Devils & Thieves

July 15, 2017
Motorcycle gangs and magical powers: two great concepts that go unexpectedly well together. In Rush's version of the world, the kindled--those with magical powers--live among, but slightly separate from, the drecks, or ordinary humans. Recently graduated 18-year-old Jemmie, biracial daughter of a powerful Carmichael (protective locant power, Scottish antecedents) and a weak Cabrera (merata, or invulnerability power, South American indigenous roots), has a synesthesialike ability to see and smell magic. As a result, she can't cast or even spend too much time around magic without needing alcohol to dull the sensory overload. She's also in love with powerful Crowe Medici, the attractive, white president of the Black Devils, and engaged in a dangerous flirtation with a member of a rival gang, the Deathstalkers. All this back story and mythology takes a while to get established, dragging out the first half with slightly too much first-person exposition, but the annual Kindled Festival brings plenty of plot in the form of secret powers, secret revenge plans, and lots of magical inter-gang fighting. What this lacks in finesse is largely mitigated by originality, leavened with many crowd-pleasing notes: a not-so-subtle message about power and responsibility, steamy romance, an interesting world, and a zinger of an ending that leaves open the possibility of more complex adventures to come. Don your leathers and get riding this (sub)urban fantasy. (Fantasy. 13-18)

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August 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-"Harry Potter" meets Sons of Anarchy in this fun but flawed fantasy thriller. Jemmie Carmichael is a product of the fast-living, hard-drinking universe of "the kindled," people with magical powers who revolve around disparate motorcycle gangs. Though she's got an in with the powerful Medici clan and their Black Devils crew, she has always felt like an outsider because of the strange way she experiences her world. Out of fear, she tamps down her magic until an annual kindled reunion, where tension between the Black Devils and a rival gang, the Deathstalkers, flares explosively. Though the visceral description of Jemmie's relationship with magic is thrilling and the biker theme feels fresh, the plot has several notable weak spots. First, there's the romance: Jemmie's relationship with a Deathstalker prospect, one side of the core love triangle, never creates enough tension. Also, the idea of a girl getting sick from her unused powers has been employed before and more powerfully in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone. Readers have to work pretty hard to keep track of a too-packed cast, each character overflowing with many different magical abilities. Aside from the glaring problems, Rush still manages to weave a compelling sensual tapestry around a crew of gorgeous, Jack Daniels-swilling magicians, making this a darkly charged page-turner for older fantasy fans. VERDICT Purchase where Bardugo and Holly Black fantasies are popular.-Sara Scribner, Marshall Fundamental School, Pasadena, CA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Jemmie senses colors and scents when other kindled magic userscast spells, making her life among them a living hell. She assumes she's a failure at magic, allergic to something she lovesmuch like her long-dead romance with Crowe Medici, leader of the Black Devils, a kindled motorcycle gang. Making things worse is her budding relationship with rival club member Darek, which she's just barely keeping secret. When Crowe reveals that Darek's club, the Deathstalkers, had something to do with his father's death at the previous year's annual festival, Jemmie's life is made infinitely more confusing. Her father, who ran away years before, is also in town for the big event, and the animosity she still feels at being abandoned is palpable. While trying to manage everything, including her own secrets, Jemmie will also try to solve the mystery of the past gang leader's death without sparking a massive gangland war. Rush has given a lot of thought to her world building here, and the result is a fascinating new world where magic and crime intersect. Urban fantasy is hard to get just right in YA, but she succeeds completely. Teen readers will find a lot to love about Jemmie's complicated life, and they will definitely leave wanting more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
During an annual festival for "kindled" (magical) folk, people from eighteen-year-old Jemmie Carmichael's kindled motorcycle gang start going missing, and Jemmie must learn to harness her sensitivity to magic to save them. Although magic-wielding biker thugs make for an interesting and fresh take on the familiar fantasy elements, execution of this premise becomes lackluster as the novel goes on for too long.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)