Priceless (Rylee Adamson #1)By: Shannon Mayer
Website: http://www.shannonmayer.com/
Release Date: November 11, 2012
Publisher: HiJinks Ink Publishing
Series: Rylee Adamson Series
Rating:
Another series, another loose cannon Private Investigator with supernatural abilities. Despite how much this sounds like the Dresden files (and some of the blatant similarities) I found myself able to look past it and enjoy the first book the series.
So, who is Rylee Adamson and why should we care about her? She’s a Tracker who is gifted in finding people, especially children. She is a badass with swords and knives. And she has a werewolf sidekick. What more could you want?
If you are someone who doesn’t like “information dump” style books then you may dislike some portions of this book as we are thrown head first into Rylee’s world, the rules of the magical communities, the history of some of the characters and the general setup of what appears to be a lengthy series. At this writing there are 10 books, a short story around said werewolf best friend and two mini prequels dubbed “Book .25” and “Book .5”.
I have to admit so much of this at first felt like a rip off of the Dresden Series by Jim Butcher (and why wouldn’t I see the similarities as I’ve been reading my way through the Dresden series lately). However, I pushed on and was pleasantly surprised.
Rylee is complex, her past shadowed, her motivations sometimes mixed except for when it matters. The missing child is always what ultimately drives Rylee. And Rylee does not hold with creeps who take kids. So, she plunges head long into the investigation and does her best to get the kid back, get her answers and avoid ruining the lives of those around her (good luck, we all know things have to go sideways.) It seems these types of series thrive on complex characters who can’t catch a break.
One thing that was a pet peeve of mine in this book was the technology thing. As with the Dresden files Rylee’s abilities apparently make modern technology iffy around her. Not to Harry Dresden levels. But still, it happens. And yet, when she’s with her hacker friend, or when she truly, desperately needs it, technology works just long enough for her. This may have been my biggest pest throughout the book, honestly. I know to some people it seems small but if they could have some consistency I would appreciate it. Honestly, I’m probably just comparing the two series too closely to be fair at this point but I can’t go back and change my feelings on it.
Something that I was glad to see was different between the two series, and different in general, was Rylee’s sense of family. Sure, it’s a pieced together, patchwork kind of family but her loyalty to those she considers family I adored. Rylee’s personality was easy enough to understand (honestly, I’d probably be a little rough around the edges too if people blamed me for my sister’s disappearance, I found out I had magical abilities and I was essentially without a “true” family.) So, I enjoyed her strong sense of loyalty and how it made her a force to be reckoned with.
I struggled with rating this book. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t oh my God great and some of the grammatical errors stopped me from calling it flat out good but, I hope, some of those things will improve in the next books in the series. I try to give leeway with first books in series, especially since we all know sometimes mistakes and misprints happen. When I get over my pet peeves from this book I’ll revisit the series. In fact, I’ll probably read this one again just to give myself a refresher and hopefully a new perspective. I shall report back when I get my hands on them.
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