Seanan McGuire is one of the most prolific and inventive fantasy authors today. I have no excuse for not having read any of the previous "Incryptid" novels, and found to my delight that I could pick up this one, in the middle, and enjoy it fully. I'll be on the lookout for subsequent -- and previous -- books set in this colorful, complex world.

Great story, but I was a little lost not having read the books before this one. Still enjoyed the story and chartacters.

This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

(Description nicked from Goodreads.com.)

“As the youngest of the three Price children, Antimony is used to people not expecting much from her. She’s been happy playing roller derby and hanging out with her cousins, leaving the globe-trotting to her older siblings while she stays at home and tries to decide what she wants to do with her life. She always knew that one day, things would have to change. She didn’t think they’d change so fast.

Annie’s expectations keep getting shattered. She didn’t expect Verity to declare war on the Covenant of St. George on live television. She didn’t expect the Covenant to take her sister’s threat seriously. And she definitely didn’t expect to be packed off to London to infiltrate the Covenant from the inside…but as the only Price in her generation without a strong resemblance to the rest of the family, she’s the perfect choice to play spy. They need to know what’s coming. Their lives may depend on it.

But Annie has some secrets of her own, like the fact that she’s started setting things on fire when she touches them, and has no idea how to control it. Now she’s headed halfway around the world, into the den of the enemy, where blowing her cover could get her killed. She’s pretty sure things can’t get much worse.

Antimony Price is about to learn just how wrong it’s possible for one cryptozoologist to be.”

This is my least favorite of the Incryptid books so far. Now, that’s not saying anything too bad, because I did still like this book and enjoy it. It is not, however, one that I found completely un-put-downable. My standards have gotten pretty high when I see that Seanan McGuire has authored a book, so maybe I’m being too picky, but again, I expect a lot from one of her books.

One of the things I like the most about McGuire’s prose is her ability to create memorable characters. In this series, the main characters have consistently been not only well-fleshed out in their own right, but they’ve also been meticulously fitted to the family they come from. Let me give you an example: Verity, star of the first book, is encountered mostly on her own in New York, but her status as a member of the Price family is solid. She may not live with them—or even near them—but she’s in close enough communication with them and references them enough that you get the sense of a cohesive group. The same goes for Alex, who takes the stage in book three. His love of herpetology fits with the main plot but also hearkens back to his family’s love of (and protection of) cryptids.

Antimony just didn’t live up to that standard, in my opinion. Being in an “undercover” role, she has almost no communication with her family beyond a couple of contacts with one of the family’s ghosts. Her memories are mostly focused on her time spent with the Campbell family carnival, during which time she was away from the rest of the Price clan. Maybe this wouldn’t have stood out to me so much if this story had been written earlier in the series, but after five previous novels with strong family connections, I felt that the lack was noticeable.

I also had a bit of an issue with Antimony’s self-identifying as a “derby girl”—she’s into roller derby in a big way. Although we do see a short scene of her at a derby practice at the start of the story, her actual participation in a derby never comes up again. We see her doing all kinds of acrobatics, but no skating. This is in stark contrast to Verity’s ballroom dancing, which is always significantly present, or Alex’s love of all things reptilian. Again, in many ways this departure from previous form is dictated by the plot, but it wasn’t something I was as fond of.

Beyond that, as an entry into this series, I liked it well enough. The pacing is good, the setting is unique, and the rest of the cast gets just enough fleshing out to work well with the main character. We get to encounter a few more kinds of cryptids and have some encounters with the Covenant of St. George up close and personal. And as usual, the Aeslin mice are adorable.

The Price family tale gets more and more complicated as the novels unfold, and I’m eager to see where things go in the next book, Tricks for Free. Honestly, your mileage may vary on the character issues that I grumbled about, but I doubt you’ll take issue with the plot or storytelling.

You guuuuyyyys, I LOVED this book! I requested it without realizing it was the 6th in a series. I just knew I loved Every Heart a Doorway and the summary sounded promising. It's definitely less serious than Every Heart a Doorway, but more fun.

I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book.

Seriously.

I really liked the irreverent humor and the supernatural creatures incorporated into everyday life. I really like Antimony as a character and Aeslin mice are endlessly amusing.

Also, this might not be important to everyone, but I appreciate the quality and quantity of profanity in this book. Foul language written so naturally into a character's dialog indicates a real-life proficiency in cursing that, in my opinion, an author can't fake.

MAGIC FOR NOTHING took me a little bit longer to get into than other InCryptid novels. I’m not sure if it’s because of the new narrator - the youngest of the Price siblings, Antimony - or if it was because so much of the beginning relied on the backlash of the previous book. Once we got into the swing of things though - trapeze joke! - I really enjoyed it.

One of the main themes in the InCryptid books is the family you are born to or the one you choose, and it’s importance when the whole world seems to be against you. Or, in the case of the Price family, actually is. Since she isn’t blonde and perky like her siblings, Antimony gets sent to England to infiltrate the Covenant, the monster-killing group that the Price family ran away from a few generations back. Antimony finds long lost cousins among the killers, and long lost talking mice, too!

The Covenant send Antimony back to America to infiltrate a travelling carnival, and I adored the atmosphere and the people there. There are miscellaneous monsters, some we’ve seen before and new ones that were tons of fun. Once again, the scariest monsters are the humans, whether from the Covenant or otherwise.

MAGIC FOR NOTHING is fun, with carnie slang and ghost aunts aplenty. It’s not as sexy as some of the previous books, but I have high hopes for the next book, which is slated to some out in 2018.

I adore McGuire, and this is a solid entry in the Incryptid series. Can be read as a stand alone but you'll get way more from it having read the previous entries. Antimony is a fun heroine and I've been waiting for a book of hers for a long time. This doesn't disappoint

At the end of the last InCryptid novel, Chaos Choreography, Verity Price killed a giant snake on live television, then proceeded to challenge the Covenant of St. George, the monster hunting secret society from which the Prices defected four generations ago. Since the Covenant had believed they were dead, the family’s been looking over their shoulders for months. In order to find out just how much the Covenant knows and what they are planning, the Prices plan to send someone undercover to spy on the Covenant from within. And the only option is the youngest sibling, Antimony.

I’ve been looking forward to Annie’s book for years, since I read her roller derby story in the Games Creatures Play anthology, but it took me a long time to get into Magic for Nothing. I actually put it down and started another book twice. That’s partly because there’s very little action in the first half of the story. But mostly I think it was just because Annie wasn’t likable. She spends a lot of time bad mouthing her sister Verity, calling her selfish and stupid. In a way, I understand her point of view: Not only did Verity’s actions cause her current predicament, but Annie’s always felt like an outsider, isolated within her own family, because of the age difference from her siblings and because she takes after the opposite side of the family both in looks and the fact that she has magical ability. (She hasn’t told her family that though, for fear of being even more isolated.)

But all that Verity bashing puts me an awkward position. I’m a big fan of Verity’s from her starring role in three of the previous books in the series. Not only does Annie seem like a Negative Nelly, it feels like she’s attacking my friend. That’s probably not the best way to endear herself to me.

In the second half of the book, Annie goes on her first Covenant assignment, investigating a series of disappearances at a travelling carnival. From that point, the book was unputdownable. I loved the action of her trapeze act, not to mention her final explosive battle. I loved the carnies she meets, both human and not, though it takes a while for them to warm up to her too. Annie’s reverence for the carnival, its sights, sounds and smells, and its people shows that she can actually love something. She feels at home there, which makes her much more likable.

So while Antimony and I got off to a rocky start, I’m looking forward to the rest of her story. She’s also the main character in book seven, Tricks for Free.

Magic For Nothing (InCryptid) is a hi-flying hit! The characters and world building is well-developed. Antimony Price is the youngest of the Price children, and when her older sister lets the world know about monsters on T.V, she now has to go undercover. She goes overseas to join the Covenant to see what their plans are to come to the U.S. Her skills and her time spent in the circus is the perfect cover going in. By becoming a member of the Covenant, she sees them in a new light. She is a survivor and loves what she does. The other price kids are likable, but Antimony is the best of the bunch. This book will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end. I loved this book and series! This book does not disappoint! I recommend this book and series to everyone. I give MAGIC FOR NOTHING 5/5 STARS.

The newest Incryptid novel follows Antimony "Annie" Price as she travels to England to infiltrate the Covenant of St George after the disasterous giant snake incident in Chaos Choreography. Annie will need to use all her skills, including those learned both in the Brown Family Circus and in the roller derby rink to carry out an investigation right under the nose of the Covenant.

I have been eagerly awaiting this book since I read the short story featuring Annie in Glitter and Mayhem. She's very different from both Verity and Alex, who narrated the previous books in this series. She's sarcastic and tough and when she gets angry, fire tends to erupt from her fingers. I also find it amusing that her attitude towards Verity mirrors my own. One of my favourite things about the Incryptid series is that you can read them individually, though I would recommend reading the various narrators in order. So if you tried Discount Armageddon and were annoyed by Verity's selfishness, go ahead and try Half-Off Ragnarok (Alex arc) or Magic for Nothing (Annie arc). It's a funny series about cryptozoologists and you will fall in love with the Aeslin mice - HAIL!

If you are looking for a quick, amusing young adult/teen read with a lot of whining, teasing and some violence, then you have found the proverbial pot of gold with this fast read.

What I really disliked about this book is that Anitmony keeps blaming Verity for all of the families ill's when Antimony has the same sort of life, one in the spot light and hello? Falling for (spoiler alert) a monkey boy? Get real.

I've been following this series from the start and I see that it is usually a roller coaster ride for me. Well this book while not bad for me, wasn't the breath stealing dip that it should have been.

Publisher supplied this book for review although the rest of the series has been bought and beloved by myself!

The fourth book of the Cryptid series by Seanan McGuire brings us a new narrator which is very interesting. One of the best aspects of it is the difference in perspective and the view we, as readers, get of the ensuing circumstances. When her family is exposed to the murderous Covenant of St. George Antimony Price is tasked with going undercover to ascertain the extent of the damage. In doing so, Antimony finds herself in enemy territory with no one to turn to as events begin to get out of hand. I really enjoy these books (almost as much as the October Daye series) and this book is a turning point in the series.

I've been a fan of Seanan McGuire for a few years now (which in terms of McGuire’s book production equals about 300,000 books and short stories published (the absolutely amazing thing is that this is not nearly the staggering hyperbole that it appears to be when compared to reality).

Of McGuire’s books, I have a special place in my heart for her InCryptid series, as it was the first series that got me hooked on her writhing, but I've always been a little disappointed in their somewhat one off/duology nature of each of the books in the series. Yes, the books are connected and they mention some of the events from previous books, but for the most part the newer books in the series don't feel the effects of the previous books in the series until the protagonist switches back to the one in which the events occurred (meaning Alex feels the effects of his books, and Verity hers). There are of course benefits to this. First, it makes it significantly easier for new readers to jump into a series, thus allowing for a larger readership. Second, this offers easy outlets for McGuire to experiment and jump between narrators with little downside. The con however is that if this type of writing is done to often then readers can become somewhat bored, feeling that they know the formula of the writing and events, making the stories somewhat dull and predictable. That is not to say that the stories themselves are dull or that writers cannot draw from a formula to entice readers, this just points out that if done too often, the lack of consequences can cause readers to possibly become bored. (Please note that McGuire’s books are not boring, nor have they reached the repetitious point described above, this was only mentioned to emphasize the importance that McGuire’s switch to a ramification based series has on the series.)

That's why I was utterly shocked that the Magic For Nothing begins in the final moments of the previous book in the series Chaos Choreography, except from Antimony's point of view. For those that have not read Chaos Choreography, please be aware that the following section will contain spoilers.

Not only does Magic For Nothing take up in the final moments of Chaos Choreography, but because of Verity’s shocking declaration of war against the Covenant, Magic For Nothing’s entire premise is based on the effects of Verity’s actions. This includes forcing Antimony’s primary action in her attempts to infiltrate the Covenant, as well as her family’s resentment towards Verity for her selfish actions in dancing on TV and declaring war on the Covenant. This is the first time that we’ve seen such a divide/resentment in the actions of the different Price family members, and as a reader of the series it is absolutely fascinating. Not only that, but these actions bring up many feelings of resentment that have been there under the surface, making the emotional turmoil much more realistic for a close-knit family who all are forced into the family business in one way or another.

As for the book itself, other than a surprising lack of explosives (this being Antimony’s book and all), Magic For Nothing was positively ripe with action and intense sequences as Antimony infiltrates not one but two different organizations (the Covenant and the Carnival). Of course, McGuire also does a fantastic job, using the Carnival and Antimony’s surprising connection to her long-lost cousin to more fully explore Antimony’s feelings of resentment, duty, and loneliness in relation to her family and their dynamic. This is absolutely fascinating, as Verity mostly thought of herself and her dancing, trying to get out of the family business, Alex mostly cared about his research, with an almost accidental romance on the side, yet it is Antimony, the youngest and most disconnected to the family, having been teamed up against by her siblings while growing up, who seems to be the most loyal to a family and who takes on the greatest risks.

These emotional and physical ramifications propel the series forward in a way that has me positively shaking in my boots with excited energy for more.

All in all, I was a big fan of Magic For Nothing. It had action, great character development, insight into other characters in the series, and even ended with one heck of a cliff hanger that will leave readers (or at the very least THIS reader) positively begging for the next book in the series.

Another Price sibling, another great installment of the Incryptid series!

I wasn't really looking forward to reading MAGIC FOR NOTHING, but once I started reading I didn't want to put it down. Antimony never really stuck out to me as someone that would be interesting to read about, but my first impressions were wrong. Although I found it hard to really like Annie in the beginning of MAGIC FOR NOTHING—especially when she was being such a biatch to Verity, I love Verity—she grew on me and I found out that she has reasons to feel the way she does. She ended up being the perfect family member to infiltrate the Covenant and proved she was just as bad-ass as the rest of the family.

The romance aspect of the story was a little weird and a bit hard to really get into, but overlooking the awkward facts was easier as the story progressed. Not sure if things will continue into the future, but it will be interesting to find out.

Annie had to make some really hard decisions at the end of MAGIC FOR NOTHING that put her even farther out of the reach of her family. I really hate them for putting her in the situation in the first place, but I understand it and hope they are have something on the back burner to help her out. Either way, the Incryptid series continues to draw me in.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you know me, you know that I’m a big fan of Seanan McGuire and I always look forward to each of her new novels. I love her two series either October Daye or the InCryptid one. That’s why I was very curious to get into this sixth volume with Magic for Nothing. It must be said that the end of the preceding volume with the declaration of war by Verity for the Covenant of St. George, nothing could return as it was.

During the novels, we had the chance to follow Verity and her brother Alex and it’s true that it was very interesting to learn more about this family although I still have a small preference for Verity. But here we can discover another character by following the little last of the family: Antimony. She who has not yet decided what she wants to do with her life, will be put on the front of the stage. Indeed, the Price family has been waiting since the announcement of Verity and tries to know how the Covenant will act. The perfect solution would be to send someone to spy on their rank. But for that, they need a person who can not be recognized at the first opportunity and only Antimony corresponds to that profile. Novice in this matter, our heroine is going to be sent to Europe to infiltrate the Covenant while trying to hide her secret, the one she tries to control and which can ignite by a simple touch. Reaching their ranks, she is sent under cover in a traveling circus where she has to flush the creatures hiding there … Yet it seems much more complicated than expected, especially when Annie falls under the spell of the son of the manager.

I did not think that I could really appreciate a character as much as Verity but I confess that I now have a big weakness for Annie. She is a young woman full of freshness, ready to do anything to help her family and to save those she desires to help. It was very touching to see her relationship with Sam and to see her being herself in this circus. But it was also sad to see her torn between the Covenant and her desire to do well. It was really interesting how this organization was ruled, their desire to kill anyone who is different without trying to differentiate between good and evil. Moreover, I confess that I was really intrigued by one of the descendants of the Covenant, Leo, especially with this end and I am very curious to see what will happen thereafter. In any case, Seanan McGuire completely took me into her story that kept me curious throughout the chapters. A series that I can only recommend!

Six books deep and we have finally met Antimony. It happens kids, we've heard about her over and over and seen her in passing, but finally we have her. I have to say, she just might be my favorite Price too!
Let me back up. Magic For Nothing is the continuation of the Incryptid series, the last
book being Chaos Choreography. Chaos Choreography ends with Verity declaring, on live television, that the Prices are here and they're ready to stand up and fight for their Cryptid neighbors. Which means of course - that everyone goes into defensive.
Antimony, being the one Price who doesn't look like her ancestors, is asked to go undercover. She has to join the Covenant of St. George. The Prices need to know what the Covenant knows and what they plan on doing.
Antimony has always been described by her siblings, best way I can think to put it, as stab happy. She was the one that loved to survive. She didn't have something that didn't revolve around that simple fact. Yet, we come to find out she has more dimension to it than that. And she gives us a view of the rest of her family - specifically Verity that we've never seen before. She's twenty-two and understandably angry with what's happening. Which makes her all the more believable.
She's the strongest of all of the Price kids that I've read, I think. I love Alex with his quite and bookish strength. Verity is the perfect kick ass guardian of Manhattan but Antimony sits right in the middle.
Besides my clear love of Antimony she also gives us a new perspective on the Covenant and she sees them in a new way. Remember, we have to follow her into their ranks. There are some wild ones there, but there is unexpected depth to them. Past the Covenant I don't want to give what she has to do away but the people she meets and the things she has to do had me glued to the page. The last 20% of the book I was clenching my poor Kindle so hard I thought my case would break. I knew what was coming, and so did she, but we could only wait. Seanan did an amazing job of building the tension and building our love of our characters and what they were going through. This had to be the most intense last portion of an Incryptid book yet.
Look, I can't give the book in huge flaws. The only thing I could scrounge up to say is I wish we had gotten more, and that's my common complaint on all these. I loved this. I cannot wait for book 7, and if you're behind or aren't sure if this one is worth getting. I give you a whole hearted 'Yes, pick this up. Catch up. Read this!'
It's a hell of a ride and likely my favorite so far. Amazing.

I love this series so I was quite excited when I found out that it was time for Antimony, the youngest of the Price siblings, to take the spotlight. She's not had a major role in the previous books but I enjoyed her short stories (if you haven't already discovered all the free short stories that Seanan McGuire posts on her website you're really missing out, they give so much extra background insight into the series and are well worth reading!) and was looking forward to getting to know her better.

Magic for Nothing picks up the story right at the end of Chaos Choreography where Verity makes a rather huge announcement on national TV and pretty much taunts the Covenant of St George to come looking for her and the rest of her family. I have to agree with Annie that Verity didn't really think things through before she made that declaration but she'd been through quite a lot at that point and I don't think there was a chance that the Covenant would have missed her battling a giant snake god on live TV so the gig was pretty much up before Verity even said a word! Anyway, the Covenant now know that the family are still out there and the Prices are in desperate need of information about what their future plans are so they have the brilliant idea of sending Annie, the black sheep of the family, to London so she can infiltrate the Covenant and spy on them. If you think that sounds like a disaster just waiting to happen you wouldn't be far wrong. Let's face it, it's not going to be easy for Annie to join up with the enemy and pretend to be brainwashed into their way of thinking.

Annie's parents have always been incredibly over protective of her, she's the baby of the family and they are much harder on her than they ever have been on Verity and Alex so it was a little surprising that they'd be willing to send her into the clutches of the Covenant. Annie will be completely alone when she's carrying out her mission, it's not like the rest of the family can hop on a plane to mount a rescue mission if she gets in trouble and they don't even have Cryptid contacts in London to keep an eye out for her as the local populations have been decimated by the Covenant's purges. Annie has certainly taken on a huge task when she agrees to the challenge, especially considering a rather large secret that she's been keeping from everyone, one that could very easily lead to her being caught by the Covenant. I have to say I admired her bravery and her determination to prove herself to her family, she always wanted them to respect her more so she jumps at this chance to show them what she's capable of.

It's very hard to like any of the Covenant members, I know the Price family has a history of converting them but I'm not convinced any of the characters we meet here will be willing to leave the dark side. It was interesting to get to see more of their distant cousin Margaret though, I don't particularly like her but she hasn't had it easy because the Covenant see her family as traitors and are constantly checking up on her to make sure she doesn't follow suit. Leon seems the most likeable but I'm still very wary of him and all of the others. After completing her Covenant training Annie is sent on her first mission and it was at this point that I really started falling in love with the side characters. Sam was a particular favourite and I really, really hope we get to see more of him in the next book, I just thought he and Annie were adorable together.

Magic for Nothing has a different feel to it than the previous books in the series, the stakes are higher than ever and Annie is completely cut off from the family for most of the book so she's totally on her own trying to handle everything. The aeslin mice are on hand to add plenty of humour though, even if they are there as a sort of black box for Annie and are supposed to report back to the family in case anything happens to her. The ending was pretty heartbreaking in several ways, poor Annie has jumped out of the frying pan and landed in the middle of the fire so it's going to be really interesting to see where she goes from here. I was already a huge fan of this series but now I'm more eager than ever for the next instalment and I can't wait to spend more time in this world.

Source: Received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well done continuation of the Incryptid series. This whole book is told from Antimony’s point of view. It was a lot of fun to read and we learn a lot more about the Covenant of St. George.

Antimony (Annie) is the youngest of the Price kids and always feels over protected. She gets her thrills from participating in roller derby and in general kind of lays low. When she is asked in infiltrate the Covenant of St. George it’s quite a change of pace for her.

I really enjoyed some of the side themes to this book. It was interesting to learn more about roller derby culture and I also loved learning more about modern day carnivals. Additionally I continue to enjoy all of the crazy incryptids we meet. If you could really be a cryptozoologist I would be all over that!

Annie was a fun character and I enjoyed reading about her. It was intriguing to see how Annie views the other Price kids (Verity and Alex). I never really thought of Verity as selfish, but Annie thinks she’s nothing but.

We meet a whole new crowd of interesting characters in this book. There is a lot of action and the book is fast-paced. This book deals with a lot of the fallout caused by Verity outing the Prices to the Covenant of St. George on national TV.

Overall this was a well done book that was fun to read. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Verity’s books but I think Annie will grow on me more in future books. I did really enjoy some of the settings and topics (roller derby, modern carnivals, Covenant of St. George). This continues to be a very well done light-hearted urban fantasy series. I would recommend to fans of light-hearted UF.

TL;DR review: go read this book, it's loads of fun.

Read on for actual details.

At the end of Chaos Choreography, Verity Price fought off a summoned snake god on live television as a competitor on the reality TV show Dance or Die (turned out this special season was taking that title a bit too literally). And if that wasn't enough to blow the Price family cover... once Verity realizes the fight was broadcast live and her disguise is ruined, she tells the Covenant of St. George to stay the hell out of North America.

So now the Covenant is gearing up for war against the Price family, and looking to purge as many 'monsters' living in North America as possible while they're at it. Oh joy.

The youngest of the Price children, Antimony isn't the one to make waves or seek out trouble (she leaves that to her older siblings). She hasn't had to really step up. But as the only (human) Price of her generation that doesn't bear a marked resemblance to the family bloodline, she's the only option for infiltrating the Covenant and (with any luck) learning the Covenants plans for her family. A cover story for her skills and background comes by easy enough, after all, she spent whole seasons with the circus. But the rest of it relies on quick thinking and luck that no one recognizes the family line she does resemble. Also, she's been accidentally catching on fire lately, and is only just learning to control her nascent powers. What could go wrong?


What can I say? It's Seanan McGuire, the book is engaging and entertaining. The fact that the title brings Dire Straights to mind is just a bonus. I loved the circus setting... and the Aeslin mice are always a joy to read about. Though, we're also given reminders that they're more than just adorable worshipful fuzzballs. They have their own goals and plots.

Probably my biggest criticism of this book (and something that really stood out to me while trying to write this book) is that Antimony really needs to grow up. I kept having to rewrite sentences as I looked at what I wrote and went "dear lord she sounds like a spoiled brat." The Price family has built their whole lives around the fear of being discovered and hunted down by the Covenant of St. George, while also striving to protect the non-humans in North America. It's not a life-style that lends itself well to a prolonged childhood/adolescence. Yet, Antimony is early 20's, basically just living at home and playing roller derby. And yeah, I get sibling resentment and issues along those lines, and maybe I need to re-read some of the other fiction, but the amount of resentment and anger she has towards her "selfish" older sister Verity is staggering.

The story does force Antimony to grow up fast as she faces danger and difficult decisions, but at the same time she manages to remind the reader how new she is to responsibility. Actually, speaking of resentment (and hatred), I feel kind of bad for Margaret Healy. She was born to the wrong part of the Price family and that has twisted her whole life.

The romance is kept light, with one possible sex scene left vague and off scene. Actually, the romance went in a direction I did not expect at all from the first few chapters, and I don't mind the surprise (can't really say more without spoiling).

If this book had been marketed as a young adult novel, I'd have ranked it 4+ stars. As it is, the frequent pop culture references, immaturity of the main character, and of various side characters is, in my opinion, off-putting to adult fantasy readers. That said this author does have a gift for putting her protagonists into interesting and compelling situations that make you want to know what happens next. I would recommend it highly to teens (or adults that prefer YA fiction) and for adults interested in more mature fair, steer them towards this author's other, October Daye series instead.

Antimony is mad at Verity, she has just outed them to the whole world. No longer does the Covenant believe the Price's are dead and gone. What's worse she declared war on them and North America off limits. So because Antimony doesn't look like the rest of her family, she actually looks like a Price not a Healy, she is asked to go undercover into the Covenant and find out what they are up against. It's a mission of utmost importance and the stakes are high, she could pay for this with her life.

Once Antimony arrives in London she heads to the "recruitment" center, and meets Leo Cunningham. The heir to the leader of the Covenant, and while he flirts with her Antimony isn't the least bit tempted. She knows he would never leave the Covenant, and she will never believe as they as do. Posing as a member of the Black Carnival, Antiomy puts her skills to use and soon she finds that the Covenant wants her to go undercover for them in America. She is playing a dangerous game with only Mindy (her Aeslin mouse) on her side. Although while in London, Mindy finds the Lost Colony and when Mork joins Antimony and Mindy, the Aeslin mice are setting up a way for them to help the lost colony escape the Covenant.

Once Antiomy arrives at the Carnival she faces another extreme amount of tests in order to get in and the anger of a young man named Sam. Soon Antimony is on the trail of the member of the Carnival who is making people disappear, and all the while she keeping the Covenant away from the Carnival. It becomes clear that it is all going to go wrong, especially when Antimony finds herself unable to fight her attraction to Sam who just happens to be a Monkey. Will she be able to save the people in the Carnival? Will she find the killer without disappearing herself?

Oh my word, this series just reached a new level with this book. It is my favorite. I was almost in tears at the end, I loved Antimony even more than Verity or Alex. She is the youngest of the three siblings, and in this book, she faces situations that are much more terrifying than what the others have faced. She grows up, she falls a little in love and makes heartbreaking decisions. Seanan is on the top of her game, I didn't think I would ever be as invested or love this series as much as October, but it just took reading and connecting with Antimony to put this series on par with October's.

I didn't know if it would work for me switching viewpoints every few books, but I have to say that I love each one of the siblings in a different way. Alex is thoughtful and wary of violence, Verity is like a force of nature, and Antimony is a just, I don't even have the words for her. I was blown away, on the edge of my seat one minute, biting my nails the next, laughing out loud, and on the verge of tears and I immediately wished this wasn't the latest book, so that I could run out and read the next one right away. I can't believe I have to wait a whole year...