S. Usher Evans

Drinks & Sinkholes by S. Usher Evans

Drinks & Sinkholes is a great, easy story to get into. Pigsend is a quaint little town with all the required characters like nosey neighbors, cantankerous old farmers a useless mayor and, in this case, a rather mysterious keeper of the Weary Dragon Inn. The story is set 5 years after the “Queen” over-through the King. The Queen’s first order of business was to eradicate all the magic in the land. Well, at least all the magic that didn’t benefit her, anyway. Just as some of the Queen’s soldiers show up in town, Pigsend suffers from a series of earthquakes that lead to sinkholes appearing at random around town. With Hendry, the useless mayor, refusing to do anything about the sinkholes, it falls to Bev, the keeper of the local Inn to sort out the mystery. Which is quite fitting, as Bev (short for Beverage Wench) is a bit of a mystery herself, seeing as she can’t remember anything, including her name, from before the time she wandered into Pigsend 5 years earlier. Regardless of her past, she deals with the setbacks and interesting people, and creatures, she comes across as she does what she must to determine what’s ailing her beloved adopted town.… (more)

I was sent a free book and am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

First and foremost, this book was fun. I enjoyed reading it and didn't get bored. I fully recommend it to anyone looking for a fun fantasy book to read.

Now, to get a little more detailed. First, the things I liked best about this book:

1) I really enjoyed the story in general. I liked the long trek through fae territory, and the mythology of the series that was displayed in meeting with fae creatures and learning fae history.
2) I really liked the feeling that there was a much deeper mythology that the story was built on, and I hope to see more of it in the sequels.
3) I was glad that over the course of the book, the two main male characters lost their hostility towards each other and became friends of sorts. That's something you don't often see with love triangles, and I appreciated that very much.

Now, things that I think could have been improved.
1) I think there were too many points of view, especially that Cade's POV and Ward's POV were too similar and I found myself confusing them. I think it might have been better to have just one of the boys have a viewpoint.
2) Especially at the beginning of the book, I thought there was more telling than showing, and I would have liked to see it the other way around.
3) I really didn't like how weak the princess came across. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here because of comments made towards the end, but it's something I'll definitely be watching for in sequels.

All in all though, I enjoyed this book.… (more)