I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris Series: Gunnie Rose #2
Published by Gallery/Saga Press on January 14 2019
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A solid follow-up to An Easy Death, unfortunately I wasn’t as wowed by this book as other readers.
I really had high hopes for this book, since I loved An Easy Death so much, but I felt the plot in this sequel lacked the excitement and punch I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I loved about A Longer Fall, which I’ll go into below, but overall I was a little disappointed, especially with the ending.
The story revolves around Lizbeth Rose, a “gunnie”—gun for hire—who has just joined a new crew called the Lucky Crew. Lizbeth and her fellow gunnies have been hired to protect a crate on its way to the town of Sally, but before they make it to their destination, the train blows up, injuring and killing scores of passengers. Lizbeth suspects that someone is after the crate and what’s inside (which is a mystery to the crew) and the train was attacked as a distraction. Sure enough, in the confusion of the aftermath of the accident, the crate disappears.
Lizbeth is nothing if not tenacious and thorough, and she knows she won’t get paid for the job unless she finds the crate and takes it to the drop off point. Struggling with her own injuries, Lizbeth is surprised to find an old acquaintance has arrived to help out: Eli Savarov, a grigori (wizard) from the Holy Russian Empire. Strangely enough, Eli knows all about the crate and his mission seems to intersect with Lizbeth’s. They decide to join forces to locate the crate, but navigating the conservative town of Sally has its challenges. Posing as husband and wife, Lizbeth and Eli find themselves caught up in a battle in between two different factions in Sally, trying to stay alive long enough to set things right.
Lizbeth is by far the best part of this book. The story is told from her first person point of view, and her odd brand of blunt, wry humor permeates every sentence. She’s a first-rate gunnie and a cold-blooded killer, but when she and Eli get to Sally and have to blend in while they search for the crate, Lizbeth is horrified when Eli makes her change her wardrobe. I loved the scenes where she’s wearing dresses (probably for the first time ever!) and bitching about it:
“Today I wore my pale blue skirt with little white flowers, and the white blouse. I felt like an idiot.”
I also enjoyed Lizbeth and Eli together in this story, although I have to admit that Eli is a bit too sexist at times. In An Easy Death, they sort of hooked up but then separated at the end. Now that Eli’s back, of course he wants to resume their relationship, and Lizbeth doesn’t seem to mind at all, although she’s wary of him ditching her again. Lizbeth has an odd, standoffish way about her. She’s happy to jump into bed with Eli whenever the opportunity arises, but she comes across as emotionally flat. I like to think it’s because her lifestyle is so violent and she doesn’t want to endanger the people she loves, but at times this emotional disconnect bothered me. I also didn’t care for the way Eli kept so many secrets from Lizbeth. I mean, they’re working and sleeping together, yet he coyly keeps refusing to tell her what’s going on with the crate.
I love the world that Harris has created, a sort of post apocalyptic, Wild West with Russian wizards. The world-building was much stronger in the first book, probably because the author was trying to set the stage. In this book, she backs off the world building details and focuses more on the plot, so I didn’t get as strong a sense of the world I loved so much. The elements are there, but Harris only mentions certain things in passing, assuming readers will already know what she’s talking about. This story is a rather tightly focused one, as most of the action takes place in the town of Sally, but Harris’ world is huge, and I was craving some of the more exotic locations and details from the first book.
Finally, the ultimate mystery of the crate and its contents was a bit of a let-down, I have to admit. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was hoping for something more exciting and less social commentary. It’s hard to talk about because I don’t want to spoil the story, but after all the casual violence and murder in this story—and most of it at the hands of Lizbeth and Eli—I feel like Harris had a change of heart at the end and tried to turn the story into feel-good, “we can all get along” sort of plot that just had me shaking my head in confusion. Maybe you can attribute it to the weirdness of Sally, I mean Lizbeth hated that town and couldn’t wait to leave. Still, the resolution just fell flat for me.
Overall, I finished this book with a “ho hum” sort of feeling, although you’ll see plenty of rave reviews on Goodreads, so maybe it’s just me. However, despite my lukewarm reaction, I’m still on board for more Gunnie Rose stories. What the book lacks in the plot department, it totally makes up for it with the characters, the humor and especially Lizbeth’s voice. I’m already anxiously awaiting the title and cover reveal of the next book!
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
It’s okay if you don’t like a book as much as other readers. If we all liked the same book equally, the world would be a bland place!
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…R.I.P. Daddy
Exactly! I always worry though, when it seems like I’m the ONLY one who doesn’t like a book.
Great review Tammy! Bummer about the ending, it sounds like the rest of the book was a blast. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Charlaine Harris book (no, not even a Sookie Stackhouse). Maybe I’ll check this series out. I like Wild West stuff.
Definitely read An Easy Death first, it’s so good!
I pretty much swore off Charlaine Harris after finishing the Sookie books. This series does sound interesting, but I’m really wary about getting involved in her worlds again.
Yeah, she’s definitely hit or miss for me. I loved the first three Sookie books but then they got really bad. And I wasn’t crazy about her last series either.
Sequels are so tricky. I feel like you either love them totally or be a little disappointed by them. And 3.5 star reviews are tricky as well. Great review, though! ♥
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Thanks Stephanie! I really wouldn’t want to be a writer, because sequels would really stress me out:-)
I have this one from the library now. I’m thrilled for more Eli thought I found him to be somewhat of an ass in the first one. He was a likable ass at least. And yes, I adore Lizbeth and that quote is classic! Do we know if this is just a trilogy? And I hope we don’t have to wait as long between books because wasn’t it close to a year and a half between 1 and 2?
Likable ass, I like that description. There is something sweet about Eli, even though he has a weird sexist thing going on. I’m not sure how long the series is, but book #3 is up on Goodreads, just no title yet.
I really need to try something of hers. You know I’ve never read or saw True Blood. What am I doing with my life lol
Oh wow, True Blood was so good!!
Glad you liked this more than I did! It just didn’t work for me, but especially the ending.
Yeah, that ending! WTF?
It was almost like she had an ending all set but the story didn’t come out to fit it, and then she just MADE it fit. Very annoying!
Exactly! It feel like there was something going on there, either with her forcing the ending, or an editor telling her to change it. It just felt so weird to me.
Great, very fair-minded review Tammy:)). And it looks as if our views on this one lined up quite a bit – I think I probably like Eli more than you do, though. But we definitely agree about that ending. It did cross my mind that someone mentioned to her it would be a good idea if A Longer Fall could fall into the category of a ‘mood-boosting book’ and asked her to change the ending…
Yeah, I just felt like the ending was a completely different feel than the rest of the story. But I still have high hopes for the next one! I can’t wait to read your review:-)
Even though this one was lackluster, Tammy, it speaks volumes that you are still excited for the next one. This author certainly knows how to write humor and great characters.
She does, and I feel invested in this series now and don’t want to miss out:-)
Oh no, the low(ish) rating makes me so sad! I’m hoping to read this soon so I didn’t too closely into the details, but I did see from other reviews to beware the ending, which seems to be where the book loses a lot of its readers. I’ll be prepared when I go in, hopefully that will help a little 🙂
I’ll be curious to see what you think:-)
Well, my slight disappointment about the ending is a mixed feeling because I’m also really intrigued. I will get to this one at some point.
Lynn 😀
Hopefully you will love it more than me:-)
Great review! I have yet to read the first one but I am working towards it!
The first book is fantastic:-)
Sorry this one was a bit of a let down for you. Still looking forward to it. Hopefully I won’t have the same issues. *crossing my fingers*
Looking forward to your review!
This book sort of just came onto my radar when I was asked if we should get it for our library, and I said yes (because people have checked out the first?) but also … what is this series and who is this fierce-looking chica?! And then your review popped up and yaaay lol.
“a sort of post apocalyptic, Wild West with Russian wizards” — you had me at this. 😛 It sounds like I should definitely check out this series, even if you didn’t like this one as much as the first book.
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It’s definitely worth reading, and so many readers gave this book 5 stars so it may just be a matter of my personal tastes.
It sounds like this was an okay sequel but it still didn’t have the wow factor that the previous book had and therefore it was a bit disappointing in comparison. Especially when it comes to the plot and what it amounted too. But I am glad you could enjoy reading about the main character 🙂
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I’ve seen this happen with Harris’ sequels in other series, but she always seems to bounce back. I’m hoping that happens again:-)
Sorry to hear this one didn’t wow you, Tammy. I’m glad it hasn’t soured you on the series overall though.
I still love the characters, so I’m hopeful for the next one:-)
I have yet to read any Charlaine Harris books. This gunnie for hire sounds pretty interesting!
Thanks for the review. I was interested in learning more about Charlaine Harris’ new series.