Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1)

This book is a fantasy novel that follows out heroine, Raine Benares who is a seeker and a sorceress. The story centers on her friend, Quentin who steals and amulet from the home of a powerful necromancer. The entire time she is in possession of the amulet, a group of goblins is trying to chase

Show More

her. I like that her character can hold her own and take care of herself. I also like how she sticks by her friend, Quentin, even though she knows it is not such a good idea. The novel also has some strong secondary characters as well. My only complaint is that the book was a little too long and the font was very small and as I was reading, it gave me a headache. All in all, it was a pretty good book.

Show Less

Very light and fun read. Similar in feel to the Sagara's Elantra books (though with a main character without such an obviously tormented/victim past.)

I am undecided in how I feel on her romantic entanglements. She came off as decidedly uncaring as to the feelings of the fellows interested in her,

Show More

but I'm willing to let that slide on account of all the magic-craziness that was going on in the foreground. Will definitely pick up the next one.

Show Less

The Summary: Some people just can't escape trouble. Raine is having that sort of day.

The Take Away: Lisa Sheardin tips into telling not showing quite often during the story. However, it has the feel of a friend relaying details, not the author intruding. Occasionally,. it did cross the line of,

Show More

huh, convenient. But over all the telling went well.

The story itself was was so-so. An action thriller that was enhanced by the world it was set in. Charming, but not enduring. Worth seeking book 2.

Show Less

Okay, it reads like a pretty typical role-playing session with a smart-alec main character, but I found it a fun read. Raine is trying to make sure a friend of hers doesn't get into too much trouble stealing a magic item and she finds herself embroiled in Goblin politics and murder.

She also finds

Show More

herself in posession of a cursed magical item that's pretty pivotal to the plot and therefore has a reason to be there during the action. She's sarky and sassy and doesn't stand on ceremony. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more in the series.

Show Less

Fast moving fantasy story. Raine is a not-so-powerful seeker (as in seeking that which is lost) from a less than salubrious elven family - her favourite cousin is a pirate and smuggler for example, and she has an intimate relationship with the widower of the Goblin King's teacher.

The story isn't

Show More

exactly new, although it has a couple of nice twists, but it's nicely handled - the characters all feel alive and you can understand their motivations, at least for the sane ones.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

Show Less

While it started off slow, Shearin definitely picks up the pace in her debut Raine Benares novel and continues to deliver momentum in the following book Armed & Magical. Full of witty sentences and a cast of colorful characters, I cannot imagine anyone who could dislike such a fantastic book!

This was a lot of fun - it took a bit to get going for me (though the story jumps right into action), but pays off.

Raine is a cool, tough elf who's used her mild magic abilities to help her in her job as a seeker - finding lost items for clients. When a friend gets into trouble with a mysterious

Show More

amulet, Raine tries to help him by hiding the amulet for him. Unfortunately, the amulet somehow binds itself to her, in turn getting her involved with warring goblin princes and various sketchy members of the thieving underworld.

Show Less

Raine is a seeker - she finds lost things that is - and is no stranger to trouble, but this time even she'll admit she's in over head. Hailing from a family full of thieves, Raine is honest herself but still has friends in the shadier parts of society. When one longtime friend steals an amulet that

Show More

some powerful and decidedly not-so-nice sorcerers want, it ends up around Raine's neck and she's not about to take if off. Especially since everytime she does, it tries to kill her. More than troubling, that. Completely lost as to why everyone is now after said amulet and her by consequence, Raine turns to her most trusted friends for help and answers which ends up leading to even more trouble. This was a great fantasy read with an interesting new world full of goblins, elves, and other magical things friendly and otherwise. Raine is resourceful, witty, and surprising likable. She easily kept my interest as each new page seemed to bring out her personality just a bit more. The secondary characters were a treat too - a young spellsinger who is like a little brother to Raine, a shady but devilishly handsome club owner, and her wizard Godfather among others constantly liven things up. They all leapt off the page and helped to define Raine as a character so much more. I will for sure be checking out the rest of this enjoyable series.

Show Less

I am going to be honest, I am not sure I should even be writing a review for this since I only got 70 pages into the book...but I guess that says something about the book, right? I was excited to read this book; it was supposed to be a fantasy with an urban fantasy flavor to it and sounded right up

Show More

my alley...well it wasn't.

The book drops you right into the middle of the action, but I just couldn't get into it. The action scenes weren't all that well done. The characters did not interest me in the least. Right off the bat there were three characters, including Raine, but I didn't like any of them. I also didn't enjoy the writing style, what I read did not have a tight plot and didn't present an interesting world.

Truth be told each page, starting with the first one, was a struggle for me to read. I just wasn't in the mood to fight the struggle for another 300+ pages. So I set it aside, then never picked it up again.

This was a series I wanted to love, but just couldn't. It reminded me a bit of Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra, but was not nearly as engaging. This may be one of those books that grows significantly better as you get into it, or possibly has characters that are more engaging as the series continues. But, I just did not like it even a little bit...and I have too many books to read to spend time on ones I don't like; especially when the book is supposed to be a light and fluffy fun read (as I hoped this one would be).

Overall, I just couldn't get into it, struggled through each page. The writing style, the characters, the world, I just didn't like any of it. I won't be picking up any more books by Shearin. If you want a good fantasy with that urban fantasy mystery and flare I would recommend The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara over this one; that one's very well written and an overall great series.

Show Less

I really have to say, this is truly a case where you should not judge a book by its cover. Despite the cheesy, fluffy looking cover and title, this is a good read. The author has created a very reasonable fantasy setting that isn't the same old "elves hate dwarves" type environment. The elven

Show More

heroine is remarkably "human" -- plucky, intelligent, capable of getting herself out of (well, and into) trouble without fainting into the arms of a male or drawing on some snooty obscure elven heritage in the process. This is not a romance novel of any sort; while it is not Lord of the Rings, it is certainly an enjoyable fantasy novel with a very strong female protagonist. My only negative is that the ending wrapped up a little more quickly than I would have liked, but certainly left the option open for future adventures with our heroine. Highly recommended.

Show Less

A strong, sassy female protagonist saves her friend. Nice to have a book which demonstrates the virtue of loyalty even among the underclass. The characters are mostly nicely drawn - with one or two exceptions. The plot (Discovery of a history altering magical device) is handled with enough novelty

Show More

to distract from the fact that It Has Been Done Before.

But the setting doesn't hold up to the promise. Most of the way through I was thinking, "Why elves?" What is it about this plot that required elves & goblins? The elves are, so far as we can tell, indistinguishable from humans; they have no cultural identity, no physiology, etc.

And the one exception to the interesting characters is Tam. He's just there as a sex interest, and he is boring.

Final note - this is book 1. Book 2 abandons most of the interesting stuff to descend into erotic paranormal romance. I was ready to recommend this book to my daughter till I read the second book; at this poitn I don't think I'll read the third. A great pity that a book with so much promise, so much original treatment of standard themes would wind up just being another excuse for purple prose.

Show Less

lost interest fairly quickly. didn't finish

I really liked this first installment of the Raine Benares series. I was in the mood for a kick-ass female protagonist, and that's exactly what I found. Raine is clever, funny, good with a sword or dagger, and she'll do anything for the people she cares about. She's also smart. I don't just mean

Show More

that she can come up with good plans--I mean that she knows how and who to ask for help when she needs it. I very much appreciate seeing a heroine who is fantastic in so many ways and who isn't afraid to rely on others. I look forward to the rest of the series.

Show Less

I read the 2nd book first due to it being a random pickup off a library shelf, and I actually found going back to the 1st a little disappointing having seen how much more Raine comes into herself in the second book. But that's not to say that the first isn't fun -- it's just that it gets even

Show More

*better*! Fun little fantasy, interesting world and it's actually nice to see a heroine who's got a really serious cast of family as well as friends willing to back her up when necessary, something you don't see nearly often enough in fantasy novels!

Show Less

I couldn't get into this book. It's written in first person and the protagonist is cocky and sarcastic and I sound her and the writing style annoying right off the bat.

Magic Lost, Trouble Found is one of those "sleeper" books for me. You've heard the term in relation to movies - a movie that doesn't seem like it's going to be a big hit, yet ends up to be one of the best movies you've ever seen for whatever reason. When I first started this book, I couldn't quite

Show More

get into it. I think I ended up putting it aside for at least three years - possible more....yes, in fact I started it in 2007 and finally finished in in February of 2012. That's quite a wait. The first time I didn't get past the first chapter, and to be fair, I had brought it with me when my daughter, granddaugher {then 7 months old} and I flew to Los Angeles to visit my brother. We were pretty busy, and I ended not reading much until we came home, and I became engrossed in other books. I kept seeing it on the shelf and thinking I should read it...time passes....then I joined that challenge and decided to grab it off that shelf and see if I couldn't finish it. Once I got into it, I found it was pretty interesting.

Raine is am elf, living in a city and world populated with faes, goblins and other folk. There are wizards, thieves, etc. It's set in a time with no cars or motorized items - think of Willow or Lord of the Rings for settings- only with more city like surroundings. Raine has a small talent - she can find things with a small bit of magic. She comes from a line of magic users and has been living with her cousins - a large family of happy, busy pirates and thieves. She has a friend, Quentin, who frequently gets into situations because of his tendency to try to make money by stealing. She also has friends in the local version of a police precinct.

Her friend Quentin has taken a job, and she's decided to watch over him, to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Only the job he took was to steal from a notoriously dangerous wizard and of course, something does go wrong. Goblins - two factions of goblins interrupt and a battle follows. To keep the item safe, she puts it around her neck while getting Quenting out of danger - and gets stuck with an evil amulet that kind of likes having Raine wear it. Turns out this amulet is pretty important, and is wanted by quite a few people - one to hide it away and keep it safe and others to use for your typical nefarious purposes.

Goblins in this particular world are not your typical goblins - these guys are human shaped, with silvery gray skin; they like to stay in darker places and can be quite mesmerizing. They are pretty blood thirsty, though. Turns out Raine has had a long 'will they or won't they' relationship with a certain goblin who happens to be related to the royal goblin family - this matters later in the book. And now, there are some pretty evil goblins after her and the amulet. Her cousin, Phaelen {a dashingly roguish pirate} helps her - he's a fun guy to read about. They have a fun relationship with interesting dialogue - and he's taught her all he knows about picking locks, etc.

Raine needs to find a way to get the amulet off her, into safe hands before it takes her over. She's finding new abilities the longer she connected to it. People, good and bad, are after her, she's not sure who she can trust {besides her family} and she ends up inadvertantly getting her aunt and cousin involved, as well as her wizard tutor, and her cousin Phaelen. The entire book is fun to read - good dialogue, interesting interactions between characters, adventure, a few good fights and a couple of heart thumping moments between her and a certain detective. Elves, Wizards, magic, Goblins, Fae, spellsingers, roguish pirate captain cousin....Lots of great stuff in this novel. A good read, and the first in a series. The narration is first person, with very little in the way of infodumping - there are parts where Raine explains a goblin way of life, for instance, but these are kept short and sweet, and do the job - it explains so that you know a bit more about the story, the person or the talent. Shearin does a good job with this.

I'm happy I read this book. I promptly went out and bought the second in the series and in true contradictory fashion, I haven't read it yet. Which is silly, because I know I have a good story with great narration and lightly snarky dialogue to go with it. {I love a lightly snarky dialogue - there's nothing so off putting as over-snark, where the author is so out of control with having her character be a smartass that the person comes across as a super sarcastic asshole} I plan to read Armed & Magical soon, and if it's as good as the first, then I have the rest of the series to look forward to - which is always good thing.

Show Less

Magic Lost, Trouble Found follows the adventures of Raine Benares, a Seeker (effectively a private detective) who, through a series of mishaps, ends up bonded to a very powerful and very evil magical stone called the Saghred. While the Saghred significantly improves her magical abilities, its power

Show More

comes at a price: it eats souls, and it's hungry. Meanwhile, a couple of very powerful and very evil goblins are also hunting down the Saghred, people who would use the stone to level cities and destroy governments. So now it's Raine's job to keep the stone away from the bad goblins, keep it from stealing her own soul, and, yeah, save the world.

I got pretty hung-up on the world building. It's basically a modern urban environment, only with medieval clothes and magic. Raine is a female who wears pants every day, her friend Tam runs a nightclub, there is an organized police force that the author refers to as "Mermeia's finest," foreign dignitaries get "diplomatic immunity"...the society was organized along such familiar lines that the trappings of a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world felt out of place - whenever Raine puts on her "doublet" I'd roll my eyes and wonder why the charade; might as well just dress her in a t-shirt and leather jacket and be done with it.

I wanted to understand how the social organization was so advanced while technology was so primitive. Magic is possible here, but not plentiful - and I never got the explanation I craved.

I had some issues with characterization too. I liked Raine, and I thought she was well-developed with a good voice, pragmatic and witty and smart. But a lot of the other characters seem don't seem fully fleshed to me. Piaras, for example, is a powerful young spellsinger. He's a good guy, so he's always noble and moral, but he's young, so he's sometimes nervous and scared, and he's a perfectionist. That's pretty much his personality. Bad boy Tam is more complex, but then again his mix of strong personal ethics, devotion to the protagonist, and dark dark past are as cliched as could be.

This is one of those books that really has me on the fence. It's not bad, but not good enough that I'm eager to read more. I bought the sequel before finishing the first one, and I read that too, and I enjoyed it. But they both left me feeling pretty tepid.

Show Less

lost interest fairly quickly. didn't finish

If there’s one word to describe Magic Lost, Trouble Found it’s fun. After plowing through the first couple of chapters, I was hooked. The worldbuilding and the characters are outstanding, and I love how much Raine cares about her family and friends. There’s also an intriguing romantic subplot

Show More

that I’m interested to see develop. Overall, this is a great series opener. I’m already looking forward to book two.

Show Less

Raine Benares is not having a good day. While protecting a friend she gets captured by an amulet that won't let go and which is a beacon to a weapon that everyone wants. The weapon known as the Soul Stealer would help the goblin king keep power, or it would help the king's brother overthrow him, or

Show More

it would give an evil goblin sorcerer power unimagined.

Luckily, Raine isn't in the fight alone. She has the support of her cousin Phaelen who is from the less law-abiding part of the family. She also has the help of her godfather who is a retired spellsinger. Then there's Mychael Eiliesor who is an Elven Paladin and Guardian. The Soul Stealer has been safe in their keeping for hundreds of years and he wants to return it to their keeping.

I enjoyed this story. Raine is a fascinating main character who would like to stay under the radar but who finds herself too much in the spotlight. I liked her loyalty to her friends especially the young spellsinger who she thinks of as her younger brother.

I can't wait to read more of Raine's adventures. Luckily, I have them all on my Kindle.

Show Less

An interesting story. Some very different kinds of characters (tall, handsome, sexy goblins? Nasty-minded, though). The annoying trope of every male chasing the female protagonist - most of them want her for sex, some...have other things in mind. Raine, a minor mage/PI, ends up in possession of,

Show More

and possessed by, some very strong, very nasty magic - and then things get complicated. Happy ending, though - the worst of the opponents is even dealt with (maybe) - and then Raine has to deal with long-term effects (in the next book). I read this some years ago - at least, I wrote down that I read it - but I don't remember it at all. This time I intend to go on with the series; we'll see if it gets more memorable. The title is silly, though - the magic isn't lost, it's found. Along with plenty of trouble.

Show Less

Felt very much like a Tamora Pierce novel, great for young adults or just a quick read.

One stolen silver amulet turns into a whole lot of trouble for Seeker Raine Benares. Raine doesn't object to trouble - good thing, too, because when she goes out on a limb to help a friend, the consequences are a bit more than she bargained for. Elves, goblins, pirates, a magical soul stealing box,

Show More

plenty of action and a clever-tongued heroine with more going for her than looks: what's not to like!

Starts off a bit rough, but once things get rolling, there's plenty of action and adventure. Definitely worth following up with the two (so far) sequels.

Show Less

When Raine decided to keep an eye on her sometime contact Quentin she didn't expect her attempts to keep him safe would land her in a heap of trouble that started with being attacked by a conclave of goblin sorcerers and ended with her being possessed by a powerful amulet. Another unfortunate side

Show More

effect of her unwanted new piece of jewlery is the amount of people after it, including a powerful goblin Shaman and a elven guardian who is too attractive for Raine's peace of mind. Soon everything and everyone Raine holds dear is being threatened and she is determined to do anything it takes to save them all. But what she fears the most is that the cost might be her soul.

I found this story to be a pretty enjoyable fantasy tale once I figured out who everyone was. There were a number of characters thrown at the reader in a very short time period which made it a little confusing. However, I did find the characters we got to know the best very compelling. Everyone, from Raine's pirate cousin to her spellsinging adopted little brother were facinating. Of course, Raine, Tam and Mychael (I love the unusual spelling!) were great characters as well. Although the story left off with a few loose ends which make a sequel rather obvious, it wasn't an unbearable cliffhanger. Another enjoyable facet of the book was Raine's dry wit which, at least at the beginning, reminded me a lot of Harry Dresden. This kind of faded away during the course of the story, but it was nice while it lasted. Certainly a fast moving fantasy foray that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone looking for an interesting diversion.

Show Less