Choose Your (Own Adventure) Family
Book review by Erin Michaela Sweeney

They're back! Diana the crow shifter, Sasha the demonically raised part angel, and Nobu the teen possessed by former hell general Natsu. This time the crow murder that never accepted Diana into their fold because of bad blood with her father, wants to hire Diana, Sasha, and Nobu/Natsu to kill another hell general to release the murder from a contract their Lead Crow agreed to. All three of the ragtag team ride rollercoasters of doubt and loyalty to each other. It's a great example of the Heroine's Journey, where Diana must grapple with the pros and cons of blood family versus chosen family. Murder for Hire is even better than the first book in The Murder Book series. Congrats to author Gabrielle Ash and City Owl Press!

*I received a free ebook of Murder for Hire as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer member in exchange for an unbiased review. (This review also appears on Goodreads and Amazon). ( )

Murder for Hire by Gabrielle Ash. Second in The Murder series. Crow shifter Diana Van Doren is now the Lead Crow of her own little Murder, consisting of hunky part-angel Sasha Sokolov and Nobu, the Japanese kid who hosts the demon Natsu. They're heading out of the country when they get side-tracked by a visit from a member of Diana's sister's murder. There's a new big bad demon in town, and as the possessors of the only demon-killing knife in the world, they need to help out. Action-packed and I liked the characters. Last book's insta-love has turned into angst, a bit, as they still don't tell each other stuff when they should. Overall, liked it. Would read more from this series and this author. Reviewed from an eBook copy received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program in return for an unbiased review.

Meh. Shouldn't start series in the middle, I thought this was the continuation of the author's other series which I had enjoyed, but it isn't. This is also urban fantasy, but based on an already known world where the heroine is one of 'them' rather than naive to magic, and so far less is explained (and hence it appears the author hasn't thought through the details so well).

Diana is part of a murder of crow-shifters. I liked this concept, it's fairly unusual for UF and well executed, the troubles of clothes and carrying objects was dedicatedly adhered to. I'm not sure crows would normally be described as timid though. Sadly the rest of the plot was them vs demons taking over the world, and that's not a scenario which works well for me. Lots of violence without remorse even from the heroes, and lots of fairly daft actions from the bad guys, justified on the grounds that they are demons.

May have worked better if I'd read the first and had a greater connection to the characters, but none of them were that emphatic on their own - very stereotyped, timid crow, silent strong man and ill kid. Technically the actual writing was ok, and I did grow into the story a bit, but didn't enjoy ti as much as the Family series. ( )

I absolutely love the novels by Gabrielle Ash and was looking forward to read this one as I loved For the Murder. As soon as I started reading Murder For Hire I fell straight into the world and was captivated with the storytelling. I loved how the characters have a real feel about them, they have their flaws and their self doubt - even if that puts them in danger. It's a reflection of real life people and it certainly made the connection to the characters easy. Murder For Hire kept the story flowing and the pages turning and that ending! I was surprised but satisfied. I can't wait to read more.