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Book Review: Vicious Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac #3)

Rating: 4.5 stars

The King will fall.

While I continue my hunt for the Fae who killed my brother, I have to try to keep my heart away from the vicious boys who could be responsible for his death.

But as my investigation leads me down a dangerous road and answers seem closer than ever before, I’m whisked away to the elite school, Zodiac Academy, with the four Kings, and my heart becomes more vulnerable than ever.

There are so many secrets left to uncover, and I sense something terrible is about to come to light. But I’m in so deep to this dangerous labyrinth, what if this road only ends in blood?

Out of the books in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series so far, Vicious Fae has been my favorite to read. I feel like it’s the book in the series where the story is finally coming together to me. Elise is finally starting to get some information regarding those she believes are involved with Gareth’s death and we are seeing her relationships with all of the guys starting to really take off. I like what we learn about Gareth from his point of view in this book because we are getting more clues into his relationships with Ryder and Dante months before his death.

I enjoyed reading this book because of the dynamic between her and all of these guys. You can see how much each of these guys cares about her and understand why she likes each of them. I especially enjoyed seeing the beginning of a friendship between Ryder and Leon. Their interactions throughout Vicious Fae with all the Lion King references were hilarious to me, and I love that they actually had them watch the Lion King together with Elise. I especially like that out of all the guys, Leon seems to understand what she wants and tries to do what he can on his part to make her happy by trying to bring all of the guys together and form a friendship with them. And I feel like in this book in the series, we are slowly starting to see them understand that Elise cares about each of them and they actually starting to accept that about her.  

With this book, I also liked that the plot was actually starting to pick up. In Savage Fae, while I enjoyed seeing Elise’s relationships with these guys, I felt like her looking into Gareth’s death took a backseat and that the story was mostly focused on her dynamic with all these guys instead of her focusing on who was responsible for her brother’s death. But in this book, I feel like she’s getting some information about who’s responsible for his death and is making steps towards getting more information than she had before. However, I know a large part of that is also due to Gabriel because in this book, he was doing some investigating on his own using what he could of the Sight to gather information for her. And I feel like I really appreciate that about him because I don’t know if the plot in this book would’ve moved forward if it wasn’t for the information he was able to get Elise.

I also enjoyed in Vicious Fae seeing them all go to Zodiac Academy together. I especially enjoyed seeing all of their interactions with Orion and seeing the beginning of Gabriel and Orion’s friendship. I appreciate the authors bringing in the scene that was referenced in the Zodiac Academy series with regards to how Gabriel and Orion’s friendship started as that was something I wanted to read, and this book didn’t disappoint with including it. I also enjoyed seeing their interactions with the Heirs in this book before all of the events that took place in the Zodiac Academy series. And I enjoyed seeing how Dante acted towards Lionel on his first meeting with him. I knew already how much Dante didn’t like him but didn’t realize how far back his dislike towards Lionel began.

With the ending of this book, I’m torn between how I feel about it. I enjoyed the action part of it where all of the guys are working together to save Elise. However, I’m unsure how I feel about what happens afterwards as I feel like it puts a division between Elise and the guys when they were all starting to finally get along. Its not that I don’t like who she has that moment with because out of all the guys, he’s the one who I feel like understands what she needs to be happy and she’s able to laugh and have fun with him. And I found myself once it happened wanting to see where things are going in this series from there. But at the same time, I know its going to cause a divide with her other relationships and am not completely sure if it’s what needs to happen.

However, I overall enjoyed reading Vicious Fae, the third book in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series. I feel like it did a wonderful job picking up where Savage Fae left off, and there was more plot wise that happened along with Elise’s relationships that’s made me want to continue reading this series to find out what happens next. I also loved seeing these characters getting to go to Zodiac Academy and seeing the beginning of the friendship that formed between Orion and Gabriel. Definitely looking forward to reading Broken Fae to see where this series goes from here.   

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Book Review: Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac #2)

Rating: 4 stars

There’s more to my brother’s murder than I realised… Shadows in the halls, mysteries lurking around every corner. Whoever killed him is covering their tracks well. And now I’m walking a dangerous line between getting close to the four kings for information and wanting to crawl deeper under their skin for my own desires. I can’t trust anyone. I can’t let my guard down. And I must keep the urges of my body separate from my heart. But I’m starting to break all of my own rules. I just hope I’m not falling for my brother’s killer.

Savage Fae, the second book in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series, was an enjoyable read. It hooked me from beginning to end as I wanted to find out what happened next after its predecessor Dark Fae ended. While I wasn’t too fond of that ending due to the number of questions I had, I feel like we got a little bit more insight into it here once Elise discovered one potential Fae at her school that might be involved with that group. Otherwise, I feel like there’s still more that I feel like is still needing to be uncovered.

What this book did best for me was continue establishing Elise’s relationships with the four guys she believes might be involved in her brother’s death: Leon, Ryder, Dante, and Gabriel. I especially enjoyed seeing her interactions with Leon and Dante in this book and learning more about Ryder’s dark past. I also enjoyed seeing Dante’s point of view in this book especially with the times when he went home to see his family members. Seeing his family dynamic was cool to me as you can see how much he values his family despite being a leader of a gang. I also enjoyed seeing Elise’s interaction with Leon’s family in this book too as we now know that a Lion Shifter’s charisma doesn’t affect her at all, which I find pretty cool.

I continue to find Gareth’s point of view in these books interesting. Especially in this one as Elise is getting close to the guys Gareth himself is developing relationships with. We especially see his relationships with Ryder, Dante and Leon in this book and its interesting seeing how he interacted with them in comparison to Elise. And what he was willing to do to get the debt their mother owed paid off by doing what Ryder and Dante asked of him. Its interesting seeing his interactions with these characters in comparison to Elise as their experiences with them are completely different. And I find myself wondering how things would’ve happened if Elise had met these guys while Gareth was attending Aurora Academy.

In comparison to Dark Fae, I feel like there’s not all that much investigating in Savage Fae when it comes to finding out who killed Gareth. While I don’t mind it just because I’m interested in these characters and seeing how these relationships continue to develop, I feel like her investigating is moving at a very slow pace. I feel like she focuses more in this book on what happened to her at the end of the last book than in even seeing if there’s a connection between it and her brother’s death. While I understand that she’s trying to navigate every clue she does receive, I feel like its moving really slowly and that she’s making very little progress if any at all. In this book, I feel like she’s more focused on her relationships with these guys than doing any investigating. However, I do feel like a little progress is made too at least when it comes to Gabriel since he finds out who she is in this book and seems to be trying to help her find out what happened to her brother. So that’s some progress, though not all that much considering how many pages are in this book.

I did, however, find the ending of this book in comparison to its predecessor interesting as I wasn’t at all expecting it. We know there’s a divide in Dante’s gang between him and his uncle Felix, but I wasn’t expecting to see that play out in some way in this book. But it does and in a most interesting way too, which has me wondering how things will go between Dante and Felix next.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Savage Fae and seeing Elise’s relationships with these guys continue to develop. It was also interesting to see how they differed from her brother’s relationships with them as I continue to learn more about what he was up to during his time at Aurora Academy. Hoping we get to see more plot wise being uncovered regarding Gareth’s death in the books to come though as I continue on with reading Vicious Fae.    

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Book Review: Dark Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac #1)

Rating: 4 stars

What do a heartless Dragon Shifter, a cold-blooded Basilisk, an arrogant Lion Shifter and a brooding, tattooed Harpy have in common…? Me. Elise Callisto. Vampire. Angel of vengeance. And a girl on a mission to destroy one of them for murdering my brother. I just don’t know which one did it yet.

When I kicked the ass of a Werewolf who was high on a new and dangerous drug called Killblaze, his final words painted a dark reality for me. The King of Aurora Academy killed my brother. The trouble is, there’s four kings at that school and each of them have motive and cutthroat natures.

Aurora Academy isn’t a place for the faint of heart. To put it lightly, my town is the asshole of Solaria where the dodgiest Fae in the kingdom reside. The school itself is divided by the two gangs who run this town. The Lunar Brotherhood and the Oscura Clan. And guess what? Two of the kings run the gangs at the school, their hatred for each other so fierce I hear a day doesn’t go by without blood being spilled in the halls.

I might be a petite, lilac-haired girl who looks like a fragile doll, but they haven’t been introduced to my fangs yet. And they don’t know why I’m really here. Or that I’ll do whatever it takes to bring down the Fae who took my flesh and blood from me.

I don’t believe in fate, but I do know this… the King who killed my brother is a dead man walking. And I’m prepared to sacrifice my heart, body and soul to ensure I get my revenge . This is a reverse harem series set in the world of Zodiac Academy four years before the Vega Twins were Awakened. Expect some character cross-over, dark and hot romance, and a twisted murder mystery which will leave your head spinning.

Dark Fae is an interesting story told in a world I’m already familiar with that’s mixed with murder, mystery, and intrigue. What I feel like this story does well is the different points of view we get from the characters in this series. I feel like in this book, we get different perspectives that I find interesting to read. Also some that are familiar too since three of the characters in this series were also in the Zodiac Academy series too. What I find interesting about the perspectives we get in this book is that not only did I get to learn more about characters from that series that I was intrigued by when I read those books, but we also get some chapters about events that happened in the past from Gareth, Elise’s brother as well. I find his chapters interesting because we find out what exactly he was up to when attending Aurora Academy and his relationships with the Fae Elise believes are responsible for his death. We get to see his dynamic with the characters Elise is getting close to and get to see what his life was like.

What I also enjoyed when reading this book was seeing the different relationships Elise had with the guys who she suspects might be responsible for her brother’s death. Each of them are so different from each other that its interesting to see her interacting with them and seeing how they each feel about her as well as see what’s going on in their lives in this book. Each of the guys I find intriguing for different reasons, but I find the dynamic at Aurora Academy intriguing as well due to the two gangs that attend the school. I find the gang dynamic at the school interesting because Elise describes the clear division/territories at the school with regards to the gangs. I also find it interesting that if you’re not part of one of the gangs, the leaders will usually try and get you to pick a side even when you make it clear that you have no interest in joining their group.

I also found the two gang leaders themselves interesting as well. You have Ryder Draconis, the leader of the Lunar Brotherhood, who is of the Basilisk Order and has the word pain tattooed on one knuckle and lust tattooed on another. As Elise gets to learn more about him, you discover that there are a lot of dark parts to his past. Then you have the leader of the Oscura Clan, Dante Oscura. He’s a Storm Dragon in a family full of Werewolves and to me, gives off Italian Mafia vibes. He’s also a character that I’m already familiar with due to reading the Zodiac Academy series, which he also makes an appearance in, and is someone in that series I also liked as well and wanted to learn more about. What I found interesting about both of them is seeing their dynamics within their gangs in comparison to how they both act around Elise when she’s around. I also felt like I saw a lot of depth to both of their characters while reading this book as there’s more than meets the eye with both of them but in different ways. And I was invested with each page to learn more.

Another thing I enjoyed about reading Dark Fae is the murder mystery element that’s in this book and Elise’s character. I wanted to learn like she did about what had happened to her brother. And seeing her willing to do whatever it takes to get to the truth of it made me continue reading to find out what would happen next as I know I’m nowhere near close yet to finding out what happened. But with how much I enjoyed reading this book, I’m okay with that as I don’t mind continuing to get lost in the story to see how everything unravels. What I like about Elise is how strong she is despite her brother’s death. Yes, she has some moments where she’s extremely vulnerable, but I feel like those moments from her aren’t common and its understandable since she hasn’t really fully dealt with her brother’s grief.

If I had to choose something with this book to criticize it would have to be the end of this book. Its light in comparison to the books in the Zodiac Academy series, but I felt like I was left with so many questions by it because it felt so unexpected to me. I wasn’t expecting what happened to Elise to happen. It felt like the authors added something plot wise into the story for Elise to want to look into without giving any indication as to how it ties into her brother’s death and that was frustrating to me.  

Overall, I enjoyed reading Dark Fae, the first book in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series. Really interesting read with characters I wanted to know more about and told from different perspectives with some familiar faces that I was more than happy to see. Enjoyed getting to learn what happened to Gareth during his time at Aurora Academy and seeing Elise’s dynamic with the guys she believes might be responsible for his death. Also enjoyed learning about how the two gangs operated along with learning more about the gang leaders and seeing Elise’s character continue to develop. Can’t wait to read the next book in this series Savage Fae, to see how the mystery in this series continues to unravel.

3

Book Review: Rivers of London (Rivers of London #1)

Rivers of London Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Whenever I first started reading this book, I was really excited. The premise of the book sounded right up my ally, like a story I could sink my teeth into. However, while I overall enjoyed this book, it wasn’t the read I was hoping for.

What I enjoyed about Rivers of London was how the supernatural and fantastical were introduced into the story. I found the concept of vestiga interesting. The idea that you could pick up on imprints intrigued me. Especially with the way it was used by the protagonist to help solve crimes. I also liked the idea of the rivers in London were each a character within the story and the conflict between the two main rivers who were trying to gain even more control. I thought that was an interesting concept to read about.

I also enjoyed reading about the hierarchy regarding the police force in this book. Since I don’t live in London, I have no idea if it accurately represents the different branches of the police (if there are any), but I thought it was interesting to read Peter talk about these different police units. I also loved how Peter was able to use his skills as a constable and combined them with magic to stop the protagonist from hurting more people.

It was also interesting seeing how magic impacted people to where it could affect your brain if the person is using more magic than they can control. And I liked the effect magic had on technology in this world to where it could result in killing your phone battery or damaging your electronic devices so you couldn’t use them anymore. The idea of magic having that much of an affect and being that powerful really fascinated me.

While I enjoyed reading Rivers of London because a lot of the topics discussed truly fascinated me, I also had some issues with the story too. For starters, while I found a majority of the characters in this book interesting, Peter Grant wasn’t the protagonist I wanted for this story. When I originally started reading, I was fine with his character. I even was rooting for him to find out what was going on. But in comparison to the other characters in the story, such as his female counterpart Lesley and the Inspector he became partnered with Nightingale, he wasn’t as interesting a character. If I’m to be honest, I would’ve preferred Lesley as the main character because she was someone I could more relate to. I felt like Peter was trying to use logic to explain the existence of magic too much instead of just enjoying being a part of the police force that handled cases involving magic.

Another criticism I have with this book is the plot. It originally started off really fascinating with Peter talking to a witness that he later discovered was a ghost. However, as the book continued, I felt like the plot just started rushing forward. It went from a story where magic was being explained to one ridiculous event with magic after another. The plot essentially started out interesting to where I wanted to find out what happened next to then become absurd. I wouldn’t have minded so much if there was context with these events or if the main antagonist in the story faced his retribution. But while there is context explaining why these sequences of events happened in the order they did, the antagonist just vanishes at the end of the story. While I understand why (without saying anything that could spoil the book for those who’d be interested in reading it), a lot of the end felt very messy to me.

In the end, the plot just didn’t work for me. Yes, I still enjoyed what I was reading because the way magic was explained truly fascinated me and I loved solving crimes involving magic. But I feel like if the plot of the story near the end wasn’t so gummed up, I’d have enjoyed it more. I know there are more books in this series so I’m willing to give them a chance in the hopes that they’ll be an improvement over this one.

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Book Review: Dark Places

Dark Places Book Cover

Rating: 2 stars

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice” of Kinnakee, Kansas. She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.

I know a lot of people won’t be too pleased about my thoughts and feelings with this book. But I didn’t enjoy reading this book as much as other people did so I’m sticking by that.

However, before I get into all of my criticisms with Dark Places, let me start by saying that there are some aspects of this book I did enjoy. For one, I think the storyline was fascinating to read. A story about a woman whose whole family was murdered in their home and the surviving family member points to her brother being the murderer is a story that interested me. Especially as she begins feeling doubtful about her original statement to the police and investigates to find the truth. I usually enjoy stories like this where the protagonist goes undercover to find out what really happened. But there are several factors with this story that lead to me not enjoying it, which I’ll talk about shortly.

I also enjoyed the writing in this story. In particular, the different points of view in the story where the author shifts from present day Libby to Ben’s perspective before the murders happened. I found that it helps supply the reader with more information about what actually happened as well as introduces the reader to key characters who play a crucial role in the events leading up to the murders. You learn what life was like for Libby before these events happen and how this moment changed her life completely.

However, I still didn’t enjoy reading Dark Places despite the interesting storyline and alternative points of view. While I admit I did enjoy the storyline, I did also find it lacking in depth as well. What I didn’t enjoy about it was the mystery surrounding the murders and how the truth was revealed. I was hoping that the story would provide a twist that as a reader would make everything I read in the story click together and everything I didn’t like about this book would make sense. Instead, once the truth was revealed, I was left feeling disappointed in the story I was reading.

What didn’t help was that I found myself disliking all of the characters in the story. Especially the character whose supposed to be the protagonist in this book Libby. But she’s actually an unreliable narrator who admits that she lies, and as a reader you witness her stealing from people as she’s investigating the death of her family members. I also found her unlikeable because she came across as being a very selfish person throughout the story. When she met the various members of the Kill Club, all she cared about was knowing if a lot of the members were really interested in what happened to her and her family instead of asking whether they actually had any good theories on who killed her family. There’s also the fact that she’s upset when people pay attention to other cases instead of hers and she doesn’t want to do any sort of work to help herself get money until she’s asked by the Kill Club to uncover the truth of her family’s murder. But she only does it in the first place because they offer to pay her for talking to certain people.

I was hoping Dark Places would redeem her character by making her be the murderer because that would’ve at least made this book more enjoyable for me to read. Instead, we have other characters who play a role in her family’s death and the reasoning behind it all is completely senseless. I was also hoping to have at least one character in the story that I actually liked, but wasn’t too surprised when that didn’t happen either. While I found Libby being an unreliable narrator an interesting choice for the story, I felt like it didn’t really go anywhere to make this book a worthwhile read. I also felt the same way about the mystery surrounding her family member’s deaths because nothing worthwhile happened in this story that resulted in them dying.

As a result, I wasn’t particularly fond of Dark Places. There was just too much disappointment with everything for me with regards to this book for me to even give this book a higher rating. In fact, I would’ve given this book a one star rating if I hadn’t finished reading it. Nonetheless, I finished this book and am disappointed by what I read because I was expecting more from the story than was given.

 

 

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Book Review: The Blackbird Papers

The Blackbird Papers Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

A rainy night . . . A stranded motorist . . . A Good Samaritan passerby … a Nobel Prize–winning professor . . . The setup for a shocking murder designed to cover up an even more sinister crime . . . 

The Blackbird Papers marks the debut of Ian Smith, a major new talent in crime fiction, and of Sterling Bledsoe, his smart and occasionally combative sleuth. 

World-renowned Dartmouth professor Wilson Bledsoe is returning from a party celebrating his latest honor when he encounters a broken-down pickup on the secluded country road to his home. The next day, the discovery of his body with a vicious racist epithet carved into his chest leads to the quick arrest of two loathsome white supremacists. The local authorities seem ready to accept the case at face value as a racial hate crime. But the murdered professor’s brother, FBI agent Sterling Bledsoe, has inserted himself into the investigation and isn’t ready to buy into this pat solution. A look around his brother’s lab and brief interviews with his students and colleagues pique Sterling’s curiosity about Wilson’s pet project: a nearly completed paper on the mysterious deaths of hundreds of local blackbirds. 

Fast-paced and cleverly constructed, The Blackbird Papers introduces a major new talent in mystery and crime fiction.

I found this book to be an immensely interesting read. It was fast paced and mostly kept me interested to find out what happened to Sterling’s brother. But near the end of The Blackbird Papers, I slowly found myself losing interest. Especially near the end when you find out who kills Sterling’s brother and why.

What made this murder mystery book so interesting to me was going through the process of uncovering the mystery. You have Sterling’s brother who is missing at first until they discover his body. Then when they find Wilson you see the whole process of them examining his body to find out how he was killed and try to find out why. From there, you see Sterling going through his brother’s research, trying to uncover more clues.

I found this part of the story especially to be interesting whenever he uncovered that his brother was trying to discover why an alarming amount of blackbirds were being killed. It made the story that much more interesting because it showed that Ian Smith did a little bit of research to add detail into this book. It also made me want to continue reading The Blackbird Papers to find out who killed Wilson.

I also found Sterling as the main character interesting. Especially since this whole case involved the murder of his brother. I thought the story would be a little different since Sterling was trying to uncover the murder of his brother. But if anything, he seemed more determined to find out who killed Wilson than anything else. I know a lot of that had to do with some emotional problems of his own when it came to his brother, and I appreciated that this book included those details within its pages. While you wish Sterling could’ve gotten some reconciliation with his older brother, you also see his character grow as a result of this case.

I also like that Smith ended the story by Sterling respecting his brother’s last wishes. I found that to be a very touching scene because he goes through a lot in order to solve his brother’s murder and he is finally able to feel peace that his brother is no longer there.

While I enjoyed these aspects of The Blackbird Papers, there was a lot missing from it for me to enjoy the story as much as I wanted to. For starters, while the pacing of the plot started off really wonderful for me, it soon was at a point where it slowed down completely and became predictable. The plot reached this point near the end of the novel when those who didn’t want Wilson’s research to get out tried to frame Sterling for his brother’s murder. Each time Sterling found himself unraveling another piece of the puzzle, he’d have to run away from law enforcement. For me, that started slowing down the storyline because I knew he was close to getting the information he needed. It also felt like Smith added those moments into the story so there’d be action and conflict for Sterling while he’s trying to get to the bottom of the case.

I also found the person responsible for the death of Wilson to be predictable. I don’t know if it’s because I already had a feeling whenever his character was introduced that he was responsible or if the plot in the story was just that predictable for me. The only thing surprising about that part of the story was that more people were in on it than I was expecting. But that overall doesn’t really change the way I feel about the suspect because I still had those feelings from the beginning that this person was responsible.

The Blackbird Papers is an interesting murder mystery novel. I enjoyed it because the overall story kept me wanting to find out what happened next, but I was also disappointed that the killer was too easy for me to predict. I also found the pacing of the novel close to the conclusion to be lacking, but also really enjoyed the ending because Sterling finally found some peace when it came to his own conflict with his brother. It was overall an enjoyable read that I would’ve liked more if the killer wasn’t so predictable to me and if the ending of the story didn’t move so slow.

2

Book Review: The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2)

The Silkworm Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

Wow. I really enjoyed reading this second book in the series more than The Cuckoo’s Calling, which wasn’t at all a bad read, but was missing something The Silkworm had for me: suspense. It was a page-turner, from start to finish because I really wanted to know who killed this writer. I was also curious about the world Strike immersed himself into in order to find the killer and figure out why this person went after Owen Quine. The world of publishing has never been a world I’ve been a part of, though I hope for that to change one day. But I was curious about Quine and this mysterious book he wrote about the people in his life so I was ready to dive in.

I’m not going to lie when I say part of my enjoyment of this book is because the case involved an author. I wanted to learn more about his book, and what about it was so terrible that it couldn’t be published. But what I got from that caught me off guard, but also made me laugh at the same time. So I was surprised about the type of books Quine typically wrote, but was also intrigued as to what this revealed about his character. I like that his book was connected to his death. I like that being incorporated into the case because it eliminated a lot of people being responsible for his murder except for the characters we were introduced to.  The only problem I had when it came to this case is that Galbraith made Quine seem like the stereotypical author. His character sounded very cocky and arrogant, yet still eccentric at the same time, which is pretty normal to the way I’ve seen authors being described in books. This is a problem for me because people see authors this way already and was hoping his character would be described differently.

I also enjoyed seeing Strike and Robin’s friendship continue to blossom. I like seeing the way the two of them work together to investigate because you can tell that they trust each other. But at the same time, I worry that Galbraith is going to try and get them together as a couple. While I wouldn’t necessarily mind that, I really like seeing them work together and just being friends outside of the job. I also like seeing Robin’s character continue to develop as she stands up to her fiancé because she really enjoys her work. I feel like as she continues helping Strike with cases, she comes into her own and is becoming the person she’s meant to be.

I also enjoyed this book in the series more than The Cuckoo’s Calling because there was a lot of buildup when it came to finding Quine’s killer. The killer was revealed to us in a surprising way, which made us even more interested in finding out why this person killed Quine.

My biggest problem with The Silkworm is the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I usually don’t mind when books have quotes, but the ones in this book felt like they didn’t belong to me, and I would’ve been fine reading the book without them.

I also felt that most of the characters who knew Quine were too similar. I don’t know if it’s because they all worked in publishing or were authors, but it annoyed me because I didn’t really like any of them. They just seemed too similar to me so when the killer was finally revealed, I wasn’t quite as surprised as I thought I’d be. I felt like any one of them could’ve killed Quine, it was just a matter of which one Galbraith decided on.

However, neither of these problems for me made me enjoy The Silkworm any less. It was overall a very suspenseful, intriguing read that made me continue turning the page. I can’t wait to continue reading this series to find out what happens next.

2

Book Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1)

The Cuckoo's Calling Book Cover

Rating: 4 stars

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this.

When I first began reading this book, I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of it. I’d attempted to read The Casual Vacancy a while back, but never really got too far into it. As a Harry Potter fan who hadn’t really read any other work by the author who wrote one of my beloved favorite series, I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this book. But after giving it a read, however, I found myself really enjoying it.

The main storyline in The Cuckoo’s Calling is about a famous supermodel whose death everyone believed to be a suicide. However, her brother John Bristow thinks differently and hires private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into her case. What he discovers investigating her death is a labyrinth of twists and turns to get to the truth of how she died.

What I enjoyed when reading The Cuckoo’s Calling is the characters. I enjoyed hearing in detail about Strike’s personal life, learning more about him and his relation to the world of the famous he was searching for answers. He’s a rough character I wasn’t expecting to be introduced to in this book, but I found his roughness to be quite alluring. It also helped explain certain details that came up as we learned more about him. I also liked Robin’s character quite a bit. She’s a very resourceful woman and I loved reading her interactions with Strike as these events unfolded. She’s also a character I could find myself relating to in this story because I’d probably react the same way as her if I found myself working for a private investigator. I’d want to get myself entangled into the investigation, want to find some way of helping solve the case or providing much needed information to help find the suspect. I wouldn’t want to accept a job somewhere else because the job I’d have would be exactly where I want to be. I liked the relationship the author gave between Strike and Robin. It was very cordial and friendly without being too intrusive. Robin allowed Strike to live his life without interfering, but was supportive of him whenever he needed it.

I also enjoyed the details Robert Galbraith put into the storyline. It’s a story full of richly deep plot that’s not too complex for any reader to enjoy. But it also has enough new vocabulary for the reader who wants a challenge when reading. The writing style is also unique because Galbraith tells us what happens throughout as Strike begins to investigate Lula’s death. You see the crime scene in front of you and hear the dialogue between Strike and all of the characters who were involved. You see how Strike uncovers evidence to the crime and find out how he knows who killed Lula. It’s such a good read that I couldn’t wait to find out how it unfolded.

Not only do I enjoy this book because it’s a crime mystery novel, but also because you get to see the underbelly of being a celebrity. Galbraith takes us into the world of being a celebrity by allowing us to see what they deal with on a daily basis. You see this whenever Strike interviews Evan about his involvement with Lula. You get to see him and Ciara being hounded by paparazzi whenever they leave a building and being followed home. In this book, you get to see both the good and the bad about being famous and how anyone is capable of murder.

There are two things with The Cuckoo’s Calling, however, I didn’t particularly enjoy. For one, I didn’t like how the chapters were divided. Galbraith divided the book into separate parts, and then had chapters in each part. The reason I didn’t particularly like this is because it felt completely random how it was done. I also felt like the story could’ve continued without it. While I don’t necessarily mind books being divided into sections like this one, I just didn’t feel like it made sense to do it.

My other criticism with this book is I felt like there was more telling in this story than showing. For example, whenever you find out who kills Lula, Strike explains it to you how he came to this conclusion instead of showing all of the details that made him get there. While I don’t mind being told what happens, it killed the suspense in the story for me.  It took away the element of surprise because I was told who killed Lula instead of being shown how that conclusion was made. And I felt like this happened a lot throughout the book, which at times seemed a little too much for me. There were times in the story where I wanted to be shown certain details instead of being told about them later on.

But despite these two criticisms I had with this book, The Cuckoo’s Calling was such an enjoyable read to me. It was full of interesting characters, intriguing mystery and details about being famous that really made me flip the page to find out what happened next. I can’t wait to continue reading this series to find out what happens with Strike and Robin next. Hopefully, The Silkworm will be as much as an enjoyable read as The Cuckoo’s Calling was for me.

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Book Review: In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1)

In the Woods Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children. He is gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

As a crime scene novel, this book perfectly depicted how investigators solve crimes. There was just enough mystery and suspense to keep me interested in finding out what Ryan and his partner Cassie discovered. The writing was the perfect tone, adding to the suspense when needed, and describing the setting of the world around Ryan in perfect detail. It made me engaged, wanting to know more about what happened. Also enjoyed that the setting took place in Ireland because I haven’t read too many novels that take place in other countries. So it’s always interesting reading books like this where the setting isn’t somewhere I’m familiar with.

I also enjoyed hearing more about Ryan’s past. While he’s definitely not my favorite detective in this book, I loved learning more about the trauma he went through and understanding how that shaped him into the character read about in the book. I also enjoyed his friendship with Cassie, my favorite character in the book. I found both of them together as partners to be very amusing when solving crimes because they had amazing chemistry.

But while I enjoyed these aspects of In the Woods, there were so many things with this novel too that left me criticizing it. For one, Ryan’s character wasn’t great. When I first started reading this book, I didn’t mind him all that much. But the more I read, the less I liked him. I think my disdain for him is because of the way he acts with Cassie and the way he talks about his past. After everything they’ve been through together and Ryan saying Cassie is his best friend, he lets their friendship go without a fight over the dumbest thing. He ruins his friendship with her instead of trying to talk things out like responsible adults are supposed to do. And she tries to set things right, but he wants nothing more to do with her until it’s too late. That really bothers me because she was his best friend, yet he doesn’t act like it after what happened. I also don’t like the way he talks about his past because he’s never let go of the one mystery surrounding his childhood, the one he has the opportunity of solving only to let it slip through his fingers. I get his memory of events is skewered, but when he’s given the chance to solve the crime that has literally changed his life, he doesn’t put his best effort into it. He starts remembering some of the events that came before, but doesn’t even push himself to figure out what happened.

I also don’t like how the main case in this story was solved. There were so many mistakes made during the investigation that it took a lot longer for them to solve the crime if they’d looked in certain places at the very beginning. I also didn’t like who they chose as the scapegoat for the crimes because the person who actually came up with the idea got away with it completely.

To be honest, I was completely disappointed by the end of the story. There was so much buildup that I was expecting things to end differently. But that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, things change for the worse and the mysterious crime that occurred during the narrator’s childhood is never solved, despite the flashbacks in the past he experienced.

So while I enjoyed reading In the Woods, there were a lot of things in the story that left me disappointed, wanting more than what was given. Nonetheless, I plan on reading the second book in this series The Likeness in hopes that it’ll be a better read.

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