Today I’m taking part in the blog tour hosted by Love Books Groups for 'The Identity Thief' (The God Machine Book 1) by Alex Bryant

Book blurb

A shapeshifting sorcerer called Cuttlefish unleashes a terrifying wave of magical carnage across London. A strange family known as the River People move into Cassandra Drake's neighbourhood. Are the two events connected?

Spoiler alert: no

My Review

It's my stop over on the Blog Tour hosted by Love Books Tours for Alex Bryant's  new book The Identity Thief' which is a fantasy based book set in London where magic exists - but is forbidden 📚

The story follows 12 year Cass and is told from her point of view as she gets pulled into a magical world and into the path of the dangerous Cuttlefish - a shapeshifting sorcerer 🔮 Cass just wants to fit in and get through secondary school, but life has other plans! Her interactions with others the arrival of 'River People', especially the son Hector, shows the complexities of being young, impressionable and also cruel at times.

The story is fantasy based but also flows along as a crime drama, as we follow Cuttlefish's deadly adventures and the carnage he leaves in his wake to get what he wants. With a title like 'The Identity Thief' you might be able to guess the villain's main form of magic✨ How this falls into the plot and that way it's written was one of my favourite aspects of this story.

I loved that this story was set in London and that magic (while forbidden) was also blended into each chapter and centred around Greek Mythology and wizardry.

The other supporting characters add an additional layer to the story and the newspaper clippings on magic activity and other media reports scattered throughout the book provide a more immersive experience and oh did I mention that it's funny too! I adore the cover and I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to the next instalment!

Thank you to Love Books Tour and Alex Bryant for the ARC. I was #gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by – I hope you have enjoyed my review.  Please check out the rest of this blog tour for more thoughts and reviews about this book!

Trigger warnings

The second page of the book includes a website link for trigger warnings https://www.alexbryantauthor.com/the-identity-thief-tw

About the Author

Alex has led a largely comfortable but unremarkable life in North London, and more recently Oxford. His main hobbies as a kid were reading and sulking. When he’s not writing, he’s performing with his improvised comedy troupe, Hivemind Improv. And when he is writing, he’s procrastinating.

The first idea for The God Machine came when he was 19, shortly after falling off a horse. Or possibly shortly before - the exact chronology is lost to history. So is the horse’s name, in case you were wondering.

More information and where to buy

Amazon
Paperback published 9th February 2020
Kindle published 28th February