Planet Lara: Sanctuary - Eliza Gordon

 

This is the third and final installment in the Planet Lara series and picks up where book #2 left off.  Since this is the third book in a trilogy, spoiler alert for books #1 and #2 (no spoilers for book #3).  Finan is gone, Jacinta has disappeared, and Lara is holding on by a thread.  Her and Finan finally reconnected only for him to be taken and Lara is determined to get him back by any means necessary.  She thinks she knows who is behind the kidnapping, but when a new threat comes to Thalia Island, Lara will have to team up with the last people she would have expected.  In this explosive conclusion to the Planet Lara trilogy, long kept secrets on all sides are brought to light and Lara will have to team up with her island family to bring one of their own back home.

TW/CW: torture, animal harm, sexual assault (groping)

This was a really fantastic end to this romantic suspense series (here are my reviews of Book #1 and Book #2).  I've said in both previous reviews that I don't generally read series but I'm glad I gave this one a chance.  The main issue for me was the pacing which was a little off for me reading this book (but made a lot of sense when I was thinking back over the trilogy as a whole).  This book really hits the ground running and there's a lot of really great tension, suspense, and mystery elements.  As this is a romantic suspense series (and thus should not be a surprise to anyone), Lara and Finan are reunited and then the last 30%ish of the book is a lot of wrapping up and checking in with all the different characters and seeing how everyone is recovering after the events of the book.  As a single reading experience, having this much wrap up at the end really felt like it messed with the balance of the book and the pacing dragged a little bit in comparison to the pretty non-stop pacing of the first 70% of the book.  I really liked getting to see how all these characters we've grown to love finish up their individual stories but I did have the thought a few times of "wow, this is really a lot of wrap up/resolution for a book".  All that being said, when I then think about that 30% of wrap up in comparison to the whole trilogy, then it does feel like a more appropriate proportion of the narrative is being spent in this phase.  For example, in a stand alone romantic suspense book, we would only get a chapter or two (or maybe just the epilogue) of this resolution phase which would maybe only be 5%ish of the total book.  Again, this might just come down to me not being used to reading series but this pacing quirk was the one thing that didn't quite feel great while I was reading.

I really enjoyed the characters and how much we got to see Lara's interactions with the other townsfolk.  Lara's character growth over these three books is really fantastic and there's a stark difference between book 1 Lara and book 3 Lara and I think that difference and growth is really earned on her part. We really see her come into her own as a person finding her way in life and figuring out what is important to her.  The trilogy takes place over about 4-5 months but there's a lot of plot stuffed into that time period.  I really enjoyed seeing Lara's relationship with the other people on the island grow and change as well.  I always like when the main characters in any book (but especially a romance) have a lot of interactions with side characters because it usually allows us to see different parts of their personalities.  I think this choice also made Lara's character arc and growth feel more realistic because we can see her from different perspectives and interactions.  The book is from Lara's POV so we quite literally don't see much of Finan for the majority of the book.  Most romantic suspense books that I've read have the love interests paired up to fight together against the bad guy (which was the case with books 1 and 2 for the most part).  However, having Finan out of the picture and having Lara team up with the rest of the island to bring him back really emphasized that Lara had grown to love this island and the residents there despite her initial reluctance way back in the beginning of book 1.

Gordon does a fantastic job with the suspense elements in all three books but I think her efforts really came though in this final installment. I mentioned in my book 2 review that I felt like a lot of that book was rehashing the events/information we saw in book 1 and I was a little worried we'd get that same issue with book 3.  However, we really jumped feet first into the situation and drama of trying to find Finan as well as figure out how all these different secrets are involved in this situation.  I was really pleased with the twists the mystery/investigation took and how Gordon was able to pull in so many different seemingly unrelated aspects and weave them all together.  I was a little worried at one point that some plot threads would be sort of 'hand-waved' away because they seemed so big and introduced relatively late in the story but I ended up being entirely satisfied with how everything wrapped up.  There was a really good balance of the high-tension suspense elements with some quieter moments especially between Lara, Harmony, and Humboldt that I think worked really well to give the reader a bit of space to breathe before the next plot point gets dropped.  

Despite my earlier explained issues with the pacing of the ending, I thought the resolution for the series was perfect.  I think, overall, it was a good choice to have such a long resolution section that also allowed us more time to get back into the 'romance' side of this romantic suspense story.  I especially loved how we got to see not only Lara and Finan's romance resolution but also relationships and friendships of all types across the other characters.  I 100% cried at the ending which if that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. We also got some answers to questions I didn't even know I had so those were fun surprises to get.  I think the ending also did a good job balancing the realities of going through these events with the fluffy romance elements and ending we all expect. For example, Finan does have some moments of PTSD-type reactions (although he isn't specifically diagnosed in the book) and some of the secrets do shatter the illusion that Lara had about certain people in her life.  That being said, the ending is overwhelmingly lovely and heartwarming.

Overall, this was a really strong ending to a great series.  Books 1 and 2 do end on cliffhangers, but now that the trilogy is finished, you can just read straight through!  I think it can sometimes be hard to get the balance right with romantic suspense books but Gordon does a great job at developing both sides well.

Thanks to BookSirens and the author for the ARC - I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Spaniel's Secret - Megan Mayfair

 

This is the second book in the Lemon Tree Bay Mysteries series and we're back in Lemon Tree Bay, Australia not long after the events of book 1. Clara is settling into a quiet life back in her hometown when the local beach bar Esmeralda's goes up in flames and Clara runs inside to save the owner. While the townspeople are thrilled with Clara's act of bravery, police officer Adam is concerned with finding out the source of the fire as well as if it is connected to the dead body that just washed ashore.  When her boyfriend tells her he's leaving town for a work opportunity, Clara adopts Sunflower - a Cocker Spaniel found running in the streets with her leash dragging behind.  Sunflower leads Clara all around Lemon Tree Bay and Clara finds herself, once again, at the center of a mystery. 

This is a cozy romantic mystery series so each book does contain a stand alone mystery that is solved by the end.  However, I don't feel like these are as readable as standalone as other mystery series I've read.  Mayfair does a good job of mentioning details from the first book, but we don't really get the usual quick and dirty recap of the previous book.  Because of this, we're pretty much dropped right into the book with little context around who these individual characters are or their relationship to each other.  For example, the history between Clara and her ex boyfriend is explained pretty in-depth in the first book.  However, when the ex shows up in this book, we see Clara's current boyfriend being a little uneasy and Clara assures him that she only wants to be with him.  So if the reader didn't read the first, they can still put together the pieces that there's some history between Clara and her ex, but we aren't given the exact details again.  This might just come down to personal preference, but I really enjoy having those quick run-downs of previous plots and characters that will come into play in the current book and I think I would have settled into this book easier if we had those instead of me taking time to try and remember what happened in the first book.

This book leaned pretty hard into the romantic plot - so much so that I'd call the romance/relationship plot the main plot line.  The dead guy and the fire really took a back seat to Clara and her relationships and I didn't love that choice.  The first book in the series has a romantic sub-plot for sure but the murder in that book is obviously the main focus.  In this second book, that is flipped and I wish the fire and the dead body were the focus of this book as well.  I did like the romance elements but I just felt like for a book in a mystery series there sure wasn't much mystery being developed.  In fact, a lot of the investigation aspects were done off page and then the reader is just told a summary of events after the fact. I thought the two crimes were interesting and I wish we got as much investigating in this second book as we did the first.  Now, I love reading romances but this was an odd sort of situation where Clara and her boyfriend are pretty solid but she has some concerns when he leaves for his business opportunity and that brings up memories of her and Adam together.  Adam has his own relationship with another woman whom he says he loves, but he's constantly thinking about Clara and how bad he messed up being with her back in the day.  So it isn't exactly a love triangle, but it sort of is?  There's a lot of internal monologue-ing about relationships and what each character is figuring out they want which leads to a bit of angst but no clear resolution by the end of the book. 

I did really like the multi-POV elements. We're mostly in Clara's POV but we do hop into Adam's and Lucas's POVs also.  I think this was a really smart idea, especially with the emphasis on the relationships in this book.  There are a few times where a character's action from Clara's POV could be interpreted a number of different ways and then we would pop into that other character's POV and see the meaning behind the action.  This helped lower the angst and tension in the romantic plot which kept this book firmly in the 'cozy romantic mystery' sub-genre for me. I also liked how the different characters ran in different circles in town so we could see different sides of Lemon Tree Bay just by flipping to a different character.  I also found the multi-POV allowed us to see a good amount of internal character growth. These characters were doing a lot of internal reflecting and thinking and I loved that we actually got to see it from their perspectives instead of waiting for the change to be super obvious to outsiders.

Despite my previous point about the mystery being secondary to the romance, I did really like the mystery and investigation elements that we did get.  Mayfair does a great job in both books at giving the reader all these different clues that seem to not go together until the very end when suddenly everything make sense.  The explanation behind the crimes wasn't anything super out of this world unique, but the way the investigation was crafted was really great. I do wish Clara was more hands-on in this investigation like she was in the first book.  She seemed very interested in talking out different theories with Adam and sharing the town gossip with him, but she didn't physically do much investigating.  There was one particular time where she found a clue and then just handed it over to Adam (which, technically, is what she should do, but it isn't what I want my lead character in a cozy mystery to do). The investigation in the first book really dug into the town's secrets and while this one did scratch that itch a bit, I really wish we had focused more on that and less on the sort-of-love-triangle that was going on.

Overall, this was a bit of a step down for me from the first one, but I still liked it.  I found this to be much more heavy on the romance and light on the investigation which isn't my personal preference.  However, I still loved the characters and the town of Lemon Tree Bay so I look forward to continuing in the series.

Thanks to BookSirens for the ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Expected publication date is November 26, 2021.

The Alpha - E.J. Findorff

 

This is the second book in the Angel Blondeaux series and follows the FBI agent as she is in the middle of investigating the serial killed dubbed The Blindfold Killer.  The Killer, who calls himself Roman, calls Angel when he disposes of a new body - or sometimes just to chat.  However, as Roman increases the frequency of his kills as well as the severity of his taunts to the police, Angel needs to decide what risks she can take to catch the killer before he catches her.

TW/CW: domestic abuse, sexual assault

While this is the second book in the series, as with most police procedural mysteries, it can be read as a standalone.  I really loved the first book in the series because it was an extremely compelling read that did a great job introducing us to Angel as a character.  There are a few references to the events of the first book that would be very confusing to readers if they hadn't read book 1, but those references did not impact the way the mystery contained in this book played out.  This book was a solid read, but it did feel pretty much like a standard police procedural/serial killer mystery where as book 1 was more unique and compelling for me.  I was pleased that the end of this book hinted at a return, of sorts, to the world/mystery of book 1 so I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series. 

I really liked how we're dropped into the middle of this investigation, right when they find the 5th body.  I know a lot of readers find the pacing of police procedurals to be slow, and I think Findorff starting the story when he did was a great choice.  It also allowed us to get a pretty quick info-dump of the crimes because Angel and the other investigators were comparing this fifth victim to the others basically by listing off characteristics (no eyes, throat cut, wearing a hospital gown, etc). The pacing from there was pretty standard for a mystery book where the police were gathering clues, making some breakthroughs, etc.  The stakes and tension are raised a number of times in the first 25% of the book which I also think makes it a very engaging read.  I think the calls that the killer makes to Angel work well to instantly bump up the tension and remind the reader what the main plot of the book is.  So often, these calls come in when Angel is having more personal conversations or other lulls in the main action plot of the book and just when the reader is relaxing - a call from the killer. It might come off as a little gimmicky to some readers, but I really enjoyed that aspect.

I loved how dynamic and fleshed out the different characters are and how they are so different from each other.  We get, of course, multiple characters who are members of law enforcement - FBI and local police - and there's always a chance that those characters could be written very similarly.  However, Findorff does a great job writing each character so well that they really stand out from the crowd.  Each character has a distinctive voice and attitude that is consistent throughout the book.  The story is told primarily through 2 POVs but there is a single chapter from the killer's POV.  I really liked the main 2 perspectives and thought they were a great choice to give us a well-rounded view of the investigation.  The one chapter from the killer's perspective I found to be unnecessary because it was only done once.  I wish we had gotten more of those chapters as a sort of unnamed 3rd narrator.  I could see the point of the one chapter (discussed in the next paragraph), but since it was only one chapter it sort of felt a little gimmicky and like an easy way to give some info to the reader.  I really love when detective mysteries have the killer's POV in them and I think this is the type of mystery that would have benefited from that extra layer of tension.  I think this point is especially true with serial killer mysteries because usually, so much of the serial killer's actions are based on their own personal history so seeing their actions or hearing their thoughts would have been an interesting character study.

Where this story lost some points for me was in the actual mystery but it is just a personal preference.  I strongly prefer my mysteries to have a lot of red herrings or dead ends for the investigators to come across.  This book, in comparison, was pretty much zero to prime suspect.  At the beginning, they had no suspects, then the killer revealed somethings about himself on a call to Angel and suddenly they have a suspect that fits all of those parameters and that is who they're pretty much focused on for the rest of the book.  I would have liked some more variation in the suspect pool or maybe having multiple suspects that could all fit the criteria so the police have to investigate multiple leads.  I think the aforementioned single chapter from the killer's POV tried to do this a bit with giving the reader some nuggets of information that Angel and the police didn't have yet so the reader could start to be suspicious of one of the characters we already met.  However, it was not done consistently enough to be impactful, at least for me and my reading experience.  I did think the actual line of investigation was well done and there were a few twists that I didn't see coming and thought were interesting.  But there weren't any reveals that really surprised or shocked me. Along these same lines, I felt like it was very obvious who the killer was once we saw them on-page so at that point the fun in the mystery turned from the investigation and red herrings to more of a thriller where the reader knows more information than the police so I'm reading mostly to see if Angel will catch the killer or not. I think this more thriller-leaning part of the book came in a bit earlier (about the 60% mark) than it does in most other detective fiction stories so, again, my expectations were a little thrown and didn't quite land for me.  I wanted a more winding investigation thread and then a bunch of action at the end (which is what I felt we got with the first book in the series - Blood Parish).

Overall, I really enjoyed this second installment following Angel and I will most definitely be continuing in the series.  I loved the characters, tension, and pacing but the mystery was a little too straightforward for my liking. 

Thanks to BookSirens and the author for the ARC - I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Expected publication date is January 14, 2022

The Dollhouse - Sara Ennis

 

This psychological thriller follows twins Angel and Bud as they are abducted and put in The Dollhouse - a room where a man named Alfred uses them to re-create photographs from his childhood but he always adds a sadistic twist. In the outside world, the search continues for the twins and Peter Baden extends his help to their mother.  Peter's daughter Olivia was abducted about a year prior and hasn't been found so he spends his days searching for Olivia and helping parents going through similar situations.  While Peter and the FBI search, time might be running out for the twins and the other 'dolls' as Alfred's temper becomes more volatile and as the photo album is running out of photographs, no one wants to find out what happens if they reach the end.

TW/CW: abduction, physical/psychological abuse, suicide

Okay, so this might be a bit of a meandering review but here we go. I finished this book a few days ago and have given it a lot of thought.  I'm still not sure how thoroughly I can explain my opinions without spoilers but I'll do my best. I really enjoyed the first 1/3-ish of this book and then it sort of went downhill from there and upon reflection, I think part of that is due to my own expectations and preferences not being met and there's a good chance that someone who has a different reading history won't have the same issues I did.  Prior to picking this book up, I saw a number of positive reviews on Instagram simply raving about this book.  My reading schedule for this month was a little tight, but those reviews encouraged me to make some space for this story.  And I think this book had a lot I liked in it, but the times that it missed, for me, outweighed the positives.  As of writing this review, the book has an average rating of 4.3 on Goodreads (with 186 ratings) so a good number of people obviously really like this book.  I did take a skim through some of the positive reviews just to see what people were liking so much about it and many of the reviews specifically listed out aspects that were a negative for me so this might just be a very subjective reading experience.  In any case, here are my thoughts.

This book does not shy away from the physical or mental abuse and torture that Alfred is putting these kids through.  I've seen some reviews liken this to an episode of Criminal Minds and I would agree with that comparison (specifically, S6 E8 Reflection of Desire and S8 E10 The Lesson).  However, I personally felt that as the book progressed, a lot of the abuse was done just for shock value and thus is was less impactful as the story progressed.  Initially, we got an interesting back and forth between the abuse by Alfred and then his accomplice Jennifer caring for them almost like a mother would (making them dinner, making sure they did their school work, etc).  This dichotomy was really interesting and even Angel at times had little moments where she was almost enjoying this new 'family' that she had.  I would have liked if we continued that sort of back and forth but instead, as the book progressed, we really lost the Jennifer side of the equation and we got so much of Alfred torturing that those brutal scenes lost some of their impact for me.  I almost became desensitized to the violence because the last three chapters had been along similar lines.  I think if we had gotten less of the actual violence and more of a 'relax' period between those brutal scenes then it would be much more impactful overall. 

The first part I enjoyed was the POV switching.  We get a good number of POVs in the story but Angel is by far our protagonist and I'd say the majority (70%ish) of the book is told from her perspective.  Some of the other perspectives are Alfred, Jennifer, Peter, and a high school guidance counselor named Edward. I do, generally, like a multi-POV thriller because it usually allows the reader to see more layers to the plot and really up the tension.  However, in this case, it is not immediately apparent how all these POVs are related to the main plot line and that was frustrating for me.  I trusted that they would come together in the end (and they do), but while I was in the middle of the book I ended up being bored and confused why we were focusing on these other characters instead of following Angel.  These other POVs didn't have their own arcs and I didn't find the characters very compelling to follow.  Looking back, I can see how the events in these other chapters are important to the overall plot, but when it wasn't clear in the moment I just found myself not caring and sort of skimming those chapters. Ennis did a really good job with the timing of when these other chapters would come in and interrupt the main narrative.  I think since the main plot with Angel is so brutal that these other chapters did serve as little breaks for the reader which is a nice aspect and was really needed in some cases. I think the chapter POV choices were really smart and did lead to an overall good flow to the narrative so I can't complain too much.

I'm a character-focused reader and these characters were just not fleshed out enough for my liking.  The best way I can describe my issues is that I can list of facts about the characters but I never got a good sense of how those facts impacted the characters or their interactions with the world around them. For example, Angel and Bud's father was recently sentenced to jailtime for attempting to rob a bank but I didn't really get any good sense of how they feel about that or how that impacted their lives.  Did it make their relationship stronger?  Did they have conflicting feelings and maybe one thinks the punishment was too harsh and the other disagrees?  Did this change their relationship with their friends or other people in town?  I felt like a lot of the emotional and psychological impact of the story would have been so much stronger if we saw the physical or relational outcomes to the facts we know about the characters. Also, the first 25% or so of this story introduces us to the various other POV characters that we'll be following - one of which is Peter who uses his money and connections as a respected journalist to help families of missing children (I felt this was an obvious comparison to John Walsh).  He also has a friendship with the FBI agent who worked on his daughter's case a year ago.  Since we're introduced to Peter as POV character and he is interacting with Angel and Bud's case, I thought for sure we would follow both his investigation as well as the events taking place in the Dollhouse.  This was not the case.  In fact, we only get 3 main chapters with Peter and one of them is the climax of the whole book.  This was a point that many reviews listed out as a positive - they liked that the police/FBI investigation was missing because they find detective thrillers boring.  I am of the complete opposite opinion and thus wanted us to see Peter's investigation and how close (or not) he/the FBI were to finding Angel and Bud.

From a purely plot perspective, I did enjoy how the story unfolded all the way until the end.  For me, a good psychological thriller has the main character overcome a mental block of some sort and, in this case, it is Angel trying to figure out how to escape while knowing that if she gets caught, it would mean possible death.  As discussed previously, I think the physical torture ramifications of disobedience are well established in the story, and I do think we get a good amount of Angel's internal monologue and her fears of what will happen if she fails.  There were moments where she would try something, fail, and face the consequences so both her and the reader know very well what is at stake when she tries again a few chapters later. I think Alfred is a compelling villain and I enjoyed how the reveals surrounding his weird stuff with the photographs were done.  I was also intrigued by Jennifer and wanted to know more about her and Alfred's relationship and how they came to be partners.  So while I did have my issues with the character work and the balance of torture to other plot, I was overall liking the plot and found the book interesting.  The ending twist is one that was unexpected and surprising but it has been done many times before and I just don't like it.  I can't give away too much but I will mention that it is mental-health related and it is a twist that I've come to learn is harmful and stereotypical and I'm just not a fan of it. I did like how we get a good amount of resolution after the climax and we follow our characters to see how they are dealing with the aftermath.  As a note, there is a sequel to this book coming later in 2021 that follows one of the characters from this book into a whole new situation (the plot arc of this book is complete and it feels like a standalone with a little bit of an open ending).

Overall, I feel this just boiled down to a 'not for me' type of book. My main gripe is the way the book gave me information early on gave me expectations that, when they weren't met, I was disappointed. I found the characters a little flat and the ending twist put me off a bit.  It isn't a bad book, by any means, but I think this author just might not be a good mesh for my reading preferences.  I might pick up the second book because it might give me some of the character development I was looking for and (hopefully) it won't have the same twist at the end.

Thanks to BookSirens and the author for an ARC in exchange for review 

Publication date: June 1, 2021

Murder by Numbers - Megan Mayfair

 

This is the first book in the Lemon Tree Bay Mysteries and follows Clara after she returns to her small hometown.  It wasn't her choice to trade in her big city life for the quirky coastal town of Lemon Tree Bay, but life is funny like that.  Turns out, she isn't the only person to recently return - her ex boyfriend is back in town as well.  He's a cop and dating the daughter of local royalty which wouldn't be too bad until Clara finds herself walking into a murder scene of the local accountant.  His grandson, Lucas, had recently come to town and he and Clara flirted a bit as she cut his hair just before the body was found.  Now, with the town opinion split down the middle on if Lucas is a murderer or not, and with her ex investigating her new crush, it might just be up to Clara to follow the clues and see if the math adds up.

This was a really cute cozy mystery with a side of romance that I overall enjoyed.  I've been slowly getting more into the cozy side of the mystery genre so I'm still figuring out what is usual for the genre.  I really liked a lot of aspects of this book, but there were just a few things that were missing that sort of dampened my overall rating.  That being said, I'd absolutely love to continue in the series in the future!

The one part that really hit it out of the park for me was the setting.  I love a quirky small town and Lemon Tree Bay does not disappoint.  The story is set in Australia which I knew when I started but somehow every time I sat down to read and saw the lighthouse on the cover, my New Englander came out and I somehow kept picturing small coastal New England towns.  The only issue this caused was me being confused for like half a second when details like it being nice weather for a picnic in February popped up but that is 100% on me.  We got some great key details about the town that really helped solidify the atmosphere for the story.  A little eccentric, a little touristy, a little beachy, and a whole lot close-knit.  As with any small town, the local characters are also out in full force in the story which, again, added to the overall atmosphere. I think Mayfair did a really great job of balancing the number of places we needed to go to in the story so that the reader wouldn't get overwhelmed.  This book is on the shorter side (270ish pages) so if we got much more, I think it would have gotten confusing.  It also helped that we returned to a few of the places more than once so by the end, I felt really familiar with those locations (I'm assuming they'll continue to play a pretty significant role in later books).  There was one scene where there's a cricket match on the page and I've never seen a game of cricket played in my life so I was a bit lost in the terminology.  However, that isn't a fault of the book and Mayfair, to her credit, made it very obvious what was a good thing or a bad thing in the game so even if I didn't exactly understand the scoring rules, I could still follow along. 

I'm a little torn on the character relationships in this story.  On the one hand, I really loved Clara's relationship with her mother and with her friends/acquaintances.  She's very friendly and kind to the people around her and Mayfair does a great job at sticking in little details about the history the characters share. However, her relationships with her ex and Lucas I found to be underdeveloped for my taste.  For an example, when we first see her ex, she asks him 2 questions - what he's doing back in town, and if he's still seeing his girlfriend.  I got a real feeling of animosity and assumed that maybe the ex cheated on Clara with this other woman or maybe he got with this other woman really soon after the break up. But when we eventually find out the reason for the breakup, I didn't feel like it matched the level of emotion that was shown by both Clara and her ex.  I think the reason for the break up was fine, but I needed a little more emotional development or insight in order for me to fully understand and be on board with how Clara and the ex were acting.  My issues with Clara and Lucas were similar - basically just boiled down to I didn't get any real chemistry between them so I wasn't understanding how they were romantically involved.  It seemed like Clara had more chemistry with her friend the barista at the cafe than she had with Lucas.  Most of the story is told from Clara's POV, but we do get the occasional snippet from both her ex and Lucas but I didn't find these snippets sufficient to make up for what I was missing in the relationship.  Since this is the first book in the series, I thought maybe we'd only get a few details but these two romantic relationships might get further explored in the next books.  However, all plot lines were wrapped up by the end which left me a little bummed that we didn't get more development during the book.  This might just come down to a personal preference or what I'm used to from reading a lot of straight-up romance books, so maybe other readers won't feel the same.

I really enjoyed the path the investigation took and I'm finding that my favorite cozy mysteries (or maybe most cozy mysteries do this) rely pretty heavily on small town gossip.  Small town secrets/gossip is almost always a winning trope for me and this book was no exception. We get a good number of secrets being mentioned and there was a good mix of outcomes -  true, but not relevant to the investigation; half true; 100% false; and, of course there's true, and the key to the investigation. I thought the reason for Clara getting involved in the investigation was unique and very realistic for someone who doesn't have any law enforcement or journalism background.  Clara is very much just a regular person who is doing her best to make sure all lines of the investigation are exhausted. I thought the eventual reveal and motive for the murder was also unique, well developed, and realistic.  I did have a bit of an issue with the pacing at the end where we go pretty quickly from Clara putting all the pieces together to suddenly her being in danger when there wasn't any previous threat of danger.  The danger element is quickly handled (like in a page or two) and then we're back to normal.  It was just a bit of a jarring situation and I wasn't necessarily expecting that level of danger based on how the investigation was going so far.  I would have preferred maybe a little bit of hinting at danger (maybe some threatening notes or shady figures lurking around) before we got the actual danger on page. 

 As a final note, there's also one key detail about Clara that isn't mentioned at all in the book description (so I'll consider it a spoiler and not mention it specifically) but it threw me for a loop.  It isn't a bad thing by any means but it felt like such a key detail for Clara, the investigation, and her relationships that I was surprised it wasn't mentioned in the description and just sort of plopped down into the book.  This is the first book from Mayfair that I've read so I'm not sure if Clara was a side character in a different series or not but this one detail really made me feel like I was missing out on something.  That being said, I really loved this one detail and wished it was used more throughout the investigation.  I read another romantic suspense/mystery book last year whose main character had a similar trait and I thought it was really fun and a great detail but that trait was used much more in that other book and I wished we got a similar sort of structure in this story. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this cozy mystery and can't wait to return to Lemon Tree Bay.  I loved the setting, atmosphere, investigation, and most of the character relationships.  I would like more development between Clara and the love interests (both current and former) so maybe I'll get more of that in the future books in the series.

Thanks BookSirens - I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

 Expected publication date is September 24, 2021.

Welcome to Planet Lara - Eliza Gordon

 

This romantic suspense follows Lara after the death of her eco-warrior grandfather, who raised her after her mother disappeared and was assumed dead. Only problem is that Lara has grown up with all the money she could ever need available to her and her grandfather's will makes it clear that pattern will not continue.  Lara is appointed Project Administrator of Thalia Island - a private island with the goal of creating a self-sustainable living situation for all residents.  Lara must stay on Thalia Island for 1 year and accomplish a series of goals.  The idea of trading in her high heels for workbooks isn't easy to accept, but the hunky next door neighbor and co-worker might help convince her.  Just as she starts to gain her footing in her new role, a series of unfortunate events threaten the success of the island - and maybe even the lives of the people who live there.

TW/CW: death of an animal, cancer

This was such a fun start to the series and I very much appreciate the author giving a warning at the beginning of the book that this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. I, personally, really don't like being surprised by cliffhanger endings (especially when I don't have the next book ready to go) so being able to mentally prepare myself as I was reading the rest of the book was really helpful.  I was still a little upset at the end that book 2 wasn't out yet, but that just speaks to the quality of the story as well as my own fault for not knowing myself better.  

I think Gordon did a wonderful job of giving us a complete plot arc in this book but also left enough open questions that the reader is drawn into reading the next book.  I really appreciated how well these larger plot points and questions were worked into the story.  Seeds were planted for the reader pretty early on in the story which made the cliffhanger surprise at the end seem like a rational conclusion of the facts we were working with throughout the rest of the book.  I've read some books in the past where it felt like the author had a last minute idea (or book deal) for a series and they just tacked on some twist at the very end that sort of negated the main plot from the rest of the book.  I also think having the resolution of the plot arc in this book softened the blow a little bit when the cliffhanger hit. The overall pacing of the story was fantastic and really worked to give the reader tidbits and then build on that knowledge as the story progressed.

I really loved the characters, but could see how Lara will be a tough sell for some readers.  Lara is pretty darn unlikeable at the beginning of the book.  To be blunt, she's a spoiled brat who basically has full blown (alcohol-fueled) tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  We don't get to Thalia Island until around the 25% mark and considering the first 1/4 of the book was Lara being pretty awful, I was having a hard time seeing her as the heroine in this story.  I got the impression from the book summary that Lara was maybe a little uptight and not used to the outdoors-y type living situations but I didn't imagine she would be this much of a mess. It would have been easy for Gordon to leave Lara as just a spoiled child but we get so many moments in that first 1/4 of Lara's inner thoughts and fears.  She's so alone, lonely, and she doesn't let people get close to her.  These little details really make it easy to see Lara as a fully rounded human and not just a caricature of a person.  Then, once we get to the island, Lara has so much room to grow as a character and we're following her, wanting her to succeed.  The same sort of structure holds for our other characters, espeically Rupert.  Rupert was Lara's granfather's second in command and we initially only see him through Lara's perspective (and she doesn't like him very much), but we get to see their relationship grow over time and get some more information on Rupert. 

The romance element of this story was great and I loved Finan as a hero.  He's your typical romance hero (big, strong, muscles for days, a little bossy) but he's got a real soft center that he shows Lara pretty quickly.  The two form a sort of alliance and friendship before anything physical starts up which I always appreciate in my romances.   Because of their initial friendship, we get a good amount of scenes where they're getting to know each other and their thoughts and feelings instead of just feeling each other up (but don't worry, there's plenty of that too).  My only wish is that this story was told in dual POV (which is just how I prefer my romances).  Finan was already living on the island when Lara shows up and I think it would have been interesting to get his perspective on how everything is working out.  We see from Lara's perspective that Finan is pretty straightforward with his opinions so I didn't feel like he was keeping secrets or anything, but I just like to see how early on he was falling for her and what he thought when everything started going awry on the island.

I thought the mystery/suspense element of the story was great.  I'll acknowledge that, at times, it was a bit over-the-top but it felt really grounded in reality which helped when those super over the top moments happened.  I would have liked a little more of a creeping dread maybe with smaller issues cropping up before the big issues that we get in the book (or maybe small things in between the few big issues?).  I think there could have been a fun dynamic between Lara thinking X was really weird and maybe a little sinister but Finan then just brushes it off as 'that's just how people do things on the island/outdoors/etc'.  I really love romantic suspense books because of the teamwork between the love interests and this was no different.  Both Finan and Lara bring their own skills to their investigative team and it was really fun to watch them together.  

Overall, this was a really fun, lighter romantic suspense story and I can't wait until the next books come out!

I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Publication date was April 22, 2021.

Expected publication date for book 2 is summer 2021

Expected publication date for book 3 is late 2021

Blood Parish - E. J. Findorff

 

This mystery crime thriller follows FBI agent Angel Blondeaux as she returns home to rural Moreau Parish where the Blondeaux family's crime empire is woven into the fabric of the town.  Her grandmother is the matriarch of the family and all Blondeauxs - except for Angel - have a role in the crime family.  Angel was all but banished when she left to join the FBI but, now, the mysterious death of her aunt brings Angel back to face her family.  The FBI hope she can get information about the family's business.  As Angel digs through her aunt's house that was left to Angel in the will, she starts to unearth secrets decades old - including hints to the whereabouts of a school bus full of high school athletes that disappeared 30 years ago.

 Right at the start, I want to say that I absolutely loved this book. It was dark, twisty, atmospheric, and thrilling.  I'm a big watcher of crime TV shows and this book read like a season of a show like True Detective.  While Angel is an FBI agent and she is technically on assignment, since she's a bit  undercover, it didn't read like a procedural.  It really read like a small town secrets sort of thriller that really amped up to more like an action movie at the end. 

For me, the setting was key for this story and it really paid off.  I love it when the setting of a book is so well developed and described that it really feels like the author knows it inside and out.  After finishing the book, I looked at the author's information and Findorff was born and raised in New Orleans, graduated from the University of New Orleans, and served six years in the Louisiana National Guard.  This isn't to say the book is loaded down with a ton of extra description, but rather that the descriptions were so particular that they really gave the most bang for their buck on the page.  The setting also has all the built in tension potential of a small town gossip mill.  As someone who is from a small town, I can really appreciate the little comments about "oh X mentioned they saw Y there" or "go ask A, I'm sure they'll tell you B" where everyone knows just enough of everyone else's business to be annoying.  Add to that setting the fact that the Blondeaux family pretty much runs the town and knows everyone's business and it is a perfect storm of drama, backstabbing, secret keeping, and deal making.

I found the characters in this story to be well developed and intriguing.  I loved Angel as a main character with her sharp wit and laid back calculating of situations.  It was really interesting to get in her head as she was dealing with the conflicts in the story and navigating the relationships with the people in the town.  The other member of the Blondeaux family were also really interesting, especially how many of them owned businesses that were fronts for illegal activity at the same time as providing legitimate services for the other members of the town.  The sort of moral dilemmas or cognitive dissonance that some characters have was fascinating.  No one argues that the Blondeaux family aren't criminals, but they also support the community (as long as everyone stays in line).  I also loved how the family was a matriarchy with the power passed on from mother to daughter which was a refreshing take on typical criminal enterprises.  We do meet a pretty large cast of characters, but they are introduced pretty slowly so I never got confused about who each character was.  However, one part that threw me off a little is that the first half of the book was told from Angel's point of view and then we started getting other points of view around the midpoint.  I don't mind multiple POVs in my thrillers and I understand the reason why we needed these other view points but it was just a bit jarring.  I wish we would have gotten some other characters earlier so it wouldn't be such a change after I had settled into Angel's character so much.

The main part I didn't love about this story was the romance.  Angel is single when she arrives in town and strikes up a romance with the local lawyer who drew up Angel's aunt's will.  They start off fine with some light flirting but I really didn't get any chemistry at all from them. Now the romance wasn't much of a plot point in that there isn't much conflict brought about by their relationship so it really felt very surface level.  I do read a lot of romance so maybe my romance-meter is a little skewed, but I really just couldn't believe these two actually had feelings for each other.  After finishing the book, it feels like the romance was just to give him a reason to be integrated into Angel's investigation so I personally think a better way would be for maybe them to become friends. I'm pretty sure all of the plot points, more or less, could have stayed the same if these two were just friends instead.  I really enjoy romantic suspense novels and romance subplots in my thrillers so I was a little bummed by the fact that I didn't get a whole lot of feelings from their relationship.  The two characters do tell each other (and the reader) that they do like each other so I think this one plot point fell into the telling side rather than the showing side so I just took the characters at their word and went on with the story.

I really enjoyed the overall mystery thread and how everything comes together at the end.  When the bus full of high school boys went missing originally there was an investigation but no answers were found.  We are also told there have been other investigations into other criminal activities over the years, but nothing has ever stuck to the Blondeaux family so Angel's goal is pretty much to get any information she can that could make something stick to the family.  She knows the family is pretty tight lipped about their activities and sees the assignment as more or less a dead end but she agrees and slowly starts pulling on threads, seeing what she can get to unravel.  At one point, she even admits to the reader that she is basically asking questions that she know will draw attention to see what she can get to happen.  The way the puzzle pieces come together is really satisfying and while the investigation takes logical steps when Angel decides to who to talk to or where to go next, there are some reveals that are still surprising. Pretty much the last 25% of the book I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and kept gasping while reading. 

Overall, this was a fantastically crafted crime thriller that felt like I was watching a really good season of television.  Surprising reveals, complex characters, and an atmospheric setting - I can't recommend this enough.

I received a free ARC of Blood Paris from Book Sirens and  I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Expected publication date is May 31, 2021.