Romance Wrap-up 2/1/22 to 2/15/22

 The Witch's Wolves - Ellie Mae MacGregor

This short and steamy paranormal poly romance follows Manon, an accused witch, as she flees her village and heads into the woods.  She literally runs into a cottage in the woods and finds herself at the mercy of two wolf-men (Aimon and Sebastian) who are more interested in causing Manon pleasure than pain.  This gets smutty fast, but it was surprisingly sweet as well.  I liked the established relationship between Aimon and Sebastian and how Manon fit into their already established dynamic. We get little tidbits about the world that were interesting and if MacGregor ever decides to expand this story/world into more books I'd be totally on board.  

Claimed By Cupid - Dana Isaly

This is the second book in the Nick and Holly series and picks up pretty shortly after the first book (Dipped in Holly) for Valentine's day. At the end of the first book, Nick and Holly agree to take their relationship slow because Holly was just getting out of another long term relationship and their age gap is pretty substantial. But after they have some fun at their Valentine's day dinner courtesy of a remote controlled vibrator, they decide to take their relationship to the next level. This was another short and steamy read that was 90% smutty scenes but still managed to get some really cute relationship growth in as well.  The first book in the series was them meeting and having a one night fling but now that we're able to see them in an established relationship, I liked their dynamic a lot more.  This had some good kink elements to it and a lot of heart.

Perfect Matcha - Erin McLellan

This is the third book in the Bold Brew series and follows Theo and Camden.  They've been best friends since childhood and always helped each other out with whatever they needed.  Now, Theo needs Cam's help to find a date to his ex-boyfriend's wedding.  Only problem is that Cam has been in love with Theo since high school.  Not willing to risk their friendship and share his actual feelings, Cam sets Theo up with his boss from the adult novelty shop.  Theo is afraid he's too inexperienced to go out with the owner of a sex toy shop but Cam offers him his help and expertise.  Soon, the two are engaging in spicy phone calls, role play galore, and each trying to push down their feelings in order to preserve their friendship. This was a relatively low angst read which I appreciate.  I loved Theo and Cam's friendship and how much they both cherished it.  I would have liked a little more build up to the sexual aspects of their relationship because the first time Theo calls Cam and asks about the sex toys they jump pretty quickly into full on role play phone sex which just seemed a bit abrupt considering it was established they didn't talk about sex much to each other as friends.  I did like the whole "everyone knows you two are in love except you two" dynamic with their other friends.  

A Brush With Love - Mazey Eddings

This friends to lovers romance follows Harper and Dan, both dental students.  Harper is awaiting placement in an oral-surgery residency program while Dan has just started his first year after making a career change.  Harper is determined to succeed and has no time for distractions this close to graduation, plus she'll most likely be moving away in a few months for residency so she doesn't see the point of starting any relationship now.  The two agree to just be friends but as they spend more time together, they both develop feelings that become hard to ignore. But Harper is afraid that giving into her feelings would mean risking her carefully planned future and Dan is willing to try his best to convince her that being with him doesn't mean giving up what she wants.  This, for me, is the perfect slow burn friends to lovers romance.  Harper and Dan have instant chemistry but their friendship is also a genuine connection.  I prefer friends to lovers where we actually see them be friends first before giving into their feelings.  Harper and Dan are the rare romance book couple where I think they are truly a perfect match for each other. Dan, in particular, had some great snort-laugh moments that caught me completely off guard. Their dynamic was *chef kiss* perfection and I loved how both of them felt so relaxed and comfortable with the other to share some of their innermost thoughts and feelings that they both admit they've never really told anyone else.  I really loved the inclusion of Harper's anxiety and the particular ways that it presents itself in her life and how Dan and their relationship all intertwine.  Great cast of side characters and I really hope we get more from this friend group in the future.  Also, I was so excited to have a non-traditional career path for a romance character - oral surgeon!

TW/CW: emotionally manipulative parent, death of a parent, anxiety/panic attacks

Thanks NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC

Expected publication date is March 1, 2022

Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert

 This is the first book in the Brown Sisters series and follows Chloe - a chronically ill computer geek - as she sets out to complete a 'bucket list' of sorts to help her get a life.  A few things on her list are a bit outside of her comfort zone, like riding a motorcycle and camping.  So when she meets Red, the handyman at her new apartment complex, she trades her website design services for his assistance in the more rebellious activities on her list.  They each have some preconceived notions of the other but as they spend more time together, they both see more under the surface than they could have ever anticipated. I'm a little embarrassed it took me so long to read this one, but I was afraid the hype was too high for me to enjoy it (the hype was not too high).  This was a fantastic read that had so much heart I thought my own would burst.  It has a bit of an opposites attract situation going on at the beginning but I really think Chloe and Red are such kindred spirits that I really couldn't imagine them without each other by the end.  I loved the way they both had hardened shells from their previous life experiences but they both had a soft center that they only show to the most important people in their lives.  I cannot wait to continue on in the series - which I pan to do ASAP.

TW/CW: past abusive relationship

Pink Valentine - Tabatha Kiss

This is the third installment of The Pink Series and picks up after the events of the previous book, Pink Christmas.  Phoebe, Max, and Thad are back and this previously MFM poly relationship takes a turn into MMF territory when Max admits he has feelings for Thad while Phoebe is away on a business trip.  The two of them spend some time investigating their new relationship dynamic but Max is worried Phoebe might not be as accepting of the situation.  Of course, the third installment on the surprisingly low-angst series doesn't keep the reader in the dark about how Phoebe feels about this new dynamic for long.  I really enjoy this series and the relationship between Phoebe, Max, and Thad and this series is solidly one that really just makes me feel like I love all love stories.  I really enjoy how any drama or angst in the stories is from outside the main relationship dynamic.  In this story, it felt like it might be getting a little close to the 'gay for you' trope which I don't love.  I did love how the situation between Max and Thad was so fluid that even though Thad identifies as a straight man, he acknowledges that pleasure is pleasure and there isn't anything weird about boning his best guy friend while their shared girlfriend is out of town. There was a good amount of emotional arc and character development in this story but it did feel rushed to put that much development in so few pages (the novella is around 90 pages).  As much as I enjoy a low-angst read, I would have liked to see a little more discussion and development around these feelings.  I wanted to see Max's thoughts from his POV before he told Thad, for example.

The Paradox Hotel - Rob Hart

This sci-fi isolated murder mystery follows January Cole - security officer at the Paradox Hotel.  The Paradox is located a few miles away from the time travel portal (timeport) that takes the ultra-wealthy to different times and places in the past.  Being this close to the timeport has some strange effects on the hotel including occasionally making the clocks run backwards and allowing ghosts to roam the halls (if the rumors are to be believed). January is no stranger to the oddities of time travel but the corpse in room 526 that is frozen in time and only able to be seen by her is odd, even by January's standards.  A mysterious dead guest would be trouble enough but the US Government has decided to privatize time travel technology and they just moved up the bidding date.  And to top it all off, a snow storm traps the guests, weathly bidders, and a murderer all in the Paradox.  January is uniquely qualified to investigate this crime but when she can slip so easily between past, present, and future, it isn't always simple to keep the investigation on a straight path.

TW/CW: grief, terminal illness

 This book was pretty close to perfect for me.  I absolutely loved the setting, characters, and how Hart was able to blend the sci-fi/mystery/thriller elements together.  That being said, I think like most genre-mix books that it doesn't really go far enough into either genre for real hard-line fans to be satisfied.  So if you're looking for a super technical and detailed sci-fi read or a super twisty murder mystery, this won't really hit those ends of the spectrum. I've been explaining this as sort of a David Tennant-era Doctor Who vibe.  It starts out a little campy and funny but as the story progresses it gets slowly darker and darker which I absolutely loved.

So I'd categorize this as a 'soft sci-fi' read.  Time travel is a central topic but the story takes place inside the Paradox Hotel so it felt more grounded in reality.  We don't really get an explanation of how, exactly, the time travel works and we never directly see anyone time traveling.  We do get an explanation of how the scientific community pictures the concept of time (past/present/future) and how travel works inside that model.  I found the description very brief but straightforward and then I just accepted it and moved on with the story.  I also thought the story stayed within those pre-defined boundaries of how time travel works in this world.  I don't read a ton of sci-fi so maybe someone with more experience reading time travel books would have a laundry list of questions but I personally didn't.  This book is set in 2072 so pretty near future and I think that time period worked really well for the atmosphere and setting Hart built.  We do see some technological advancements such as these little personal assistant floating robots (who I pictured as looking like Eve from Wall-E but with a sarcastic attitude). 

I absolutely loved January as a protagonist but she's going to fall into the 'unlikeable' category for some readers.  She's super sarcastic, irreverent, and has a huge chip on her shoulder.  We find out in the first chapter that she's suffering from a degenerative disorder from traveling through time so often in her previous position as, basically, a time cop. This disorder is causing her to not stay grounded in the present and her mind slips suddenly to past or future moments where she feels like she's actually in that moment but her body is in the present.  The disorder can be managed with medication but is eventually fatal and January has just been slipped to the next stage of this disorder.  On top of this, she is also struggling to mourn a death of someone close to her that happened recently.  She does come across as pretty harsh and even mean at times but I think she has a really great character arc throughout this story.  I think she's a wonderfully crafted, complex character.  She is a really great twist on the typical no-nonsense female detective we see in a lot of mystery stories.  The surrounding cast of characters were slightly less developed than I would have liked but I think they each had a really strong voice and place in the story.  

The narrative style, from what I saw from other reviews, is a sticking point for a lot of people and I agree it is probably the most divisive part of the book.  I absolutely loved it and felt like it worked so well as  a plot mechanic as well as allowing the reader to connect more directly with what January is going through. We get to see, directly, these time slips that January experiences and they are simultaneously jarring but also immersive.  January will have these slips where she'll suddenly be in a past or future moment and they happen pretty suddenly and without much more warning than a ringing in her ears. In a similar way, Hart incorporates these slips into the narrative pretty suddenly and they are confusing the first few times they happen.  It almost feels like a whole new scene was copied and pasted into the wrong spot, which is sort of exactly what is happening. These happen with increasing frequency as the story progresses and January's condition worsens. I can completely see how some readers would find this too distracting and these narrative choices could take them out of the story completely.  For me, this was such as visceral and immersive way to really get across what these time slips that January experiences are really like and how serious her condition truly is. 

I do think the murder mystery aspect is the weakest aspect of the book but I still found it interesting.  There aren't really any big or unexpected twists like you might have in a straight-up mystery.  Also, I think the whole aspect of the hotel being snowed in was really underplayed.  Isolated mysteries are one of my favorite tropes because of the tension constantly flowing under the narrative that someone in the hotel is a killer.  In this case, I don't think that tension was really built at all and, in fact, there were complete stretches where I forgot the hotel was snowed in until some character would mention checking the coffee rations or something like that. The investigation does get pretty tense since January is the only one who can see this dead body and when the severity of her condition is revealed, many of the other characters are quick to dismiss her as being confused by the time skips she's experiencing.  The actual solution to the murder mystery was both really interesting and really basic at the same time.  On one hand, I was a bit disappointed because I do love a good twisty mystery reveal but on the other hand, it was great because it goes to show that even with all this great technological advancement, you just can't always change some base human natures.  

 Overall, this was pretty much everything I could have wanted from a sci-fi murder mystery with great characters and an intriguing plot.  I do think some readers may have a hard time with the genre-mixing and narrative choices but they really worked for me. 

Thanks NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is February 22, 2022

The Summer We Buried - Jody Gehrman

 

This story follows Tansy, a college guidance counselor who seems to be content with her quiet life now which is a much different life than the free-spirited life she was leading 20 years prior.  However, when Selene - her best friend 20 years ago until Tansy cut her out of her life - comes to visit Tansy and collect on an old debt, Tansy's life will never be the same.  Selene's daughter, Jupiter, goes to school at Tansy's college and Selene wants Tansy to convince Jupiter to break up with her boyfriend who Selene suspects is abusive.  Tansy initially declines but when Selene brings up their shared past, Tansy finds herself drawn back into Selene's intoxicating circle of adrenaline and emotions.  Tansy thinks she can stay on the edges and satisfy Selene's demands while also remaining professional but as more and more secrets get revealed, it is clear Tansy is in deeper than she expects.

TW/CW: suicide, domestic violence, toxic friendships, sexual assault, mental health

I really enjoyed the characters in this book and I loved how small but connected the cast was.  This is really a story about connections - friendships, familial, professional, and romantic - and it was interesting to see how all of those connections can really work their way into someone's life.  The book opens with Selene's visit to Tansy at her work and we immediately get the tension between the two women but we don't find out exactly why until a bit later.  I would have loved more flashbacks to Tansy and Selene's relationship 20 years prior, especially since so much of the current plot directly revolved around them having this really intense friendship.  I thought Tansy's character was really interesting at these different 'phases' in her life. I think a lot of the female protagonists in these domestic suspense/thrillers often fall into a few certain tropes (wine-drunk, obsessive, etc).  And I think if the story would have been set a year or two after the friendship breakup, then we might have seen Tansy fulfill that particular role.  However, choosing to set the story 20 years after the breakup gave both characters enough time to move on and find new things to do with their lives.  I think this meant that the characters we get are much more well-rounded and less prone to drama and makes them more compelling to follow, in my opinion.

I do want to mention briefly that one character suspects Selene has borderline personality disorder (BPD).  They explicitly state Selene has never been officially diagnosed but the character believes she fits the criteria well.  From what I know from listening to people who have borderline/a family member with borderline personality disorder it does seem like Selene fits the clinical criteria. However, I am not a mental health professional and have no personal experience with BPD so I can't entirely speak to the representation.  The surrounding characters who have a pretty extensive history with Selene's emotional swings and outbursts do sometimes come off as dismissive of her and the way Selene's story ends isn't exactly the most uplifting for any readers who might be struggling in a similar way to Selene. 

I really loved the pacing of the book and how snappy it was despite not a whole lot, plot-wise, happening until the ending.  We are following Tansy's POV though the book and in the beginning she's pretty unsure about getting involved.  However, Gehrman does a fantastic job of dropping in new characters or plot information at just the right time that Tansy really has no choice but to keep going.  The forward momentum in the story starts with Selene, but soon Tansy also becomes individually invested and curious in Jupiter's situation outside of Selene's influence. There's also some great push/pull moments with the mystery of the story (is Jupiter's boyfriend abusive or is Selene overreacting) which also kept me wanting to read more.  The story really picks up with the ending which only really works because of how much character and relationship building the story has done up to that point. 

My one gripe about the story is that it wasn't a suspenseful/thrilling as I think it is being marketed as.  The description gives away the event in Tansy and Selene's past that Selene keeps basically blackmailing Tansy about but we get the full story pretty early on in the book and it didn't read as intense as I was expecting.  I was expecting something much more "I know what you did last summer" vibes. I don't think the crime nor the stakes were built up enough to explain Selene coming to collect on a debt twenty years later.  I also didn't buy that Selene was ever a real threat to Tansy.  I could very well see Selene taking matters into her own hands and doing something drastic, but I didn't see how Tansy would get wrapped up in it.  I think if we saw more scenes of them together 20 years ago before things went bad and we were able to see how magnetic Selene was for Tansy then maybe I would be more believing of the current-day situation.  I also didn't feel like the stakes in the story were ever really high enough (until the ending).  Until about the 70% point, this felt much more like a general fiction book about complicated relationships than a suspense/thriller.  I've seen some reviews call this a 'slow burn' suspense which I suppose would fit but I like my slow burns to have a creeping sense of tension and danger which I just wasn't getting.  When I sit back and look at all the plot points, everything I would want from a suspense novel is there but the writing just didn't connect the dots for me.

I think the ending will be hit or miss for readers but I really enjoyed it.  I do feel like it was the strongest and most interesting part of the story because of all the groundwork that was done previously.  I think the ending could have been even stronger if some of my issues with the tension I mentioned previously were done differently.  I do think the ending will require a bit of suspension of disbelief but maybe if you're a reader who connected more with the story and really believed in the tension and conflict between Tansy and Selene it would come across more natural.  It was a bittersweet ending for sure and the type where you're really hoping all the characters will get a happy ending but as the walls start to close in it becomes more and more obvious that can't happen. 

Overall, I enjoyed the read although it felt much more like a general fiction book than a suspense/thriller.  I loved the characters and complicated relationships but found the tension really lacking.

Thanks NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is March 8, 2022

The Hitman's Daughter - Carolyne Topdjian

 

This isolated, closed circle mystery/thriller takes place in the Château du Ciel - a once luxurious hotel and ski destination that has declined in recent years and is rumored to be haunted.  A New Year's Eve party was supposed to revitalize the hotel until a massive blizzard traps the guests and staff inside.  We're following one of the hotel staff - Mave Michaels - when she finds another staff member dead.  She panics and, in her shock, thinks she sees someone else in the dark room.  However, when they review the security footage, no one else was seen entering or exiting the room - making Mave the prime suspect.  Mave insists she's innocent, but when the truth is revealed that Mave is the daughter of a notorious contract killer, everyone is quick to assume that Mave takes after her father.  The clock is ticking for Mave to figure out who the real killer is before the storm clears and everyone leaves the hotel.

TW/CW: sexual assault

This book felt like 3 different books all smushed together and each part is handled to different levels of success.  It is an isolated murder mystery, a gothic haunted house horror, and an action movie all rolled up together.  Each of these parts had their own moment to shine in the book, but overall I thought they made the book feel really scattered and inconsistent.  However, I may be in the minority on this one because the early reviews I scanned through on Goodreads all point out how fun and fast-paced the book was.  Of course, I'm reading an ARC copy so there's a chance some of this might change in the finished copy but I don't think it would change enough for me to really change my mind.  My main issue is that the action-movie aspects were so downplayed and almost non-existent that I honestly questioned why they were included at all.  

With a title like 'The Hitman's Daughter' and the line in the description about how her father trained her in survival tactics made me think this would be similar to the movie You're Next where the protagonist has a secret past that makes her way more of a threat than the bad guys initially thought. However, that was not the case. At least, that wasn't the case until Mave was cornered by someone and needed to fight her way out.  Then she would have this automatic switch where she was suddenly great at hand to hand combat and she'd get away from whoever it was.  I really thought, based on the wording, that she would have all these secret skills or at least be somewhat skilled in ways that we wouldn't expect.  However, Mave relies so heavily on other people to help her escape, hide, and sneak around that I really became skeptical about how much 'training' she got from her dad.  I basically didn't really see any actual reasons why her dad had to be a hitman other than the really convenient plot reasons that come in toward the ending.  I did really like the addition of having Mave hear her father's voice when she was close to giving up and having the voice sort of talk her through the situation with lines about calming her breathing and remembering that no one does anything for free.  But none of the advice was particularly hitman-centered so it very well could have been just normal dad advice. I just think for the hitman part to be so central to the plot and the title of the book, I wanted it to be much more integral. 

I did really enjoy the gothic horror aspects we got but, again, they were way under utilized until the ending. I wanted this hotel to be full-on haunted with the cold spots and the weird sounds and the whole floor being closed off because of some mysterious issue with the electricity.  One character says that of course there are rumors it is haunted - it is a big hotel, they're all haunted. But we never really see any more about those rumors until later in the book.  Maybe this isn't fair, but when you tell me a big hotel in the snowy mountains is haunted - I'm 1000% thinking of The Shining. All that being said, I did like the vibes we get from this being an old hotel and how much of the 'underbelly' we see following Mave's investigation.  I did find the creepy gothic vibes not really consistent throughout the book and I think having a more consistent tone would have really elevated the story for me. It was like the tone was creepy when it needed to be but otherwise the gothic-factor just wasn't there.  We really went full gothic horror with the ending which I loved but, again, didn't feel like the foundation of the story was built up enough to really 'earn' the amount of payoff we got.

Where this book did shine, for me, was with the murder mystery.  It had a very Knives Out feeling to it where all of these eccentric rich people are together and they all have their own secrets that may or may not be related to the murder that  happened. We also get these letters back and forth between two characters 30 years prior to the events in the book.  Initially, we aren't completely certain how these letters work within the current investigation but we do get the connection by the end.  I liked how short the letters were so we did get back to the main action-plot quickly.  Also, they gave the reader some backstory that Mave didn't know at the time which made it fun to guess how these two timelines would come together. I liked the way the investigation played out as well as the final reveals and twists.  I wouldn't say the reveals were anything too out of the ordinary but I did really like the way they all came together at the end. 

This read like a very plot-forward book, so the character development was a bit lacking for my personal preferences.  There is a pretty wide cast of characters but they can really all be summed up by their titles (the maid, the concierge, the son in law, etc) and they just didn't have much depth to them at all.  Even Mave was a bit bland mostly because of the conflicting backstory/actions that I've already touched on.  The main plot takes place over 36ish hours so it was understandable that there wasn't really much character development in the book so I was glad we got the epilogue from 1 year later so we were able to see how some of the characters turned out after the events of the book.  

Overall, this was a pretty solid isolated murder mystery but there was too much other stuff going on that really detracted from my enjoyment.  I think each plot branch was interesting at times but it was just too much all at once for me.  However, like I mentioned in the beginning, other early reviews are overwhelmingly positive so this might just be a me-issue.

Thanks NetGalley and Polis Books for the ARC

Expected publication is February 22, 2022

The Night Shift - Alex Finlay

 

This mystery/thriller opens on New Year's Eve 1999 in a Blockbuster Video store in New Jersey.  The four teens working there are attacked, only one survives, and the police's only suspect disappears.  Fifteen years later, there's an attack on an ice cream store and, again, only one teen makes it out alive. FBI agent Sarah Keller is invited in to investigate if the current attack was done by the same person and if that means the fugitive murder suspect is back in town.  We also follow the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre and the younger brother of the accused killer as they both are driven to find out the truth of what happened that night. 

TW/CW: adult/minor relationship, infidelity, domestic violence, pregnancy

Finlay broke out in 2021 with his thriller Every Last Fear and the similarities between that book and this one are hard to ignore.  Besides following the same FBI Agent Sarah Keller, there are a lot of the same tropes and character types but I think they are used much more effectively in this book than in Every Last Fear.  I don't mind at all when authors re-use tropes in multiple books but I do think it makes it really easy to compare/contrast the two works.  In this case, I was glad to see that Finlay re-balanced some of the other elements in the story which gives the two books a completely different feel even if they have a lot of the same plot elements.  I'll go into detail in the later points, but basically this book gave me more of the elements I wanted out of Every Last Fear (such as heavier on the FBI investigation and more balanced multi-POV choices) and got rid of the, in my opinion, weaker elements.  [my review of Every Last Fear is linked here]

I was so happy to see Agent Keller back in this book.  I'm not sure if Finlay is planning on making this a series following the FBI agent but she was my favorite character in Every Last Fear so I was excited to see her return.  Another review I read made a comment that they're happy to see a female FBI agent without a super tragic or angsty backstory and as much as I like my haggard and damaged detectives, it was really nice have the focus be more on the mystery. She's 8 months pregnant at the beginning of the book and every time it was mentioned, the movie Fargo kept popping up in my head.  I think the part I liked the most about Agent Keller's character is that she is so steadfast and good at her job that she acts as almost a safe point for the reader.  The investigation and other POVs are a little chaotic but when we come back to Agent Keller's POV it almost acts as a bit of a resting point in the story while we're driving with her to interview a witness/suspect/whoever. I think she acts as a great outsider perspective for these two crimes in this small town where it seems everyone is connected in one way or another.

I really enjoyed the POV choices in this book and found them equally interesting.  I love a good multi-POV book but only if each of the plot lines have something interesting about them (which was one of my main issues with Every Last Fear).  In this case, it was clear that each of the POV characters had a connection to the current investigation (and thus would become important to the main mystery thread at some point) but they also had their own interesting, personal journeys. There were a couple times when one POV would end on a bit of cliffhanger or juicy tidbit of information and I wanted to find out what happened next but then the next chapter would be a new POV.  This is a pretty common tactic with any book but I think when it comes to multi-POV books it can be really obvious and some readers might not like it very much at all. Initially, the three main POV characters and their plot lines are very separate but as the investigation ramps up they do entwine.  I really enjoy once they start crossing over because it lets us see these other characters from a new perspective.  I also liked how we are mostly set in the current day investigation with the occasional flashback scene to 1999.  I think it worked really well because none of our present day characters know what happened back in 1999 (which is sort of the whole point of the plot) and as much as I love a good dual-timeline, I don't think it would have worked well in this case.

The one complaint (but it really isn't an actual complaint) is how bittersweet the ending is.  We get two big reveals in the last 10% of the book that just made me so sad but then I found the epilogue to be so uplifting.  The fact that Finlay made me cry - twice! - in what is, essentially, a police procedural I think really says a lot about how immersive his writing and characters are.  It is the type of ending for a mystery where you keep flipping pages and think to yourself "no, no, no, that can't be real" and you're hoping for another twist to the twist but it never comes. In regards to the plot-side of the ending, I think Finlay does a really great job of layering on the information and reveals so they build on each other and raise the tension even more.  The actual reveal, for me, wasn't anything off the wall but it was really well built up and I personally didn't guess any of the details about the ending correctly.

I really enjoy Finlay's writing style and how immersive and page-turning it is.  He has a very readable style that works so well with his more commercially high-concept plots.  There aren't many seams in the writing so once I was immersed, I was in all the way.  I know writing styles are very subjective and each reader will have their own preferences.  The best way I can describe it is that the style is invisible when I'm reading.  I don't get tripped up over sentence structure or word choice. There aren't long paragraphs of description or meandering philosophical thoughts.  And there isn't anything wrong with styles that do include those - I like a good flowery prose every now and then.  I also know and fully acknowledge the fact that it takes a lot of work for the writing to become 'invisible'.  But I think for a commercial mystery/thriller like this, the less complicated prose makes it so compulsively easy to read.  The kind of writing that makes you go 'just one more chapter' over and over again.

Overall, this was pretty much my perfect high-concept commercial mystery/thriller. I got more of everything I wanted from Finlay's first book and it all worked really well for me.  I don't think the actual plot is anything extraordinarily new and exciting but the investigation, characters, and writing style all came together really well to make this a very immersive read.

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC

Expected publication date is March 1, 2022

The Shadow People - Graham Masterton

 

This horror/mystery is the third book following Det. Sgt. Jamila Patel and Det. Con. Jerry Pardoe as they team up to find a ritualistic cult of cannibals.  A pile of bodies with evidence of cannibalistic activity are found in an abandoned building next to a painting on the wall that suggests these bodies were a possible sacrifice.  The initial investigating officers are attacked but the criminals seem to disappear quickly, causing the police force to be concerned the criminals might be more organized than they originally thought. As the investigation continues and more people are abducted, Patel and Pardoe find connections that this group may be worshiping an ancient god who has been all but forgotten. 

TW/CW: cannibalism, torture, police treatment

I was immediately interested in this book as soon as I read the description - who doesn't love a good cannibal cult story?  And the book certainly does not hold back at all in regards to those elements. I think a lot of times the cannibal element would be used as the 'twist' where the investigating detectives would be completely stumped until one of them would have a lightbulb moment and say "what if they're eating the bodies". That was not the case here.  We get a human BBQ in the opening scene and it only gets more graphic from there. We see, on page, in detail, the ritualistic way this cult butchers (for lack of a better term) the people they abduct.  I think Masterton toes the line between graphic and over-done well and I personally never felt that the book veered into 'torture porn' category of violence but that line in the sand could absolutely vary from reader to reader. There was fantastic atmosphere built up around the cult and the police investigation and the creep factor was high.

The multi-POV in this book was done really well to amp up the tension and pacing of the story.  The book is told mainly by alternating between the police investigation and then from a POV inside the cult. We also get some brief scenes from the POV of the cult victims but those don't last very long.  I really enjoyed the choice to set up the POV this way because there is no real question in the reader's mind as to what is going on.  The reader has (mostly) all the information and the thrill and tension is seeing how these two sides clash and which will come out on top.  Getting a POV from inside the cult was really interesting because we can see the inner workings and structure of this pretty complex system.  The police have, as I think most people would, written off the cult as all being insane.  The POV choices allow the cult members to be more humanized than if the story was told solely from the police POV. And, to be clear, at no point was I rooting for the cannibal cult to win, but it was nice to not have them be so black-and-white evil and actual have some nuance.  Masterton does a great job of knowing when to switch these POVs to amp up the tension because the reader knows how each side is progressing in their own mission.  So ending a cult POV chapter with plans of when they'll take their next victim only to switch to the police POV who have no clue about the impending attack really worked well for me. 

The actual police investigation felt a little lacking for me.  For the first 70% of the book, the police are basically two steps behind.  They have some clues, some theories, but mostly just a whole pile of questions with no real way to answer them.  Then, suddenly, everything comes together perfectly for the investigation to be wrapped up quickly.  I think if the exact same solutions were used, but just spread out a little more throughout the narrative, it would have felt more organic.  However, the fact that we get three big breaks in the case pretty much at the same time was really convenient and not satisfying. Also Patel and Pardoe are pitched in the book as being some sort of expert duo who are really good at cracking the bizarre cases but I didn't see anything special about them or the investigating style at all.  I was sort of expecting a X-File Scully/Mulder pairing type of dynamic but that isn't really the case. They just seemed a little less likely to dismiss the more 'out-there' theories than some of the other officers but not to any degree that they'd get called in off their other cases to work as a specialized team. I thought they had some good banter and seemed to work well as a partnership but they just felt like a regular detective partnership that got handed a weird case.

I also wanted to talk about the tone and police interaction in this story.  I did read an ARC, so there is a chance some of this will change before final publication but this is my feelings about what I read.  The tone had a very "good ol' boys" feel to it that made it read a little dated to me. The story is set in present day London so maybe the tone and attitudes includes are entirely accurate.  However, as a reader in America the story felt a little dated.  For example, early on a character makes a comment that due to recent political shifts, they have been told to be more politically correct when referring to suspects.  Then there are multiple instances of one character describing a suspect as "having a screw loose", then another character would give them a look and the first character would sort of roll their eyes and correct to "mentally disordered" or "mentally unstable".  This happened often enough that it stood out and I kept waiting for one of the older detectives to make a comment about how "these young people these days and their PC language" type complaint. Also, the way the police make borderline derogatory remarks about homeless people and mentally ill people throughout the book again just made it feel a bit old fashioned. I've read plenty of police procedurals - many set in London - where this sort of language and attitudes were not included so it really stood out to me. There was also one scene early on where the police were trying to force a non-verbal suspect to take a shower but the suspect was resisting getting into the shower stall.  So as an alternative, they took the suspect out into the parking lot and washed him with the hose where they wash the cars. I didn't pick up on any real plot reasons that would rationalize treating the suspect in this manner so it just came off as abusive.

Based on the description of the book, Patel and Pardoe are brought in to investigate cases that may have a supernatural aspect to them. Since it was mentioned in the description, I was expecting this aspect to play a much bigger role in the investigation than it actually did.  I was expecting some sort of hints that maybe something supernatural was happening, maybe a theory that gets thrown around the investigation team but is laughed off initially. Something along those lines would have been great.  If I had to stretch, the supernatural element at the beginning would be the odd painting on the wall by the human BBQ.  However, that seemed like such a stretch to get these two 'specialized' investigators together a painting.  I did really like where we eventually get with the supernatural side of the investigation, but I wanted more of it earlier.  Again, I was hoping more for an X-Files type of situation I suppose. 

Overall, I did like this read but it had some key parts that didn't quite hit for me. I loved the horror elements and the atmosphere Masterton crafted.  The POV choices and narrative structure worked well to enhance the pacing and tension in the story.  However, the tone and some characters felt dated to me, I thought the investigation wrapped up a bit too quickly, and I wanted more supernatural breadcrumbs earlier in the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC

Expected publication date is March 1, 2022

Romance Wrap-up 1/16/22 to 1/31/22

 Desperate Measures - Katee Robert

This is the first book in the Wicked Villains series and follows Jasmine and Jafar in this mafia romance retelling.  Jasmine's father has just sold her hand in marriage in a business deal but Jafar has other plans for the woman he's been infatuated with since he first started working for her father.  After executing his coup successfully, Jafar gives Jasmine the choice that she can either leave with nothing, or stay and try to get her money and power back.  She chooses to stay and their relationship evolves as Jafar shows her the world outside her father's house where she's been cooped up for the last 25 years. This had a lot of the same elements that Robert's Neon Gods has but in a much more condensed package.  I did feel like the story - which is a very typical mafia romance arc - was really rushed since the book was only 230 pages.  That being said, this isn't really marketed as a 'mafia romance' so maybe I'm just being picky.  It is low on the angst/drama and high on the spicy scenes (I think this has the first FFM scene I've read) which I always appreciate.  I really enjoyed Jafar and Jasmine's relationship growth and how they slowly negotiated their boundaries as they opened up to each other.  Both characters mentioned their attraction to each other while Jafar was working for Jasmine's father but they could never follow through and I would have loved to see one of those scenes in the opening before the coup.  We get introduced to a lot of characters who will be the protagonists in later books in the series which was really great.  I absolutely loved how the ending subverts expectations of how a typical mafia romance would end and I think it was the perfect way to end the story.

TW/CW: CNC, BDSM, public sex

Better Than People - Roan Parrish 

This is the first book in the Garnet Run series and follows Jack and Simon when they meet on a pet-care app.  Jack has recently broken his leg and needs to find someone to walk his 4 dogs and cat twice a day.  Simon loves animals but can't have any of his own now so Jack's pack of rescues is a great fit.  Both men are a bit cut off from others - Jack because of a friend betrayal and Simon because of his social anxiety - but as they slowly spend more time together and open up to each other, they both find something they've been missing.  I really enjoyed this slow-ish burn romance and I loved Jack and Simon together. I appreciated how both men were isolated in their own ways but the particular circumstances in the book allowed them to have a long time to get warmed up to each other and become friendly before taking things further. I loved how the pets were an integral part to the story.  Since Jack is more or less stuck at home due to his broken leg, this book also had a cozy snowed-in feel to it even though it was not winter. This was pretty low-angst and I really loved how both characters were overall very straightforward with their feelings - especially Jack in regards to Simon's anxiety. Jack and Simon really felt like they fit together perfectly and did a great job alternating leaning on each other when they needed a little extra support.  I also loved the side characters and I'm interested to see how book 2 in the series - which follows Jack's brother - comes together.

Ignite - Melanie Harlow

This is the 6th book in the Cloverleigh Farms series and follows the next generation from the main couples from the original series. In this book, we follow Winnie (Mack's daughter from Irresistible) who is a self described love addict - she falls in love easy, hard, and fast.  She made a bet with her best friend that she can make it to Christmas without falling in love and it is already September so only a few months left - easy!  Until the hot, grumpy, single dad (Dex) and his two adorable daughters move into the condo next door. He's 12 years older than her and insists it won't work because he's too old and has already been married and divorced.  They agree to a casual neighbors-with-benefits situation as both of them are dead-set against falling in love. But as they spend more time together, the sparks between them just might catch into something bigger.  This is everything I loved about the Cloverleigh farm series - small town Michigan, super loving and supportive cast of characters, a third act rough patch that really tugs the heartstrings, and a big love declaration at the end.  I really enjoyed how much their families and friends meant to both Winnie and Dex and how often we saw these side characters in the book. The relationship really started out as a physical attraction, but both characters realized how much they enjoyed spending time with the other person and how easy it was to be together.

TW/CW: alcoholic parent, absent parent

A Brit on the Side - Brenda St John Brown

This is the first book in the Castle Calder series and follows Bea and Jasper.  Bea is staying and working at her best friend Scarlett family's castle-turned-hotel in the English countryside after ending her engagement.  Jasper is Scarlett's brother and he and Bea had a steamy weekend together two years ago when he came to visit his sister in Atlanta.  He and Bea never kept in touch and now that they're in the same location for the whole summer the tension is palpable.  Bea isn't ready for another long term relationship after just ending her engagement but Jasper doesn't think he can do a casual summer fling and then let Bea walk out of his life again.  The two of them start fresh and quickly find themselves - and their feelings - entangled.  I overall liked this book but the tone felt very new-adult which kept throwing me off remembering that the characters weren't 19 and on summer break from undergrad.  Bea is a high school algebra teacher and Jasper is working on his PhD so they are both in their mid 20's which, for me, wouldn't really fit the new adult age or lifestyle bracket.  I thought Bea and Jasper had really great chemistry together but felt the conflict between Bea and Scarlett felt really forced. This book is told only from Bea's POV so Jasper does come across as very hot/cold in the beginning third of the story and we don't get an immediate explanation until later.  I did appreciate Bea's struggle with her relationship with food and how the other characters around her support her. That being said, it didn't feel as integrated into the story as I would have liked and felt more like an afterthought. I also thought the ending felt very 'happy for now' instead of 'happy ever after' because they have a very we'll figure it out no matter what attitude to their future (which is fine, but again it made it feel very new-adult) I loved the whole cast of characters we see in the book and I'd love to continue in the series.

TW/CW: calorie counting/disordered eating