Arcadia Bell is learning to live with her Moonchild
magic, getting used to it and using it more often in her daily life – and for
missions foisted on her by Dare.
But even putting aside his leash, Arcadia finds herself
on a mission when Earthbound demons rob her bar and injure Kar Yee, her business
partner. It’s embarrassing but worse, these demons had power far beyond what
should be possible and who knows what damage they could do if these super
powers spread.
And her Moonchild power is expanding and changing – changing her as well in ways she doesn’t understand but are terrifying. Almost as terrifying as her mother still being alive – and looking for her.
Then there’s Lon’s in-laws, Jupe’s aunt and grandmother
are in town for the holidays, ready to check out the new addition to their family.
This is a series I’m keeping my eye on because it feels
like something with so much potential. We have a very interesting unique world
with magic and demons combined in a way I haven’t seen before with a number of
interesting twists to keep it going. The world was great and some of the
characters had potential – but I keep waiting for the story to reach that
potential. I think I’ve read all three of these books with a sense of
anticipation – waiting for them to iron out the flaws and really be what they
could be.
The first thing I liked about this particular book in the
series was the foundation of it. No more Arcadia being threatened by Dare, none
of her being dragged into the plot against her will. In fact, she outright stood
up to him. Instead the story was based on a robbery at her own bar and her own
concerns about what the demons with super perks were doing. She was personally
motivated and also active in tracking down the culprits and finding the answers
– more so than she has been in the previous books. At any point she could have
stopped pursuing this and got on with her life – she wasn’t being threatened by
anyone, she wasn’t being forced and she wasn’t doing it for other people;
ultimately Arcadia was pursuing her own agenda for her own reasons in her own
way. This goes in part with the fact she’s also more assertive and more confident
than in previous books. While she still has doubting moments with Lon, Arcadia
is now more confident that, yes, she does deserve him and she’s more able to
tally her achievements and be proud of them. It’s a precious thing to see a
protagonist so openly embrace her self-esteem
The story has a decent mystery – they had leads and red
herrings, brief moments of actions and chases. They had dead ends and became
frustrated but didn’t dwell on it too long. I won’t say it was stellar or
particularly exciting. I think the main thing stopping it from being a really
good mystery is that the two main plots – finding out about the super perks
didn’t work together well with discovering the answers about Arcadia’s
Moonchild powers. The storylines didn’t mesh together, they got in each other’s
ways. Then there’s the family – while I loved the scenes with the family and
Arcadia becoming more part of them, they did detract a lot from the urgency of
both plot lines. After all, neither can be life and death in importance if you’re
going to take time out for a family dinner. In some ways I like that her life
isn’t entirely derailed by the plot line but it did reduce the urgency of the
story
Arcadia has moved on a little from her precious reluctance
to use her powers,
which is supreme relief as I found it more than a little unrealistic.
However, while she has lost her reluctance, her mother lurking around has given
her another reason to be hesitant about it, so we’ve got her tiptoeing around
them again as well as them randomly not working for reasons unknown. I’d kind
of like her to just have her powers and be done with it. Especially since there
are times, like during the robbery, where her power just seems almost forgotten
or suddenly require a ridiculous amount of time to work.
But on that world building front – I’m getting irritated
by how little everyone even knows about rhe Moonchild and how little effort
Arcadia has actually made to find out. Dare knows, loads of demons give her
special titles, it’s apparent that the magical organisation she’s a part of has
some relevant information – but she has made no real effort to follow any of
that up. For that matter, Jupe is an archivist with an amazing library, a web
of contacts and a lot of money, how come he doesn’t know more? It doesn’t make
sense for them to have made so little effort and achieved so little success to
discover exactly what Arcadia is. I also feel that the whole power boosting
elixir was brushed over somewhat. They stopped it being distributed but who
made it, are they still making it? How is it made? Could someone else make it?
Considering it was the main concern for most of the book it all ends up being
rather simplistically closed.
Jupe’s aunt and grandmother joining the story went a long
way to helping unravel how his mother, Yvonne was presented. While she was still
demonised there was a humanising element – she still utterly fails as a mother
and family member. But at least we had Jupe’s Black family being present and
loving and caring rather than having hem only represented by Yvonne, the
failure of a mother and evil predator. The counter narrative was sorely needed
and showing that they are a close, affectionate family helped a lot.
I’m not quite sure why we had grandma be all judgmental.
Especially since it didn’t go anywhere and was resolved super quickly. It felt
like padding – like she couldn’t possibly get one well with all of them so we
needed some extra conflict. I especially don’t like it because Rose’s
slutshaming just wasn’t addressed – the terribad idea that Arcadia and Lon may
be *gasp* spending the night together was never really challenged despite it
being judgmental and rather nonsensical.
I want to see more of Kar Yee. I quite liked her reaction
to Arcadia’s grand revelation because it was a betrayal of trust – and I hope
this will bring them together more. While there are several women in the plot,
Arcadia doesn’t seem to spend much time with them, not by choice anyway. She’s
so focused on Lon and Jupe, it’d be nice to see her spend some more quality
time with her best friend.
Ultimately, I think that the Arcadia Bell is getting
better, and is a good book series I always enjoy. But there are always elements
that stop it being excellent to me. They’re good books, they’re decent books, I
generally enjoy them – but I don’t love them and they remain a series I could
always read – but wouldn’t feel heartbroken if it stopped tomorrow. But I
always feel like this, with its unique world and some characters with vast
potential could be so much more.
