Tricks for Free was pretty fun. Antimony was less annoying as she wasn't constantly referring to Verity and how much she hates Verity and actually settled into being her own person, even if that person was Melody West. I feel like Melody definitely has more Antimony inherent in her than Antimony really wants to think. That sounds a little confusing, but the differences in her aliases is something Antimony thinks about at some point so... yeah. Antimony also manages to gather her own little found family while facing down a villainous cabal of magic users. It was a lot of fun.
I pretty much pegged the cabal as bad from the beginning. Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series had several sorcerer run Cabals so this group of magic users pinged my "bad guy" radar pretty hard. That said, it was nice to learn all about the different types of magic users. Routewitches were mentioned and encountered in previous books, but I didn't really get a good grasp on what they could do until Tricks for Free. I liked the addition of ambulomancers and trainspotters as well as the more traditional sorcerers and witches. I do feel like having such specific forms of magic is limiting to the users, but since I guess they can't really help what they get, so much shrugging.
I also enjoyed hurting my brain trying to parse all the stuff about luck we got from Cylia the jink. Pretty cool, if sometimes brain-breaking. I was relatively happy with the implicit "read the terms and conditions" thing. It's a semi-fun conceit that I hope doesn't get overused. I was also intrigued by the crossroads stuff we got. Couldn't help but imagine the crossroads creature as having Mark Shepherd's voice, because, ya know, Supernatural and Crossroads Demons. Not quite the same thing here, but it's kind of fun to imagine some kind of crossover where Sam and Dean had Mary hanging off their shoulders brokering deals with Crowley. Antimony's magic issues were less interesting to me, really. I still have very little clue as to what a sorcerer can actually do, aside from deal in pyromancy and power-theft, so... yeah. Much blah.
I mentioned Antimony's found family in my opening paragraph and they were honestly the highlight of the book. I clocked Fern showing up at Lowryland as hinky to begin with. That was just too convenient to be random coincidence... and proved not to be. Thanks Cylia, who I love, but not as much as I love Fern. Fern had me tearing up in places just because she's so sincere about how much she loves Antimony as a friend. Also, Fern and Sam's rapport was hilarious. Megan was a nice addition to the crew and I'm a little sad she's not going on the epic road trip they're going to have, but we can't keep everyone around all the time. Besides, Antimony has enough snark to make up for the loss of Megan's particular brand. Sam has grown on me, though he still seems mostly flat as a character. There to fill Antimony's need for a partner.
Overall, I was very pleased with Tricks for Free. Despite Antimony needing to be undercover, she felt a lot more herself than in Magic for Nothing. I've definitely grown to like her more as a character.
THE RECITATION OF THE MOST HOLY AND HARROWING PILGRIMAGE OF MINDY AND ALSO MORK was included in my copy of Tricks for Free, so this'll be a short review of that as well. The Mindy and Mork parts were pretty cute. I'm glad we got something from an Aeslin POV. The Sam bits... well, they were alright. I didn't really have any questions about what he was doing or how he dealt with his grandmother while waiting for news from Mary about Antimony so Sam's bits just kinda felt tacked on, to be honest. It does vaguely figure that Emery would have at least attempted a crossroads deal at some point, but it also has no real bearing on the overall plot that I can tell so... yep. That was a thing. It was overall a pretty cute novella.
Favorite Lines
"There are people who say you never really escape from high school, you just keep finding it in different forms, over and over again, until it finally kills you. Those people are assholes, and should not be allowed in polite company." - Antimony Price
"There are days when I want to punch absolutely everyone around me, and keep punching until they're no longer capable of fighting back. I'm told those desires are antisocial. Sometimes, I really don't care." - Antimony Price
"Megan made a clucking noise with her tongue. 'Whoever he is, marry him and keep us in the style to which we'd like to become accustomed.''He works in Public Relations.''Whoever he is, murder him and make it look like an accident, but make sure you get away with his wallet.' Megan ammended.'Thanks for the vote of murder-confidence,' I said.She flashed me a bright, toothy smile. 'I always have faith in you when it comes to murder.'" - Antimony and Megan"Your family, your real family, will always welcome you home with open arms. Anyone who says you can lose their love isn't really family, no matter what blood says." - Evelyn Baker.
"All the safeguards in the world won't stop something that really wants to break." - Antimony Price
"It's easier to fight a person than an accident." - Antimony Price
"Murder is always on the table for later." - Antimony Price
"Love is love. If anybody tries to tell you your love's not worth having, shoot them in the kneecaps a couple of times. It won't change their minds, but it'll make you feel better." - Frances Brown
"People are why we can't have nice things." - Sam Taylor
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