Book Review: Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue (Gaslight Mystery #18)

 

Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue

Victoria Thompson

4/5

It took me forever to start this book cause the events of the last book wrapped everything up so nicely. Not to say I didn't want more content, but I knew that this one was going to be from a different point of view. It took mea  little longer to get into it than it normally does with these books, and I would never want all of the books to be like this, but it definitely had its moments. 

It almost felt like a comic relief filler episode. It was definitely relevant to the character arcs of Maeve, Gino, and the Deckers, even to the Malloys through a second degree. However, with Malloy and Sarah being almost completely absent, it felt more like a novella side quest. I didn't like the feeling of filling in the gaps, I get very attached to the protagonists and though Mrs. Decker is great and Sarah's mom and similar to Sarah, she's not Sarah and I would never want her to be Sarah. 

So this is the first book in the series that I really would say would make a better standalone. Not really, because it's important to know all of their arcs and how they got here, but the mystery was a lot better than what I was giving it credit for. Like I said, it won me over with how funny and wholesome it was. But I'll never like it as much as I love the banter and originality of Frank and Sarah. 

Book Review: The Gilded Shroud (A Lady Fan Mystery #1)

 

A Gilded Shroud

Elizabeth Bailey

2/5

Hired as a temporary companion to the dowager marchioness, Ottilia is quickly subject to a brutal murder. Being the sister of a doctor and extremely meddling, she takes it upon herself to assist the family in solving the crime and absolving the patriarch of guilt. 

I wanted to like this book a lot, it's exactly my kind of book. I just couldn't get behind it. The mystery was kind of dull, no big surprises or interesting clues. The characters spent the entirety of the book praising Ottilia. No one really got their own story line because they were too obsessed with her. Because of that they all felt weak, especially the romance. Francis and Ottilia talked like twice, no dramatic exposition in their back stories, they literally fell in love only on the basis of solving a murder together. 

I didn't like the historical roles either because there was the opportunity for a conflict and it was wasted. Francis is the second son of a marquis, he's way up there in terms of social standing. Ottilia is the sister of a doctor? I don't think he was a knighted doctor, maybe he was a gentleman who knows like I said absolutely no backstory. It was great if all I wanted to hear about was how good at solving mysteries, talking to people, and just being amazing Ottilia was. Otherwise, it was kind of boring. 

 I didn't hate it all together. To an extent, I love it when the protagonist is special and great at what they do. But they also have to be fallible or else it just loses value for me. I might continue in the series just to see if things get more interesting, but I hope that all the characters get over Ottilia. 

Book Review: Unravel the Dusk (The Blood of Stars #2)

 

Unravel the Dusk

Elizabeth Lim

4/5

I really went back and forth between four stars and five stars. Like, the ending was five stars for sure. The beginning and all the waffling and filler content kind of took the star off for me. But the ending brought it all back together because wow I absolutely loved it. I loved the first book in this duology last year, but a lot of people talked to me afterwards about the questionable age difference Maia and Edan. I stand by it on the basis of it being fantasy and immortality being a kind of gray area on age differences. I think that Elizabeth Lim took that into account, or it was just the natural progression of Edan as a character. He was so wholesome and just supportive in this novel and so much less broody, you could hardly tell how many hundreds of years old he was. 

The relationship is an essential part of the story, but there is also a beautiful blend of other legends and myths of the region. The dresses were a great story line in the first, but introducing the Red Strings of Fate, AKA one of my favorite legends, I was a thousand percent more invested. Everything just has such a nice place in the progression and the book honestly deserves so much more hype. If you had reservations after the first one, the ending of this one is just so beautifully cohesive and definitely worth the read. 

I don't want to spoil anything but I loved the last hundred pages a lot. It simultaneously had me so happy yet bawling. Introduce ghosts to the story and have them apologize for dying? I don't know that always GETS ME. Yeah I recommend it though, totally worth the read!

Book Review: The Winter King (Weathermages of Mystral #1)

 

The Winter King

C.L Wilson

4/5

I read this book a few years ago and the re-read did not disappoint. If you love the arranged marriage trope and enemies-to-lovers, this is truly top notch. Khamsin is the fifth child of the King of Summerlea, but she has never truly been acknowledged as an heir to the throne. Her father hates her for the poor health and eventual death which her birth cost her mother. By hate I mean seriously hate, like to the point of zero redemption and complete sadism. Her eldest brother wronged the King of Wintercraig and now after three years of war he is demanding one of the Summerlea princesses as his bride. 

There is really a lot going on in this book that isn't represented by the lame cover art at all. Why do adult fantasy-romance books consistently have such bad cover art? I also think that it's whitewashed? They're fantasy kingdoms so race as we know isn't factored in, but she's consistently described as dark-skinned and that cover model is most definitely not. But yeah, don't let the cover fool you, there are enough plot twists and interesting story lines to keep you interested. 

Not to say it doesn't have its flaws, the instant-attraction thing was a little overdone. I do love it when the male protagonists realizes that he was being horrible though and works double-time to try to make up for it. I don't know why, that's just something that always gets me. But yeah though, magic, intrigue, wolves, and more romance than you could ever hope for. Would recommend just on that basis if you don't mind things being kind of excessive at points.

 

Book Review: Promise of Darkness (Dark Court Rising #1)

Promise of Darkness

Bec McMaster

3/5

This book was pretty good, it was a quick and interesting read that was mostly centered on romance. It's a free Amazon e-book, so I think it was especially good for being free. That being said, it was super predictable. I feel like every "twist" or plot event of any significance was kind of marked out way before it was said. 

Iskvien and Thiago are forced together at Iskvien's mother's insistence, as terms to seal a treaty. Vi is told that it's the perfect opportunity for her to murder the Prince of Evernight. His level of familiarity surprises her though and she quickly becomes confused as to who the real enemy is. 

Predictable but enjoyable. Like it says in the main description, it's based on Hades and Persephone. Which is the best Greek romance of all time if you ask me. Compared to that, this is a little weakly fleshed out. Doesn't mean it didn't have some great moments, but it wasn't something that was anything unique. It was also very reminiscent of ACoTaR, if you really liked that one you'll either love this one or consider it a lame imitation.

Book Review: A Stroke of Malice (Lady Darby #8)

 

A Stroke of Malice

Anna Lee Huber

4/5

I love this series so much. Kiera and Sebastian are some of the best detectives and definitely one of the best romances I've ever read. In this book, they're attending a party hosted by the Duchess of Bowmont when they come across a dead body. These two really find so many bodies it's unbelievable everyone really has no problems with murder.

I loved the mystery, it was well-developed as they always are. I loved the romance, Sebastian and Kiera have such a strong and functional relationship it's incredible. I also really like the side plot-line that was created about one of the duchess's children, it'll be great to see how that one progresses in other books. I'm ready for things to get a little shaken up and it's kind of annoying to me that a certain character was so hypocritical on Kiera in previous novels given this revelation. 

I don't like how often Kiera has to say that she's not like other ladies or like other members of the aristocracy. I think that it's pretty obvious from content that she behaves differently and at this point we're eight books in and we don't need to be constantly reminded about it. I was also annoyed by how rude her family members were being in this one. I really liked Alana and Trevor as characters and appreciated how supportive they always were. Now I'm not sure though- you shouldn't really take anything that an injured pregnant woman says so seriously especially after you were the one to insult her first and she extended you an olive branch. 

Even with those things considered, I can't wait until the next in this series. I'm excited for Kiera to have her baby and nervous to see what could possibly be worse than a cholera epidemic.

Book Review: A Duke by Any Other Name (Rogues to Riches #4)

 

A Duke by Any Other Name

Grace Burrowes

3/5

Lady Althea wasn't always a lady, as a child she was a beggar with a father who really was the scum of the earth. This is the fourth book in a series that I didn't read, there's a lot of information about the family in the other books but I understood everything perfectly well coming in on number four. 

I didn't like how long this book was considering the resolution. There wasn't a real conflict or a real villain here, the problem was hyped up to be a lot more than it apparently was. It feels like they either gave Robert's mental predicament too much credit or not enough. I know it was suggested that there would be problems in the future and there's a sequel coming out it just felt like we spent three hundred pages dwelling on this and then he just got over it.

I loved Althea as a character, she was so interesting and strong and just amazing. Nathaniel was okay, he was cool but they tried to play up the dark edgy guy too much and he wasn't all that mysterious. It was an interesting read, but nothing all that special happened. It was entirely predictable, in a fun way, but really just a read if you're trying to get out of a lull.