Synopsis:
Ridley faces hell when his fiancee disappears, leaving only a cryptic note.
On a quest to get her back, his fate becomes intertwined with an insectile shapeshifter and an enigmatic, knife-wielding young girl with an agenda of her own.
If Ridley is to have a prayer at saving his fiancée, he will need the help of his strange new friends. For a god-like menace lurks deep beneath the Outskirts, waiting to add his bones to its collection. And Ridley’s fists won’t be enough this time …He’ll have to transform into something else entirely.
Review:
Grave Covenant is an urban/contemporary fantasy that zooms along, keeping you on the edge of your seat, almost like a thriller! I really enjoyed my time with this book!
We follow three main characters, Ridley, Illyana, and Iris, though it took a while for Iris to make sense. From the beginning, Ridley’s story was interesting, even if I didn’t love the missing fiancee trope. Yeah, Ridley thought she’d just left, but I knew it was more than that from the beginning. His coworkers were suitably creepy, which connected well with Illyana’s storyline, which was even creepier. Insect shapeshifters watching humans, bringing them to a hidden sex club, where, to put it lightly, bad things happen to the people.
I don’t want to go into spoilers, but the plot gets crazy in the best way possible. The pacing is immaculate here. I was fully in “one more chapter” mode as the book went on, and Youngblood impressed me with how compulsively readable he made this book.
In terms of what didn’t quite work for me, I did feel like there was a lot of stilted dialogue, but dialogue is my favorite part of books, so I might just be hyperfocused on it. It didn’t really slow down the pacing, even if some of the parts felt clunky for me.
The world building was really cool for the most part, but calling the two locations The Outskirts and The Big City part kinda annoyed me. There are references to Earth-specific mythology and the world seems very much like Earth, yet the city had no name. I loved the insect shapeshifters, and we get some talk of dragons, succubi, and other supernatural creatures. Everything was great except for the names!
I’ll be completely honest. I struggle with urban fantasy. I got super burned out of it and I almost never read it anymore. I’m telling you this because Grave Covenant is an excellent book and I enjoyed my time with it. I didn’t have any of my usual urban fantasy struggles with staying interested.
I’m interested to see where the story goes from here, and I’ll definitely continue the series! If you’re a fan of urban fantasy and action packed fantasy thrillers, this is the book for you!
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