Name: Sheena's review of Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne
Item: Ink & Sigil
Rating: 4
Author: Sheena

Kevin Hearne

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland. "Ink & Sigil is escape reading, and I loved every word."--Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of A Longer Fall Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails--and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae. But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective--while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice's death will take him through Scotland's magical underworld, and he'll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he's to survive.

Ink & Sigil

Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails - and a most unique magical talent. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective

Ink and Sigil

Lara 

Celeste Richardson

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland. Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails--and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae. But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective--while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice's death will take him through Scotland's magical underworld, and he'll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he's to survive.

From the World of the Iron Druid Chronicles

Sheena

A refreshing take to urban fantasy and magic genres. We follow Al MacBharrais, a blessed and curse man that can cast spells with magically enchanted ink which he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheon especially the Fae, who teams up with his sidekick—a mischievous hobgoblin (and probably one of my favorite characters in the entire series) to seek the truth as to why all his former apprentices keep dying from peculiar freak accidents, the secret to his curse, and the investigation to his latest apprentice’s death that will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld.
 
This was different but a good kind of different. First of all, the lead character was unlike anyone I have read in a long time. He was older than most, (50-ish) with a curse I'm sure no one would wish for. A curse that would make anyone who hears his voice begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for him so to prevent that, he typically communicates using text or speech applications. Al does break that habit when put in situations where he or someone he knows is put in immense danger and he doesn't quite have the time to sit back and text away.
 
Now with the plot/storyline, it did at times was a bit drawn out which I believe may have just been me attempting to decipher the dialogues here and there with the strong accents that had me saying 'whaaaaaaat?', hence the skimming that was brought upon. But the magical creatures, eccentric characters, action packed scenes, and the magic itself surely made up for it so it's a no-brainer that I'm down to read more of Al and Buck and their next adventure.

Sabetha Danes

The cover for this book is so amazing!!! I've caught myself drooling over it multiple times. It's 100% the reason I picked this book up to read. Didn't read the blurb or who the author was, just had to read whatever was behind that cover. 

Thank goodness what was there was awesome! Loved this book so much! From the sigil magic to the lizard wizard van to all the hierarchy. ugh. I'm ready to reread it. 

I'm a sucker for inks & pens, and the research the author put into the main characters craft is high five worthy. The book is life like and mystical. You can feel the time put into to making sure the setting is culturally accurate, and all lore lines up. Some books fail at sinking in real world dialect into a fiction novel but this book works so freaking well. I feared i was going to be referencing the authors notes and half confused at the crazy spellings, but it never happened. The flow of the sentences supported the dialect perfectly. 

All of the characters are well crafted, and the personalities of each are distinct and compliment the story perfectly. The grey of the 'villains', to the grey of the 'good guys' so much yes for this one. I'm also here for the commentary on 'human' trafficking, and how the magical world is dealing with the same problems we are dealing with in humanity. 

Book one hasn't even released yet, but I'm ready for book two. Also a poster for my wall of this cover *drooling*

I received this book via NetGalley.

Its a solid book. Really nice to read and amusant.
I liked the characters really much. They felt alive for me.


Nickie Mohler

I was so excited when I heard about this book. The Iron Druid Chronicles are one of my all time favorite series. I was really happy to return to this world. At the same time I was skeptical since it's different characters. 
I ended up really enjoying it. I love Al. He reminded me of Owen. I love this world and the magic. And I love the humor. I tend to avoid humorous books. I prefer morally gray characters in my fantasy, but Kevin Hearne does humor so well. I need to listen to this on audio when it comes out because I think it would be even more amusing.

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Celeste Richardson &
Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

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Celeste Richardson &
Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne