17-year-old Lila Merriweather has been living on her own since her mother was killed three years ago in Cloudburst Falls, a town full of magic mob families. Since her mother had been a bodyguard and passed those skills on to her daughter, she only had to take thieving jobs from their old friend Mo to survive. But when those skills put her on a path to the same life that got her mother killed, Lila doesn’t expect to live very long either.

I am a big fan of Jennifer Estep’s Elemental Assassin series and was excited to see a new series by her, even though I don’t read much young adult. Many of the things I liked about her adult series are found in this series, albeit at a toned-down level. Characters were well-developed and enjoyable, the plot is excellent, with the exception of an easy-to-figure-out traitor, and the pace was quick but comfortable. Her budding romance with Devon was nice and slow, and I can’t wait for that to develop, and also finding out more about the past and who Lila’s father is, although I have my ideas about that! At times, though, I have to mention, it felt like the book couldn’t decide if it was YA or NA. Sometimes Lila felt a little older than 17, but that could be attributed to her having to grow up quickly.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, with a couple very minor exceptions noted above. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the UF genre, especially YA UF. This copy was provided by netgalley (thanks!) for an honest review (posted on Goodreads).