Early Review – The Undying Legion (Crown and Key, Book 2) by Clay and Susan Griffith (3.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy/Steampunk
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: June 30, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-0345540485
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Crown and Key series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

This is the second book in the Crown and Key series by Griffith. I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first book in the series. Although I continue to enjoy the characters and witty dialogue, I didn’t find the mystery as interesting in this book.

Malcolm comes across the horrible aftermath of a ritual killing at a church and ends up asking for Simon and Kate’s help in tracking down the killers and solving the mystery behind these crimes. As the trio investigates they find out that some obscure ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are being used to invoke a magic that is old and potentially world-ending.

I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first book in the series. There is still a lot of action and the dialogue between the characters is snappy and witty. For some reason though I just didn’t find the plot to be all that engaging. It took me a long time to get through this book; I just didn’t care about the outcome that much and wasn’t all that intrigued by the mystery.

I did enjoy the fact that we see a lot more of Charlotte in this book; she has some interesting character growth and is a lot of fun. We also see a lot more of Penny and her crazy inventions as well; she was a lot of fun too.

Of course Simon and Kate are both in the story a lot and I enjoyed their chemistry together. I would have liked to see more of Simon’s magic and understand better how it works. I enjoyed Kate’s crazy alchemical potions and contraptions. The two have a sort of budding romance together and are fun to read about.

The plot was a bit all over the place. The main goal for Kate, Simon, and Malcolm is to hunt down whoever is committing these horrible ritual murders. However the plot is distracted by issues dealing with Imogen and her recovery as well as Charlotte’s struggle to control her were-side. All the side stories diluted down the plot quite a bit and at times made it feel like the story was moving very slowly.

Overall this was an okay read, but I enjoyed the first book more. There is a lot of mystery, some alternate history, and steampunk elements in this book. I continue to really enjoy the characters but thought the plot lagged quite a bit. I enjoyed The Vampire Empire series quite a bit more than this one; that one just had more of an epic fantasy feel to it with a more complex and interesting plot.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge