Staying Dead (Retrievers #1) by Laura Anne Gilman

Overall Rating: 3 Stars

Date Finished: November 14, 2016

I have had this book sitting on my to-read shelf for a couple years now. I remember reading Hard Magic and really liking the first book. So, I added the second book to my to-read list and also added this book to see if I liked the other series as well. The problem is, I got distracted with reading other series and never really got around to reading this one.

Now that it's been so long I am practically starting from scratch because I really don't remember much of anything from the first series.  I don't remember any of the world building or characters and it leaves wondering whether I might have enjoyed this book more if I could remember the other series better.

One of the biggest problems that I had with this book is that I feel like we come in somewhere in the middle. The relationship between Wren and Sergei was complicated but I feel like we already missed all of the important parts of it. We don't see the beginning, how and when they meet, we only get a general recap. Now, that does happen in books and that's okay, but we really don't get to see anything else either. By the time we come in Wren has already developed more-than-friends feelings for Sergei. So we didn't really get to see that change in their relationship, at least not really. There is some development between them but it's all very subtle and there was nothing exciting about their romance at all. 

Beyond that, the job itself was okay. The ending is a bit anticlimactic and even though they are able to finish the job, they don't get the big payout and they end up having to work for the secret organization they didn't want to work for, just to have their protection. So overall, it wasn't exactly a great ending for anyone. 

To be fair, it's not that I didn't enjoy this book, I just didn't love it. Everything about it was okay but not much more than that. The action and magic was okay. The romance was okay but not very memorable. And overall I just wanted a bit more from this book.