I liked Jagged Emerald City, generally. There are a lot of positives going on in the story. Firstly, the main character is fun. Fairian, the protagonist, is the typical young, spirited, sassy character—my favorite character to read. I do enjoy a bit of snark and sass. Life is too short to be so “straight-laced” all the time. 

“Meet Fairian Leynthall. She’s irreverent, the unwilling heiress of her family’s business empire, and obsessed with learning magic. She’s also got two big problems.

One, there’s evidence the magical being who killed her sister is in town.

Two, there’s this supernatural jerk interfering with her field research. He keeps spouting nonsense about danger, treating her like she matters, and distracting her with big, lonely eyes. Not to mention, it’s aggravating how much being around him makes her feel like her true self.”

One of the positives that author Brainerd touches on delicately but authentically is the subject of PTSD. Fairian was kidnapped years ago, and the familial repercussions still haunt her and her family. I liked how Brainerd approached this aspect of Fairian’s character. It helped define future choices as the story progressed. Also, Fairian is born into extreme wealth; her father is a railway magnate, so there are certain things that young Fairian is expected to participate in. The wealth gives her access advantages but is also a constrictive weight on her chest. 

“Then it turns out that her supernatural jerk, Daimyn, is some kind of lynchpin in the magical community, and people are desperate to control the power he holds. As Fairian struggles to unravel the truth about her sister’s death, a ridiculous rumor of Daimyn’s affection for her spreads, and she becomes a target.”

Dialog-wise, this is where I started to flounder a bit with the story. Brainerd has a style of writing that is very upfront. She lays things out as they are, with no unnecessary fluff, which is good and bad. Things did not become overly verbose and lost in the details, but the story leaned a bit too much the other way. I struggled to build the world and place the characters in my head for the first few chapters. Some of the language and how Fairian is treated have Victorian-esque overtones, but later, we talk about electric cars. As the story progresses, we learn that there was a climate apocalypse a few generations ago. People had to start reevaluating how they treated “stuff” and how they needed to be stewards of the world instead of consumers. A message that many readers can get behind. 

The fight scenes were well done; who doesn’t enjoy a well-choreographed fight scene, and there was fun chemistry between certain characters. I do have to admit that this was a DNF for me at 30%. I could never get past the lack of sense of place I experienced. As a reader, this is essential as it helps me ground characters in a world. But your results will vary from reader to reader. I liked it enough to definitely pick this up again in a few months and give it a go again, especially as it will be a series. It has a huge amount of promise. 

Folks will love this book with the quirky protagonist, magic, chemistry between characters, and fight scenes. The story is engaging and should be picked up; it just didn’t work for me. So, unfortunately, this is a cut. 

Buy it and give it a chance! I even went out and bought a copy just to give the author a little oomph. I want to see it find readers and succeed.