Title: Bull Moon Rising
Author: Ruby Dixon
Series: Royal Artifactual Guild #1
MUCH thanks to Ruby Dixon, Berkley, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I’m a recent Ruby Dixon fan, and I knew I wanted to read this book the moment I first read the premise and saw the pretty cover last year. Life happened and I wasn’t able to read it right away when it came out last fall, but when it appeared in a NetGalley email this spring, I’ve never clicked a link so fast.
It wasn’t what I expected. They very much gloss over the feudalistic setting in the blurb and cover. Opalescent rainbow has no relevance to the story, it’s merely eye-catching; constellations aren’t so much as mentioned in the story; and the character art does not at all represent medieval-style clothing. The only hint of feudalism in the blurb is vague mention of guilds and holds. I haven’t read Dixon’s work extensively (give me time) but my impression is that she doesn’t do much in a historical-esque setting, more futuristic and alt-modern. So I was expecting something relatively modern, and was taken aback to find horse-drawn carriages, lady’s maids, chamber pots, unprocessed food, and rampant sexism. But it was well done, in my opinion. The world-building was fantastic, every unwashed, plague-ridden crevice of it. God, people had to stink back then. The diseases. *shudders*
Hawk and Aspeth’s relationship wasn’t super well developed; it really felt to me like she was nothing but a pest to him until close to the end, when a switch was flipped—everything she says and does annoys him, he doesn’t trust her an inch, they’re barely friends, he’s just tolerating her, then suddenly garsh-golly-shucks, he lurrrrvs her. He was reasonable, they talked a lot, he was patient with her sexually, he made an effort to establish a relationship—but he never made her laugh. He never went out of his way to make her feel better, unless it was having some form of sex. When it counted, he made her feel worse, actually. He was serious and proud, not an ounce of fun in him. He’s a nice, upstanding guy, but I feel like, as silly as Aspeth could be at times, and with her high anxiety, she needed someone who could relax and play a game and laugh. Perhaps if he’d found out who she was earlier and he’d had more time to get over that betrayal and grow fond of her as her honest self . . . maybe if she’d improved in her training at all and he took note and encouraged and admired her . . . but that didn’t happen.
The obvious caveat being the Conquest Moon—he wasn’t himself, he was stressed, he was tense, he was frustrated, he was just an overall crabby patty. I understand, but he was still a bore; don’t expect me to like him much if that’s how he’s presented.
Aspeth was more sympathetic but no saint. She kept a lot of secrets, and even after she and Hawk fought over her secret-keeping, even after all her secrets were exposed, she kept more from him right up to the end, which he uncharacteristically overlooked. I was very disappointed in her. It’s like no one learned from their mistakes in this book.
I have to mention the cat. I generally like cats, but I don’t have one because I know what a mess they can make, not the least of which is the amount of hair they shed. I mentally cringed at every mention of hair coming off that cat. Clumps of it. Everywhere. Stuck to everything. It made my nose tickle just reading about it. Gross.
I wish there’d been more treasure hunting and magic wielding, less miserable weather and training montages. We heard so much about wondrous artifacts and the cool things they could do, but saw very little of them. The Magpie Five were underdogs and had plenty of conflict and setbacks, that’s great, but they never got any better. Aspeth certainly didn’t. They were incompetent from start to finish, and that’s unsatisfying storytelling, for them to go through all that only to wind up exactly where they started or worse. They didn’t get stronger or smarter. They didn’t even luck into victory at the end. I wanted those human men, all those stuffy, bullying guild members to fucking eat crow. But they didn’t. They were proven right, in fact, and boy did that hurt to swallow. Aspeth didn’t triumph and achieve her goal against all odds, her family situation just kinda took care of itself. It’s almost like the story ended at the black moment plot point, followed by a half-assed denouement to tie up ends. Very unsatisfying, though Aspeth and Hawk did more or less get a happily-ever-after, which was nice. So points for realistic consequences, I guess, but it was disappointing.
While Magpie herself can rot in hell—it’s unfortunate the only woman held in any esteem in the novel was a murderous, backstabbing drunk—I loved the Magpie Five, especially scene-stealer Kipp. He was kind to everyone, he was positive, and he never gave up. I adored Kipp. Though I wasn’t entirely sure how to imagine him—lizard, snail, human child? He could have been better described. I kept picturing a bizarre cross between a human child and a gecko that lives in a giant snail shell. At one point I wondered if I was supposed to imagine someone with dwarfism, but he wasn’t described as a short-statured adult, he was described as adorable and child-sized. So I don’t know. Gwenna was no-nonsense and loyal to her dying breath. Lark had no filter but was a team player and grew on me. I kept imagining Mereden as a mermaid more than a priestess; I suppose because of her seaside home and “mer” in her name.
However, I can’t say I liked any of them well enough to want to read sequels focused on each of them, but that’s Dixon’s MO and that’s what we’ll get. If we get a Kipp book, though, Dixon really needs to work on her description of him, because I can’t stomach the thought of a childlike creature having graphic sex. But I have to say, after reading the blurb for By the Horns, which is about Gwenna and Hawk’s friend Rapter, I’m intrigued. Even looking forward to it. If any of the Magpie Five is going to shove the guilds’ dicks in their mouths, it’s Gwenna. If whoever at Berkley is reading this also has power over NetGalley approvals, please approve my request for By the Horns!
