This is a curious series. It’s set within an alternative history – Franklin D. Roosevelt was assassinated and then a flu pandemic wiped out the Vice President and large swathes of the population, leaving America vulnerable. Basically it was carved up – Canada took a large slice of the North. Some eastern states banded together and swore allegiance back to Britain. Mexico encroached as well. The traditionally southern states became Dixie. Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico banded together and Russia took California and Oregon. There’s also magic, primarily performed by Russian grigoris who are regarded with fear and suspicion in a lot of places.

The main character is Lizbeth Rose a “gunnie” – a guard of sorts, who works with a crew paid to protect their cargo, whether that cargo be goods or people. In the past, Lizbeth has helped with people who want to cross over the border to or from Mexico. In the last book she lost her crew and was the sole surviving member. In this book she’s working with a new crew, guarding a crate on a train. They are ambushed, the train is hijacked and the cargo is lost. Stuck in Dixie, which requires women to dress as ‘ladies’ and act demure, Lizbeth is determined to find out who is responsible for the deaths in her new crew and also, retrieve the cargo. She runs into the Russian grigori Eli Savarov who hired her in the previous book. To comply with the regulations in this still segregated version of the south, they must pretend to be married as they investigate together, which helps keep Lizbeth safe (in terms of keeping with the customs of the area, not as in physically safe as there isn’t much that she can’t handle) but also brings about a new danger…..in terms of Eli himself and her growing feelings for him, which she doesn’t want to acknowledge.

I like the characters in this – Lizbeth is great. She’s confident and capable and willing to adapt to a lot of situations. She is also loyal and determined to ‘finish the job’ they were hired to do, even when she’s the only one left who is physically capable of doing so. She’s also a stone cold killer basically and won’t hesitate to wipe someone out that she deems to be a threat. When she’s shoehorned into long skirts and dresses, pantyhose and shoes definitely not the boots she is used to, it’s quite amusing to hear her internal disgust. She misses her jeans….however, as the story rolls on, she comes to almost like the skirt, especially how much cooler it is, in that sort of climate, which was quite funny. I also like Eli, although I feel that there’s still a lot about him that we don’t know (and that Lizbeth doesn’t know either) and even though he can be secretive and frustrating, I still like the way that they work together. Lizbeth has all of the physical skills but Eli is a relatively powerful magician (I think?) and they do complement each other in different ways.

But for me, the actual plot of this was a big ol’ mess. It opens with a load of action on the train and then it just completely stalls when they’re in Louisiana, wandering around the city of Sally, going to cafes and restaurants and eating ice cream and trying to collect information. It just feels really slow and plodding and I was super bored for part of it. It got to the stage where I stopped caring what was in the trunk that Lizbeth had been guarding on the train and it felt like I was never going to find out anyway. And then it finally was revealed and…….yeah. I don’t know. Harris is triggering the civil-rights movement in her new America, which relies an awful lot on white people to happen. I found it not executed terribly well and what should’ve been the most important part of the book actually felt more like it had the least care. I had endless descriptions of everything Lizbeth wears and eats and details of who she speaks to but this felt so…..glossed over.

And then there’s the ending. Which was quite disappointing for me. This is book 2, I felt like there should’ve been some progression in a matter or two, from book 1 but this doesn’t feel like there was any. And I know this is supposed to be a trilogy and there’s still a third book to come but a lot of this felt up in the air and will need serious resolution in book 3. And it just doesn’t feel like this series will do serious resolution. I’m not sure if I’m curious enough to see what finally happens when the 3rd book comes out. Maybe we’ll get to visit the Russian portion and find out about Eli. Hopefully, anyway.

6/10

This is turning out to be a really good series, I am enjoying the characters of Lizbeth and Eli so much and am of course looking forward to book #3.