Black Heart
Author: Holly Black
Release: April 3rd 2012
Genre: Crime, Urban Fantasy, YA
#3 in the Curse Worker trilogy
Plot:
In a world where Magic is illegal.
Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all. With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he'll only leave his con artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked?
For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves. She's the daughter of a mob boss and getting ready to join the family business herself. Though Cassel is pretty sure she can never love him back, he can't stop obsessing over her. Which would be bad enough, even if her father wasn't keeping Cassel's mother prisoner in a posh apartment and threatening not to let her leave until she returns the priceless diamond she scammed off him years ago. Too bad she can't remember where she put it.
The Feds say they need Cassel to get rid of a powerful man who is spinning dangerously out of control. But if they want Cassel to use his unique talent to hurt people, what separates the good guys from the bad ones? Or is everyone just out to con him?
Time is running out, and all Cassel's magic and cleverness might not be enough to save him. With no easy answers and no one he can trust, love might be the most dangerous gamble of all.
Review:
This book wasn't as strong as the others, but it was still pretty nice.
What I liked about it were the many threads the reader was able to follow throughout the whole book. About three storylines were being handled as the story progressed, and as soon as you forgot about one, it was brought up again and one more clue was being dropped about it, so there was an air of constant tenseness and suspense for the duration of the whole novel. That was a clever trick and if you're like me and just love to try to piece all the clues together yourself, then you're going to like this very much.
The climax wasn't as climactic as I would have liked, it just wasn't such a big surprise who the "villain" is, after all, as there was a lot of foreshadowing to who it might be. Characterwise, there are some characters that turn out not be what you've expected, and I appreciated being shown another different side to a lot of the characters. Although sadly, Lila and Cassel, our main protagonists, don't have much character development, if any. Furthermore, I had hoped to see a bit more of Cassel's mother in this book, since she has been absent pretty much for the whole other two, but that absence is still going on in this one. Sad.
In conclusion, this is probably the "worst" one in the trilogy. That's not to say it wasn't good, but it was definitely a lot weaker than its predecessors. Still, if you liked the other two novels, it's very likely you will like this one, as well, and it's not a book you'll regret reading.
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