A Conspiracy of Ravens

Author: J.C. McKenzie
Series: Raven Crawford, book 1
Publisher: JCM Publications (October 21, 2019)
Kindle edition, 327 pages
Urban Fantasy
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Summary
Raven Crawford knows better than to venture into the seductive world of the dark fae or agree to any of their salacious promises. She plans to pay off her debts so she can get on with her life and stay far away from the denizens of the Underworld.

Unfortunately, her numbskull twin steals from the most tempting and lethal fae of them all. Now, Raven must help the Lord of Shadows get back what her idiot brother stole. Her only weapons? Just a little ingenuity and a whole lot of snark. It’s suicide for sure, but she’ll do anything to protect her twin.

Review
Rating: 3.25 stars … Because it’s more than a 3 star read but not quite 3.5 stars? I’m a little torn, haha

I really liked this book, but at the same time I got impatient with Raven endlessly oggling Cole and lusting after his “dong” (as she so eloquently puts it) and talking EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. about how he smells like a moonlit forest glade or whatever. I get it – dude smells good. You don’t need to talk about inhaling his scent every time he makes an appearance.

The overall mystery-ish plotline is interesting, as one would expect from an Urban Fantasy PI book. (Why are most Urban Fantasies about private investigators, detectives, and bounty hunters, anyway?) The who/what/why are pretty well plotted, but the entire story keeps getting bogged down by Raven and Cole’s sexual hijinks. And when I say that as a romance reader… Yeah, it’s a bit of a problem.

Raven is really interesting (and a total badass!), and I LOVE her family of fox shifters. I definitely want to read more about her half-siblings Mike and Juni. Cole is also intriguing in that dark, broody bad-boy way (or Tall, Dark, and Deadly…) and his interactions with Raven are alternately hot and hilarious. The writing itself is really well done, but the overall story just moves kind of slowly.

This is the first book in the Raven Crawford series. It can be read as a standalone in that the major plotline is resolved within this book, but it also is left somewhat open ended to continue for further books in the series. Personally, I doubt I’ll be continuing with the series.

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review. All opinions are unbiased and my own.