June 2019 Book Notes: Jameson C. Smith

 Today's book review has been a long time coming. I think I won this book back in late February or early March and have only just gotten a chance to read it. To be honest, it got buried in the mountain of free books I've been finding through Bookbub and Book Funnel promotions from some of the author blogs I follow. I humbly apologize to Jameson C. Smith for taking so long to read it. 

Ready for the review? Let's get started...

Book Review: The Assassin's Daughter by Jameson C. Smith

 

The Assassin's Daughter by Jameson C. Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I won this book in an IG giveaway and forgot I had it. I'm so glad I opened it up and read it, though. Let me get the negatives out of the way first so I can get to the wonderful positives.

I felt like the freshly graduated assassins were pretty bad at their professions, especially since Ed was discovered on the streets and already had some skill in making do with a bad lot in life. I feel like they should've been better at disguise, better at knowing when to hide and when to be still. They have studied the craft exclusively for something like 6 or 8 years. I suppose youth could make up for some of that impatience, but I don't think the higher ups would be signing off on youths who didn't show they could do the job. In that respect, I feel Bayor failed his students since he didn't seem to speak out about them not being ready. Perhaps there was a reason for this and I missed it. I may re-read the book to see. One other thing I noticed was once it was discovered that the officials were nearby and that enemies were all around, why would any seasoned assassin, and a fugitive one, at that, stand at a window for surveillance? So that part didn't make sense to me. Even so, all this only meant the loss of one star.

Now, on to the positives. I loved the friendship and loyalty between Edellion and Katira. And I absolutely love the names in this book. The way the plot played out seemed plausible to me. I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens next. This is not a stand-alone novel, in case you were wondering. I like the world the author has crafted. It's varied and the problems are believable. I could see clearly where I was in the story and how the characters were moving about. The dialog was interesting. I didn't notice a lot of contractions or slang within it, which is different than a lot of books. It didn't spoil the reading for me. I felt like it just fit the fantasy world very well. If it would have shown up anywhere, I'd have expected it to be only with Ed since he grew up on the streets.

Overall, The Assassin's Daughter is an interesting book. I think if you like fantasy, epic fantasy, tales of friendship, and quests, you'd probably like this one. Just don't expect it to be like any other assassin-themed book you've read. I think that probably makes it a treat!

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When I read back through my review, I realize I should've said 'almost-ready-to-graduate assassins' rather than 'freshly graduated assassins' because it's a better description. I just thought I'd add that here.
I was so happy to see I could write a substantial book review. I enjoyed the book and saw only a few items which I perceived as flaws. But those may have been purposefully done and I just missed the reasons along the way. I hope you'll give it a chance and support a fellow indie author. If you do, she doesn't have very many reviews so I'd like to encourage you to leave one after reading. Reviews are the best way to show your support of an author next to buying their books.

If you've already read the book, I'd love to hear what you thought about it. Feel free to share in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!