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Ashley's Reviews > Stiletto
Stiletto (The Checquy Files, #2)
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Ashley's review
bookshelves: anglophilia, bloody-and-gross, fantasy, espionage, i-vant-to-drink-your-blood, murder-most-foul, paranormal-and-supernatural, speculative, urban-fantasy, political-plots-and-maneuverings, creature-feature, currently-reading, audiobooks, not-reviewed-2025
May 19, 2013
bookshelves: anglophilia, bloody-and-gross, fantasy, espionage, i-vant-to-drink-your-blood, murder-most-foul, paranormal-and-supernatural, speculative, urban-fantasy, political-plots-and-maneuverings, creature-feature, currently-reading, audiobooks, not-reviewed-2025
Reading for the 2nd time. Most recently started March 7, 2025.
I liked this, even though it is pretty different from The Rook. Maybe because it's different? Nobody likes a re-tread. Spoilers for The Rook to follow, though, so don't read if you're planning on starting this series.
Myfanwy, the main character from The Rook, is here, and she even gets some POV, but the majority of narrative real estate belongs to Felicity and Odette. Felicity Clements is a Pawn from the Checquy, and Odette Lelefield is a Grafter. We see the story from both their perspectives as the talks begin to merge The Checquy with the Grafters (or the Broederschap, as they prefer to be called). Merging the two organizations is a fraught process, as both sides have been raised from birth to not only hate the other, but to consider them inhuman monsters or demons. Changing those attitudes is a tall order, to put it mildly. Meanwhile, mysterious and frightening antagonists have infiltrated London and are causing violent deaths and mass injuries, not just to the Grafters and the Checquy, but also to civilians, threatening to bring the two organizations to what would be a devastating war.
I liked seeing the narrative from both sides, especially seeing the Checquy from the perspective of the Grafters. Odette and Felicity were also pretty interesting characters who I ended up caring for, but who I still don't like as much as I like Myfanwy. (It's really hard not to like Myfanwy after spending a book with her relearning her life.)
The book was about one hundred pages too long, though. O'Malley needed to kill some darlings. (view spoiler)
I hope O'Malley writes at least one more book in this world. I want to see how things look post merger, and how things play out with Myfanway and Odette and Felicity.
Myfanwy, the main character from The Rook, is here, and she even gets some POV, but the majority of narrative real estate belongs to Felicity and Odette. Felicity Clements is a Pawn from the Checquy, and Odette Lelefield is a Grafter. We see the story from both their perspectives as the talks begin to merge The Checquy with the Grafters (or the Broederschap, as they prefer to be called). Merging the two organizations is a fraught process, as both sides have been raised from birth to not only hate the other, but to consider them inhuman monsters or demons. Changing those attitudes is a tall order, to put it mildly. Meanwhile, mysterious and frightening antagonists have infiltrated London and are causing violent deaths and mass injuries, not just to the Grafters and the Checquy, but also to civilians, threatening to bring the two organizations to what would be a devastating war.
I liked seeing the narrative from both sides, especially seeing the Checquy from the perspective of the Grafters. Odette and Felicity were also pretty interesting characters who I ended up caring for, but who I still don't like as much as I like Myfanwy. (It's really hard not to like Myfanwy after spending a book with her relearning her life.)
The book was about one hundred pages too long, though. O'Malley needed to kill some darlings. (view spoiler)
I hope O'Malley writes at least one more book in this world. I want to see how things look post merger, and how things play out with Myfanway and Odette and Felicity.
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Reading Progress
May 19, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 19, 2013
– Shelved
Started Reading
July 30, 2016
–
Finished Reading
August 3, 2016
–
17.0%
"I'm liking the dual narrators, one from each side. I find seeing the Checquy from the Grafters' perspective fascinating."
August 4, 2016
–
26.0%
"Oh, I'm so upset for Odette right now. The Checquy really did not do a good job preparing its members for this merger."
August 5, 2016
–
40.0%
""'But I hate her,' protested Odette.
'Oh, I'm sure you think you do,' said Marcel cheerfully, 'but you're still young. It takes decades to really hate someone.' Odette sighed heavily. 'I'll tell you what, if, after fifteen years, you still think you hate her, we'll do something about it.'"
Ernst and Marcel are extremely amusing to me."
'Oh, I'm sure you think you do,' said Marcel cheerfully, 'but you're still young. It takes decades to really hate someone.' Odette sighed heavily. 'I'll tell you what, if, after fifteen years, you still think you hate her, we'll do something about it.'"
Ernst and Marcel are extremely amusing to me."
August 6, 2016
–
84.0%
"This book could probably have been trimmed up a little bit, but I'm otherwise enjoying it."
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
anglophilia
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
bloody-and-gross
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
fantasy
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
espionage
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
i-vant-to-drink-your-blood
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
murder-most-foul
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
paranormal-and-supernatural
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
speculative
August 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
urban-fantasy
February 1, 2020
– Shelved as:
political-plots-and-maneuverings
March 23, 2023
– Shelved as:
creature-feature
March 7, 2025
–
Started Reading
March 7, 2025
– Shelved as:
audiobooks
March 7, 2025
– Shelved as:
not-reviewed-2025
March 7, 2025
–
1.0%
"The re-read continues. I remember liking this the first time, but not as much as the first book."
March 10, 2025
–
17.0%
"I love that the Grafters literally call their antagonists 'The Antagonists'."
March 13, 2025
–
61.0%
"I have two Spotify reading hours left, and nine hours left of this audiobook.
"
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Mike
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rated it 4 stars
Jun 26, 2014 05:02PM
Only need to wait eight months for it. Still the cover looks great and I am super excited to be getting a sequel!
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I really didn't expect to love the first one so much, but in hindsight, it was one of the best books I read in 2012. Very much looking forward to re-reading it before this one comes out. And I hope it's not one of those cases where the sequel is worse. I don't think I could bear that.
Ashley wrote: "I really didn't expect to love the first one so much, but in hindsight, it was one of the best books I read in 2012. Very much looking forward to re-reading it before this one comes out. And I hope..."Agreed. I will be interested to see what O'Malley does with Myfanwy considering (view spoiler).
For now I will maintain naive, unbridled optimism about the sequel.
I'm reading this one too. I've kind of bogged down....
I'm only on page 33, and it's not the best thing I've ever read, but liking it so far. I do miss Myfanwy.Looks like you're quite a bit farther than I am, though.
Glad you ended up liking it! Personally I want to see more intternational supernatural stuff in the next (hopefully there will be a next) book. This one offhandedly mentions a meeting with five other supernatural agencies and I am just dying to know more about them.
I'd like to see that, too. Do you think there will ever be consequences for Myfanwy's lost memory? I could see it going either way, with them ignoring it forever, or it coming out into the open and causing a ruckus.
