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A review by iam
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Super fun and fast-paced time loop adventure!
Content warnings include: death, violence, injury; Mentions of: abduction, torture, child abandonment, breakup.
This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed thee worldbuilding centered mostly around a city in which guilds and richt city-elders rule, combined with alternate reality shenanigans. The most prominent guilds for the books are the Hounds (police/investigators/security) and Cats (spies/assassins/burglars), though there are also Ravens (scholars/librarians/academics), Wolves (mercenaries) and Butterflies (entertainers).
Kembral, the protagonist, is a Hound, but as she just recently gave birth and is caring for her newborn, she is on leave. So when, on her first night out since the birth, things go sideways, she is not pleased...
The city is also called Prime, and there are several layers of "Echos" beneath it, mirror realities that get stranger and more magical the further down you go. As a Hound, Kembral specialises in Echo related investigtions, and is particularly skilled in that area. And of course, this is also how the time loop comes in...
Time loop isn't technically what is happening here, but it comes close enough, and I really enjoyed it. It's very fast paced so it's never repetetive, even though we see the same few hours (feels much faster than that) play out over and over again. The book also starts right in, getting into the thick of it much fast than I thought it would.
I also really enjoyed the characters. Kembral was a great protagonist, she's the workaholic sort who shoulders any responsibility and risk more than readily enough and doesn't accept anyone (but herself) getting harmed. She is upstanding and honest, and as such the complete opposite of Rika, her erstwhile friendly rival, a cunning and competent Cat who's path she crossed a lot professionally. But they had a recent falling out, the details of which the reader is not readily given at the start.
While these are the main ones, I also really enjoyed the side characters: Dona Marjorie, the hostess, Jayce, Kembral's best friend, Dona Vandelle and Dona Harkin, two politicans, Blair, a Raven, and Pearson, a colleague of Kembrals, as well as many more!
The mysteries are unveiled slowly, both of the character- and plot-relevant sort. I think this will be a lot of fun to rereading in a while, when knowing all the details of what things that happen in the first loop mean, when the book only reveals the details way later. I also have to admit that some details I found not all that easy to follow across each loop, and even in retrospect I am a bit confused how things worked. That did not impede my reading enjoyment though.
There is a sapphic romantic subplot that is both subtle and not. Not subtle because it's pretty obvious there is something going on, even when we have no idea how the characters are gonna get there in the beginning. But also subtle because it's not that overly romantic, partially maybe because Kembral is asexual. It was subtle representation, which I enjoyed a lot!
Overall great read, that works on its own but also clearly already plants some plot hooks for more books to come.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Content warnings include: death, violence, injury; Mentions of: abduction, torture, child abandonment, breakup.
This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed thee worldbuilding centered mostly around a city in which guilds and richt city-elders rule, combined with alternate reality shenanigans. The most prominent guilds for the books are the Hounds (police/investigators/security) and Cats (spies/assassins/burglars), though there are also Ravens (scholars/librarians/academics), Wolves (mercenaries) and Butterflies (entertainers).
Kembral, the protagonist, is a Hound, but as she just recently gave birth and is caring for her newborn, she is on leave. So when, on her first night out since the birth, things go sideways, she is not pleased...
The city is also called Prime, and there are several layers of "Echos" beneath it, mirror realities that get stranger and more magical the further down you go. As a Hound, Kembral specialises in Echo related investigtions, and is particularly skilled in that area. And of course, this is also how the time loop comes in...
Time loop isn't technically what is happening here, but it comes close enough, and I really enjoyed it. It's very fast paced so it's never repetetive, even though we see the same few hours (feels much faster than that) play out over and over again. The book also starts right in, getting into the thick of it much fast than I thought it would.
I also really enjoyed the characters. Kembral was a great protagonist, she's the workaholic sort who shoulders any responsibility and risk more than readily enough and doesn't accept anyone (but herself) getting harmed. She is upstanding and honest, and as such the complete opposite of Rika, her erstwhile friendly rival, a cunning and competent Cat who's path she crossed a lot professionally. But they had a recent falling out, the details of which the reader is not readily given at the start.
While these are the main ones, I also really enjoyed the side characters: Dona Marjorie, the hostess, Jayce, Kembral's best friend, Dona Vandelle and Dona Harkin, two politicans, Blair, a Raven, and Pearson, a colleague of Kembrals, as well as many more!
The mysteries are unveiled slowly, both of the character- and plot-relevant sort. I think this will be a lot of fun to rereading in a while, when knowing all the details of what things that happen in the first loop mean, when the book only reveals the details way later. I also have to admit that some details I found not all that easy to follow across each loop, and even in retrospect I am a bit confused how things worked. That did not impede my reading enjoyment though.
There is a sapphic romantic subplot that is both subtle and not. Not subtle because it's pretty obvious there is something going on, even when we have no idea how the characters are gonna get there in the beginning. But also subtle because it's not that overly romantic, partially maybe because Kembral is asexual. It was subtle representation, which I enjoyed a lot!
Overall great read, that works on its own but also clearly already plants some plot hooks for more books to come.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.