Harley Merlin 12: Finch Merlin and the Djinn’s Curse

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Of all the characters in the Harley Merlin series, Finch has arguably the most interesting character arc, so it’s fun to see him get a series of his own. About half the chapters are told from Garrett’s point of view, and we are introduced to a new character—Saskia, Tatyana’s annoying teenage sister, who has a good arc of her own in this book. You will also interact more with Tatyana, the resident ghost-whisperer at the Coven. Tatyana doesn’t mind making sacrifices for others, but she has secrets she is keen to protect. There are also other members of Harley’s group who work alongside her in her adventures. Will Harley and her friends manage to round up the young magicals coming through the foster system? Read this intriguing book for answers to these and more.

This book comes with additional politics and different POVs, which makes it even more enjoyable. Things also get a bit darker, and Harley has to step up for all the people looking up to her. It is fun interacting with all the characters in the first book and meeting new ones. You will get angry at the incompetence of those supposed to protect the kids from the Ryder twins while appreciating Harley for all her efforts. It is also refreshing to see that Garret and Wage are starting to resolve their past issues. Hopefully, these two will be able to work together in the future. Well I did like the premise of this story, but I had a few peeves with the characters that kept this from being a 4 star read.

It is alluded in the book that every tower resident has a net (digital implant) that is scanned to confirm their identity. Anybody that doesn't have one would cause alarms to go off. In book two it is confirmed that the nets are implanted when they are 15 years old. I experienced this book both in Kindle and audiobook format. The narrator is Amanda Ronconi, who does an excellent job acting out the dialogue for all the various characters, portraying with equal skill male and female voices and various national accents.

I saw the plot twist the moment the revelation occurred (it was dark & I hated it! & not the guilty pleasure, secretly-loving sort of thing! downright hate that I was wondering about lowering my rate, but in general I liked the book, so... let's be fair) I did like this book. It’s a solid 3 1/2 stars for me, but I’m going to explain why I didn’t make it a 4 or 5 stars. As I suspected, this probably could have been merged with the last one with some cuts. Both books are centered around the coming nuptials of Kaya, (whose name I forgot halfway through reading--which is very rare for me) a character who wasn't properly introduced until book 14 and first appeared in book 13. Kaya is also a POV character. It's not that great. I don't think it really added much to her character. Kaya doesn't have Katherine's odd charm, that made it fun to be in her head while also making me enjoy her eventual fall. Part of that is probably because Katherine is supposed to be pure evil, while Kaya is supposed to be more sympathetic. But, I didn't feel that much, not even while discussing her father's imminent death or finding out her lover has a cosmic wife. She just seems to be there for a few things Finch can't witness himself. Also, her father, Ovid, is one of the worst characters in the series.This book doesn’t have anything to do with the next Harry Potter, as it is advertised, but definitely “borrows” one too many concepts and ideas from Harry Potter and is incredibly predictable. When a rogue 19-year-old witch is recruited to help guard an ancient magical Bestiary, a breath-stealing journey begins... The main character being someone/something special even in the magical world (not explained in this book yet but I read that this will be revealed in the next installment) The story is replaying a formula and the writing is going downhill with every novel. I’m incredibly disappointed in the way this played out, using plot devices and tropes to move the story forward in the most obvious ways possible. As others have pointed out, the Wade-Harley love story is forced and with little emotional ties for either character being built, I just don’t care. Sometimes the writer would preempt something that the book might be critiqued upon, case in point -

The whole administrative system and hierarchy inside the coven seems haywire and it's obvious that the writer did not put a lot of thought into it. As I said, lazy writing. Third, there are two - TWO - Convenient Eavesdrops, and even though neither one is completely essential to the plot, I still despise this plot device with a mighty hatred. It's weak writing, a convenient way to get around point-of-view limitations. Firstly, because of the writing. Most of the time, I enjoyed it. I quite like the way Bella Forrest writes, but at some points... Well, it came across as immature and a little silly. I think if I’d read this book a few years ago I would have liked it more, but now...

Publication Order of The Secret of Spellshadow Manor Books

Alex had explained that the number was a representation of the concentration of positive versus negative thoughts in your brain. The net couldn’t exactly read direct thoughts but it read the feelings associated with them and, through some sort of complex algorithm, could perform an ongoing risk assessment on the citizen in question, to determine the likelihood of dissidents. The thing was, I didn’t consider myself dissident. (c) Nineteen-year-old Harley Merlin can sense people's emotions, among other things. It's how she snagged her first job pinpointing cheaters at a casino. But she has no clue where she got these freakish powers because she spent her childhood jumping from home to home in the foster system, and her father left her with nothing more than a cryptic note. Though she keeps most of her private life a secret, Forrest will use individuals she has encountered and significant events in her life to influence character developments and themes in each of her novels. Bella Forrest considers her biggest strength her overzealous imagination that has allowed her to concoct the magical realms that have captivated audiences. On the other hand, Forrest claims her biggest weakness, and the hardest part about writing a book, is organizing her thoughts and deciding which ideas she must discard after initially writing them down. Forrest uses encouragement from her family and her fans to keep pursuing her writing career. I heard it was something like HP but with a heroine, I didn't expect anything from it (High expectation is poison & it was YA), but I was curious anyway (one of my reasons to add it, even if not initially) or a modern "Merlin" retelling sort of way, & it was more like The Magicians (still haven't read it fully) or a witch tale (well, hello??? coven?) (even had a Shadowhunter vibes) rather than the "Potter"-esque feeling. the only similarities to HP was that there was magic school-setting & it's hardly a similarity, many books have magic school-setting & many protagonists have no parents.. though knowing this, I could see other little similarities in minor details, but if I hadn't known, I wouldn't have thought it was inspired from HP.

So like I said interesting premise, but it was kinda just another ‘speshul girl’ storyline where Harley is not only Elemental ( can control all of the elements) but telekinetic as well as an empathetic. So yeah really rare. But oh no, her power isn’t what everyone hoped, and she’s considered a "Mediocre." This is apparently a really bad thing in the magic world and everyone is disappointed in her. Oh darn she's not special! And even if the director weren’t standing in her way, the steps involved in ridding herself if the leaky Suppressor are many and dangerous. Meanwhile, Katherine’s minions keep striking, making life even more difficult!

Was this really all there was to life? Rules, and grappling with your own brain out of the terror of ever, even for a moment, thinking something bad? (c) rather than the author’s writing style, the plot or the characters that tanked this for me. Let me explain. Role in the First Arc (Books 1-9) [ ] Book 1 (Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven) [ ] Before Meeting Wade [ ]