Hammered – Fairly average urban fantasy.

Hammered (Legacy of Magic, #1).
By Lindsay Buroker.
My rating ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (barely) out of 5 stars.

Seattle native Matti Puletasi has the strength of a bear, the stamina of an ox, and a magical hammer inherited from her dwarven mother.

She’s happy renovating homes and occasionally thumping bad guys until she learns of a mysterious artifact hidden under the house she’s working on. Everybody from humans to orcs to werewolves wants it, and they’re willing to kill to get it. Things go from bad to worse when someone frames her for murder.

The only person interested in helping her is a haughty elf assassin from another realm. He’s handsome, powerful, and deadly, but he’s got an agenda of his own. She dare not trust him—or be attracted to him.

But if she can’t clear her name, the assassin will be the least of her worries.

This was a fairly average, almost mediocre, piece of urban fantasy.

I cannot say that it is a bad book, I did enjoy reading it, but it is certainly not something that made me eager to read the next installment either. Having said that the book had some positive points so I probably will indeed read at least one more book in the series.

I did like the part of the blurb where Matti was portrayed as a rather strong and kick-ass main protagonist “occasionally thumping bad guys”. As it turns out she is not too bad at that although she is like the book, fairly okay but nothing to write home about.

However, that brings us to this “elf assassin”. That part of the book blurb did indeed worry me a bit. Especially the “handsome” part. I was indeed worried that the author would ruin the book with a bunch or urban silly romance and teenage wet dreams. Luckily this did not happen.

As it turned out this elf assassin is probably my favorite character in the book. He is indeed powerful and deadly. Much more kick-ass than Matti. He is also delightfully arrogant and sure of himself. The latter for good reason actually. The dialogue between him and Matti are quite entertaining to read. Especially during the parts where he allows Matti to take refuge in his lair with its various magical appliances. Turns out Matti is better at hammering magical soap dispensers than bad guys.

The underlying story is okay although I was a bit disappointed when it was revealed what had been hidden under the house mentioned in the book blurb. I had hoped it would be something contributing more to Matti’s (magical) character development. As a matter of fact Matti does not really develop much at all in this first book.

Unfortunately the book is a bit messy jumping around a lot and these rather irrational Goblins and whatnot that populate the story are not exactly helping. I could definitely have done with a bit less of the weirdo Goblins.

As I wrote, a fairly average but still somewhat entertaining urban fantasy book and I will probably read one more book before I decide the fate of this series.