Review: Owl and the Japanese Circus (The Adventures of Owl #1)

Author: Kristi Charish

Started reading: August 16th 2022

Finished the book: September 17th 2022

Pages: 416 / 14h 55m

Genres: Fantasy, Vampires

Published: January 13th 2015

Source: Audible

Goodreads score: 3.63

My score:

Synopsis

Ex-archaeology grad student turned international antiquities thief, Alix—better known now as Owl—has one rule. No supernatural jobs. Ever. Until she crosses paths with Mr. Kurosawa, a red dragon who owns and runs the Japanese Circus Casino in Las Vegas. He insists Owl retrieve an artifact stolen three thousand years ago, and makes her an offer she can’t refuse: he’ll get rid of a pack of vampires that want her dead. A dragon is about the only entity on the planet that can deliver on Owl’s vampire problem – and let’s face it, dragons are known to eat the odd thief.

Owl retraces the steps of Mr. Kurosawa’s ancient thief from Japan to Bali with the help of her best friend, Nadya, and an attractive mercenary. As it turns out though, finding the scroll is the least of her worries. When she figures out one of Mr. Kurosawa’s trusted advisors is orchestrating a plan to use a weapon powerful enough to wipe out a city, things go to hell in a hand basket fast…and Owl has to pick sides.

My thoughts

I remember seeing a glowing review for this book and the synopsis really made me curious. This book was definitely entertaining to listen to. I especially liked the gaming part in this book, because I'm a gamer myself. I felt a link there right away. This book was a fairly good 3-star book, and I have been doubting to give it 4 stars.

Pros

• Gaming: The gaming in this book was a lot of fun for me. There is not much gaming in books, not the way it's important in this book, and especially not by girls/women. I love gaming and the game in this book sounded EPIC!
• Adventure: This book is full of adventure and different cities. The archeology part of this book mixed in with the supernatural was definitely a lot of fun to read about.
• Traveling: I felt like we really started off in the desert and visited Tokyo, Bali and Las Vegas. The fact that we visit so many places was really well done and made the story fast paced as well.

Cons

• Minor things: Me raising my eyebrows and cringing every now and then... I felt like some things didn't make sense. There were also some repetitions in this book that I wasn't a fan of.
• Owl: I did not like Owl that much. I feel like she is a horrible friend and very egotistic. Her personality wasn't all that likeable for me.
• Tension: I did not feel tension in this book, where I think it was meant to be there. When a character ALMOST gets killed multiple times in a book, it loses its thrill for me.

Overall

Definitely a fun book with pros an cons for me. I am very curious about the next book and hopefully it's a tad better than this first book. So I will give the second book a chance and hopefully I can continue this series. Because I do feel like the archaeology and the gaming are unique!

Other opinions on this book

"A great new fantasy series of fans of Indiana Jones and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here's to hoping this will be the first of many outings for Owl."

- Library Journal

"Fast-paced, humorous, action-filled, and completely original."

- Ian Hamilton, author of the Ava Lee novels

Thanks for reading!

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