The Wren in the Holly Library: The key word is forced

Author: K. A. Linde

Rating: ⭐️⭐️✨

Despite being very excited for this book, I’m sad to say it was a disappointing read.

This book follows Kierse, an orphan and a thief living in a paranormal/dystopian New York City after a war between humans and monsters (vampires, werewolves, wraiths, etc). She’s hired to steal something valuable from what she assumes is a rich human’s house. Little does she know the house is owned by a monster, and because of the peace treaty that ended the human-monster war, he can legally kill her for trespassing.

But he doesn’t kill her (obviously), and instead the owner of the house, Graves, impressed by her ability to skirt his wards, offers her a job that will require her to leave the apartment above a brothel she occupies with her friends and move in with him in order to prepare for and execute a heist.

The key word for this book is forced. The whole thing felt forced.

While there were the basic makings of an exciting story—the concept of the semi-dystopian New York and a heist to steal a powerful object were interesting—the execution fell flat.

This book felt like a mashup of a lot of popular books including Six of Crows, Throne of Glass and a bit of A Court of Thorns and Roses sprinkled in. We have Kierse, the plucky orphan girl who grew up on the streets, would do anything to protect her friends and has a tragic backstory involving an abusive mentor. And we have the dark love interest, Graves, who is supposedly a terrifying monster of some sort, though it’s never clear what he’s done to earn that reputation. However, there wasn’t enough work put into the characterisation of our main characters for the reader to form a connection with either of them. Nor was there a clear basis (other than basic physicality) for why they were seemingly attractive to each other. Even Kierse’s found-family dynamic with her friends was surface-level at best.

I knew the picture the author was trying to paint, but all I could see was a rough pencil-sketch.

I do think this book could have benefitted from being dual POV if for no other reason than we’d at least know what Graves was up to when he wasn’t with Kierse and also understand if there was anything substantial on his side of the attraction.

Though this book had potential, and it did at least engage me enough that I read it the whole way through, it didn’t feel like a fully formed novel, and I’m not interested enough in the characters or the story to continue on with the series.