A review by shelbanuadh
Blyd and Pearce by Kim Fielding

4.0

I quite enjoyed this. I would say that the romance is more secondary, but I wouldn't count that as points against.

However, I do feel like the chemistry wasn't quite there. I was never really sold on Daveth's feelings for Jory being real or some sort of bewitching. He does say that Jory's singing was nothing special if you closed your eyes, yet Jory is lauded as an excellent singer in the city. And Daveth does wonder if it was some sort of spell, which I suppose we are just suppose to assume that the spell is true love, since at not point is it clarified that Jory doesn't have some kind of charmed item.

I also found the ending abrupt and not completely satisfied.

I mean, the prince is all, "Oh gee, thanks... too bad there is no one I can trust to help me and too bad I can't help you, other than to escape with nothing but the clothes on your back". And I'm fine with Jory and Daveth running off into the sunset, but I would have liked the whole assassination conspiracy to have a bit more resolution.

And one last thing that bothered me was the Finch.

She tells Daveth, "Not yet" and then she thrust the knife into her own heart. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of missed the point of it. If he left, he'd miss his chance to get answer from the guard, but if he stayed, the guard would kill the Finch. I could see if the Finch did it so that Daveth could get an answer from the guard, but he just kills the guard instead. But I figured maybe the Finch had some plan of her own? I kind of shrugged my shoulders and continued reading thinking that a light would be shone on the whole Finch thing later on.... but, nope.

So, yeah... that has niggled at my mind.