Owl and the City of Angels

Owl and the City of Angels
Author: Kristi Charish
Series: The Owl Series 2
Genre: Fantasy, adventure
Buy: Paperback

Alix “Owl” Hiboux is back after the fiasco from Owl and the Japanese Circus. This is a few months after the incidence that almost got her killed. So now she is back asking for more trouble, just so we are clear, she is very much a normal girl.

Even the story starts in an archeology dig, where a supernatural secretly lives. Owl gets what she wants after a huge struggle, because she wants to impress her new boss, the Red Dragon.

Story

When the Lady Siyu presents evidence of her selling supernatural and dangerous artifacts, it already smells of a rat when Owl manages to convince the Dragon that she is not the traitor. Mr Kurosawa is not a fool, but it is a good way to encourage her to find out the truth.

Mysterious artifacts surface in the archeology world, bringing some strange sickness with it. Owl knows not to tamper with some sites, but she wants to know who is impersonating her. With the help of Nadia and the elf named Carpe, Owl has to track down the artefacts and find the copycats before the dragon turns her into dinner.

Running Around

In Owl and the City of Angels, there is a lot of running, more than the first book. Owl seems to be already running into trouble, and her friends are always trying to extract her from a dangerous situation. There is a reason why the supernatural beings call her a train wreck (not only her boyfriend Rynn, the Incubus/ security). Owl tests the patience of the people who are trying to help her by rushing head first into trouble, or still run into a mess despite knowing that it will not end well.

Another annoying factor is her friend/ frenemy Carpe. The Elf wants the Book of the Dead, and will stop at nothing to make Owl retrieve it for him. In this book, Owl has to track to Syria for the book, while Carpe will give her a map from WorldQuest.

The team starts in Egypt, then they return to Japan where she finds out that someone is copying her tactics. This leads her to Los Angeles before running to Libya to meet with some Somali pirates. Here’s to running around the most dangerous places in the world!

Thoughts and Verdict

Book two has a more complicated story, but it is moving towards a third book of the series. I am not sure that I am that keen on continuing. As Rynn puts it, she is a train wreck, and we all wonder why we put up with her. Is it her snarkiness or her sass that keeps us around? Or is it the silent vulnerability that she tries to hide under layers of thorn and force fields?

Either way, the series gets tedious, I am not sure Owl is a great traveling companion to be trekking around the globe with. The history part is not entirely true, hence it’s not a legit history fantasy. The action becomes mundane when Owl keeps attracting issues like bear is to honey. If I read it, it is because the library has a copy and I want to see how this goes down.