Treasure & Treason – Lisa Shearin

The entry for this book describes it as “Raine Benares #8”, but it isn’t - which is a pity, because that series was great fun to read. “Treasure and Treason” is a spin-off novel: Take a few supporting characters from the earlier series. Come up with a slightly-different McGuffin (the same bad guys are after another magic stone). Have the bad guys pop up every few pages to attack the good guys until the book runs out of pages. (It doesn’t say “to be continued”, but the book ends with the characters still traveling towards the McGuffin.)

If you’ve read the first series, and hope for more of the same, you won’t find it here. If you haven’t read the first series, you’ll likely find that this book does not stand on its own.