Devils & Thieves

Gr 8 Up—"Harry Potter" meets Sons of Anarchy in this fun but flawed fantasy thriller. Jemmie Carmichael is a product of the fast-living, hard-drinking universe of "the kindled," people with magical powers who revolve around disparate motorcycle gangs. Though she's got an in with the powerful Medici clan and their Black Devils crew, she has always felt like an outsider because of the strange way she experiences her world. Out of fear, she tamps down her magic until an annual kindled reunion, where tension between the Black Devils and a rival gang, the Deathstalkers, flares explosively. Though the visceral description of Jemmie's relationship with magic is thrilling and the biker theme feels fresh, the plot has several notable weak spots. First, there's the romance: Jemmie's relationship with a Deathstalker prospect, one side of the core love triangle, never creates enough tension. Also, the idea of a girl getting sick from her unused powers has been employed before and more powerfully in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone. Readers have to work pretty hard to keep track of a too-packed cast, each character overflowing with many different magical abilities. Aside from the glaring problems, Rush still manages to weave a compelling sensual tapestry around a crew of gorgeous, Jack Daniels-swilling magicians, making this a darkly charged page-turner for older fantasy fans.