Review: The Drafter by Kim Harrison

Series:	Peri Reed #1
Pub. Date:	Sept. 1, 2015
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Length:	432 pages

I am a big Kim Harrison fan... so much so that I have been saving the last Hollows book because I don't want the series to be over! I have been curious about this new series and am glad that I have finally been able to work it into my reading schedule. It's definitely different from the magic of the Hollows, but I think the series has good potential.

Peri Reed is a drafter, which means she can draft time to fix mistakes that occurred within the previous 60 seconds or so... however when she drafts, she loses part of her memory and must rely on a partner (anchor) to help her fix the memory of the timeline. This makes the relationship between the drafter and the anchor crucial - they must be able to trust one another implicitly. The drafter can (kinda) rewind time to save an anchors life, and the drafter must rely on the anchor to rebuild her memory when she loses part of her timeline. Peri was a likable heroine for the most part. She was capable and kickass, but with a large dose of vulnerability when she lost her timeline. She definitely trusted the wrong people time and again, and was manipulated ridiculously easy, but her memory loss hampered her ability to learn a lesson from past mistakes. I do wish that her instinct would have been a little stronger at times, but overall I liked her quite a bit and think she will continue to grow as the series progresses.

Even though the blurb touts this as a romantic suspense series, there was not much romance in this first installment. Peri first has to deal with the betrayal of her anchor and love interest, and then we are introduced to Silas Denier, a hunky and intelligent doctor who invented the technology in this futuristic world. While there may be an intention for Peri and Silas to come together in the future, they were more at odds with one another in this book than anything, even when they were working together. Then there was this other guy hanging around, Allen, who really just creeped me out and I hate him and all of the interactions that he had with Peri. You will see why as you read, but I can't go into my dislike for him in detail without giving spoilers.

So I loved the suspense in this story, the action was fast-paced and kept me turning the page for the first two-thirds of the book. I was very interested in the futuristic world and technology, and loved seeing Peri kick ass and get herself out of scrapes and close calls. The world-building was not quite as developed as I would have liked. I felt confused as I was reading sometimes, and I still don't fully understand how the sci-fi aspects work. I get the drafting time... but I really want to know how they go in and fragment memories. I don't think that was explained much (if at all). I also want to know why drafting causes memory loss, and why a 30 second draft could remove weeks or years of memory. Some of the confusion may be my own fault as I didn't realize there was a prequel to this series. The prequel focuses on Silas so I have a feeling some of his technological work and research was described in that book, so I really shot myself in the foot for not reading it first. 

The plot did get repetitive for me around 70% and it seemed like Peri was getting into the same situation over and over, and that made the story start to drag. However, I powered through and did like the set up for all the various crises, even if the draft-forget-betrayal-repeat was so similar in each scenario. I got miffed around 90% as well when it seemed that a somewhat major event happened off page. But there were also some twists and turns thrown in that made me happy, and I am looking forward to where Peri goes next in The Operator, which I have scheduled for review next week.

Peri Reed Chronicles