werewolves

Review: Another Fine Mess (Bless Your Heart #2) by Lindy Ryan

~ megs14malloy ~ Leave a comment

Another Fine Mess (Bless Your Heart, #2)Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another Fine Mess is the 2nd-book in Lindy Ryan’s Cozy Horror-Mystery series, Bless Your Heart. This adorable, yet slightly graphic series, is set in small town-Texas in the 90s.

It’s a series my Horror-loving, Cozy Mystery-obsessed heart didn’t know it needed, but now adores with wild abandon.

I can’t say too much about the plot without potentially giving away important aspects of the 1st-book, Bless Your Heart, so I’m going to keep this short and simple.

Basically, these books follow the women in the Evans family, who own and operate a Funeral Home. This is a very important job, because in their small town, the dead sometimes rise and they’re not happy. It’s the Evans job to make sure they stay dead and buried.

While the 1st-book was more of a vampire-esque story, this one has the town believing that some sort of hybrid-wolf is on a rampage, killing townsfolk and possibly stealing pieces of their bodies. It’s a bloody mess.

We follow the Evans women, and a few of their allies, as they try to determine what’s actually going on, and stop it before more innocent lives are lost.

The deeper they dig however, the more it seems this killer may be somehow connected to them, but how?

I thought this was so entertaining. I listened to the audiobook again and love Stephanie Nemeth-Parker’s narration. It’s such a great fit for this series. I highly recommend the audio format.

To me these books have the perfect mix of Horror, heart and Mystery. The Horror aspects are mainly contained within the kill scenes and the supernatural elements. Other than that, it is all Cozy Mystery.

I think Ryan does a great job of blending those two worlds together, and I know a lot of Readers, myself included, absolutely adore both genres. Having them together like this is just such a delight.

Even though I don’t find the mysteries to be particularly memorable, I still love reading them. It’s not something that’s going to stick with me until the end of time, but I don’t really need it to.

I read for entertainment and to escape from real life for a while, and Ryan definitely provides me that escape with these stories. I walk away a happy girl!

Thank you to the publisher, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I’m really hoping this series continues.

I would love to spend more time with the Evans women. I feel closer to them now than ever!

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Review: Fan Service by Rosie Danan

~ megs14malloy

Fan ServiceFan Service by Rosie Danan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

**3.5-stars**

Fan Service is a light Paranormal Contemporary Romance novel from Rosie Danan. I really enjoyed Danan’s last novel, Do Your Worst, so was excited to check this one out.

In this story, we’re following Alex Lawson and Devin Ashwood through alternating perspectives.

Devin is an actor who starred in a CW-style werewolf television series, The Arcane Files. Alex is the girl who created and moderated the largest fan forum for the show.

We find out early on that the two actually met at a Con years before the start of our novel. Unfortunately, for Alex, the old adage ‘never meet your heroes’ turned out to be true. She overheard Devin making nasty comments about her and the costume she made; crushing for a teen.

Even years later, even as she’s internet famous for knowing everything there is to know about TAF, Alex holds a secret-disdain for its most famous star, Devin freaking-Ashwood.

Ever since the show went off the air, Devin has found his life in a steadily downward spiral. The morning he wakes up naked in the woods with the no memory of the night before though, that may be rock bottom.

The recollections he does have, not to mention the witness reports, are disturbing. Like claws, fangs and howling. Certainly, the full moon was a coincidence, but maybe it’s not. Is Devin literally turning into a werewolf?

Desperate for answers, Devin seeks out the one person who seems to know all there is to know about werewolves, at least the ones portrayed in The Arcane Files, the moderator of the popular fan forum.

Thus, Alex and Devin’s paths cross again. This time they’re on more equal ground though, and in fact, Alex may have the advantage. Devin doesn’t remember her, and she can play this any way she wants.

Ultimately, Devin pleading for help, makes Alex an offer she can’t refuse and the two begin working together to figure this thing out. Before you know it, walls are coming down and an animal attraction is growing strong.

Fan Service is a great read. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of the story. It’s an understandable romance, with a ton of solid character work, but it was a little too drawn out for my tastes, I have to admit.

While I enjoyed learning about both of our main characters, I feel like I almost learned too much about them. Hahaha, is that even a thing?

IDK, but it is the feeling I walked away with.

I’m not sure what specifically I would have cut out of it, but yeahhh, I just feel like all the details started to weigh the story down a bit. It sucked some of the fun out of it for me.

Nevertheless, it had a lot of positives, not least of which was the lovely conclusion. I also thought the steamy bits were great; definitely my kind of kink, and I appreciated the work the author put into Alex and Devin.

Trust, they were FULLY developed.

The more I think about it, the more I think I should round this rating up — LOL. Don’t be surprised if you see that little tick up at some point in the future.

I did love the banter between the two and Devin’s thoughts, in particular, cracked me up. It was definitely a slower build, but also still full of enjoyable content.

I would definitely recommend this one to Readers who enjoy some steam and werewolves. Also, solid fandom vibes for those, like myself, who love that type of thing in a story.

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m definitely excited to keep picking up more from this author!

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