Stray Dogs

The Burke Misadventures, Book 1

By: Freya Faust

Narrated by: Danny Montooth, Aida Reluzco

The Burke siblings are damn good at what they do. And what they do? Well that isn’t any good at all. As wet work operators for the Order of Magic, the Burkes pay a high price to use their magic. For years, they threw themselves into the Order’s dirty work, cleaning up messes that the Nine liked to pretend didn’t exist. But all that has changed. Someone in Black Ops has decided that the Burke siblings are a liability. And when the Order’s most accomplished killer comes after them, it doesn’t take an elementalist to figure out they’ve been burned. Old friends won’t take their calls, so the Burkes turn to an old enemy instead—a shape-shifter whose quicksilver support leads to a transformation in Ed and a showdown well above Des’ weight class....

Stray Dogs is a queer author’s love letter to urban fantasy, for fans of Supernatural, Gideon the Ninth, and The Umbrella Academy.

©2020 Freya Faust (P)2023 Freya Faust

This Book Caught Me by Surprise

I enjoyed Stray Dogs by Freya Faust quite a bit. It's set in a contemporary urban setting and follows two brothers, who are off-the-book enforcers (and need be assassins), for a clandestine magical organization. They are contacted to reign in rouge Magicians who could potentially cause harm to the unaware, non-magical population. The world-building is gradual and novel. As this world unfolds, characters and the world they inhabit become increasingly defined and I found myself interested in both. The main characters are two brothers who have elevated peevish witticisms, irreverence to the world around them, sarcastic zingers, and brotherly banter to an art form.

One of the main characters makes a gender transition. Trans characters are often over-sexualized, objectified, victimized, or otherwise messed-up. Here Faust presents a strong and engaging character and keeps the focus on the character’s discovery of and acceptance of her identity. Likewise, her brother's trepidation about and reaction to her transition ultimately focused on the strength of their relationship. I appreciated what the author has done here.

The narrative is first-person, switching between the brothers' point of view chapter to chapter. Supporting characters are fully flushed out and play an integral role in the story. The plot follows the brothers as they escalate from the bottom rungs of their magical society, through a series of misadventures, betrayals, and conspiracies, to the upper echelons of leadership. Every time I sat the book down, I found myself wanting to come back to it. I am looking forward to reading other books from Freya Faust.

Overall engaging urban fantasy

I received a free copy of the audio book in exchange for an honest review.


The Good:
I enjoyed the adventures of the snarky, miscreant Burke siblings. Despite being self-aware anti-heroes, the Burkes are strangely sympathetic characters. I found myself rooting for them right away despite the fact that the author never shies away from or shrugs off their various Black Ops misdeeds. I found the supporting characters overall compelling, too, both the bad guys and the good guys.

It was also refreshing to see some actual LGBTQ representation, done in a genuine-feeling way.


The so-so:
A lot of the plot calls back to previous adventures and relies on exposition to make sure the reader understands what happened.

The pacing at the beginning was slow. I think it could have used a more ruthless edit to keep the tension high.

A warning:
This book is, at times, darker than I was expecting. Fans of Harrow the Ninth will rejoice; uber soft-hearts like myself will find a few parts uncomfortable.

The bottom line:
I liked the book. There's a good chance I'll pick up the next one because, like I said, I'm rooting for the Burkes.

Wonderful debut

Stray Dogs by Freya Faust is a well written story of two siblings working for the Order of Magic’s Black Ops. There is plenty of action to be had with plenty of snarky comments. It is a wonderful debut novel that shows the promise of a real storyteller in the making.

The story is told by going back and forth between the two main characters point of view and with each narrator. The interaction between the two main characters is so well done there is no doubt you will feel the love of family between them.

One of the main things I enjoy in this book over some other books that depict a world of magic is that the magical system is not overly detailed or overly explained…Thank you for that Freya.

It is also a story of one of the characters gender transition from male to female. It was interesting watching this development and how it played out.

If you like urban fantasy you will enjoy this book.

Four stars for the story because you have to leave some room for improvement…don’t want the author to get a big head ye know.

A fantastic journey of self discovery and fantasy!

This story was a little different then my usual listen, but I found myself getting drawn in by the characters and the world building. I love the self discovery and realistic issues the main characters face. There are definitely not enough books written where the MC is Trans. I thought the author and narrators did a fantastic job. This is definitely a story I cant wait for more of!!

Action-Packed with a Supernatural Flair

The Burkes are operatives in an underground not technically sanctioned black ops group for the Order of Magic. Eventually the Burkes find themselves on the run as their own group turns against them. Their only chance at a somewhat normal life is to bring their case to the Order of Magic.

The author Freya Faust keeps the listener on the edge of their seat in this action-filled story, and even during all of the dangers and trials that the Burkes go through, they realize more about who they want to be, what type of world they want to live in, and how they want their lives to go.

The narrators Danny Montooth and Aida Reluzco take turns bringing the main characters to life chapter to chapter. They do a great job at performing unique voices for each character the listener encounters in the story.

There were a few editing errors that took me out of the story but overall, a good book with no issues with the production or sound quality of the audiobook.

A blast of Siblings, young love and finding out ones true identity.

This book is phenomenally written and will capture you from sentence one all the way to the afterwords. It takes certain modern day problems, throws a fantasy twist on them but keeps it relevant enough for everything to remain relatable. Danny and Aida do a phenomenal job giving true voices to not only the main characters but every side character. If you’re looking for a true novel that will grip you until the end, this is it!

Good Story and Intresting Characters

I thought it was a really fun book with some interesting characters with plenty of character development. The story progresses well throughout and you felt for the struggle our two main characters are going through. The side characters are also well fleshed out throughout the book and add value to the story. The story is a good Urban Fantasy concept that plays well in the universe the author has created. There feels like there is a bit more world-building that can be done here, but we'll probably see that in future books.

The story switches back and forth from the two main characters' point of view and storytelling. With the use of the two different narrators and announcing who is 'speaking' at the beginning of each chapter or when there is a shift, things went pretty smoothly. Other all a good book with good narration that I am looking forward to the second in the series.

overall

not quite what I was expecting but it worked. The dynamics with the brothers just held my attention.