Red Glove (Curse Workers 2) by Holly Black
| Red Glove (Curse Workers 2) by Holly Black | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable follow-up to White Cat, this urban fantasy combines romance with crime fiction in a world where magic is banned but organised crime makes good use of it. Great characters and some noir combine in a satisfying but accessible read. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 272 | Date: October 2012 |
| Publisher: Orion | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 0575096764 | |
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Cassel lives in a world where magic is frowned upon. Practice is banned and everyone wears gloves to prevent being worked. Cassel himself is a transformation worker - the rarest type. And he is the most powerful transformation worker in living memory. This makes him extremely valuable to the crime families who use curses to support and maintain their empires. It also makes him extremely dangerous as far as the authorities are concerned. And that's why Cassel tries to keep his status to himself, since he discovered it in the first book in this Curse Workers sequence.
Muddling life even further, Cassel is in love with Lila, the daughter of a big mobster boss. And Lila has been worked to love Cassel. That's great, right? Wrong. Cassel doesn't want worked love. He wants the real thing. So, although the moon is right there in his fingers, all he can do is push it away.
And then his brother is murdered. And Cassel's secrets become even harder to keep. Who is the culprit? And why did they do it? And can Cassel stay one step ahead of both the authorities and the crime syndicates?
I love this series. Holly Black has an admirably smooth way of writing and her books are an easy pleasure to read. She also creates sympathetic, well-rounded characters and you like them all, even the baddies. Red Glove combines paranormal romance with urban fantasy and noir crime, yet it isn't at all confused. It reads like a dream. In this instalment, Cassel's friends Sam and Deneca get bigger roles and I enjoyed seeing them develop. I felt tremendously sorry for Cassel himself, who began book one seeing only the glamour in working and now, agonisingly, sees the danger and the cruelty that often lies behind it. And, as he desperately tries to keep at least a shred of integrity, I couldn't help but root for him.
Recommended.
If you like the combination of magic and organised crime but wish you could find more of this type of urban fantasy set in Britain, then look no further than Burn Mark by Laura Powell.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Red Glove (Curse Workers 2) by Holly Black at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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