4.5 Hoots

Fast paced. Leaves you on the edge of your seat! Charlie is an amazing character.

First, I want to thank my library for having an amazing selection of books! The first thing that appealed to me about this book was the cover, I mean look at it! Then I opened the book to get an idea if what I was in store for and holy cow!!! Right in the first page you are pulled into this world of danger. Charlie is in jail and these two men are trying to assault her…AND they think she is a 13 year old boy! She can’t tell anyone that she is a young woman or else the rest of the men in the cell will want to take there turn. It was intense! If Archer was aiming to shake you to the core with the intro, she succeeded!

For the last 5 years Charlie has been living on the streets pretending to be a 13 year old boy in order to survive. And she really was doing just that…surviving. But now there were men trying to find her because of her dark gift, being a necromancer. This gift is actually what lead to her living on the streets, but I will let you read what happened there. So one night she goes to her old house and sees a man asking her father about her. Who was he and why after all these years was someone looking for her? She decides against revealing herself and decides to sneak away…unfortunately she gets captured by another group of men who are also looking for “Charlotte”. This group of men are apparently are part of a secret organization trying to stop a mad man from creating an undead army to over throw the queen!

Overall, I loved this book and will absolutely be reading the rest of this series. The characters were fantastic, even the goons who captured her became loveable. Charlie herself was incredibly smart, resourceful, loyal, and true to herself. I loved that she refused to act like a “lady” and just wanted to be treated like everyone else. She kept trying to fight her captors the entire time and just would not give in until she figured out if they were friend of foe. There were a few unexpected twists in the book and the big reveal of the big bad was so unexpected! The story kept you on the edge of your seat. I became so invested in Charlie and just needed to know if she would finally be safe and was going to be able to control her abilities. Oh and of course, I needed to know if this secret organization was real or not. There were so many questions and they were all answered. I can’t wait to get the second book and see what happens next!