The Russian Cage – 3 Star Book Review

I was granted complimentary eARC access to The Russian Cage through NetGalley. Thank you to whoever approved my request! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

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About the Book

The Russian Cage
Gunnie Rose Book Three
by Charlaine Harris

Published 23 February 2021
Gallery / Saga Press

Genre: Science Fantasy, Western
Page Count: 304
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

#1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Charlaine Harris is at her best in this alternate history of the United States where magic is an acknowledged but despised power in this third installment of the Gunnie Rose series.

Picking up right where A Longer Fall left off, this thrilling third installment follows Lizbeth Rose as she takes on one of her most dangerous missions yet: rescuing her estranged partner, Prince Eli, from the Holy Russian Empire. Once in San Diego, Lizbeth is going to have to rely upon her sister Felicia, and her growing Grigori powers to navigate her way through this strange new world of royalty and deception in order to get Eli freed from jail where he’s being held for murder.

Russian Cage continues to ramp up the momentum with more of everything Harris’ readers adore her for with romance, intrigue, and a deep dive into the mysterious Holy Russian Empire.

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My Review

My Rating: 3 Stars
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The Russian Cage is a futuristic old west western set in California of the Russian Empire. It intrigued, entertained, and bored me in equal amounts, and I’m scolding myself for not reading the synopsis more carefully before committing to review it. I saw the name of an author I recognize and always wanted to check out in the NetGalley category “Science Fiction & Fantasy” and I went for it. Whoops! I hate westerns.

I will give credit where credit is due and applaud this weird and wonderful fantasy western for keeping me interested enough not to abandon the book at any point, given that I hate westerns, but it did not change my mind about westerns. My grandfather loved westerns so I’ve seen every Roy Rogers and Clint Eastwood film ever made and listened to excerpts from his favourite books, and this one has all the hallmarks of a classic western from what I can tell. If that’s your thing, this is perfect! If it’s not, maybe avoid this one.

I found that there were long stretches in this book that were tediously slow and a lot of scenes where groups of characters got together and told each other what had just happened, but instead of summarizing the fact that this reporting and debriefing is going on because the reader just experienced it all we’re quite literally asked to read it all again. No thanks!

I did find that the main character has a great dark sense of humour. I loved lines like this one: “Who did she think was going to cook? I’d shot the maid!”

I recommend this book to fans of westerns who don’t mind a little fantasy infusion, but I would advice SFF fans who don’t like westerns to skip this particular series.

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