Title: Ambrosia

Author: Hamelin Bird

Release date: January 16th, 2024

Huge thanks to Hamelin for sending me a digital copy of this one. And huger thanks to our mutual IG friend who put us in touch. I’m not 100% sure if they want me to mention who it was, so for now, I’ll keep it at that!

When I was dm’d about the prospect of potentially reviewing this one, I jumped to GR and all I had to read was this line in the synopsis – ‘…draws the attention of the Bureau, a fringe government agency formed from the rubble of Projects Monarch and Stargate,’ to know I was 100% onboard. Seriously! Secret fringe agency? The Bureau? Sign me up!

What I liked: Ok, so, the first half of this novel is pretty saccharine, but in the best way possible. I actually loved the attention to detail Bird laid out and the story that got us to what I’ll call ‘the tipping point.

The story follows Travis, a former Navy member, who, much to his chagrin, returns to his mother’s home after she’s passed. They weren’t on the best of terms and from all accounts, she was a hard lady to be around. But, he knows that things need to be done and loose ends tied off. Soon, he finds that the familiar is nice. He reconnects with old friends, cleans up the house some and begins to believe this might be just where he needs to be.

Things begin to subtly shift when he remembers he had an old coin collection that just might be up in the attic. Sure enough, it is, but now it seems to have significantly grown. He doesn’t question it, just begins selling off singular coins and uses some to buy things. Which all leads to a huge moment – he buys a lotto ticket and wins big. Like big big.

It’s from here that Bird really swings for the fences with a massive shift. Throughout, we’ve been getting glimpses of a strange assassin, Drexl, who has a singular job and begrudgingly does it.

Bird sets things up well and when the Bureau arrives and makes itself known, we get a time-spanning story that all leads to Travis having to make a massive decision.

The writing is crisp, propulsive and the characters – no matter where they lay in the story – are all intriguing. Which works well to bring us up to the very end… and push us over the edge.

It was a great ‘cap’ to the story, whether this is a one-off is always up for debate when a plot point is involving a secret elite, but we’ll see.

What I didn’t like: Now, I don’t fully know how much I accepted the ‘tipping point.’ It is VERY hard to say anything about it without full spoiling anything, but I will say, it works, but for this reader, I don’t know how much I bought into the various mechanism of the ‘why.’

Why you should buy this: Is this cosmic horror? Not really, but kind of. Is this portal horror? Not really but kind of? The closest I can think of to compare this would be like The X-Files mixed with Agents of Dreamland but not? Haha! It is a wholly unique approach and storyline which had me captivated and I think will really intrigue and excite a lot of readers.

4/5