Bravo Bravo! Amy Kuivalainen has done it again.
The Magicians of Venice is the second series by this author that I have read and I have not been disappointed at all. By the way, the first one was A Firebird Faerie Tales and I loved every page, so I highly recommend it!
The first book in this series is The Immortal City and it is a fantastic book, from its beautiful cover, its well-characterized characters, its descriptions of Venice, the plot that is a mixture of fantasy, romance and action with paranormal touches.
Miss Kuivalainen is one of the few authors who write stories so immersive that the reader does not feel the passage of time, nor can they stop reading her books.
I thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

I couldn't get into this book - it didn't hold my attention. I can't give a rating as I didn't read enough of it to get a good impression. I am rating this 3 stars as I cannot submit without a rating.

I loved this book! It took me completely by surprise, I'm so sad it took me so long to read!
The city of Atlantis is such an intriguing plot point to use and the author does it so so well. I was engaged with the characters and sped through this book in a couple of days. My favourite thing about this book was how Penelope as the MC is thrown into a world of history, fantasy and adventure ... plus the magicians were epic. Id love to read more in this world.

The immortal city is a fast paced book with a spunky heroine. A must read by fiction and mystery lovers.

Venice is such a fantastic city to set a fantasy novel in if the author does atmospheric content well, and this book doesn’t disappoint.

I loved the story’s sense of adventure and sense of place, even though mythological fantasy and gods as foes aren’t my favorite genre tropes.

Kusivalainen handles the subject well anyway, and though it’s not my preference she managed to weave a plot using gods as adversaries that doesn’t feel like it breaks all its own world building rules, a common problem when this trope is used.

I was kind of bored with the character interactions and romantic subplot, but neither is enough of a problem to interfere with enjoyment of the novel.

This is the first book I have read by this author and hope to read more in the future.

The Immortal City was a great fantasy with well-crafted characters and an easy to follow storyline.

Synopsis:
Dr. Penelope Bryne is ridiculed by the academic community for her quest to find the remnants of Atlantis, but when an ancient and mysterious script is found at a murder site, she flies to Venice determined to help the police before the killer strikes again.

Penelope has spent her entire life trying to ignore the unexplainable and magical history of Atlantis, but when she meets the enigmatic Alexis Donato, everything she believes will be challenged. Little does she know, Alexis has spent the last three years doing his best to sabotage Penelope’s career so doesn’t learn the truth—Atlantis had seven magicians who survived, and who he has a duty to protect.

As Alexis draws her into the darkly, seductive world of magic and history, Penelope will have to use her heart as well as her head if she is to find the answers she seeks.

4 big stars! This is a great urban paranormal romance/mystery novel set in Venice. This starts with a murder then quickly introduces the reader into the concept of magic and underground demons. This was a quick fun read and a great start to this trilogy. The main characters were interesting, likeable and well-developed. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review.

This review was posted on Goodreads August 21, 2019. I apologize for never posting it here in this feedback section.

This is an urban fantasy set in Venice and featuring immortal magicians. The positives (for some readers) are that it's a fast and easy read with an interesting setting and premise. There was great potential for this story, but the delivery was very disappointing. Since this is a fantasy, I'll break down the review into the categories of Characters, Plot, and World-building.

Characters: When it comes to the fleshing out of characters, the author was very inconsistent. Some of the characters were well described both physically and personality-wise; however, many of them felt like place holders whose entire characterization was boiled down to a single attribute. <spoiler> The character of Zo had no impact on the story. He was described physically and is an immortal poet... that's all we know. We have an entire character who is an immortal magician and he does nothing but cook. This can be said for almost every supporting character.</spoiler> The characters were also prone to nonsensical actions in order to create moments that the author was determined to present us with regardless of the plot. which brings us to...

Plot: Something that was completely abandoned for the majority of this book. I actually found myself confused about the author's intentions for most of the story. This story felt like the author wanted to write a paranormal romance in a beautiful setting, and just threw in this "plot" as an after thought. The writing in my opinion was quite lazy when it came to this aspect and the inconsistencies killed most of the enjoyment for me. The characters seemed completely removed from this plot for most of the story, and the moments when we came back to it were jarring. <spoiler> We hear nothing about the case that our MC is in Venice to solve for most of the story. She's supposed to be investigating, yet all we hear about is her love of history, the archives, and her romantic interest. Even when she was going undercover at the ball, the plot based sequence was extremely short and sandwiched between longer scenes of her getting dressed and then having sex. </spoiler>

World Building: This part was fairly interesting, but again, lacked in delivery. We find out about magic that seems interesting, but we get to see almost none of it in action. The magic we do see is used for scenes that are so cliched that I was actually mad at the editor for allowing those scenes to pass. <spoiler> She finally decides to take a leap kiss her love interest (she's not 16 BTW but that's where her emotional maturity is in this story), and then goes to bed. Next day she goes to meet with inspector Dandolo to update on the investigation. Alexis is apparently distraught that she left the house, thinking that she was scared off by the kiss and ran away. I'm not kidding. Then he proceeds to use his cello playing magic to make everyone in their magical house feel heartbroken.... I'm getting annoyed again writing about this scene in this review. </spoiler> The history portion related to Atlantis and how the magicians came to be in Venice was well done and I wish the author had spent more time on that portion, and significantly less on the romance and comic relief portions.

Altogether I feel like this story suffered from a lack of focus and editing. This book reminded me of Twilight and I don't say this as an exaggeration or insult, I mean that many of the scenes felt like they came straight from that playbook. The fact that the plot was so thin and wasn't even resolved in this first installment was disappointing. If you don't have enough plot for a series then write a standalone, don't water it down to stretch it out and present your readers with pages and pages of filler.

Back when I requested a copy of The Immortal City on Netgalley, I was looking for something light and interesting book to read, thinking I’ll be having all the time finishing it before release. Life of course decided to kick my ass instead and a year passed somehow until my schedule cleared up enough to finally get to it. By this point I basically jumped into it blindly, I could not remember the blurb and decided not to look it up so it would be a mystery.

And The Immortal City does start out as a mystery. Modern-day Venice is plagued by a brutal murderer and Inspector Marco Dandolo asks for help from archeologist Dr. Penelope Byrne to help understand the strange symbols left at the scenes. Unlike herself, Penelope gets on the first plane to fly half a world over in hopes to get closer to learning something about Atlantis. Her efforts ridiculed by everyone, her career in ruins, she is unable to give up on finding answers. She knows Atlantis must have existed and a piece of stone tablet might prove it. As well as the murderer roaming free in Venice who uses very similar symbols. What Penelope finds though is a life-threatening danger, unexpected friendship, and new possibilities.

The Immortal City got me hooked pretty early on. I love crime fiction, especially if it’s paired with some fantasy. It starts our more crime fiction and ends up being more fantasy. I was intrigued by the investigation and was a bit disappointed when the focus switched to Penelope and Alex’s relationship. That’s where things have become a bit cliché. Not that it stopped me basically devouring the book. Was it predictable? Yeah. I didn’t really care about the MC, Penelope either, but there was still something in this book that just made me unable to stop reading. I probably read it at the right time and it just clicked with me on some level.

I liked the side-characters, the magicians living with Alexis. Phaedros, Aelia and Zo bring great comedic relief in their own way, while the others, Nereus, Lyca and Galenos are more serious. They balance each other out well. I somehow found Penelope a bit flat as a character among all these colorful, vibrant personalities. Sure, all of them have their problems and hardships, Penelope included, but she kind of felt like a tool in the plot rather than an active participant. Things are happening to her and she is by no means a weak character, just… not interesting enough I guess. It’s hard to explain.

The Immortal City is a fast-paced, decent Fantasy set in the beautiful Venice – of which we get not nearly enough by the way. It might be a perfect read for those who love Mystery books with star-crossed lovers and magic chasing thousands of years old myths. It has a lot going for it and Kuivalainen made Venice alive in this modern-day blood-soaked love story.

I ended up enjoying this story. The combination of history, fast-passed drama, and mystery was enough to keep me engaged.

I didn't expect to enjoy this but I did. Love how it's a cross between The Da Vinci Code and A Discovery of Witches. Looking forward to the next installment!

The beautiful and intricate world built by this author makes the whole reading experience worthwhile. The suspense was there, the character development was great. I was kind of confused at some parts but overall the experience was intriuiging. I just hope that I could have read this earlier. I LOVED the cover.

Dr. Penelope Bryne is ridiculed by the academic community for her quest to find the remnants of Atlantis, but when an ancient and mysterious script is found at a murder site, she flies to Venice determined to help the police before the killer strikes again. Penelope has spent her entire life trying to ignore the unexplainable and magical history of Atlantis, but when she meets the enigmatic Alexis Donato, everything she believes will be challenged. Little does she know, Alexis has spent the last three years doing his best to sabotage Penelope’s career so doesn’t learn the truth—Atlantis had seven magicians who survived, and who he has a duty to protect.
As Alexis draws her into the darkly, seductive world of magic and history, Penelope will have to use her heart as well as her head if she is to find the answers she seeks. With the new MOSE system due to come online, and Carnivale exploding around them, Penelope and Alexis will have to work together to stop the killer and prevent dark magic from pulling Venice into the sea.
Wow! This was a fast-paced adventure that I absolutely loved! I love (good) stories about the lost city of Atlantis. This thrilling mystery had my attention the entire time! I really liked Penelope and the adventure she embarked on. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

My thoughts
Would recommended it: Yes, in fact of my friends have already picked up a copy to read .
Would I read more of this series? Yes, and I already have book 2 which is called The Sea Of The Dead, thanks to the publishers and NetGalley , because as soon as I saw NetGalley had it I had to request it right then and there.
Would I read more by this author? Yes
First off I have to say that when I first saw this on NetGalley it was the cover that made me request it and I'm so gad I did because once I started reading I didn't want to stop. Another thing I liked was how at times it reminded me of the movie Stargate where you have a Doctor who does makes a discovery and then goes on to do a presenting about it ( just like Daniel Jackson) and just like him ( she finds little to no acceptance for her theory) and just like Daniel , she's invited to uses her knowledge to help the police solve a murder that might some how be connected to Atlantis.As for the book itself, it was everything I hoped it would be, the characters, the magic, the way the author brings Atlantis to life, and the characters ( ok so I said that twice ) but they was amazing,and had me laughing at times of the way they acted, and you could feel the attraction between Penelope and Alexis, and it wasn't fast burning at all, they took their time so it was like a slow burning that grew with each turn of the page. And each page brought them closer together. And bought the story more to life. With that said I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read and review and I can't wait to read the next book in June .

Could you say you never thought "what if magic was real, what would I do if it was real in my world" while reading a book about magic realism? For me, this, one of the books which makes me thought that.
Penelope has spent her entire life trying to find about the history of Atlantis (she knew it exists) while trying to ignore the unexplainable and magical history of Atlantis. Her father always was the first one who tries to stop her from going after her dream.
Dr. Penelope Bryne is ridiculed by the academic community for her quest to find the remnants of Atlantis. She found Atlantis tablet she thought it would be the key to her purpose, but what it had done was to set her up for more disappointment. When she just started her first holiday in two years, she got a mail about a case in Venice. Without thinking she went to Venice determined to help, the police before the killer strike again but found herself in a world she can't imagine.
Everything she believes will be challenged, the magic she tries to hard not to believe was real and learned about Atlantis even more than she can dream. In the darkly, seductive world of magic, Penelope will have to use her heart as well as her head if she is to find the answers she seeks and she wants to live.
I loved the story as soon as I read the excerpt. After began to read the book I can say it didn't disappoint me except the romance. Shortly I can do without details about the affairs between main characters. I read romance novels not much but I can love them from time to time. But for this story, I love the adventure so much that taking a break with the romance spoiled my joy (I can understand they need to have a connection with each other so the story will be more good). I love the other characters, other romance was a nice addition to the story and I love how the story builds as time pass but the ending was too quick looks like it's rushed. I couldn't believe how the evil plan come to ruin so easily when they prepared so thoroughly.
All with that I would recommend to anyone who wouldn't mind having romance in a well-developed magic realism story. I enjoy reading #TheImmortalCity first book in The Magicians of Venice Series by Amy Kuivalainen and I would like to read other books will come in the series. After this book, I would check Amy Kuivalainen's other books too. :))
Thanks to #NetGalley and the BHC Press providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review and making this available!
P.S. After the book published on 19 Sep 2019 I will add my review on my Goodreads and Instagram accounts (added 21.09.19).

I was unable to download the e-galley properly and thus could not write a review for this book. The Immortal City was written by Amy Kuivalainen and published on 9/19/2019.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Immortal City follows Penelope, an academic who is obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis. She has been ridiculed and had all but accepted her fate to become a professor when she is contacted by the Italian police. They need her help in order to make sense of a gruesome and sacrificial murder committed in Venice. While in Venice, Penelope finds herself in the cross hairs of a good looking mystery man who seems to have taken interest in these crimes as well. Can Penelope trust this stranger, or is she just pulling herself closer to being the next victim?

Let me start off this review by saying I put off reading this story for so long because I just knew it would be the author trying to replicate the success of The Davinci Code and didn't want to be disappointed. I am happily eating the biggest helping of crow I've had to swallow over a book in years. The plot holds it's own and while I do get Davinci Code vibes, it plays more with fantasy aspects that kept the plot refreshing enough to keep my wanting more. It is so well written, I'm kicking myself for not reading it sooner. The pacing is excellent and there is just the right blend of historical fiction, action, and just a touch of romance.

My only gripe is actually the romance. It's your very typical "girl is found by gorgeous stranger who awakens her to a new piece of the world and feelings in her loins that could shake the earth". It is extremely quickly developed that it finds a way to be off-putting. There is a sex scene towards the end of the book that just felt clunky, awkward, and unnecessary. Also, the show down with the Villian leaves something to be desired, but as this is meant to be the beginning of a series I appreciate a build up to leave us ready for the next installment.

Overall, it's a super enjoyable story with well developed characters and a exciting world that is well built. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction or even just fantasy lovers.

Unfortunately, this book is not for me. The murder plot could have hooked me in, but I just seem not to be able to grasp anything about the story. It was really hard for me to finish this. Anyway, maybe it was just not for me.

The book follows Penelope Barn, a doctor who is constantly made fun of by her fellow academia for her quest to find the ruins of Atlantis. My thoughts to describe this book for me, very bland and a bit dull. Definitely had potential but fell flat in the delivery. The plot just really failed to grab my attention

Unfortunately this book did not work out for me and I did not finish it. I don´t think that´s because it´s a bad book or poorly written, I´m sure a lot of people will love this book, just that it wasn´t for me.

Thank you #netgalley and #BHCPress for providing me with an e-arc of #TheImmortalCity