annieb123
Written on Dec 7, 2018
Weaver's Folly is the first book in the new NA/YA Shadowspinner Chronicles series by Sarah Madsen. Released 15 March by Curiosity Quills, it's 263 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.
This was a nice start to a new urban crossworlds fantasy series with a fair bit of shadowrunner technomancy. It's well written and entertaining. I am not really the target audience (in that I am not in any way young/new, and most would dispute the 'adult'), but I found it well plotted and (for a fantasy) believable.
There are fae and other magical humanoids with their own desires and agendas. Their interactions with 'normal' humans are interwoven around a sort of 'mission impossible' framework; break into the most secure target imaginable, steal prints, acquire the target, etc etc.
At the end of the day, it's a techno-magic shadowrunner thriller with a hiiiiint of romance thrown in. The female lead is strong and relatively normal and I liked her relationship with her roommate/bestie Rose.
There is some mildly strong language as well as some (f/f) sexual content, and implied sex. There really isn't anything that would upset most readers of urban fantasy.
The author is a capable writer and has produced a well fleshed out world and enjoyable magic system. It did occasionally feel like everything that the main character Alyssa did was more or less guaranteed to go right in the end. I never felt much tension or threat and the denouement was well written, but not a surprise.
I liked this one a lot and will seek out the next book in the series. There's potential here.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.