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ashkitty93's review
4.0
3.5 stars, rounded up because I'm nice like that.
I really had a good time with this book -- Owl knows her shit but she's not perfect by any means, in fact a lot of things that happen in the book are because she screwed something or other up. She deals with supernatural creatures ranging from dragons to nagas to vampires to nymphs, all while trying to figure out an ancient puzzle (and some intense gaming on the side when she hits a roadblock). She has a sassy cat and even sassier best friend, and a love interest I was actually on board with (score one for urban fantasies). Some of the misdirection may have been a tad predictable, but I enjoyed the hell out of this book.
The one thing I didn't like was the (sometimes copious) amount of spelling and grammatical errors. They seemed to pick up somewhere around the halfway point or so, and ranged from a letter missing to a completely different word in place of the word that should have been used -- I would cite examples but it's 10:30 at night and I'm tired and lazy and don't want to nitpick about stupid little things that got on my nerves.
Regardless of the mistakes (which really ought to be chalked up to an editor who was asleep on the job), I'm definitely looking forward to picking up the second book!
I really had a good time with this book -- Owl knows her shit but she's not perfect by any means, in fact a lot of things that happen in the book are because she screwed something or other up. She deals with supernatural creatures ranging from dragons to nagas to vampires to nymphs, all while trying to figure out an ancient puzzle (and some intense gaming on the side when she hits a roadblock). She has a sassy cat and even sassier best friend, and a love interest I was actually on board with (score one for urban fantasies). Some of the misdirection may have been a tad predictable, but I enjoyed the hell out of this book.
The one thing I didn't like was the (sometimes copious) amount of spelling and grammatical errors. They seemed to pick up somewhere around the halfway point or so, and ranged from a letter missing to a completely different word in place of the word that should have been used -- I would cite examples but it's 10:30 at night and I'm tired and lazy and don't want to nitpick about stupid little things that got on my nerves.
Regardless of the mistakes (which really ought to be chalked up to an editor who was asleep on the job), I'm definitely looking forward to picking up the second book!
joyousreads132's review
4.0
No digs for you!
Once upon a time, Owl had a promising career in archaeology. But an ethical decision to blow the whistle on her superiors left her blacklisted among her peers and colleagues. In an ironic twist of fate, the current state of her career is suspect, to say the least. She’s a hired thief, with supernatural beings for employers on a quest to find artifacts that bear importance to their kinds.
Fire-breathers, Blood-suckers, Venom-spitters.
Her recent assignment brings her face-to-face with the most dangerous creatures known to the supernatural world: dragons, vampires, and nagas. She needs to find a scroll bearing a magic spell that if translated and read properly, has the potential catastrophic destruction of an atomic bomb. Time is of the essence as a powerful vampire with a personal grudge against Owl is also on a quest for the same dangerous artifact. One obstacle after another, Owl, along with her friends will travel to Bali, and Vegas, and California in search of this scroll. That is, if those after her life doesn’t get to her first.
Indiana Jane.
Owl tackled every legends and myths accompanying every artifact in learned expertise. I didn’t think it would be my thing, but her voice as a smart-ass, fearless treasure hunter helped. Think, Indiana Jones with very little sense of self-preservation. This girl didn’t know the meaning of ‘surrender’, and one who persistently ignore the social etiquettes when in the company of supernatural beings. She’s as stubborn as they come; one who induces a great need to wring someone’s neck…preferably hers.
Got Your Cheetos and Slurpee ready?
If you’re a RPG aficionado, you will find a kindred spirit with our girl. She plays a game throughout the book that, if you’re not careful, has a tendency to be confusing. I know I had my moments. In some instances, I found myself reading with glazed eyes. I could’ve gone without it, to be honest. But I understand that it’s all a part of her characterization.
Low and Slow.
If you like romance, this one has a burgeoning one between Rynn, a mysterious bar tender who was a former mercenary, and Owl. A romance that will probably not reach fruition until…whenever the heck the author deems it timely. I have no problem with this. I was told that Urban Fantasy books tend to drag it out until the bitter end, so I’m expecting this.
Nice to Meet You!
So this is a fantastic beginning. Owl’s complete lack of respect for authority is what makes her commendable and frustrating in equal measure. But this is what makes this series all that much fun to read. She’ll take you to places you could only dare to dream of going and teach you a thing or two about myths and legends you won’t normally find in books.
Once upon a time, Owl had a promising career in archaeology. But an ethical decision to blow the whistle on her superiors left her blacklisted among her peers and colleagues. In an ironic twist of fate, the current state of her career is suspect, to say the least. She’s a hired thief, with supernatural beings for employers on a quest to find artifacts that bear importance to their kinds.
Fire-breathers, Blood-suckers, Venom-spitters.
Her recent assignment brings her face-to-face with the most dangerous creatures known to the supernatural world: dragons, vampires, and nagas. She needs to find a scroll bearing a magic spell that if translated and read properly, has the potential catastrophic destruction of an atomic bomb. Time is of the essence as a powerful vampire with a personal grudge against Owl is also on a quest for the same dangerous artifact. One obstacle after another, Owl, along with her friends will travel to Bali, and Vegas, and California in search of this scroll. That is, if those after her life doesn’t get to her first.
Indiana Jane.
Owl tackled every legends and myths accompanying every artifact in learned expertise. I didn’t think it would be my thing, but her voice as a smart-ass, fearless treasure hunter helped. Think, Indiana Jones with very little sense of self-preservation. This girl didn’t know the meaning of ‘surrender’, and one who persistently ignore the social etiquettes when in the company of supernatural beings. She’s as stubborn as they come; one who induces a great need to wring someone’s neck…preferably hers.
Got Your Cheetos and Slurpee ready?
If you’re a RPG aficionado, you will find a kindred spirit with our girl. She plays a game throughout the book that, if you’re not careful, has a tendency to be confusing. I know I had my moments. In some instances, I found myself reading with glazed eyes. I could’ve gone without it, to be honest. But I understand that it’s all a part of her characterization.
Low and Slow.
If you like romance, this one has a burgeoning one between Rynn, a mysterious bar tender who was a former mercenary, and Owl. A romance that will probably not reach fruition until…whenever the heck the author deems it timely. I have no problem with this. I was told that Urban Fantasy books tend to drag it out until the bitter end, so I’m expecting this.
Nice to Meet You!
So this is a fantastic beginning. Owl’s complete lack of respect for authority is what makes her commendable and frustrating in equal measure. But this is what makes this series all that much fun to read. She’ll take you to places you could only dare to dream of going and teach you a thing or two about myths and legends you won’t normally find in books.
buoymehome's review
4.0
Une bonne lecture de weekend. De l'urban fantasy qui casse pas la baraque mais qui change un peu de mes lecture UF de ces dernières temps. Avec des vampires, mais aussi des dragons, des nagas et des nymphes. et une ancienne archéologue turned voleuse de haut vol, qui ne sait pas comment vivre sans foncer droit dans les pièges tendus.
veronica87's review
2.0
This started out okay but somewhere around the 50% mark I just started losing interest. I didn't much care about the protagonist, Owl (stupid name), a disgraced former archeology student or any of the side characters. The side characters especially felt like half-baked ideas put to paper. Supernatural species exist but most people don't know about them...and yet it never seems to shock anyone to learn that they do. And what the international archeology association has to do with any of it is nebulous at best. There was a little romance thrown in but that felt pretty lackluster to me too. Overall, there wasn't anything here to induce me to read more books in the series.
gasoline_allie's review
4.0
Although I though the beginning suffered from a lack of character development, it had more than redeemed itself by the end. Owl is creative, distinctive, and entertaining, and Owl herself is a great character.
lolasreviews's review
3.0
Owl and the Japanese Circus is one of those books that sound really good, but for me it fell flat. There where things I liked about this book, but enough issues that I just barely can give it a 3 star rating. I really wanted to like this book, but so many things rubbed me wrong, that in the end it was frustrating and not as much fun as expected. What I did like about this book: the setting and focus on archaeological sites, it was original and I liked how the focus was on old artifacts, excavation sites and translating old scrolls. I have never read an urban fantasy book with that focus before and it worked for me. The other thing that I liked was Owl's cat Captain, he is without a doubt my favourite character of this book and I wish he had been the main character instead of Owl. Then there's the fact the main character plays an MMORPG (a multiplayer game online) and other modern touches like that and it gave a fun addition to this urban fantasy with very modern technologies and issues.
The story is filled with action and I would almost say fast paced, but it felt slow and dragging. It's really weird and I can't explain it properly, but while there was always something going on and the storyline progressed, it still felt slow. Also at the beginning Owl is tasked to find a scroll, but she goes off to a translation that has some far-fetched connection with it, that i didn't completely get. And there more of these instances where the story direction stalled a bit or took a bit of an weird turn. And there is an animal torture scene that made me really uncomfortable, wish there had been a trigger warning for that so I could skip it. I already hate torture scenes, but animal torture is something I really can't stomach.
Then there's the main character Owl, while there where things I liked about her, in general I couldn't stand Owl. A main character can really make or break a book sometimes and in this case Owl certainly broke this book for me. I don't think I ever met such a reckless character that completely lacks common sense. I couldn't stand Owl and she made so many dump decisions without thinking I was wondering if she even had a brain at time. There where a few things I did like about her, namely that she was a normal human. In many fantasy books the main character is special or has special powers, but Owl was an ordinary human and she knew how to run away instead of fight. Although if she learned how to shut her mouth sometimes and not try and talk every supernatural she met into a fight, she might not need the running as often. Due to her lack of powers the fight scenes where often a bit lame, involving uv lights and garlic water pistols and her cat.
The side characters are a bit better then the main character, but that says more about Owl than the side characters. In fact the only character I really liked was Captain the cat, can we talk about how awesome he is. He's smart, can learn and he can fight vampires. He smells when vampires are near and his fangs and claws are poisonous to vampires. Beside Captain and Owl we have a cast of side characters, but I never really cared about them. Rynn and Nadya could be interesting at times, but I felt like they where more the safety net for Owl then characters in their own right. They made sure Owl didn't made a colossal mess of everything and they treated her like a small child sometimes, but I can't say she didn't deserve that. Actually I have no idea why they are friends with Owl, but they where good friends to her. There are more side characters, but they don't play as big of a role and in all cases I didn't really care about them. Lady Siyu was kinda nice and I liked how she hated phone conversations and liked to get to the point of a conversation as soon as possible, I could relate to her.
There is some romance in this book and while it does play a role it doesn't take over the plot. However I didn't feel the romance at all, there was no spark no chemistry and no understanding why these characters even liked each other. I can sort of see why Owl likes Rynn as he keeps saving her, but that isn't enough to build a relationship on. I just didn't work for me and I didn't see what Rynn saw in Owl. And then they have this long standing joke where he calls her "train wreck" and she calls him "whore", it just wasn't funny.
I don't even know what to say about the world building except for the fact that it is one big mess. It's like the author took all the myths and supernatural creatures in the world and tried to cram them into one book. I think we meet about 10 till 20 different supernaturals in this book alone and there are hints that almost everything exists, but ofcourse the hum,an are oblivious even though they don't really take care to hide their existence and vampires have pheromones that should get everything lose to them high, so I don't even know how they can walk somewhere without attracting unwanted attention. It just didn't make sense and because there are so many different creatures we don't learn anything about them. Then Owl has a list of stereotypes for them all which colours her judgement and we basically don't know anything beside the most obvious facts. The most we learn about one is the vampires and that's only because Owl has been running from them and runs regulary in them in this book as well.
To conclude: this book has a great premise, but the story doesn't live up to it. I had so many issues with this book, although I did like a few things as well. The setting and focus on ancient artifacts was original and Owl's cat Captain was an awesome character. The story seemed to drag even though there always was something going on and failed to keep my attention. I couldn't stand the main character Owl,s he was really reckless, lacked common sense and ran head first into trouble without thinking things through. I didn't feel the romance and beside Captain I didn't care about the characters. The world building was a mess with lots of different supernaturals and not enough explanation or depth to any of them.
The story is filled with action and I would almost say fast paced, but it felt slow and dragging. It's really weird and I can't explain it properly, but while there was always something going on and the storyline progressed, it still felt slow. Also at the beginning Owl is tasked to find a scroll, but she goes off to a translation that has some far-fetched connection with it, that i didn't completely get. And there more of these instances where the story direction stalled a bit or took a bit of an weird turn. And there is an animal torture scene that made me really uncomfortable, wish there had been a trigger warning for that so I could skip it. I already hate torture scenes, but animal torture is something I really can't stomach.
Then there's the main character Owl, while there where things I liked about her, in general I couldn't stand Owl. A main character can really make or break a book sometimes and in this case Owl certainly broke this book for me. I don't think I ever met such a reckless character that completely lacks common sense. I couldn't stand Owl and she made so many dump decisions without thinking I was wondering if she even had a brain at time. There where a few things I did like about her, namely that she was a normal human. In many fantasy books the main character is special or has special powers, but Owl was an ordinary human and she knew how to run away instead of fight. Although if she learned how to shut her mouth sometimes and not try and talk every supernatural she met into a fight, she might not need the running as often. Due to her lack of powers the fight scenes where often a bit lame, involving uv lights and garlic water pistols and her cat.
The side characters are a bit better then the main character, but that says more about Owl than the side characters. In fact the only character I really liked was Captain the cat, can we talk about how awesome he is. He's smart, can learn and he can fight vampires. He smells when vampires are near and his fangs and claws are poisonous to vampires. Beside Captain and Owl we have a cast of side characters, but I never really cared about them. Rynn and Nadya could be interesting at times, but I felt like they where more the safety net for Owl then characters in their own right. They made sure Owl didn't made a colossal mess of everything and they treated her like a small child sometimes, but I can't say she didn't deserve that. Actually I have no idea why they are friends with Owl, but they where good friends to her. There are more side characters, but they don't play as big of a role and in all cases I didn't really care about them. Lady Siyu was kinda nice and I liked how she hated phone conversations and liked to get to the point of a conversation as soon as possible, I could relate to her.
There is some romance in this book and while it does play a role it doesn't take over the plot. However I didn't feel the romance at all, there was no spark no chemistry and no understanding why these characters even liked each other. I can sort of see why Owl likes Rynn as he keeps saving her, but that isn't enough to build a relationship on. I just didn't work for me and I didn't see what Rynn saw in Owl. And then they have this long standing joke where he calls her "train wreck" and she calls him "whore", it just wasn't funny.
I don't even know what to say about the world building except for the fact that it is one big mess. It's like the author took all the myths and supernatural creatures in the world and tried to cram them into one book. I think we meet about 10 till 20 different supernaturals in this book alone and there are hints that almost everything exists, but ofcourse the hum,an are oblivious even though they don't really take care to hide their existence and vampires have pheromones that should get everything lose to them high, so I don't even know how they can walk somewhere without attracting unwanted attention. It just didn't make sense and because there are so many different creatures we don't learn anything about them. Then Owl has a list of stereotypes for them all which colours her judgement and we basically don't know anything beside the most obvious facts. The most we learn about one is the vampires and that's only because Owl has been running from them and runs regulary in them in this book as well.
To conclude: this book has a great premise, but the story doesn't live up to it. I had so many issues with this book, although I did like a few things as well. The setting and focus on ancient artifacts was original and Owl's cat Captain was an awesome character. The story seemed to drag even though there always was something going on and failed to keep my attention. I couldn't stand the main character Owl,s he was really reckless, lacked common sense and ran head first into trouble without thinking things through. I didn't feel the romance and beside Captain I didn't care about the characters. The world building was a mess with lots of different supernaturals and not enough explanation or depth to any of them.
sjj169's review
2.0
I just can't get into this book. Owl is a former archaeology student who was disgraced and wiped her past clean. She takes up stealing artifacts for whomever has the most money. She crosses some vampires and ends up on a vamp hit list.
She is offered protection from the vamps by a Dragon but he has an agenda of his own.
It sounds good, but I'm just done with it. Owl is just a bland character. The most exciting thing I've read about her is she has a cat that can sense vampires.
I hate dnf'ing books..but too many books are looking at me to spend the time on one that isn't getting it for me.
I'm giving it 2 stars because it wasn't horrible..just wasn't for me at this time.
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
She is offered protection from the vamps by a Dragon but he has an agenda of his own.
It sounds good, but I'm just done with it. Owl is just a bland character. The most exciting thing I've read about her is she has a cat that can sense vampires.
I hate dnf'ing books..but too many books are looking at me to spend the time on one that isn't getting it for me.
I'm giving it 2 stars because it wasn't horrible..just wasn't for me at this time.
I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
kblincoln's review
3.0
Urban Fantasy with "Japanese Circus" in the title? Archeological run-headlong-into-danger heroine? Love interest who runs a Host bar in Tokyo?
I'm all over that.
Sadly, this book just didn't "take" with me. Lots of cool elements: details of archeological/mythological Balinese digs, etc. Some great locales, a potentially cool villainous foil and Russian best friend. And the cat. Captain, the vampire-sensing Egyptian Maur cat is the greatest.
Jumping out at vampires deep inside tunnels, squirming through grates to rescue Owl, fetching vampire-hormone soaked rat-toys poolside. Really. I'm a big Captain fan.
I got bored. Part of the problem for me was Owl herself. She does stupid things. Even after several points in the story that were opportunities for her to stop her often self-destructive or morally questionable behavior--she doesn't grow up. The love interest can sometimes hold me through characters that don't "take' with me, but while Rynn was cool, I could not understand at all what he saw in Owl (and really, how many times can Rynn call her on the phone right before Owl storms into the office/tunnel/den for the Macguffin they're after and say "wait for me, it's too dangerous" and then Owl get out without a scratch?) and sadly, I like my Urban Fantasy at least Pg-13. This one only alludes the morning after.
Despite interesting elements, this is probably not a series i'll stick with.
I'm all over that.
Sadly, this book just didn't "take" with me. Lots of cool elements: details of archeological/mythological Balinese digs, etc. Some great locales, a potentially cool villainous foil and Russian best friend. And the cat. Captain, the vampire-sensing Egyptian Maur cat is the greatest.
Jumping out at vampires deep inside tunnels, squirming through grates to rescue Owl, fetching vampire-hormone soaked rat-toys poolside. Really. I'm a big Captain fan.
I got bored. Part of the problem for me was Owl herself. She does stupid things. Even after several points in the story that were opportunities for her to stop her often self-destructive or morally questionable behavior--she doesn't grow up. The love interest can sometimes hold me through characters that don't "take' with me, but while Rynn was cool, I could not understand at all what he saw in Owl (and really, how many times can Rynn call her on the phone right before Owl storms into the office/tunnel/den for the Macguffin they're after and say "wait for me, it's too dangerous" and then Owl get out without a scratch?) and sadly, I like my Urban Fantasy at least Pg-13. This one only alludes the morning after.
Despite interesting elements, this is probably not a series i'll stick with.