| Book: City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte Genre: Fiction Published year: 2012 Rating: 2 out of 5 (2) The blurb: Cosmically fast-paced and wildly imaginative, this debut novel is a perfect potion of magic and suspense Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood. Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide. City of Dark Magic could be called a rom-com paranormal suspense novel—or it could simply be called one of the most entertaining novels of the year.
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My Review:1,5 starsWhat is it with authors/publishers and wrong labelling of books? This book is a fiction with suspense and historical elements.
Contrary to what the title might let you think, there is no magic and despite what is said in the blurb
"City of Dark Magic could be called a rom-co paranormal suspense novel—or it could simply be called one of the most entertaining novels of the year." this is
NOT a paranormal novel. Same goes for the romance part.
Saying that a city is a threshold is in no way sufficient to make a book a paranormal one. Needless to say that the book failed to entertain me.
I did not like the author's style, there is a lot of lengths and sadly, I couldn't feel concerned for the characters. IMO the fact that we know the bad "guy" (who was such a caricature) from the beginning deprived us of a suspense that would have been welcome in the first part. Also, this book has some of the worst sex scenes I’ve ever read.
The only things I liked in this book are the historical references (especially those to Beethoven and Tycho Brahe).