch chaotic.
As a counter to Sahara’s cult, Astrid has a group of people flocking to her, all of them bent on changing the world with magic in order to make things better for people. Not just creating little chantments like they did in the beginning, but using the transformative power of magic to reshape things to everyone’s benefit. Or at least as much benefit as possible. The release of vitagua, controlled and otherwise, is reshaping the world anyway, strange life springing up, giving people more animalistic qualities in accordance with their nature.
Interestingly, this also seems to apply with gender dysphoria, giving one character the body of a man. This gives the author a wonderful chance to explore gender politics and give social commentary, which she does very well. Characters of colour, transgendered characters, different expressions of sexuality, this book has a great deal of diversity in its cast, making it stand head and shoulders above the vast majority of urban fantasy.
This book has the world in chaos, with characters spread far and wide but mostly flowing around a small central cast of characters, to keep things as contained as possible. The chaos is definitely felt in the text, with stories flowing around each other, connecting and separating, and at times it can be hard to keep track of what’s happening where and when. Not to the point that the story becomes unintelligible, but it’s something to keep in mind; this isn’t the sort of book you can read with your mind half on something else.
Dellamonica’s writing is engaging and flows well, and her endless fount of creativity may as well be vitagua in itself, transformative and magical. The story is much more linear here than in Indigo Springs, and the plot darker and more serious. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first book, but I can’t deny that it was still an amazing book, and still very enjoyable anyway. This is an amazing urban fantasy that shouldn’t be missed by fans of the genre, or fans of intelligent genre fiction in general.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
Add to that the fact that people transformed and held within the previously frozen vitagua want to carve their own place in the world, and to get vengeance for past wrongs committed against them, and things get a touch chaotic.
As a counter to Sahara’s cult, Astrid has a group of people flocking to her, all of them bent on changing the world with magic in order to make things better for people. Not just creating little chantments like they did in the beginning, but using the transformative power of magic to reshape things to everyone’s benefit. Or at least as much benefit as possible. The release of vitagua, controlled and otherwise, is reshaping the world anyway, strange life springing up, giving people more animalistic qualities in accordance with their nature.
Interestingly, this also seems to apply with gender dysphoria, giving one character the body of a man. This gives the author a wonderful chance to explore gender politics and give social commentary, which she does very well. Characters of colour, transgendered characters, different expressions of sexuality, this book has a great deal of diversity in its cast, making it stand head and shoulders above the vast majority of urban fantasy.
This book has the world in chaos, with characters spread far and wide but mostly flowing around a small central cast of characters, to keep things as contained as possible. The chaos is definitely felt in the text, with stories flowing around each other, connecting and separating, and at times it can be hard to keep track of what’s happening where and when. Not to the point that the story becomes unintelligible, but it’s something to keep in mind; this isn’t the sort of book you can read with your mind half on something else.
Dellamonica’s writing is engaging and flows well, and her endless fount of creativity may as well be vitagua in itself, transformative and magical. The story is much more linear here than in Indigo Springs, and the plot darker and more serious. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first book, but I can’t deny that it was still an amazing book, and still very enjoyable anyway. This is an amazing urban fantasy that shouldn’t be missed by fans of the genre, or fans of intelligent genre fiction in general.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
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