Alexandra Christo

From the author of TO KILL A KINGDOM comes the first in a spectacular fantasy duology, in a world thriving with black magic.

Into the Crooked Place

Into the Crooked Place begins a gritty two-book YA fantasy series from Alexandra Christo, the author of To Kill a Kingdom. The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive. Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her. Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him. Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself. And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge. Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.

Nicole Dykeman

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT BOOK?? AFTER ALL THAT?? I NEED IT NOW. 

But for real—how lucky am I to start of 2020 with 3 5-star reads in a row? This TOTALLY caught me by surprise with how much I fell completely in love with the characters. Dear god, my heart stumbled over itself every time Wesley and Tavia even looked at each other. With Saxony and Karam giving me my queer gal rep on top of that, I am the happiest of campers. 

Though it took a minute or two to really get into the book, the latter half was absolutely insane and I could not put it down even if I wanted to. Action-packed, heart-wrenching—you name the emotion, and I probably felt it. 

So yeah. I would like the next book tomorrow please. BUT IT DOESNT EVEN HAVE A TITLE YET

Megan Lowe

DNF at page 213.

I so wanted to like this book. It’s everything I should love, especially with the strong shades of Six of Crows here, one of my favs.
But I tried. I tried for so long and I just couldn’t get into it.
I felt things were unexplained, especially the magic systems. I felt they were never fully explained and I couldn’t get the hang of it.
I don’t know if I’ll come back to this...

ellie chase

"What you will see here is magic made into miracles."

It gives SOC vibes and in my humble opinion, that is never a bad thing. Criminal street kid found family will always have my heart and that's okay. There is a trope and I am its largest fan.
The magic system was also absolutely intriguing, and I love how they're called Crafters. It did remind me of Incendiary in some ways (or Incendiary reminded me of Into the Crooked Place), but it was different and unique enough that they didn't feel like they were copies of each other. 
And Saxony and Karam! Wesley and Tavia! The romance was absolutely superior, I would give my soul for these characters.

Sophia De La Garza

I can't y'all. This book reads like a dollar store version of Six of Crows (mean but true). 
Got halfway in and I can't tell you anything about these characters, including their names.

Shannon Thomas

Had me from the cover! 
Anything filled with magic and I’m there! This magical book did NOT disappoint. 
The book kind of gave me similar vibes to the Six of Crows series - a group of outcasts come together, full of crime and magic. To start with these similarities really had me worried. I panicked that the whole way through I’d be thinking “oh I know what will happen here”, but this book truly had me on the edge of my seat. Any time I thought I’d guessed where it was going, the story changed. Not only that but I found it SO easy to read. With some young adult fantasy books I struggle to keep track of everything’s that is happening. I find myself reading pages over and over and flicking back pages to see if I missed something but that didn’t happen with Into the Crooked Place. It just had such an easy flow to it. I often read chapter to chapter with small breaks in between but it was so easy to read that I just kept going and going and going. 
I loved that while this book had a lot of action, it had a lot of emotion too. Nostalgia over realms the characters ran from, their lost families, their lost childhoods. I felt the pain of every single character but also felt the strength of those characters for getting through all they have. 
I have yet to actually finish the book but I’m veeeery near to the end. 
I absolutely loved this book, I would definitely recommend it and I’ll definitely read it again! Thank you Readers First for introducing me to this book!

Meg Casey

This wasn't bad but I couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll be able to enjoy it if I try again when I'm more in the mood for YA.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received an e-arc of this book from netgalley. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Into The Crooked Place

Author: Alexandra Christo

Book Series: Into The Crooked Place Book 1

Rating: 1/5

Publication Date: October 8, 2019

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: can’t recommend, DNF

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Pages: 384

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Into the Crooked Place begins a gritty two-book YA fantasy series from Alexandra Christo, the author of To Kill a Kingdom.

The streets of Creije are for the deadly and the dreamers, and four crooks in particular know just how much magic they need up their sleeve to survive.

Tavia, a busker ready to pack up her dark-magic wares and turn her back on Creije for good. She’ll do anything to put her crimes behind her.

Wesley, the closest thing Creije has to a gangster. After growing up on streets hungry enough to swallow the weak whole, he won’t stop until he has brought the entire realm to kneel before him.

Karam, a warrior who spends her days watching over the city’s worst criminals and her nights in the fighting rings, making a deadly name for herself.

And Saxony, a resistance fighter hiding from the very people who destroyed her family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get her revenge.

Everything in their lives is going to plan, until Tavia makes a crucial mistake: she delivers a vial of dark magic—a weapon she didn’t know she had—to someone she cares about, sparking the greatest conflict in decades. Now these four magical outsiders must come together to save their home and the world, before it’s too late. But with enemies at all sides, they can trust nobody. Least of all each other.

Review: This was yet another book I had to DNF and this one hurt because I really do love Alexandra Christo, but this book wasn’t for me. The book was really clunky and hard to follow, the gangster trope is so overused. The magic wasn’t explained properly and the time skips were confusing. The book is also multiple POV and I don’t know why it is. The book would have been better under just one POV in my opinion. The book is also full of uneventful and painfully slow moments. I made it about 32% through before I tossed it.

Verdict: Not for me.

Aubrey Erskine

Jagoda Nowak

I really liked the world-building and the magic system. I have to admit that there were moments when the characters really annoyed me with their ignorance and lack of communication, and I really loved Wesley and Tavia - their dynamics is amazing!
Also, I got major Six of Crows vibes - I think it was inspired by Leigh Bardugo's work, and Wesley gave me such Kaz vibes. The ending shocked me, and I can't wait for the second book!

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review can be found here at Booked J. 

Into the Crooked Place Duology: 
Into the Crooked Place: ★★★★☆ (4.5) 
Untitled: TBD


   As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.
 

How does one describe Into the Crooked Place? How? Do? I? Begin? This. Was. BRILLIANT. And I'm so excited for the sequel and to dive headfirst into Alexandra Christo's writing again and again and again. Yes, please, sign me up, 10/10. When I saw this book, I got all the heist vibes that books like Six of Crows and The Gilded Wolves, and knew I had to get my hands on it. 

What are three words that come to mind? Dark, magical and intense. If you love books that spark with intensity with time, than Into the Crooked Place should be at the very top of your list. I'm glad I read it when I did--at the start of autumn; on the rainiest, stormiest, chilliest, grayest day of the year. The atmospheric quality to the novel fit beautifully with the weather and made the experience all the more magnetic to my tastes. 

First of all, the angsty characters and tension, the heist elements, tones of fantasy, were what really sold me. The way that everything blended together felt exquisite and a little painfully so. Alexandra Christo's writing is delectably dark and tense, carving the story in a way that is the slowly built and intensely so. Something about Christo's characters weave themselves under your skin in good and bad ways, deeming themselves unforgettable in your mind. 

It's easy to attach yourself to these characters and this world. There is so much going on. There is so much history. You know those morally gray characters I'm always intrigued by? Say hello to the crew of Into the Crooked Place: my new favourites. The further they develop, the further the central story aches come together, the more fondness I had for them. 

What I think I loved most about Into the Crooked Place was its pacing and how it felt like I was dangling over the edge of something unexpected. Even in the moments I predicted, or the time that something in the narration foreshadowed the story, I had this uneasiness that comes with a slow burn read. One thing I learned from this world was that Alexandra Christo not only knows how to tell a story, she knows how to leave her readers hanging on the edge of every word. 

Into the Crooked Place was impossible to put down and kept me on the edge of my seat. I found the magic and world-building to be a work of art, the dynamics to be intriguing and fully engrossing, the intensity and darkness to be spot-on and compelling, and so much more. This is not the book you won't to skim through quickly to be over and done with--this is the book you wish to experience again and again.

Lisa Beasley

I really liked the world and the characters that were in this book. Everything was set up really well and I adored the whole cast (though especially Tavia) the one thing I found was that a lot happened at the end very quickly and it stopped on the biggest cliffhanger which was frustrating lol.

Beth Bartholomew

This book is on sale in the UK October 8th 2019. Thank you to Hot Key Books for the ARC of this amazing read.

This story bands together a group of crooks with a joint goal and sees them go on a dangerous journey to achieve it. From the blurb and reading the book I was getting Six of Crows vibes and honestly… I think I may have preferred the characters to SOC, but it has been a while since I read it Six of Crows, so maybe a reread is due.

Tavia is the first character we read about from her narrative perspective, she’s good fun, has a dark side and is looking for redemption. I see her as the main character of this book because she was the first one I got to know. But my favourite character is Wesley. He’s the ‘bad boy’ type that actually has a soft side (I think). He’s the underboss, the head of the crooks in his area. These two definitely have some chemistry between them that I want to explore a lot more!

Other main characters are Karam and Saxony who have some steamy history that has left things complicated. Each of these four characters hates at least one other character, so you can imagine it makes for a fun plot when they go on this high risk journey together. This also sets up for some really good character development too, which we see from each of them. Each character has a different role to fulfil, with different skills, I really enjoyed reading about this. I love books with magic in them, so knowing what each character could do with it, if anything, was exciting.

They’re all trying to stop a greater evil and prevent dark magic from taking over their world. Your usual save the world plot really… I loved the dynamics of the characters in this book, it totally made it for me. I think whilst the journey was a key part of the plot, this was more character-driven. The narration itself seemed quite bitty, it was a little all over the place. But I was okay with that because I enjoyed reading more about these characters.

If you want magic, action, a criminal underworld and a variety of different relationships this is the book for you! I can’t wait for everyone else to be able to read this too in October.

Into the Crooked Place

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