Review: Conspiracy of Ravens

Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As you may know from my review, I *LOVED* Wake of Vultures, book one in this series about the Shadow. This installment, Conspiracy of Ravens, hit me in a lot of the same feels, but this time, it felt a little less polished. The plot took longer to spool up to where the action would really start -- the first 50-60% of the book was strictly traveling to the location where the main plot would actually begin to create the real action. This book had a lot more setup, creating some new threads for future books, and adding some new characters into the mix, so I understand why the plot had to take a back seat for part of the book, but I feel like it could have been done more seamlessly, rather than taking a long meandering approach to getting where they needed to go so they could do what they needed to do.

Nettie finally helps clear up my confusion of which pronoun to use, accepts herself as a himself (and an itself, but no spoilers from me on that one!), and begins to live as Rhett, and his life gets infinitely more interesting in this "episode" of The Shadow. He starts to discover the joys of intimacy, and a love tangle appears. Yes, I say tangle, because there are just too many potential threads to lay out into a shape that makes sense LOL. Oh, and

The urban fantasy/historical fiction blend still really works for me, making the west into the Wild West, and being easy on brain's imagination gears.

Now begins the long wait for book three, some time in 2017 *hopefully*...

Final verdict? Great book, one less star than book one because of the slow plot advancement for the first 50-60% of the book, so four feathers, err, stars. :)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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