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Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Winters, including our point of view character, Cicely, are some of the worst people you'll ever meet. After all great grandma sold the entire family's souls for generations to the devil. In return they have money, power and magic. I actually disagree with the blurb, Cicely isn't the black sheep of the family, that would be Melissa (goth girl). She's the unwanted and frankly emotionally abused daughter of the matriarch, Allegra.

It opens in media res with the blurb's mention of Soren, the boy they 'banished to the underworld' (i.e. murdered by feeding him to the Dark, the agent of the Devil). A few years later someone is trying to bring the Winters to their knees in terms of losing their money/reputation/power and then the deaths begin. All of them have powers including Allegra who is literally one of the worst mothers I've read in recent years. If you don't want to murder her by the end, I'll be surprised. She has three kids, Felix, the eldest, heir apparent and the child she dotes on to the point of it feeling gross. Cicely whose power allows her to go into the Ruin (sort of the underworld) and discover secrets and Octavia, the youngest. There is Dorian, Allegra's brother, his wife Cynthia and their children Sebastian and Melissa.

Their problems go from bad to worse when Dorian is killed (not a spoiler, that's in the blurb) and Cicely believes it was Soren back from the Ruin but only she can see him because of her gift. Naturally for someone whose magic is to find secrets, Cicely starts investigating her uncle's death and finds it, along with subsequent deaths, to be intertwined with whatever reason Allegra had for ordering the family to kill Soren and banishing him to the Ruin.

Cicely and Soren's relationship is interesting. He almost makes her a better person. Almost. He asks her point blank did she think she was the hero of the story and he the villain? I really liked Soren. He makes for a good shadow daddy and there is definitely dark romance elements to this. Cicely is exactly what you'd expect from a young woman with no soul. That is important to remember.

The mystery unfolds well. You might even cheer the killer on, honestly. Cicely is unwavering in her own lust for power as she tells herself she's doing the right thing. And if I'm critical here, some of it gets a little overdone. This book could have been a bit shorter if some of that repetition was cut out. The ending isn't quite what I was expecting but it fits Cicely's personality.

I thought it was unlikeable characters done well and that's not easy to do. This could be a one shot but it sets up for more if the author wanted it. I almost tagged this horror since it borders on it. I didn't tag it romance for reasons I don't want to spoil. I enjoyed it. Loved the cover too

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.



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