The perceptions of fantasy and reality are shattered when a police inspector investigates the murder of a fairy and discovers the world as he knows it is not what it seems. He is forced to leave his skepticism behind as he encounters magic, and creatures from another realm he had always believed were nothing more than fairy stories. Danger increases as he discovers a plot from demons to take over our world and he learns he does not need his beloved whiskey to help him solve cases. Or does he?

With thanks to Andy Redsmith and Canelo for an advanced readers copy of this book.

3*

A great to a series with a lot of promise. Its another in the trend of police procedural meets urban fantasy (think Rivers of London, Dresden, Sunder City). It follows inspector Paris has he deal with the faeries, demons, witches, elves and chain smoking crows in Manchester, to hilarious light hearted results.
My only criticism if you could call it that, is that this is very much a cosy mystery. Fans of the darker/more grounded similar series should be prepared for a much fluffier feel.

Author: Andy Redsmith 

Read By: John Last

Length: 10.5 hours

Advanced Reader Copy Received: Yes

Plot 

A skeptical detective discovers he might be wrong about some things, including the existence of mystical creatures. 

Positives

Breaking the Lore is very funny and it is set up well to be a solid series. 

Negatives

The ending is a tad too silly. 

Narration

I haven’t listened to anything narrated by John Last before, but he did an extremely good job with Breaking the Lore. I hope to listen to another book narrated by him soon. 

Overall

I don’t know if I agree with the comparisons to Neil Gaimon but I think that people who enjoy comic books, especially the older Black Panther runs will enjoy this one. I normally read mysteries that are considerably darker than this, but Breaking the Lore manages to combine humor with a dark subject matter to create an interesting atmosphere. Overall, it is a solid detective novel with stellar narration so if the plot sounds interesting and you are looking for something that is very light then it is worth checking out. 

Rating 3/5

Fantasy and Crime Procedurals are two of my favourite genres to read, but I had never read anything that mashed them together. Breaking the Lore is a fantastic foray into police discovering and investigating crimes involving the magical world that has spent forever trying to hide from human eyes. Starting with the death of a fairy, Detective Inspector Paris must think fast on his feet to ensure the media don't catch hold of the news that magical creatures exist. It is not long before this alcoholic detective is surrounded by a cigarette smoking, talking crow, elves, a rock troll, demons, centaurs and fairies.

While not the best crime or fantasy novel I have ever read, there was enough humour and character development to really enjoy. The narrator of the audiobook John Last was a pleasure to listen to, his accent really set the scene of the story and the way he vocalised the different characters was fantastic.

I will be checking out the next installment.

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio for the chance to review this book early.

Even though this book came out in 2019, it appeared on Netgalley recently. They didn’t want to give me the e-book version, but I did get the audiobook. Which for me was probably a better medium to read this anyway.

The blurb compares it to Ben Aaronovitch’s books, which it really isn’t. Yes we follow a police officer and a bunch of magical creatures. But that is where the comparison ends really. This one is a lot… lighter?

What really stood out in this book for me was the humour. It is filled to the brim with puns, ridiculous characters and absurd situations. And it works! For me at least, though it definitely needs to be something you are in the mood for. (Spoiler: Nick saves the day by drinking the big bad demon under the table). But if you are you will have a blast with the knight demon, Eric the dwarf (also known as… Eric), chain-smoking crow, and the flirty witch. Yes there are also fairies, elfes, centaurs, trolls…

I really don’t know what else to say. If you are in the mood for some fun, light, urban fantasy… maybe pick this one up?

When you think of fantasy books there's really some authors that have taken this genre to new heights, and then there's more predictable and I would say traditional fantasy takes. This book definitely fits into the latter category. Breaking the Lore is set on Earth (fine, plenty of good fantasy books sent on Earth), but a portal to another world is causing havoc. Think of all your traditional fantasy characters, dwarves, elves, fairies, demons, talking birds... you name it, they're in this book. And sort of in a hodge-podge kind of throw everything but the garden shed at it and then you'll end up with a better fantasy book. For me, this isn't usually the case and it wasn't the case here.

It was a bit of a slog for me to get through this. I listened to it as an audiobook and it probably didn't help that I didn't love the narrator either. But the language was heavy, plodding, and I just really felt the whole time that I was never surprised, unexpected, or particularly engaged. I'm not sure I'd pursue this series, the characters were a bit two dimensional, and not particularly likeable. Like, none of them.

The book also ended really, really abruptly. I know this is meant to be a series, but meh.... I would like it to be a bit cleaner, it was like a huge build up to.... nothing? Anyway, sad to say this wasn't my favourite but I do have high expectations when it comes to fantasy.

The book is an entertaining read , but it falls under the trope , giving the similar feel of having read it somewhere.It is the same old urban fantasy stuff with no new storyline. The premise was good but the characters should have been better , to make the book more interesting. Nick paris was amazing and would love to read more of him.
Recommendation: For the UF , paranormal fans it was a good read. The audiobook is more interesting because of the *narrator* , who has a really good voice.

Audiobook received for free through NetGalley for an honest review

The idea of this book was unique; however, it took me a bit to get into it. If I didn't listen to it I may have set it down sooner. That said the story ended up being interesting and I listened to the end. If this is your type of book it's written well.

I listened to this rather than read it, and it did take me a while to get into it.

I could see influences from Ben Aaronovitch and Herbie Brennan (two authors that I love), and this did put me off initially.

However once I settled into the plot, I started to enjoy it. It is definitley "the Rivers of London" meets "Fairie Wars", but is that such a bad thing? Probably not.

The narration was good, and suited the plot well, and I found by the end, I was hoping for a second in the series. It certainly comes across as a first in a series novel, as there was a lot of character introductions and developement, that won't be so necessary in a second book.

If you haven't tried this fairy world meets real world type novel before I would really recommend this one, it's good fun and entertaining, and becomes more so as you go along.

A strange case of a crucified fairy lands on the desk of nick Paris a traditional English detective and so starts a journey of mythical creatures and there are laugh out loud moments it's a good ride but tends to fall off to the end
Thank you netgalley for a pre publication copy of the book for an honest review

The premise of this book was great. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started this, but I was pleasantly surprised when we meet Inspector Paris. He is a detective and he's called to check out an unusual body that's been discovered. It's a tiny female body with wings. Of course they think it's a fairy, but no one knows that fairies exist. Paris soon finds out that way more than fairies exist and we spend this book learning right along with him. I thought the middle of this book was too long. It started dragging and I found myself just wanting it to speed up and get the main storyline going. I thought the ending was surprising, but not bad. It was just not what I expected. I did find it to be really funny in parts.

I loved the premise of this book but unfortunately couldn't get on with the narrator's style at all so I'm afraid this wasn't for me.

An interesting premise and a quick read. It's fun but not the kind of story that sticks with you or you want to pick up and read or listen to again. The characters were alright, the world building was alright, and so the book was just alright. If you're bored between series you may enjoy this, but if you're looking for your next great read/series this probably isn't it.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I feel I need to use audio books more so thought I'd give this fantasy/magic/police procedural a go and was pleasantly surprised by how accessible it was. A good tale that benefits from a good reader

5/5*

Breaking the Lore by Andy Redsmith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I jumped right into describing this kind of book, within a razor's edge of genre, I would almost always say that I'm 100% on board with the attempt, no matter what. I like this kind of thing.

We've got us a UF setup with tons of magical beasties that hop right past the story foreplay stage because we've all seen these origin stories a million times before, mix it with a huge dose of dry humor that reminds me a bit of a cross between Discworld and Ben Aaronovitch, and then give us a modern cop drama.

On paper, this sounds fantastic. Like Bright without the racism angle. Add an alcoholic local cop who must work with dwarves, talking crows, and centaurs, and lead up to opened magical rifts invading our world on a nice huge scale. Demons versus everyone else. Sweet!

So why aren't I squeeing about it?

The setup is pretty great, mind you. And some of the humor was good. But this book is NOT a master of the small details like Aaronovitch's novels, nor is it as charming. It's also missing a lot of the heart of Discworld. My care meter petered out several times as I was reading this.

Basically, it's not the premise or the story. The problem is just the execution. Of course, when we're dealing with UFs in general, the first novels are generally the weakest. I think this has a lot of potential. It just needs to live up to it.

A funny and cozy urban fantasy read with a lot of twists and an unbelievable ending. I thought it was a pretty entertaining read and the cast was simply colorful with some characters a little extra special including a witch that’s completely unfazed by the increasing insanity of the last few abnormal days and a chain smoking, death defying talking crow that technically outranks our protagonist, Inspector Nick Paris. Full of moments that raises your brows and have you rolling in laughter, I thought it was almost sitcom-like how this book turned out. A pretty good read with a really good narrator to pair it off.

This is a delightful, lighthearted novel featuring fairies, elves and other magical beings in urban modern day Manchester (UK). Demons have invaded the city, but the protagonist, Inspector Nick Paris, sent to investigate a fairies murder, does not believe in magic. This was highly entertaining, a light entry into fantasy that doesnt take itself too seriously. I enjoyed the humour throughout (sometimes it tried a little too hard) and it made for easy reading. There is little depth to the characters or story, only bad characters experience bad outcomes, but it meant it wasn't too heavy.

Overall an enjoyable read I would recommend!

The first time I read this one, I liked it fine - there's a lot of great stuff here, including snappy one-liners, great characters, and fun world building. But the story dragged on in a number of places and felt like it was longer than it needed to be as a result.

The second time around, I listen to an audiobook boss Netgalley - and the narration really made a difference for me... While I still felt there were some places where the story could do with tighter editing, the narrator did a fantastic job bringing all of the characters to life and rounding out the story in a way that I found very enjoyable.

I'm looking forward to the second on audio now as a result!

Breaking the Lore is a murder mystery with a difference: the victim is a fairy!
Set in Manchester, this unusual book about the magical world is funny, different and very readible. The main character, a Mancunian policeman, quite quickly takes to the magical world and solves a crime committed against the fae. And there's a talking, smoking crow. And demons, I'm looking forward to the next one!

Thank you Netgalley, Saga Egmont Audio, and Andy Redsmith for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I just finished this audiobook a few minutes ago. I requested this book after the comparison to Douglas Adams. Who doesn't love Douglas Adams? I do see the similarities, because this story is at times absolutely hilarious and ridiculous. Maybe not as silly as Hitchhiker's guide, but solidly fun.

A detective who has never thought about magical creatures in his life is suddenly thrust into a world filled with all sorts of magical creatures. And he just has to roll with it. Trolls, elves, even demons. He just responds with dry humor.

What this audiobook really is - is too long. Clocking in at 10 hours, 31 minutes, that's a long story for not a huge amount of material. I kept listening for the great narration but I found myself bored, a lot. Then there would be great jokes, fun moments, and then boredom again. Cutting an hour out of this story would improve it a lot.

Overall, 3.5 stars. A solid listen.