A review by siobhan27
Owl and the Japanese Circus by Kristi Charish
4.0
What makes a great adventure story? A great main character, and to have that character be a young woman made Owl and the Japanese Circus that much better for me. This book has it all, action, adventure, a strong female main character (with flaws) and a pinch of the paranormal. And by pinch I mean a lot but for me it didn't seem to be that much until I stopped and thought about it. But more on that later. Lets focus on Owl, our main character. She was an amazing heroine to read. She was fierce, and strong and extremely independent. But what I think I loved that most was that she was not perfect. She still needed help from her friends, she was horrible at dealing with her feelings for a certain character, and she made a lot of mistakes.
Owl's relationships in this book drive the plot forward more than the mystery and adventure. I honestly think I was more interested in the human factor than solving the mystery. I loved Owls friendship with Nadya. It was so complex with issue in trust and honesty rocking them back and forth at every turn. Nadya was such a great character to contradict Owl because Nadya was steady and trustworthy and had an incredible ability to hack into any computer, which came in very handy at times during this story. I also really liked Owls relationship or lack thereof with Rynn. Rynn is a soth of side note in this book. Most people wont like him because he really doesn't do much...yet. I can see this character having many books, so if the author writes more for Owl I hope that Rynn gets a bigger role because he brings out the best in Owl, and most of the time she doesn't even know its happening. I know many people didn't like Rynn since they were more interested in the adventure part of the story but I really liked him and his relationship with Owl. It was extremely slow moving but it made sense for her character and it was as realistic as it could have been written.
Ok, now onto the book itself and the story. This book is first and foremost an action adventure story, with Owl trying to find a lost artifact for a very powerful Casino owner. What I think I loved was that the author did not shy away from what this book will be compared to...Indiana Jones. There are so many similarities that you really cant avoid it. That is why most people are saying this is the Indiana Jane of Fiction. The author embraced her predecessor and brought in great anecdotes from the movies that just made this book so much more hilarious to read. Earlier I said that this book read like a light paranormal book, and that is because this book read like a straight adventure book. I never felt overwhelmed with creatures or anything like that. I just felt like this was the way the world was, and it felt no different to me than a contemporary read. The author did an amazing job making it seem like Vampires and Dragons were normal, and that creatures that take possession of someone else s skin was normal. This is what made this book so fantastic. I will admit there were some instances in the middle where the story became a bit dry and I wanted more action to happen, but overall this book was a pleasure to read from start to finish. I will definitely read more from this author in the future, and I hope that she writes more about Owl because shes bad ass and deserves more adventures!
Owl's relationships in this book drive the plot forward more than the mystery and adventure. I honestly think I was more interested in the human factor than solving the mystery. I loved Owls friendship with Nadya. It was so complex with issue in trust and honesty rocking them back and forth at every turn. Nadya was such a great character to contradict Owl because Nadya was steady and trustworthy and had an incredible ability to hack into any computer, which came in very handy at times during this story. I also really liked Owls relationship or lack thereof with Rynn. Rynn is a soth of side note in this book. Most people wont like him because he really doesn't do much...yet. I can see this character having many books, so if the author writes more for Owl I hope that Rynn gets a bigger role because he brings out the best in Owl, and most of the time she doesn't even know its happening. I know many people didn't like Rynn since they were more interested in the adventure part of the story but I really liked him and his relationship with Owl. It was extremely slow moving but it made sense for her character and it was as realistic as it could have been written.
Ok, now onto the book itself and the story. This book is first and foremost an action adventure story, with Owl trying to find a lost artifact for a very powerful Casino owner. What I think I loved was that the author did not shy away from what this book will be compared to...Indiana Jones. There are so many similarities that you really cant avoid it. That is why most people are saying this is the Indiana Jane of Fiction. The author embraced her predecessor and brought in great anecdotes from the movies that just made this book so much more hilarious to read. Earlier I said that this book read like a light paranormal book, and that is because this book read like a straight adventure book. I never felt overwhelmed with creatures or anything like that. I just felt like this was the way the world was, and it felt no different to me than a contemporary read. The author did an amazing job making it seem like Vampires and Dragons were normal, and that creatures that take possession of someone else s skin was normal. This is what made this book so fantastic. I will admit there were some instances in the middle where the story became a bit dry and I wanted more action to happen, but overall this book was a pleasure to read from start to finish. I will definitely read more from this author in the future, and I hope that she writes more about Owl because shes bad ass and deserves more adventures!