Author: megs14malloy

Review: Scythe (Arc of the Scythe #1) by Neal Shusterman

~ megs14malloy

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)Scythe by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scythe is an incredible book. Everything about it is top notch. I wish I could give it a million stars…

I’m close to the last person to read this Shusterman golden child, yet I am still going to rave about it nevertheless!

Set in a futuristic version of our world, where natural death no longer exists, Scythe, follows two young people, Citra and Rowan, who are chosen to apprentice with the powerful and well-respected, Scythe Faraday.

Scythes are granted the power to end life. The Scythedom is a world-wide community of individuals who have trained, passed trials and taken an oath to serve as Scythes, an ultramodern version of grim reapers.

As the Reader, we go along with Citra and Rowan as they meet Scythe Faraday and become his apprentices. We learn about the Scythedom as they do, which made the world come together naturally, versus an enormous info dump.

I always enjoy when an author can frame their world creation in this way. I know it doesn’t work with every story, but I love to learn things right along with our protagonists.

The further they get into it, the clearer it becomes that there is currently a schism building within the Scythedom. There are followers of the more traditional ways of the Order, and others who would like the shake up the status quo.

The system does indeed begin to shake, quite violently, and both Citra and Rowan find themselves right at the heart of it. The stakes are extremely high, as each teen struggles to make it through unscathed.

I loved the overall concepts presented in this book, as well as the characters and actions. It’s so well plotted and absolutely hooked me from the start.

Citra and Rowan were fun to get to know. They develop a bit of an unlikely friendship over the course of their apprenticeship and I really started to look at them like opposite sides of the same coin.

There are a lot of twists and turns throughout, some that I didn’t see coming from a mile away. Maybe I’m dense, but I’d like to think that it was because I was so in the moment with this story, that I wasn’t thinking further ahead.

I love too how philosophical Shusterman can get with his writing. I finished his Skinjacker trilogy not long ago, and encountered the same types of themes and issues explored there as here. It’s really first-rate stuff that makes you think and leaves you with a lot to consider.

At the conclusion of this installment, we had some fairly major revelations that left me chomping at the bit to get to the next book.

Luckily, I already have the entire series waiting for me on my shelves, so shall be getting to Thunderhead this month. I’m so excited to get back into it!!

View all my reviews

Review: Keep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen

~ megs14malloy

Keep Your Friends CloseKeep Your Friends Close by Leah Konen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Separated from her husband, George, and embroiled in a tense custody battle over their 2-year old, Mary needs a friend to support her now more than ever.

She realizes, as she tries to put her life back together, that over time she’s become estranged from the friends she had before she and George married. He took over her life. He changed her. She feels very alone.

It’s at this low point when Mary happens to meet Willa at a playground in her Brooklyn neighborhood. Mary has never connected with another Mom organically like this before, so it feels a bit fated. Willa seems equally receptive.

The two become fast friends and Mary feels like she finally has someone she can confide in about everything she is currently going through.

One night though, after too many margaritas, Mary says some things about George that she later regrets. It seems too have turned Willa off as well, because after that night, Mary doesn’t hear from her again.

Willa ghosted her.

A couple of months later, fed up with all things Brooklyn and with their divorce almost finalized, Mary decides she needs a completely fresh start.

She travels to a town halfway between NYC and her hometown, where her family still lives. She figures this will be a fair middle ground when sharing custody of Alex.

It’s there that she bumps into Willa again, only Willa pretends not to know who she is. Oh yeah, and she claims her name isn’t Willa, she’s Annie. What the heck is going on? Mary feels like she’s losing her mind.

Things go from bad to worse, when George tracks her down to try to win her back. Mary doesn’t want any of this. She just wants a new life.

When George turns up dead shortly thereafter, Mary quickly becomes the prime suspect. With no one else to turn to, Mary seeks out Willa again for help.

As new evidence comes to light, Mary starts to wonder just how well she really knows Willa, if at all. Is she friend, foe, or something much, much worse? Mary needs to figure it out ASAP before she loses even more than she already has!

Keep Your Friends Close is an entertaining and fast-paced Domestic Thriller. Konen kept the drama high throughout, so it’s easy to fly through. You want to get to the truth.

I liked the back and forth between Then and Now sections as the full scope of Mary’s relationship with Willa, as well as the dissolution of her marriage are presented to the Reader. I actually really enjoyed getting to know Mary.

I think Konen did a great job of keeping me at the edge of my seat with short chapters and several mini-reveals. Just when I thought it was starting to come together, something else would come up that would leave me scratching my head.

I also appreciated getting Willa’s perspective a bit as well. That helped to fill in some of the finer details of what all had happened in this messed up friendship.

I will say towards the end, it did start to get a little convoluted, IMO. It definitely toed the line into the dreaded, one twist too many territory. However, the ultimate conclusion did leave me satisfied.

I would recommend this to Readers who enjoy Thriller, or Suspense stories, involving complicated Female Friendships. Bonus if you love a Twisted Domestic Drama. This one definitely went there as well.

Thank you, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I enjoyed this and am definitely planning to read more from Leah Konen!

View all my reviews

Review: Grey Dog by Elliott Gish

~ megs14malloy

Grey DogGrey Dog by Elliott Gish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first line of the Publisher’s synopsis for Grey Dog, by Elliot Gish, promised me the following good time:

A subversive literary horror novel that disrupts the tropes of women’s historical fiction with delusions, wild beasts, and the uncontainable power of female rage…

There is no way I could walk away from that and I’m so glad I didn’t. This has probably been my most surprising read of the year in the best ways possible.

Words cannot express what I felt after reaching the conclusion of this novel. Grey Dog delivered EXACTLY what I was promised. I absolutely loved it!

It’s 1901 when Ada Byrd, described as a spinster, schoolmarm and amateur naturalist, accepts a teaching post in the remote town of Lowry Bridge.

We get told this story through a series of Ada’s journal entries, beginning as she arrives in Lowry Bridge for the first time. We follow along with her as she settles into her home and begins to navigate life in this new environment.

She arrives a wee bit before the school year starts, so she does have time to meet people and acclimate a bit to her surroundings. Ada is very happy to have this chance at a fresh start, around folks who know nothing of her past.

Ada makes friends, gets to know her students and explores the lush natural setting of the small farming community. Everything seems to be going swimmingly, but then Ada begins to notice odd things around her.

Like insects and animals behaving in unnatural ways. Her senses tell her to be afraid. The longer she’s there, the more unsettled she seems to become. It starts to weigh heavily on her mind. It’s taking a real toll.

How much of Ada’s story can we believe though? She’s a tainted woman, after all. Maybe it’s in her head, the result of some previous issues? Or is there something actually evil lurking in Lowry Bridge?

I had the pleasure of listening to this on audio and highly recommend that format. The narration of Natalie Naudus was perfect for the voice of Ada.

Being presented as journal entries, and listening to it, it made it feel so personal; like I was getting a secret glimpse into Ada’s life. It made for a gripping reading experience.

In addition to this, I found Gish’s writing style, in and of itself, to be a fantastic fit for my tastes. It was very fluid and engaging. Highly readable. The historical feel of this was spot on. I felt transported.

When I was reading this, I was so invested. When I wasn’t reading this, I was thinking about it and wanted to be.

I liked how it felt subtle and understated. There was an overall gothic-sort of feel that stayed eerie throughout. I felt ill at ease frequently without being able to pinpoint why.

I wouldn’t say it delivers earth-shattering levels of action, or suspense, but it’s just uber-intriguing, the human nature of it all. It gets under your skin and stays there.

Overall, I was very impressed with this. The ending had my jaw on the ground and a wicked laugh escaping my lips.

It was a perfect conclusion; wow. I definitely plan to get a hard copy for my collection. I’d love to reread it someday and annotate.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for not only providing me with a copy to read and review, but also for introducing me to the talent of Elliott Gish.

I cannot wait for more!!!

View all my reviews

Review: The Rosewood Hunt by Mackenzie Reed

~ megs14malloy

The Rosewood HuntThe Rosewood Hunt by Mackenzie Reed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Lily Rosewood’s family life is quite complicated, but billions of dollars will do that to you. Oodles of wealth is a tricky thing to navigate for most people.

I know it seems like it would make life grande, but ask any fictional character with an inheritance at stake, and they’ll tell you that’s far from the truth.

Lily dreams of one day running the family company, Rosewood, Inc. Her Gram, the current head of the company, has promised to teach Lily everything she’ll need to know to successfully take over one day.

When Gram dies suddenly though, Lily’s life is turned upside down. Gram wasn’t just the head of the company, she was also the formidable figurehead of their family. It was so unexpected. Lily can hardly believe it’s true.

Then Gram’s Last Will and Testament is read, and Lily definitely can’t believe that’s true…

There’s no mention of the vast family fortune; a purported quarter of a billion dollars. What? Like it’s gone? The money is missing? How could that be?

As everyone is left scratching their heads, one last cryptic letter from Gram sends Lily, along with three other teens, on the treasure hunt of a lifetime. When news of Gram’s missing fortune goes public though, outsiders join the hunt and they’re not messing around.

Soon the teens are dodging dangers left and right, as they try to be the first ones to discover the hiding place of the vast Rosewood fortune. This could change their lives, or end them. Who will win the Rosewood Hunt?

I’ll admit, it did take me a little time to commit to this one. The set-up is rapid fire. You really have no time to get to know Gram, you just learn through Lily’s musings that she was this clever lady, who enjoyed puzzles, invisible ink and things like treasure hunts.

It sort of made me wish someone would have set her up with the elder Hawthorne from The Inheritance Games when they were both alive. It seems like they would’ve really hit it off, like plotting ways to send their basically disinherited loved ones on wild goose chases for cash…

About a quarter of the way in was when I really started to sit up and pay attention. Two other teens, Leo and Quinn, were also pulled into the hunt by Lily’s Gram and I found the dynamic amongst the three teens very fun.

Lily’s best friend, Miles, also becomes part of the action and I enjoyed him as well. Lily’s cousin, Daisy, on the other hand was a total jerk, which I didn’t really understand. Eventually the contention in their relationship was explained, but something about it didn’t feel genuine to me.

Either way, I did vibe with the cast of characters overall and the way they worked together was entertaining. They weren’t really friends going into this, so it gave it a bit of an unlikely allies feel, which I enjoyed.

It gets pretty wild. Once the outsiders swarm into town hunting the treasure the danger level amps up considerably. There are break-ins, car chases, it’s a lot. Lily definitely fears for her life, and I did too!

Through all of it, the teens start showing each other more of their true selves and they really start to bond. I think that was my favorite aspect of the whole story, the Found Family element that Reed ultimately creates. Lily feeling like she finally had friends, it filled my heart.

Most of these characters, their families were pretty crappy, so having each other to rely on meant a lot to them.

The pace hits warp speed towards the end, as a ton of new information is revealed. I enjoyed the way it wrapped up. Overall, a satisfying inheritance story. The Rosewood Hunt was a game I won’t soon forget. That’s for sure.

While it may not go down in history as one of my favorite YA books, it was still hella entertaining, and I would definitely be interested in reading more from Mackenzie Reed.

Thank you to the publisher, Harper Teen, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m so happy I finally made the time for this one. It was worth it!

View all my reviews

Review: A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

~ megs14malloy

A Dark and Drowning TideA Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Dark and Drowning Tide is the upcoming Adult debut for beloved author, Allison Saft. I have loved all three of Saft’s previous YA Fantasy releases, with my favorite probably being, A Fragile Enchantment.

Saft’s writing is accessible and fluid. It’s magical and enchanting, but without feeling overly-done. Her plots never get drowned out by flowery writing. It’s easy to follow along and become emotionally attached to her characters, as well.

In this story we mainly follow Lorelei, who is a folklorist making her way through her academic career. At the start of the tale, she’s getting ready to set out on a serious expedition with her mentor and some peers.

Their goal is to find a fabled spring said to be a powerful source of magic. They’re being commissioned by the King, who believes the powers of this spring will help him better secure his reign of their embattled country.

Shortly after the group boards the ship however, the unthinkable happens. Lorelei’s mentor, their group leader, is murdered in the middle of the night. An ominous start.

Since the ship was sailing at the time, the suspects are limited. It has to be one amongst them. To me, Lorelei’s academic rival, Sylvia, is immediately suspicious.

She keeps popping up at strange times and places. A bit of a midnight wanderer, if you will…

But Lorelei feels she is innocent. Plus, the four others have equal amounts of motive. Honestly, it could be any of them.

It’s too late to turn back though, so Lorelei takes charge and hopes that they’ll be able to find the spring before the murderer strikes again. Unfortunately, dangers do not just lie aboard the ship, there’s dangers all around them.

The group knows they need to band together in order to survive, but that’s easier said than done. Tensions are high and tempers flare on a regular basis. Is anyone going to make it through this expedition alive?

Saft’s Adult Fantasy debut succeeded in transporting me to another time and place. I had a very good time reading this, although I will say, it definitely has a more serious tone than her YA stories. Nevertheless, it’s still as powerful.

This also had a slower build than her YA-stories, but I did like the introduction to the characters prior to them setting out on the expedition. Once they board the ship though, that’s when things really pick up.

I enjoyed the combination of the academic side of this story mixed with the dangerous Fantasy world. I thought that was a lot of fun. The expedition provided plenty of setting changes and you were seeing unique circumstances in each one, different terrain, magical creatures, etc.

The expedition group has a good mix of personalities and there’s a lot of tension running among them, which provided solid drama throughout. Some of them were fairly insufferable, but I love having characters to hate.

There’s also a light Romance element to this; an enemies-to-lovers trope that develops nicely over the course of the story. The Romance, IMO, isn’t the focus of the story, but it does provide a means for developing the two characters involved more deeply.

Saft’s character work is always top notch and happily, that carried over into this Adult release. There’s also a ton of action though, so Plot Lovers, you won’t be disappointed.

Overall, I think this is a sensational Adult debut, and I feel like so many Readers are going to absolutely adore it, and I know I’ll continue picking up Saft’s work regardless of what age category it falls into.

Thank you to the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is a lush, exciting, engaging and entertaining read!

View all my reviews

Review: The One that Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy

~ megs14malloy

The One that Got Away with MurderThe One that Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had so much fun reading The One that Got Away with Murder. I read it in a 24-hour period and clearly, it hooked me.

It was drama-filled, fast-paced and compelling. Exactly how I like my YA Mystery/Thrillers. I can’t believe this is a debut!? How is that even true?!

In this story we follow Lauren. a high school soccer star, just about to enter her Senior year. Sadly, she’s going to be doing that at an all new school, as she has recently moved with her Mom from California to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.

Her Mom’s long-distance boyfriend lives in Happy Valley, so following a scandal at Lauren’s old school, they decide it would be best for them to make a fresh start there.

Lauren understands the reasoning behind the move, but it’s still a difficult transition and her new teammates won’t be making it any easier on her.

Prior to the school year beginning, Lauren meets a boy, Robbie Crestmont, and the two begin spending time together. Hooking up, may be the most accurate term for their relationship.

Once she begins hanging out with her teammates though, when soccer season begins, she learns that Robbie isn’t the most liked guy in Pleasant Valley. In fact, some of the girls are downright hostile towards him.

In fact, they blame him for the death of their teammate, Victoria, Robbie’s one-time girlfriend. The story is that Victoria died during a late night swim at the Crestmont’s lake house. Her friends and teammates aren’t buying the story that it was an accident. They suspect foul play.

Not helping is the fact that Robbie’s brother’s girlfriend also died a mysterious death about a year after Victoria. Two brothers, two dead girlfriends. That can’t be a coincidence. Even Lauren can admit that doesn’t seem right.

After agreeing to go visit Robbie’s family lake house over Labor Day weekend, Lauren vows that will be the last weekend she will spend with him. While there, however, she discovers some evidence that may just confirm Robbie’s involvement in Victoria’s death.

Lauren is scared. Does anyone know she found what she found at the lake house? She hopes not.

With dangers around every corner, Lauren is unsure who she can trust. As she navigates between the the powerful Crestmont family and her soccer teammates, Lauren begins to piece together the truth of the two dead girls.

As mentioned above, I had a blast reading this. It’s so compelling. It drew me in from the start.

There was something about Lauren’s character that vibed well with my tastes. I loved reading from her perspective, and learning about her. She can be a little harsh, a little cold, a little angry, but I like that…

You could tell that something fairly significant had happened in her past, but it was slowly revealed to you over the course of the story, instead of laid on you all at once.

I enjoyed how that was done. I like that Lundy took her time revealing Lauren’s full-self. She’s a tough girl, but she definitely struggles with a lot over the course of the story.

I also liked Robbie and his brothers. They were extremely wealthy and powerful in this town, but instead of being the revered golden boys, as would typically be the case in these type of circumstances, they were more like social pariahs.

Lauren looking into their family, and others in the town was very interesting and if kept me on my toes. There were plenty of suspicious actors floating about.

It’s funny, when I was about halfway through this book, I was having so much fun, I thought, I need to go read this author’s previous books! With this in mind, I went to Trish Lundy’s author page here on Goodreads and discovered, THIS IS HER FIRST BOOK!?

I was seriously shocked. This is such a well-constructed and thought-out Teen Mystery, IMO. If this is her debut, I cannot wait to watch her career over the next few years.

If you enjoy YA Mystery/Thriller authors such as Jessica Goodman, Karen M. McManus, or Kara Thomas, you have to check this out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Thank you to the publisher, Henry Holt & Company (BYR) and Macmillan Audio, for not only providing me with copies to read and review, but also for introducing me to a talented new author to obsess over!!!

View all my reviews

Review: The Eternal Ones (Deathless #3) by Namina Forna

~ megs14malloy

The Eternal Ones (The Gilded Ones #3)The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4 5-stars**

The Eternal Ones is the final installment in Namina Forna’s Deathless series. I’m walking away an emotional mess.

I wasn’t ready for this to end.

I’ll admit, this series intimidated me at first. It took me a while before I dared to pick it up, but once I did, Forna laid those fears to rest. With this being said, this is heavy and a bit complicated; it’s not an easy read by any stretch.

You need to be focused and paying attention at all times, but if you do, it pays off in spades.

I’m not going to say anything about the plot here, as I am seriously at a loss for how to describe this book without spoiling the events in the previous two.

My experience with this was very positive. I was a little nervous that it’s been a few months since I read The Merciless Ones, the 2nd-book, and I was concerned I wouldn’t remember enough about how that one left off.

Again, I should have trusted Forna’s skills more. She provided a perfect, natural-feeling recap that helped to jog my memory so well. I really appreciated that aspect. It was concise and gave just what I needed to get me back in the proper headspace for this series.

As mentioned above, this is complex, and by that, I mean the world is complex. You are being dropped into a fully-formed, beautifully-developed world and while I may have thought I knew everything about it by this point, I was wrong.

We had some great new developments here, with Deka and her friends traveling to the edge of the world and discovering a whole new realm. It’s there they glean some information needed for the final showdown and meet some promising new potential allies.

I was surprised by the emotional levels that Forna was able to bring to these books. In each one, I always felt for Deka, but in this one in particular my heart was with her. It was a roller coaster, for her and for me.

I just couldn’t imagine going through everything she had been through. It’s tumultuous. It’s like Deka can never catch a break, it’s one thing after another, but she had to travel the path she did. She really had no choice. I respect her courage throughout this series.

In addition to the fabulous main character that Deka is, I also love her best friend, Britta so, so much. She’s like Samwise Gamgee level perfect sidekick.

Their friendship is actually one of my favorite aspects of this entire series; the way it is written. Like when it is just the two of them having a private moment, it’s so cute. In those moments, you can really see their humanity; just two teen girls caring about each other. Britta is just such a light to me, in an otherwise fairly dark narrative.

I also enjoy Keita, Deka’s love interest. Their relationship is sweet and definitely hit me in the feels.

He has been through a lot in his life, like Deka, so I think it’s easy for them to relate to one another and find solace in one another. Even though their experiences are very different, they can appreciate what they’ve each been through.

One of the most powerful scenes in this book, IMO, involves them returning to Keita’s family home. Y’all, you better have your tissues ready. There was something so moving and believable about that scene for me.

Lastly, the Found Family element, created over the course of the series, for me is shining its brightest in this book.

This group is tight, and with what they’re facing in the final scenes, it couldn’t have come at a better time. The camaraderie, the good spirits as a group and the ability to communicate well and work together, it’s so well done.

I’m sad this is over. Frankly, it’s such a beautifully-imagined world Forna’s created here, it’s a shame to use it just for these three books and never see it again…

That’s why I’m proposing a prequel following Deka’s Mom and White Hands. Forna, if you’re out there, we need this.

To the rest of you, write your Congressman, your mayor, pass around petitions, let’s make this happen!

View all my reviews

Review: Eye of the Ouroboros by Megan Bontrager

~ megs14malloy

Eye of the OuroborosEye of the Ouroboros by Megan Bontrager
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars rounded up**

💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙

Eye of the Ouroboros is one of those rare books that I picked up on a whim. I knew nothing about it, had heard no buzz, but did notice it on a graphic of April 2024 Horror releases.

There was just something about the cover that called to me and then the title, I was intrigued by that as well.

We follow Theodora Buchanan, who goes by Theo. She’s a park ranger for NPS. More specifically, she’s part of the Search and Rescue team and patrols the forests surrounding her hometown of Mill Creek, West Virginia.

No one knows these woods like Theo. She’s been searching them most of her life, looking for her little sister, Flora, who went missing years ago.

The Buchanan family has never received answers on what happened to Flora, and Theo, who was watching her on the day she disappeared, has been riddled with guilt ever since.

While she has been able to maintain her job, the rest of Theo’s life is a bit of a mess. She’s numbed her pain with alcohol for way too long to be healthy and everything just seems completely out of control.

At the beginning of the book, we follow along with Theo as she searches for a little girl, who went missing while camping with her family. Of course, on every search Theo is also looking for clues as to what happened to Flora.

After the girl is found, some evidence pops up in the aftermath that leads you to believe, these aren’t regular woods. There’s something much deeper and more mysterious here than in your average mountain range.

This had such an intriguing start, by 10%, I was hooked. Theo was someone I wanted to learn everything about. I’ve mentioned before that I’m sort of a sucker for MCs that drink too much, and Theo definitely fits that bill.

Her family dynamics, following the disappearance of her sister, they’re an absolute disaster. I really felt for her, as I felt like if her parents had handled it differently, perhaps Theo could have dealt with it better herself, instead of letting it overtake her life.

After Theo starts noticing really strange things in the woods, she begins going in more and more. It’s like when you think you see something, but you’re not sure if it was real, and you try to recreate what you were doing at the time to see if it will happen again.

This whole aspect, I was so into it. I needed to know if those things were real as well. I felt like I was investigating right alongside her and it was creeping me out.

The vibes of this made me think of T. Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places, which I loved. If you were a fan of that, I feel like this one could really work for you as well.

It definitely takes some unexpected turns, and I adored the characters that are introduced to help Theo in her investigation. Eventually it turns into a kind of Found Family situation, with Theo’s best friend, her ex-girlfriend, and a high profile conspiracy theorist, all joining in the fun.

Part The Gunslinger, part Men in Black, the concluding portions of this book had me flipping pages so fast, I’m surprised my fingers didn’t catch on fire.

Oh, and the baddie in this, Sator, I was totally picturing Agent Smith from The Matrix for him. Every scene he was in, Agent Smith was in my head. Sator was really well done, a super convincing antagonist.

Overall, for a book I picked up on a whim, this couldn’t have gone better. It was SO WEIRD and SO GOOD.

Never in a million years would I have guessed how swept up into this I would become. It may have thrown off my monthly TBR, but I regret nothing.

A Portal Fantasy Horror story with fantastic characters, gripping action, believable baddies and emotions to boot! I’m so glad I took a chance on this one.

Thank you to the publisher, Quill & Crow Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I will definitely be picking up more from this author!

View all my reviews

Review: Bless Your Heart (Bless Your Heart #1) by Lindy Ryan

~ megs14malloy

Bless Your HeartBless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Bless Your Heart is a Cozy Mystery-meets-Horror novel that I never knew I needed!

This was so stinking cute. My Horror Heart adored it. It was way more graphic than I expected and I loved the small town Southern vibes. Bonus: it’s 1999!

Set in Southeast Texas, this story focuses on the Evans women, who are the owner/operators of Evans Funeral Parlor. Their small town has a bit of a history with the dead becoming restless and the Evans are well-versed in making sure they meet their final rest.

The town has spent the last 15-years in peaceful normalcy. That’s a pretty long stretch, and it’s about to end.

When the town gossip, Mina Jean Murphy’s, body is brought to the Evans for a regular burial, yet she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi problem is back.

We then follow along, both with the Evans women, and with a local Deputy, Roger Taylor, as they try to figure out what has caused this recent unrest, and as they try to stop it.

This was so fun. The small town vibes, family dynamics and the horror elements, were all very well done.

I was actually surprised at how graphic some of the darker scenes actually were. It was great, just the dichotomy between the cozy and the dark. I loved that part.

It was giving me Sunnydale, but the Texas version, and it was giving me The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, mixed with a touch of Designing Women. I was here for every minute of it.

I listened to the audiobook and absolutely recommend that format if it’s an option for you. The narration style of Stephanie Nemeth-Parker fits the overall story so well.

For me, the only critique is that I wanted a bit more of the mystery. I wanted more substance, more suspense, but I am hoping as the series continues the balance between the other elements and the mystery will balance out.

Speaking of ‘the series’, I’m so happy to learn this is going to be a series. I feel like the more time we get to spend with the Evans, the more attached to them we’ll become and the more we’ll see them grow and change.

I’m particularly interested in Luna, as she’s the youngest, so it’ll be interesting to watch her learn about their powers and responsibility and see how she is going to use it.

If you are someone who enjoys Horror, but also love Cozy Mysteries ((like me)), you have to check this one out. I don’t think I’ve ever really read anything like it and I’m definitely looking forward to more in this charming Southern setting.

Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Lindy Ryan, you’ve impressed me. I can’t wait for more!

View all my reviews

Review: Village in the Dark (Cara Kennedy #2) by Iris Yamashita

~ megs14malloy

Village in the Dark (Cara Kennedy, #2)Village in the Dark by Iris Yamashita
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Village in the Dark is the 2nd-book in the Cara Kennedy mystery series. Let it be known right outta the gate that I haven’t read the 1st-book yet.

That’s right, I’m picking them up out of order…

I know some of you may disagree with my pattern for doing this, but with Adult Mystery series, I sort of just pick up the ones that sound like they have the most intriguing mystery elements. Then if I really enjoy the characters and setting, I’ll go back and read the prior books.

I’m happy to report that I would love to go back and read the 1st-book, and any others that happen to come after this. I had fun with the mystery and did become attached to Cara and her intriguing personal story.

In this story, we do follow Cara Kennedy, who is a Detective in Anchorage, Alaska. We learn at the start that Cara is grieving the fairly recent loss of her husband, Aaron, and their young son, Dylan.

The boys went out on a camping trip and never returned. Their bodies were later found at the bottom of a cliff. It was believed an accident, but new evidence points to foul play.

Cara is devastated. She was upset enough believing they accidentally met their demise, but to learn someone else actually took them from her. She needs to find the truth.

We also get the perspectives of two other women related to the crime. It’s unclear for a good portion of the story how everything fits together, but as the pieces started to fall into place, that’s when it really picked up for me.

I loved the setting. There’s something about mysteries set in Alaska that just feel more dangerous and intriguing to me. The harsh landscape, the remote areas, it pushes the tension levels in really pleasing ways.

I definitely enjoyed Cara’s perspective the most out of the three, but I did enjoy how the three came together and I think overall, it was well-executed.

As mentioned above, I would absolutely pick up any more books in this series that are released. I do plan to go back and read the 1st-book, City Under One Roof, soon. I am interested to see if Cara’s husband and son are in that book, and if so, what those relationships were like.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Adult Mystery series following Detective protagonists. Bonus points if you enjoy mysteries set in remote areas such as Alaska. I really enjoyed learning about Cara’s community and the surrounding areas; very interesting.

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I’m excited to have a new Detective to follow!

View all my reviews