Poor Sterling. Life is hard when you’re attracted to everyone. Man couldn’t take three steps without finding another person to flirt with. 😄 I jest, he wasn’t quite that bad, but he was definitely crushing on two people. And I’m genuinely here for it. I love characters who are shameless flirts.

This book was fun! Short (less than seven hours in audio), but fun. Punchy and attention-grabbing. I am not always a fan of first person POVs that break the fourth wall and talk casually to the reader, but the combination of Sterling’s personality with the audiobook narration made it work here. Sterling is just a fun character, full of sassy quips and opinions. But never in a way that felt hurtful, if that makes sense. And he also has his deeper side, though he tries to keep that hidden from his friends.

There was also queer rep, since Sterling is pan. No romance or sex in the story though. Just some flirting and maaaaybe a hint at feelings that could eventually become something, but that’s still unclear.

This is a spin-off of the Darkling Mage series, but it definitely works as its own separate story. I think I enjoyed it more because I was already familiar with the characters, and it doesn’t really explain certain things about the world, but I think you could get by without that if you want to jump in here.

My only kind of issue was the mystery, I guess? They were trying to solve it, so they did a few things, and then the reveal just sorta happened to them. I feel like I’m being harsh, there was some explanation for why things happened that way afterward, and these aren’t meant to complex mystery books. The pacing just threw me off and the reveal felt a little out of nowhere at first.

The audiobook narration by Nick Podehl was great! He brought Sterling to life wonderfully. As I said, he really made the “talking to the reader” POV work. And he made every character sound different. Some characters drifted a bit toward exaggerated, but I can excuse that when it helps set the characters apart. I definitely recommend the audio.

Overall, this was fun and one of those books that is just so readable (or listenable, in my case)!

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*