Book Review: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

Overall: 4/5

Plots and Themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing Style: 4/5

Attention Grabbing: 5/5 

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is a non-chronological murder mystery. It starts at one point but we're gradually getting more and more information about their dramatic tragic backstories. It's the perfect blend of the realistic and the unhinged that really gets you to the point that you can't put it down. 

I hated Jess at first, but the author did a fantastic job of revealing her past in a way that gradually won me over. I still would hope I wouldn't deal with events the exact same way she did cause she was messed up. I appreciated it though, we weren't wholly on her side and we get frustrated with her being an unreliable narrator until the point that we see it all clearly. 

Definitely one of the best mysteries I've read in a while, I guessed the ending about halfway through but they kept introducing plot twists to the point that I wasn't 100% correct. I also enjoyed the slight dash of romance despite how messy and unrealistic it was. 

Book Review: Through a Darkening Glass

Overall: 3/5

Plots and Themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing Style: 3/5

Attention Grabbing: 3/5

London in 1940 is on the precipice of war, no place for a literature student like Ruth Gladstone anymore. So she escapes to the country with her grandmother to visit a great-aunt she never knew existed. While she becomes engrossed in the town rumors and wartime gossip, she investigates the long-standing urban legend of a white lady ghost who haunts the hillside with the help of her new neighbor, a wounded soldier with an even more wounded wife. 

I liked quite a few parts of the story. It had a lot of POVs and it did a good job bringing the townspeople to life through them. Ruth was a great protagonist to follow with her curiosity and strong drive to get to the bottom of things. Though she probably felt closer to 18-20 than 25, she also lived a sheltered life. Her relationship with Malcolm was strange and very deliberately ambiguous at the end. I think it makes sense, and I'm glad we didn't try to vilify Elise for her circumstances, but I also think we spent a whole lot of time to basically get nowhere. 

The ghost story took the back seat through the whole narrative.  It was convoluted and it wasn't all that fun to follow because the ghost wasn't really doing anything. Rather than a ghost story or a mystery, I think this book would be better framed as a way to depict the more common WWII stories, what many of the people did to escape the tragedies of wartime. Not the most exciting thing out there, but the reality for many people and an interesting time in history. 

Book Review: The Dinner

 

The Dinner

Herman Koch

Overall: 2/5

Plots and Themes: 2/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing Style: 2/5

Attention Grabbing: 1/5

The Dinner is one of those books that's supposed to keep you guessing from start to finish. The only problem was that I wasn't like trying to figure things out cause it was a great mystery, I was trying to figure out how a plot could have so few concrete facts and still get away with calling itself realistic. Everything that could have potentially been a real-world scenario was deliberately obscure which seemed like an easy way to get out of explaining basically anything. 

The whole point of the book is that these two couples are at dinner trying to have a difficult conversation about how best to handle a tricky situation. That idea quickly derails itself through convoluted asides designed to provide exposition on how totally unhinged some of the people are. It also took away all my confidence in the Dutch criminal justice system, or that was just another part which was poorly explained and thus hard to truly understand. There were multiple diseases referenced as key pieces of the narratives but we got the author dodging having to do actual research by vaguely mentioning symptoms or having the characters claim that they didn't want to divulge personal information.  

The mystery was random and I really didn't care about it either way. I'll give it two stars based almost purely on the shock factor. Some of the stuff that happened was just confusing and graphic enough to be disturbing. But if you're looking for plot or anything with depth I'm going to have to recommend you look elsewhere.

Book Review: European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club #2)

 

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

Theodora Goss

Overall: 4/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 4/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman picks up a couple weeks after the first book in this series. All of the members of the Athena Club are settling nicely into their new lives. They're working, they're making money, and they're figuring out how to live with their forced abilities.  Until they receive a message from Mary's old governess saying that there's a girl in need who could have been the product of her father's experimentation. So they galvanize themselves and go to her rescue. 

I love the lore of this series. It's basically fanfiction of horror novels of the 1800s, written about their "children" or the products of their experimentation. I love the personalities of each of the girls, they each bring so much to the table and make such a fun and quirky team. My biggest issues with this novel was the pacing, there were so many dull points where it was just droning on. I don't think it really needed to be the full 720 pages, quite a few pieces could have been cut while keeping the integrity of the plot. 

Also, because of who I am, I'm just desperate for the romances. Beatrice got her moments in this book which I appreciated and we're setting it up for something for Justine too. But what I really want is Mary and Sherlock and all I'm getting are CRUMBS. That cliffhanger at the end took me out, and the little allusions to it through the edits that the girls are adding as the book progresses are killing me. But also good for the series, because this one small element has me in a chokehold and is really pushing me to finish the third book. 

So yeah, I'm still recommending the books. I think they're great historical fictions with kind of a paranormal element that you don't see everywhere. I wouldn't be mad if this was an ongoing mystery kind of series where they just solve a new murder every book, but I can see how it's coming to a close in book three.

 

Book Review: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club #1)

 

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter

Theodora Goss

Overall: 4/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 5/5

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter is sort of a mystery-urban fantasy-historical fiction hybrid set right at the turn of the twentieth century. The protagonists take turns reflecting upon the twists and turns of their lives as the daughters of some of the most iconic creators of monsters from the horror novels of the 1800s. This is backed through the tales of their current mysteries, fighting as a squad of female detectives backed by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. 

It's such an interesting combo of characters. They all reflect so nicely upon one another, filling in the gaps where they each fall short and developing into such a nice team. The mystery is fun, the action is quick-paced, and you find yourself being sidetracked constantly by their arguments during the editing stages of the novel. That's what makes this book even more unique, it's backed by a series of dialogue as the main characters are writing about the events of their past in order to get sell it to fund current exploits. It's fun especially because you know that all of the narrators are going to make it to the end of the book but you get little hints of what's to come as the book progresses. 

I think it's cool and quirky and has a lot of potential to grow into a truly interesting mystery series. I'm also very much holding out for a romance between Sherlock and Mary, I choose to ignore the age difference in favor of loving how awkward they are with each other but how well they work as a unit. I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

 

 

Book Review: The Silent Patient

 

The Silent Patient

Alex Michaelides

Overall: 4/5

Plot and themes: 5/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

The Silent Patient is pretty much a murder mystery. It follows the narrative of a psychotherapist attempting to aid a woman who murdered her husband. She has refused to speak since the day of the murder and the world considers her truly psychotic. Theo thinks that he is different though, he thinks he will be the one who gets through to her. And slowly, he starts seeing what the world missed. 

This book is way better than the Maidens. For once thing, there weren't nearly the amount of red herrings that the Maidens tried to thread in. But also, we didn't lose all of the character growth that we felt throughout the pages in the glory of the final plot twist. The plot twist actually added up and made sense in the grand scheme of the book. And the openness of the ending really gave it that additional spark. 

I enjoyed it a lot aside from the monotony of some of the central parts. I think that it was a great book that was just trippy enough to be enjoyable without being pretentious or overdone.

 

Book Review: The Guest List

The Guest List

Lucy Foley

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 4/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

The Guest List is your typical murder mystery who-dunnit type story. A celebrity wedding on a rural island out in the middle of nowhere packed with guests bringing all kinds of baggage. Julia just wants her perfect happy ever after and Will is the perfect groom. Her sister Olivia just wants to get away. Charles is Jules' best friend and married to Hannah, the unfortunate plus one. While Johnno is the childhood bestie who can't seem to catch a break. All of them combined with the wedding planner, Aoife, make for an interesting and random group of chaotic individuals. 

I think that the beginning was kind of hard to get into and the pacing was off across the board. We were obviously trying to hold the reveal off till the very end to be more dramatic, but it just made for a whole lot of boring and pointless exposition at the beginning. I love reading books like this for the way that all the elements combine into something convoluted and impossibly complicated at the end, and while this book nailed that, we could have done with a lot less of the attempted red herrings. 

I was also mad about the ending. I think that considering all of the tedious introduction we should have gotten a bit more insight into the consequences of each of the characters' actions. Without spoiling anything, I feel like we got the reveal and then we got kicked off the set. That was disappointing for me as I was more invested in the arcs of the characters rather than just the act of the murder. I don't know if I would never recommend it to anyone, but it's definitely not the best mystery ever.

Book Review: A Purely Private Matter (Rosalind Thorne Mysteries #2)

A Purely Private Matter

Darcie Wilde

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 3/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

A Purely Private Matter is the second book in Rosalind Thorne Mysteries, it has it's own separate mystery combined with the ongoing narrative of Rosalind Thorne. Rosalind is a self-made woman, she thrives off of aiding society women in figuring their way out of sticky situations. She's finds herself in the crossfire of another murder and she knows she won't be satisfied until she knows the truth. 

Listen, I didn't really have a problem with the mystery. It was a little dull at part but it was pretty consistent straight through. I wasn't super shocked by the ending and I think that's mainly due to how many names were being thrown around. The main problem I had with it was the progression of the love triangle?? I have no idea who she's going to end up with but like they're really lowkey developing her and Adam Harkness despite the ongoing assumption that she's going to end up with the Duke? I don't know it's kind of weird. 

It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either and generally I'm afraid that it's a bit forgettable. I don't know if I'll be reading on in the series because they're a little hard to get from the library and I'm not super into it. 

Book Review: The Atlas Six (The Atlas #1)

 

 The Atlas Six

Olivie Blake

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 2/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 4/5

The Atlas Six is a kind of combo sci-fi urban fantasy combo that follows the journeys of six individuals trying to become magical scholars of the lost Library of Alexandria. The six who are selected to train for this prestigious honor are driven to the very edge of their magical capabilities, even considering they are recruited as the six most talented magicians of their time from the start. But there's a catch, only five of the recruits are actually going to make it to initiation and there's something much more sinister than pure academics driving the process. 

I thought that this book had a lot of potential in how absolutely trippy and convoluted the magic was. There was so much going on all the time and honestly it made me lightheaded trying to keep track of it all. The differences in their powers were balanced and gave a lot of insight into the differences between perceived and actual strengths. And the way that their backstories and the discovery of their magics were revealed gave us a lot of intriguing hints at the functionality of the world that they live in. Which is far from just your normal magic-featuring urban fantasy as it also features some kind of abstract cataclysmic fall of the life as we currently know it. 

The magic was the highlight, the characters were the major problem. I wasn't tied to any of them and they were way too spaced out for me to get a good read on any of them. We get to see them through an entire year of education and growth and yet I didn't see any real growth. And any real character traits that I thought I understood about them were completely debunked by random things that kept cropping up. I understand that some people are a lot more capable of keeping track of such diverging plot lines than I am, so I don't think it's probably universally bad, I just think it lost track of a lot of the central progression. 

So it's enjoyable but I'm very thrown off by the pacing. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a duology, though I could be wrong, and I have no idea how that'll pan out as I feel like we haven't been given a lot of insight into why things are the way they are. The only things we do know that completely and totally push the plot forward were given to us in twenty pages of info dump. It's great if you love a gritty magic that requires you to reread it several times over to understand it and you're not really all that particular about getting attached to the characters, but a little hard to love if you favor characters more than plot.

 

Book Review: The Maidens

 

The Maidens

Alex Michaelides

Overall: 3/5

Plot and themes: 3/5

Characters: 1/5

Writing style: 3/5

Attention-grabbing: 3/5

The Maidens is a dark-academia book that people have kind of thrown into the same category as The Secret History. Mariana is a group therapist and at this point in her life she has lost most of her family, but she still has her niece whom she has spoiled for most of her life. When one of her niece's friends is murdered, Mariana decides that she needs to step in to help locate the killer. 

I like to read protagonists who are capable. Mariana was very far from it. She was definitely the most annoying element of the book because it was like the author didn't want to give her anything to be good at. It was a constant merry-go-round of pity and self-doubt that is not very conducive to solving a murder. The murderer seemed pretty clear to me from the start (though with a twist that surprised me so it does get points for that) but the author tried to throw us off by giving us random plot-lines to follow. I know that's how mysteries are often written, but there should be some closure or some reasoning as to why it was done that way and this book really lacked that. 

As a mystery, it was fine. As dark academia, it was okay though there wasn't really much academia happening. For the characters it would be a hard pass for me because their general arcs were completely straight forward from the beginning. It's an easy read and it has it's moments but it's not something that's going to ever make my favorites.

Book Review: Scorched Heart (Firebrand #4)

Scorched Heart

Helen Harper

Overall: 5/5

Plot and themes: 4/5

Characters: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Attention-grabbing: 5/5

This is the fourth and most recent addition in the Firebrand series following the adventures of Emma, a detective for the Supernatural Squad and a supernatural entity all on her own. She's finally decided it's time to investigate the tragedy of her parents murder, but she's quick to discover that the clean-cut confession from 25 years prior could have been all an elaborate mistake. With more murders cropping up in the same fashion, she takes it upon herself to right the wrongs that set her whole supernatural journey into motion. 

I like paranormal books well enough, but there's a thin line that they're usually walking between funny and overdone. This series has really nailed the balance between that kind of sardonic humor of urban fantasy protagonists with a serious plot. It's also more of an adventure with romance rather than a romance with adventure, enough to satisfy the fact that I basically can't read books without romance at this point but not to overdone to ruin it for readers who prefer action. I think that this whole series has been so well-written and all of the mysteries have been so well-constructed. It has the real potential to be an extended series of mysteries with really infinite volumes in my opinion. 

The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the revelation of the nature of her phoenix powers. I don't know, it's probably more like my preference in the characters I read but the nature of the right-place-right-time thing just felt weird. I didn't hate it completely, but I'm definitely looking forward to future additions to give more of an explanation into the mythology of it all. I don't know if a fifth book has been announced, I know there's another series coming out but I don't know if I'll read it. I just want more of Emma and Lukas to be honest, their relationship is really shaping up with the progression of the mysteries.

Book Review: The Archived (The Archived #1)

The Archived

Victoria Schwab

5/5

For the past four years, Mackenzie has had the title of Keeper. As such, she has a key that transports her into a secret Archive where the memories of the dead are kept. Not so much memories, more like ghosts. And when those ghost wake, it's up to her to guide them back to their drawers and resting places. After the death of her brother, her family decides to move to a new location with a higher traffic for these Histories and more confusion than she's ever known as a Keeper. 

This book was way better than I expected it to be. Think of it as like Ninth House but with a more YA spin. It had the intricate and beautiful worldbuilding that you would expect from a VE Schwab book while being aimed for a younger audience. There's definitely a huge difference in being aimed for a young audience and being well-written though, and this book definitely highlights that. It's made me super nostalgic because this is exactly the kind of thing that I would have read and loved in middle or high school. Didn't make me love it any less now. 

I'm excited to see how the duology concludes, it's definitely up there with my favorite VE Schwab books and I've read quite a few at this point. If you're a big fan of the paranormal then I can't recommend this book strongly enough. Also it made me cry so it definitely has a great emotional impact.

Book Review: The Hummingbird Dagger

The Hummingbird Dagger

Cindy Anstey

3/5

Lord Ellerby feels as though he's been scrambling after his little brother since their father's death last year. When he gets into a curricle race that drives a carriage off the world and injures a young woman, he feels it is his responsibility to take her in until she recovers. Unfortunately, she has amnesia and can't remember her name or where she came from and no one has come forward to claim her. It soon becomes evident that her origins are more nefarious than they first appeared and that she and the family that helped her is in danger. 

It was good, it was better at the beginning but was pretty interesting all the way through. The real problem was that it's definitely a book you read once, you solve, and then you never pick up again. I was intrigued and I pushed through it all in a couple of hours but I wasn't really asking for more. The ending felt particularly rushed in the idea that the relationship was just fine. I hate it when author's write characters and they're like "oh wow no one else has ever interested her so you're special..." when she was interested from like the first two minutes. The romance was just so obvious and straightforward. 

So yeah, average but still enjoyable. If you're in a reading slump and you like historical mysteries, this one would yank you out by how easy it reads. But if you're a fan of intricate historical romances with a scary twist, it would probably be a bit bland.

Book Review: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Stuart Turton

3/5

When Aiden Bishop wakes up, he has no idea who or where he is. He has just one name on his lips, Anna, who he thinks he just saw being murdered. He soon discovers that everything is fabricated, that he isn't just one person and that he has been hopping from mind to mind for eight repeated days for decades. The only way out is to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, but he is not not the only one attempting to do so. 

This book is so complicated. It's non-chronological in the most difficult way to process because you're constantly getting snippets from other days, that are also simultaneously the same days? I really think that the best way to describe it is Knives Out meets Black Mirror, only because it's very Knives Out in the attempts to solve the murder but has a weird paranormal sci-fi element that's somewhat reminiscent of Black Mirror?

It just felt a little difficult to make it through at points because it was just so heavy with information. I don't have great critical thinking skills so it was hard for me to understand. I'm also much more character-focused than plot-focused, and this wasn't really a book that focused on the characters. Like, the characters and their senses of self were important to the plot but I also felt like I didn't really know them because they were so lost in their alternative lives. It just made the choice at the end feel kind of weak because I couldn't really feel the buildup to it?

It wasn't bad by any definition, it just felt a little too complex. I did appreciate what it was trying to go for though, it's a super unique premise that really kept you guessing until the very end.

Book Review: Black Chalk

 

Black Chalk

Christopher Yates

2/5

This book runs in the same circuit as The Secret History and If We Were Villains, tragic events motivated by irresponsible students at some sort of institution. AKA Dark Academia. Six students enter into a game with high stakes, all of them trying to win the large sum of money at the end of the line. But it's non-chronological, so you know that not all of them are going to make it out alive. 

Weak. That's the best word to describe the sequence of events in this book. Nothing really felt as significant as the author wanted it to feel. The worst dares to me were the ones completed at the beginning of the game, the stuff that got them out just didn't seem all that bad in the scheme of things. It also could be that the boundaries of the game were just poorly defined from the start. There wasn't enough characterization for me to feel bad for the students, I really had no preference between any of them because they all just seemed kind of stupid. 

The ending was especially disappointing. Are they friends? Are they enemies? Why did all of that stuff happen? The author was definitely going for something bigger than what he actually supported and he totally missed the mark. The person who died was easily identified, the betrayals were easily predicted, everything felt shallow and weak. You can't compare yourself to a modern classic like The Secret History that expect me to be impressed with you just trying to sound fancy. 

I'm giving it two stars because I guess there were some mysteries? I don't know, I finished it and didn't hate every minute of it it was just so predictable. Maybe I'm being too harsh, I just didn't think it was all that enjoyable. 

Book Review: An Unexpected Peril (Veronica Speedwell #6)

An Unexpected Peril

Deanna Raybourn

5/5

I'll start by saying thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in return for a fair and honest review. I'm extremely invested in the characters in this series and I honestly don't think that any of their adventures could be boring at this point. In this sixth installment, Stoker and Veronica are investigating the potential murder of a fellow Curiosity Club member. In doing so, Veronica discovers that she looks very much like the Crown Princess of the Alpenwald, paving the way for her to step into this princess's shoes when she mysteriously disappears for a bit. 

Nothing shocked me more than the first book in this series did. Though I think this book fell a little short of where the other books did in terms of the mystery, I think it made up for that with the banter and character development of our two protagonists. I read a lot of historical fiction and when I tell people that, they expect it to be something stuffy or difficult to understand. Veronica Speedwell is anything but, though it doesn't completely disregard the mentalities of the time period in definitely infuses it with witty conversations and personalities that a typical person would not expect.

I had 33 highlights in this book, more than I think I've ever done in any book. I can't describe how clever everything has been during the course of this series. Everything that you expect is completely subverted, from the tropes to the mysteries. When we were first introduced to Stoker in the first book, I don't think I could ever have expected him to be quoting Keats and stealing sweets. And Veronica, she has her moments but she's really growing and realizing that you don't have to be all of one thing. While I have loved her throughout the entirety of the books, I love that she's not so selfish and that she recognizes the things that she wants even outside of her independence. I really appreciate that their growth is authentic to their characters, they're consistent to who they were at the beginning they're just stronger and better people.

So as I do every year when one of these books comes out, I strongly recommend reading this series. It has literally everything that you need from a book and continues to get better with every installment. Veronica and Stoker will always hold a special place for me and I'll keep reading them as long as they keep being written.

Book Review: Silence of Scandal (Unrivaled Regency #1)

Silence of Scandal

Jackie Williams

2/5

Alexander and Elizabeth are pushed into a marriage that neither of them knew anything about in order to settle the debts of Alexander's deceased brother. They get along much better than they assumed they would but as the threat of his brother's blackmailer continues to hang over them and without knowing where Elizabeth's loyalties really lie, it's uncertain if their relationship will survive.

I was pretty disappointed by the majority of this book. It was too wordy with nothing really going on. The threat was weak, I didn't really feel like it would ever cause any serious damage. The content is not all that historically accurate, like a duke could ever marry a farmer's daughter without some sort of backlash. There was really no consideration for the nuances and intricacies of society at the time. And above all else, the cover is not visually appealing at all.

I will say that I appreciate that the book did not try to give her the voice of an angel or anything, the depth of her disability was not completely explained away. I don't know what I was expecting from the book and I honestly don't know why I kept reading other than the fact that it was short. Her deafness was an interesting plot point but the secrets of her past could have been much more masterfully handled to make things a little more interesting. It wasn't bad enough for one star, but I didn't really enjoy reading it much beyond the basic motivation to finish reading.

Book Review: Verity

 

Verity 

Colleen Hoover

4/5

When Verity, the author of a very popular mystery series, is incapacitated and unable to finish her books, Lowen is hired to step in and finish it out. She goes to stay with Verity's husband, Jeremy, and their son in order to get the information necessary. Lowen finds Verity's autobiography and from that point on it's just one weird thing after another with the truth being far from obvious. 

If you like liking the characters in a book, like you like rooting for them, this probably isn't the book for you. If you like psychological thrillers that have you questioning the truth the entire time, this would be the perfect read. The first fourth was boring but it really started picking up towards the middle and all the way through the end. The things that were written were constantly surprising me, superseding every previous event and just getting more bizarre and aggravating. Without spoiling anything all I can say is that it'll keep you on the edge of your seat. 

The dialogue was a bit stilted at points. I think that the interactions between the living characters were cut in favor of the flashbacks to the past. It was that same thing where way too much was revealed in dialogue in the first interaction just because one protagonist knew exactly the right questions to ask the other protagonist. 

Still though, would definitely recommend for fans of mysteries and thrillers. You may not be completely satisfied at the end but you'll definitely enjoy all the twists and turns that you hit along the way.

Book Review: The Innkeeper's Daughter (The Gentlemen's Spy Mysteries #1)

 

The Innkeeper's Daughter

Bianca M. Schwarz

4/5

Since her parent's death, Eliza has had a rather difficult time. Her stepfather is abusive and agreed to forcing her into a marriage with an even more abusive old man. After her stepfather tries to beat her into submission, she runs away and encounters Sir Henry on the street. He saves her life and brings her into his world of espionage and clandestine affairs.

I'll start with a trigger warning, this book contains depictions of sex trafficking that could be difficult for some people to read. This book also has a couple of spicier scenes, but I think they're written without being too overwhelming. 

When I first started reading, I really was doubting that I would like it. I had a difficult time liking the characters considering the inevitability that I saw in the ending. I just couldn't help not liking them though, there was such a nice mutual respect built from such unlikely and unequal circumstances. I think that regency romances can tend to ignore the harsh realities of the time period in favor of the more fantastical approaches and the desire to display love's ability to conquer anything. Not saying that there are particularly harsh elements of this book or some kind of tragic romance, it just follows the natural progression of what could be expected from a relationship between two individuals of such disparate circumstances. Again though, the respect and consideration that they showed for one another is something very beautiful and unique that you won't see in many books labeled romances. Their relationship is sappy at points and over the top, but they aren't the kind of characters who abandon reality and their responsibilities.

Eliza is a strong heroine despite how horribly life has treated her. She rises above her circumstances, she isn't whiny about anything that happens to her, and she's insanely clever. I hope that the next book in the series continues to explore how much of an asset she would be to any kind of espionage, I'll love seeing how these characters all grow and progress from this first novel. 

I would recommend it for people who like regency romance but want a darker twist. This isn't a fairy tale, it's not a tragedy but it has more of a real life twist to it that really enhances the experience. Special shout out to NetGalley and Central Ave. Publishing for providing me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Book Review: One of Us is Lying (One of Us is Lying #1)

One of Us is Lying

Karen M. McManus

4/5

I was a little scared to read this book, I got it as a gift and getting into contemporary high school books is kind of difficult for me at this point. After being pranked into detention, four high school students watch one of their classmates die from an allergic reaction. Given Simon's notorious reputation for his gossip website, the police are quick to suspect foul play and those four students are the prime suspects. 

I'm not going to say I knew everything that happened, there were a couple of fun twists mixed in that gave the book additional depth. I've seen a lot of people referring to it as The Breakfast Club but with murder which is a fairly apt description. The mystery and pacing of it all reminds me of a book I read a few years ago, Burning Blue, which I also really liked. I think that it was just very well-written and interesting from start to finish. 

I'm not usually a fan of so many first person POVs either, but the author did a great job of phasing them all together. The one thing that felt weird at the end was Nate's reaction to everything, felt like it was kind of just rushed to be problematic then rushed to a solution via an epilogue. Other than that lapse in character arc though, I think they all had a lot of positive growth through tragedy. 

Would totally recommend it for fans of mystery. It's contemporary and set in a high school so might be difficult to get into, but I really like the pacing and the way the plot twists were presented. I don't know if I'll read the sequel, it's definitely a great start though.