Finding Fae Artifacts (Magical Artifacts Institute #1), by Isa Medina
7 Nov 2023The Book
Synopsis:
Dangerous Fae artifacts. Bloodthirsty creatures. One scrappy Artifact Hunter to-be.
Joining the Magical Artifacts Institute as an artifact hunter has always been my dream job. Problem is, they keep rejecting my applications. So when I find a dangerous Fae artifact stashed in my temp job’s basement, I know I’m about to prove them wrong.Unfortunately, the arrogant stranger who interrupts my find doesn’t agree with my good fortune. Aidan belongs to the Institute and insists on following procedure and confiscating my artifact. He’s welcome to try, but there’s one small problem.
Oops, make that two: he’s triggered a binding spell that won’t allow more than a few feet between us, and someone has unleashed a nightmarish Fae hound that’s trying to turn us into lunch.
Now I must break the bond, escape the hound, convince Aidan that I’d be the best Institute worker ever, and figure out who’s willing to kill to get to my artifact. Sounds hard? That’s okay—I might be only one-sixteenth Fae, but I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve.
My Review
Finding Fae Artifacts is the first novella in the urban fantasy series Magical Artifacts Institute, written by Isa Medina. A book that introduces us to Maddie, a person with Fae blood, whose dream is joining the Magical Artifacts Institute, and becoming an artifact hunter; her petitions of joining have been all dismissed by Mr. Graves, aka Jerk.
She's convinced that becoming an artifact hunter is her exit from working on temporal jobs; and during one of those, she ends finding a fae artifact in the basement. However, soon somebody from the Institute appears, Aidan, trying to convince her of giving willingly the artifact; she's not going to do it without fighting. But this will become the lesser of her problems when the basement spawns a hellhound and they will be forced to fight for their lives.
Personally, I found this novella to be a good introduction to the world, but it suffers a bit from the pacing expected for the genre; urban fantasy is extremely fast, and I felt we could have gone easier in our first approach to the Fae world.
Maddie as a character is quite good, Medina giving her a strong voice that becomes quite characteristic, apt for the narration; on the other hand, Aidan didn't click at all with me, missing a bit of characterisation.
Overall, if you like urban fantasy, I think giving a try to Finding Fae Artifacts is fair. It's well written and a fun story, just probably not my cup of tea.
Disclaimer: This novella has been read as part of the SFINCS. This review/rating only represents my personal opinion and it might differ with what the team decides.
