Week 29 ~ Exit Strategy

Week 29 ~ July 16-22

Exit Strategy
by Kelley Armstrong
(fiction, thriller, mystery?)

This is an enjoyable book by one of my favorite urban fantasy writers, and yet I didn't enjoy it nearly so much as her Otherworld series. I liked it enough that I'm not sorry I bought it, but it's debatable whether I'll buy the next one (assuming there is a next one) as quickly as I did this one. (I bought this book within a day or two of its release date.)

One of the reasons I didn't like this book as much as Armstrong's other work is the genre. I highly prefer my fiction to have an element of the paranormal in it. Doesn't have to be werewolves or magic or elves, but I don't like straight fiction nearly as much as fiction with a twist. (I read to escape. How much of an escape is reading about a world that actually exists? Not quite enough, for me.)

Another reason I prefer the Otherworld series is the main male character's voice. Jack has a consistent way of speaking where he brings the subject up as a question, and then provides his take on it. So: This book? Like it well enough. In comparison? Not so much. It's a great way of characterizing him, and she's very consistent with it, so the writing itself is solid. But it bugs me, and so I didn't like him much, and so the read wasn't as enjoyable.

But... all that said. The book is solid. It's well written, with the quality I have come to expect from Kelley. The twists are nicely disguised, and as long as you pause to read the chapter headings (numbers for main characters, names for villain) you won't be confused by the occasional POV shifts. I think this is a great branching out for one of my favorite authors, and I hope she can make a go of it. I definitely do recommend the book, especially for those people who like straight fiction better than I do.