1.5 stars

I was seriously disappointed in this book. I'm a fan of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series as well as her Newsflesh series written under her pseudonym, Mira Grant, so I went into this expecting to like it. Things started off okay. I thought cryptids (basically creatures, sentient and nonsentient) were interesting, different enough to keep me entertained for a full book. However, things started going wrong the minute Verity Price (our first person protagonist) meets Dominic De Luca, a man belonging to a fanatical organization called the Covenant. The Covenant's doctrine is to exterminate every cryptid out there whether they pose a threat to humanity or not, and Dominic supposedly is no different. Verity's family has a history with the Convenant, having once been members, though they now reject the Covenant's genocidal ideals and are in hiding from the organization.

Now we're going to get spoilery. (view spoiler)[In her very first meeting with Dominic (in which he's snared her on a rooftop), Verity boldly announces that she's a member of the Price family, thus putting herself and her family in danger. She is saddened that he's a murderous scumbag belonging to a fanatical organization that wants to kill all her friends and family because he's pretty freakin' hawt. Eventually, they end up in bed, even though he's still a murderous scumbag as far as she knows. Then she takes him around town and shows him some local cryptic hideouts, just in case telling him all about her family and where to find them wasn't enough.

Dominic, for his part, spews Covenant propaganda through at least their first few encounters, but then his lifetime of brainwashing at the hands of the Covenant is cured by some crazy singing mice and a nice piece of tail. Fortunately, Dominic later assures Verity that this is the first time he's met sentient cryptids, and he's basically only killed the nonsentient kind up until now. Whew! Verity really dodged a bullet on that one, eh? His change of heart is so complete that he offers to go down into the dangerous sewers to collect the corpse of a cryptid so her family can perform their death rites and she can rest in peace.

Yeah, right. *tears out hair* (hide spoiler)]

With Dominic's unbelievable change from raging fanatic to bleeding heart proponent for cryptid rights over the span of days and the completely contrived relationship between Verity and Dominic, I just couldn't get behind this series. It was trying too hard to be clever and funny and just came across as needy and pathetic to me. Seanan McGuire is no longer on my instant to-buy list after this mess, and I'll be sure to do my homework on any future series before purchasing.