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The Torn #1
Practical Boots
These boots are made for walking...
The disappointing daughter of a Lord of the Torn, Cat Sharp was dumped in the shapeless Waste to prove herself or die. Seven years later, she's honed the Artificer magic that saved her in the Waste, and her courier business is booming: after all, no one else can step from one location to another almost instantaneously, as Cat can with her seven league boots.
Each passage through the Waste takes her one step closer to the only thing she's ever wanted to find...but even the Torn-born become careless at times. When Cat's father catches up with her again, Cat must make a choice between her own dreams and an innocent's future...or try once more to forge her own way through two worlds, neither of which she quite belongs in....
The disappointing daughter of a Lord of the Torn, Cat Sharp was dumped in the shapeless Waste to prove herself or die. Seven years later, she's honed the Artificer magic that saved her in the Waste, and her courier business is booming: after all, no one else can step from one location to another almost instantaneously, as Cat can with her seven league boots.
Each passage through the Waste takes her one step closer to the only thing she's ever wanted to find...but even the Torn-born become careless at times. When Cat's father catches up with her again, Cat must make a choice between her own dreams and an innocent's future...or try once more to forge her own way through two worlds, neither of which she quite belongs in....
101 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 4, 2021
62 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
C.E. Murphy
97 books1,795 followersCE Murphy began writing around age six, when she submitted three poems to a school publication. The teacher producing the magazine selected (inevitably) the one she thought was by far the worst, but also told her–a six year old kid–to keep writing, which she has. She has also held the usual grab-bag of jobs usually seen in an authorial biography, including public library volunteer (at ages 9 and 10; it’s clear she was doomed to a career involving books), archival assistant, cannery worker, and web designer. Writing books is better.
She was born and raised in Alaska, and now lives with her family in her ancestral homeland of Ireland.
She also writes paranormal romance as Murphy Lawless and cozy mysteries as Catie Murphy.
She was born and raised in Alaska, and now lives with her family in her ancestral homeland of Ireland.
She also writes paranormal romance as Murphy Lawless and cozy mysteries as Catie Murphy.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 13, 2021
Originally published at Reading Reality
The practical boots that Cat Sharp fashioned for herself out of the stuff of the Waste have existed in folklore and fiction for centuries, but in real life, not so much. They’re the “seven-league boots” that have cropped up – or strode across – stories ranging from Jack the Giant Killer to The Innocents Abroad to Howl’s Moving Castle to even trip The Light Fantastic of the Discworld.
But Cat made her own when her aelfen father (they don’t call themselves “elves” thankyouverymuch) tossed her out of the Torn – the fae lands where she was born – into the Waste. The Waste is what lies between the truly magical lands of the Torn and the World – the world that we humans live in.
Cat is neither and both. Her mother was human, her father was Torn, and Cat’s half-and-half nature allows her to be a bit of both but fully a part of neither. When her sperm donor – or whatever it is the aelfen actually have – tossed her aside into the Waste – she made her boots and walked her way into our world.
Where she became a high-priced, highly sought after, highly exclusive courier. Being able to go from New York to LA in one step and the blink of an eye is a lucrative talent in a world where time is all too often literally money.
When the story begins, the courier job that Cat has taken turns out to be a trap that leads directly to her manipulative father. She’s barely finished – even on a temporary basis – dealing with that asshole, when she’s jerked into another trap. Which pushes her right into – you guessed it – a third trap.
Getting out of THAT leads her right back to where this journey began – chasing her sperm donor into yet one more…trap.
But as Cat jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire, we learn what makes her tick, how her walks between the worlds work and even a little bit of just what it is that makes Cat so special that so many people are trying to use her for their own ends.
Or to create the means that they can use for those ends.
All Cat wants to do is stay out of everyone’s clutches – especially her father’s. So she can keep on hunting – for her mom.
Escape Rating B: When I saw Practical Boots on this month’s Must Haves over at The Book Pushers I grabbed it immediately. Because I have fond memories of reading the author’s urban fantasy series, the Walker Papers (start with Urban Shaman) a long time and several cities ago. I still have them.
But when I read Practical Boots I kept having the feeling that I’d read it before – and not in the Walker Papers, as the setups are completely different. Practical Boots just came out, so I can’t have read this before but I have read things that have bits of this plenty of times. The father/daughter relationship is very like the one in House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas – and every bit as manipulative and abusive. The mechanism, the travel between the World, the Torn, and the Waste has echoes of the travel between the worlds in Charlie Stross’ Merchant Princes series.
Practical Boots also feels like it has echoes of other urban fantasy series, like Lindsay Buroker’s Death Before Dragons (start with Sinister Magic), and Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles – particularly Sweep of the Blade as well as Andrews’ Edge series that begins with On the Edge.
And it could just be that this is a portal fantasy, where people move between our world and semi-attached magical realms, and that’s been done many times because it has so much potential for terrific stories.
Practical Boots certainly lives up to that potential, even in the relatively small bite we get of it here. It works – and admittedly for some readers it won’t – because we experience the whole story through Cat Sharp’s very sharp and snarky perspective. We know what she’s thinking, we know what she’s feeling. We also know that she’s an unreliable narrator who lies to herself most of all.
She is stuck in a situation that she’s trying to make herself believe is temporary – but probably isn’t. She’s trying to make sure that her talent serves herself first, her friends and loved ones best, and her enemies as little as possible. But she might not succeed.
Through her eyes and her mind we get enough of a flavor of all of her worlds to understand who she is and what she wants – even if her explanations of how her magic works seem either arbitrary, deceptive, self-serving or all of the above.
Cat is on a quest to find her mother. A quest I suspect is going to take a long time and is not going to end happily. But I do expect her to have plenty of fascinating adventures along the way!
The practical boots that Cat Sharp fashioned for herself out of the stuff of the Waste have existed in folklore and fiction for centuries, but in real life, not so much. They’re the “seven-league boots” that have cropped up – or strode across – stories ranging from Jack the Giant Killer to The Innocents Abroad to Howl’s Moving Castle to even trip The Light Fantastic of the Discworld.
But Cat made her own when her aelfen father (they don’t call themselves “elves” thankyouverymuch) tossed her out of the Torn – the fae lands where she was born – into the Waste. The Waste is what lies between the truly magical lands of the Torn and the World – the world that we humans live in.
Cat is neither and both. Her mother was human, her father was Torn, and Cat’s half-and-half nature allows her to be a bit of both but fully a part of neither. When her sperm donor – or whatever it is the aelfen actually have – tossed her aside into the Waste – she made her boots and walked her way into our world.
Where she became a high-priced, highly sought after, highly exclusive courier. Being able to go from New York to LA in one step and the blink of an eye is a lucrative talent in a world where time is all too often literally money.
When the story begins, the courier job that Cat has taken turns out to be a trap that leads directly to her manipulative father. She’s barely finished – even on a temporary basis – dealing with that asshole, when she’s jerked into another trap. Which pushes her right into – you guessed it – a third trap.
Getting out of THAT leads her right back to where this journey began – chasing her sperm donor into yet one more…trap.
But as Cat jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire, we learn what makes her tick, how her walks between the worlds work and even a little bit of just what it is that makes Cat so special that so many people are trying to use her for their own ends.
Or to create the means that they can use for those ends.
All Cat wants to do is stay out of everyone’s clutches – especially her father’s. So she can keep on hunting – for her mom.
Escape Rating B: When I saw Practical Boots on this month’s Must Haves over at The Book Pushers I grabbed it immediately. Because I have fond memories of reading the author’s urban fantasy series, the Walker Papers (start with Urban Shaman) a long time and several cities ago. I still have them.
But when I read Practical Boots I kept having the feeling that I’d read it before – and not in the Walker Papers, as the setups are completely different. Practical Boots just came out, so I can’t have read this before but I have read things that have bits of this plenty of times. The father/daughter relationship is very like the one in House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas – and every bit as manipulative and abusive. The mechanism, the travel between the World, the Torn, and the Waste has echoes of the travel between the worlds in Charlie Stross’ Merchant Princes series.
Practical Boots also feels like it has echoes of other urban fantasy series, like Lindsay Buroker’s Death Before Dragons (start with Sinister Magic), and Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper Chronicles – particularly Sweep of the Blade as well as Andrews’ Edge series that begins with On the Edge.
And it could just be that this is a portal fantasy, where people move between our world and semi-attached magical realms, and that’s been done many times because it has so much potential for terrific stories.
Practical Boots certainly lives up to that potential, even in the relatively small bite we get of it here. It works – and admittedly for some readers it won’t – because we experience the whole story through Cat Sharp’s very sharp and snarky perspective. We know what she’s thinking, we know what she’s feeling. We also know that she’s an unreliable narrator who lies to herself most of all.
She is stuck in a situation that she’s trying to make herself believe is temporary – but probably isn’t. She’s trying to make sure that her talent serves herself first, her friends and loved ones best, and her enemies as little as possible. But she might not succeed.
Through her eyes and her mind we get enough of a flavor of all of her worlds to understand who she is and what she wants – even if her explanations of how her magic works seem either arbitrary, deceptive, self-serving or all of the above.
Cat is on a quest to find her mother. A quest I suspect is going to take a long time and is not going to end happily. But I do expect her to have plenty of fascinating adventures along the way!
June 5, 2021
"Practical Boots" is arbitrary in distracting ways.
The protagonist can make Artifacts of arbitrary complexity and specificity. I mean 'arbitrary' in both senses - she can make any Artifact the plot requires, and for one of them she announces that it will only work for a few minutes.
The protagonist swears fealty to an enemy with no restrictions or limitations - but keeps saying that it's temporary.
The plot hinges on the confluence of the bad guy having pulled off something extremely complicated in our world, a woman wanting something specific, urgently, (avoiding spoilers, sorry), and the protagonist being the one hired to courier it. If said bad guy is brilliant enough to have arranged all that, why does he give the protagonist enough rope to hang him?
I enjoyed reading this novella (is that the correct term?) but the plot holes were distracting and I don't think I'll read sequels.
The protagonist can make Artifacts of arbitrary complexity and specificity. I mean 'arbitrary' in both senses - she can make any Artifact the plot requires, and for one of them she announces that it will only work for a few minutes.
The protagonist swears fealty to an enemy with no restrictions or limitations - but keeps saying that it's temporary.
The plot hinges on the confluence of the bad guy having pulled off something extremely complicated in our world, a woman wanting something specific, urgently, (avoiding spoilers, sorry), and the protagonist being the one hired to courier it. If said bad guy is brilliant enough to have arranged all that, why does he give the protagonist enough rope to hang him?
I enjoyed reading this novella (is that the correct term?) but the plot holes were distracting and I don't think I'll read sequels.
June 4, 2021
Interesting premise
The idea is interesting and the worlds feel like they have potential. However the writing felt like one long monologue, Cat describes what has and is happening instead of being part of it. I found it hard to engage.
The idea is interesting and the worlds feel like they have potential. However the writing felt like one long monologue, Cat describes what has and is happening instead of being part of it. I found it hard to engage.
June 28, 2021
Excuse me as I squee. C.E. Murphy has a brand new series for me to dive into! I absolutely adored Walker Papers, so I could hardly contain my excitement at this news. Practical Boots is the first novel in The Torn series.
Cat Sharp is the daughter of a Lord of the Torn, which really is just a fancy way of saying that her life is extremely complicated. She didn't have much of a childhood before her magical father dumped her in the Waste – a land that deserved the name.
On the bright side, Cat learned a lot about herself because of that. For example, she learned of her hidden talent. She also learned to never trust her father, no matter what. So when her most recent job forces her to cross paths with him, she knows it's going to get ugly.
“Not since her very young childhood had anyone shouted at like that at Cat, and here, in the first seconds of being in the World, a stranger cared enough to shout at her like her life mattered.”
Practical Boots is the perfect novel for anyone looking for an utterly unique take on the fae. C.E. Murphy has spun a new tale, creating not one but three worlds, all of which have their own risks and benefits.
In short, I immediately wanted to learn all there is to know about the Waste and the Torn. I still have hundreds of questions, but I am sure that they will get answered in due time. After that, I'll just have to practice a little bit of patience.
Cat's character is interesting. She has an incredibly rare power, but rather than making her seem powerful and dangerous; it seemed to put more effort into putting her in odd and difficult situations. Though I suppose we could blame her father for that one.
My one hangup about this read, and I hate myself for pointing it out, is that the novel very much feels like we're starting right in the middle of something. As in, I actually had to stop reading and go check to make sure that this wasn't a spin-off series. Once I got into the swing of things, though, I really enjoyed the world and the characters. And I'm already counting down the days before the next installment of this series!
Read more reviews at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Cat Sharp is the daughter of a Lord of the Torn, which really is just a fancy way of saying that her life is extremely complicated. She didn't have much of a childhood before her magical father dumped her in the Waste – a land that deserved the name.
On the bright side, Cat learned a lot about herself because of that. For example, she learned of her hidden talent. She also learned to never trust her father, no matter what. So when her most recent job forces her to cross paths with him, she knows it's going to get ugly.
“Not since her very young childhood had anyone shouted at like that at Cat, and here, in the first seconds of being in the World, a stranger cared enough to shout at her like her life mattered.”
Practical Boots is the perfect novel for anyone looking for an utterly unique take on the fae. C.E. Murphy has spun a new tale, creating not one but three worlds, all of which have their own risks and benefits.
In short, I immediately wanted to learn all there is to know about the Waste and the Torn. I still have hundreds of questions, but I am sure that they will get answered in due time. After that, I'll just have to practice a little bit of patience.
Cat's character is interesting. She has an incredibly rare power, but rather than making her seem powerful and dangerous; it seemed to put more effort into putting her in odd and difficult situations. Though I suppose we could blame her father for that one.
My one hangup about this read, and I hate myself for pointing it out, is that the novel very much feels like we're starting right in the middle of something. As in, I actually had to stop reading and go check to make sure that this wasn't a spin-off series. Once I got into the swing of things, though, I really enjoyed the world and the characters. And I'm already counting down the days before the next installment of this series!
Read more reviews at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
December 29, 2021
The absolutely dumbest premise ever
The MC hates her father who dropped her in a place guaranteed to kill her. When she makes an awesome artefact through pure desperation and sheer will and manages to get away and becomes an awesome magical courier she gets intercepted by her father on a job and learns that the package is a fertilized egg of her father and his new whife. Then she decides she will protect her unborn sibling and instead of shooting her father whoom she hates to death with the gun she has in her hand, she, through the most idiotic ideea ever, decides to essentially become his tool, because somehow serving the evil guy instead of shooting him will prevent him from producing another embrion or finding ways to circumvent his oath! How does this make any sense at all to anyone with 2 braincells to rubb together is beyond me and frankly I hate to waste my time reading about the bumbling through life of such a character.
The MC hates her father who dropped her in a place guaranteed to kill her. When she makes an awesome artefact through pure desperation and sheer will and manages to get away and becomes an awesome magical courier she gets intercepted by her father on a job and learns that the package is a fertilized egg of her father and his new whife. Then she decides she will protect her unborn sibling and instead of shooting her father whoom she hates to death with the gun she has in her hand, she, through the most idiotic ideea ever, decides to essentially become his tool, because somehow serving the evil guy instead of shooting him will prevent him from producing another embrion or finding ways to circumvent his oath! How does this make any sense at all to anyone with 2 braincells to rubb together is beyond me and frankly I hate to waste my time reading about the bumbling through life of such a character.
October 4, 2021
I picked up this book because it was on sale in the Nook store on my tablet and I love "The Walker Papers" by this same author. My personal review of the book is as follows:
It packs a lot of story in 70 pages. I cared about the main character and was invested in finding out what would happen next.
A lot of things(in my personal opinion)storyline wise felt too convenient for me. I hope the next book in the series will be longer and explain more about the hows and whys of what's going on over all I rate this book a 6 and a half out of 10.
It packs a lot of story in 70 pages. I cared about the main character and was invested in finding out what would happen next.
A lot of things(in my personal opinion)storyline wise felt too convenient for me. I hope the next book in the series will be longer and explain more about the hows and whys of what's going on over all I rate this book a 6 and a half out of 10.
September 2, 2021
I enjoyed this introduction to what will likely be another excellent series by an author I have always liked. We have a glimpse into the psyche of the main character, her backstory and are left speculating as to where this tale will lead us in the future . Unlike so many first books in a series, there is no obvious end game, thus leaving the reader to look forward to the next book to see which potential plot line the author chooses to pursue.
June 24, 2021
Not quite a cliffhanger
I am a huge fan of CE Murphy. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. The concept is interesting, but the details were somehow lacking. I wanted more character depth and description, and more exploration of the magic. Most of all, I wanted a stronger plot - a reason to read the next one…
I am a huge fan of CE Murphy. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. The concept is interesting, but the details were somehow lacking. I wanted more character depth and description, and more exploration of the magic. Most of all, I wanted a stronger plot - a reason to read the next one…
October 16, 2021
4stars
Quirky, fast read. Nice unique magic, engaging strong storyline, badass heroine. It did feel I was dumped into the middle of the story. Would have liked to know of her surviving the waste.
Quirky, fast read. Nice unique magic, engaging strong storyline, badass heroine. It did feel I was dumped into the middle of the story. Would have liked to know of her surviving the waste.
June 5, 2021
A sharp story
This is an interesting take on elves, and a thought-provoking set of powers. I’d like to see more of the world, and more of Cat.
This is an interesting take on elves, and a thought-provoking set of powers. I’d like to see more of the world, and more of Cat.
June 7, 2021
a fast read but keeps your attention. enjoyable and waiting for the next one.
June 9, 2021
Fast-paced adventure featuring a clever, snarky, and big-hearted heroine
June 20, 2021
3.5 stars - I liked it for the most part.
August 15, 2021
2.5 stars. Not bad for a start of a new series but this is more of a novella than a full book. the writing is a little annoying at times, but the concept is interesting.
December 14, 2022
More please.
January 26, 2023
Fantastic take on the Fae-ish realms and ours. The “boots” aspect was fun, and I would have loved for more of it. Father vs Daughter.
March 13, 2023
Great read
Great read couldn't put it down, Cat is hilarious and kick a.. Can't wait to pickup the next book in the series.
Great read couldn't put it down, Cat is hilarious and kick a.. Can't wait to pickup the next book in the series.
October 5, 2024
Cat, like "Nine Princes in Amber," can control chaos. Here, she must deal with a controlling scheming father.
June 26, 2021
Take the 7 league boots story and rewrite it as an urban fantasy novella. This was a fast paced, interesting read, and I’ll read the next if the author makes a series of it.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews