No Shadow without Light by Luke Gracias - If you liked The Da Vinci Code this book is for you!

 

Books with art are by far my favorites, books with pictures of actual real-life places that allow the reader to actually see the place the author is describing is now my second favorite thing thanks to this book!

After being chased throughout the world by the Red Monks who are hell-bent on getting the pages of the Devil's Prayer, twelve pages that can bring on the Apocolypse, returns home to Australia only to find herself in the middle of a conspiracy with the very destruction of the human race at its center. She has no one to turn to not even her beloved sister Jess, who more than anyone wants the Devil's Prayer. With no one to trust and people out to kill her, Siobahn goes on the run and she has to decide who she loves more; her mother who tasked her with literally saving humanity, or her sister whom she's loved more than any other person in the world. 

I'm going to get the complaints out right away. Some of the sentences in this were very short and choppy which made it kind of hard to get through, I don't believe I've ever wished for a run-on sentence until I read this. The dialogue was kinda hard to follow sometimes as well but I think that may have been the book's format not necessarily any fault of the author. One thing I did find though is that sometimes things were over described so you'd get to this really fast-paced, adrenaline-filled point and it would slow down and get luke-warm due to the long descriptions of things. It wasn't necessarily horrible but I would have liked to see more focus on the whole, "we are literally fighting the devil" thing instead of descriptions of the environment. 

That all being said as I said I really loved the inclusion of the photographs here, some of the places or the art are incredibly famous as is but it was so nice to have a picture of saying the Gold Coast to look at while reading. The story had a kind of Da Vinci Code vibe which I enjoyed because I loved the Da Vinci code, but I didn't really enjoy the second book in that series so I found myself enjoying this because it had that same vibe but was a different story if that makes sense.

I have to say my favorite part came early on in the book one of the characters discusses how religion has to change with the times and I found that a super important comment to make given the story the author was trying to tell. Because it's absolutely accurate as humanity's morals and values change religion really does have to stay with those changes. And while I'm not religious at all I found that I enjoyed that commentary as we do see religious leaders like the current Pope at least *trying* to do exactly that. (Totally not looking to get into a religious debate here) 

Overall, I really enjoyed the characters and the story itself and would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Da Vinci Code! Also, this is the sequel to another book, while I found the book filled in the gaps from the first one nicely and the author assured me it could be read as a stand-alone I would recommend reading The Devil's Prayer first. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Author's Upfront for the eArc of this book in exchange for this review. 

Felgrim by E.M. Duffield-Fuller - Slow to start but that cliffhanger ending!

 Okay so I started reading this because the blurb mentioned demons, there are demons in this book, but not really. So to be honest when I first started reading it I was a tad bit disappointed, especially since on top of there being very little mention of demons it was also really slow to start. However, Once it does pick up it goes a hundred miles an hour and it becomes a solid fantasy novel!

Bissey and Eaton are outlaws; for believing in the Dead God they and their people are hunted by the Little Tyrant King Davon for their religion. When Eaton's Uncle and the leader of their group is arrested Eaton decides he must rescue him no matter what. Even if he must put his own life at risk. Bissey knows she can't stop him but she also knows she can't allow him to do it alone, so she faces down the remaining council members and finally gets one to agree to go after Eaton. 

Marla is an assassin's apprentice she has been training her whole life to become the King's Dagger one of the most powerful people in all of Hollowick. And when she is offered the opportunity to bring in "E" a member of the rebel party Marla jumps on the opportunity. If she can complete this mission she'll be one step closer to her goals. 

Davon just wants to keep his people safe. Safe from the felgrim, the most powerful of demons, that stalk them and the thinmaru those rebels who worship the Dead God. And if the blood of the rebels is the price he must pay to keep his people safe then so be it. Besides a sacrifice to the Five Gods should keep the demon from killing for a while and he'll have to worry about one less rebel. But when he discovers that someone, someone in his own castle is summoning the felgrim everything Davon thought he knew will be turned on its head. 

And when these four lives collide all hell will break loose. 

Biggest complaint: I play Pokemon Bissey reads a lot like Blissey so now Bissey forever looks like a Pokemon in my head. Authors take note: Do a fandom search BEFORE naming your characters! Okay, I'm kidding you don't have to, because to be fair Bissey reminds me a lot of Blissey. She is self-sacrificing to an almost painful level but incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, and caring so yeah she's basically Nurse Joy's right-hand Pokemon. 

Moving on. 

This was such a slow start I honestly considered stopping it probably a quarter of the way through but there was just something that made me think it HAD to be building up to something good. You don't write five hundred pages for it to be a snooze fest for the entire five hundred pages and I was right because once the story gains momentum it goes from zero to sixty in like half a chapter. Except it was a predictable zero to sixty. I called the entire turn of events at about the time we discover someone was summoning the demon. Honestly, if the book hadn't had some stand-out characters this would have been three stars. 

Marla and Davon are probably my favorite characters in this. Marla's this badass, clever assassin with a heart and Davon is just trying to do his best with a bunch of people around him that don't want him to succeed. He's annoying at times but if I think about the age his character is supposed to be and how I was at that age his decisions and frustrations are realistic and relatable. I'm not going to lie though I really don't like that this may turn out to be a love triangle. I'm not now nor will I ever be a fan of love triangles. Eaton is obnoxious. It's been a very long time since I disliked a character as much as I do Eaton and I will be eternally annoyed if his idiocy gets someone killed in later books. 

The religious side of this is interesting as well, the battle between the Five Gods and the Dead God seems to be the center of this series but we find very little out about the two religions in the book and I enjoyed that for a couple of reasons. It gives me something to look forward to (especially with how this ended) and I have all sorts of theories (also because of how it ended). I'm not going to go into any of them because I feel it would give too much away but needless to say, I'm dying to read the next book to find out if my theories are accurate. 

The ending though really made this, it was a perfect cliffhanger one where we end up with more questions than answers and a burning need to read the next book!

Overall this was a solid fantasy book even if much of it was predictable and I'm looking forward to reading book two!

And as always much thanks to BookSirens for the eArc of this book in exchange for the review!

The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin - I've found a new series!

 Probably once a week I promise myself that I absolutely, positively am not getting into any more series. I simply don't have the shelf space to add another series, J.D. Robb's In Death series alone takes up two whole shelves and that is double stacking them. But I am admittedly weak, when the Lotus Palace appeared in my Goodreads feed a few weeks ago it was absolutely necessary that I read it as it's everything I love in one book. So now I'm happy and my shelf space is sad because I have indeed found a new series. 

Yue-Ying was brought to Pingkang Li as a child, sold by her parents to a brothel she spent her formative years as a prostitute. That is until Mingyu one of the so-called Four Beauties of Pingkang Li who are the most highly sought-after courtesans in the district, buys out her contract giving her a job as her maidservant. Yue-Ying is anything but a beauty, born with a large birthmark on her face she is perfectly happy with her position as a maidservant where she can fade into the background. Or at least she thinks she is the most overlooked woman in Pingkang Li, however, Lord Bai Huang has taken more than a passing interest in her, in fact for him her differences are what draws him to her. And he quickly makes his interest in her known by stealing a kiss in a dark cellar one evening. Little do either of them know that the one stolen kiss will serve as Huang's alibi when Huelin, another of the Four Beauties is brutally murdered. It will also bind them together in a quest to bring Huelin's murderer to justice and as Yue-ying and Huang find themselves caught up in a whirlwind romance and a complicated plot of murder and slavery Yue-Ying must decide if she's willing to give herself up to the handsome Lord.  

I adored Yue-ying almost immediately. She is an incredibally intelligent, warm, and funny character. Lin does an exceptional job of exploring the fears a girl who spent her childhood as a prostitute would have both by addressing her distrust of Huang's intentions as well as her inability to have an intimate relationship with a man. I think if she had glanced over this important portion of Yue-Ying's personality I probably would have stopped reading it. I also enjoyed Huang's responses to these issues, honestly given the time frame it seems a little unbelievable that a man would be so understanding but honestly, I don't think I care about whether or not it was historically accurate. It made for a really wonderful romance. And while I absolutely adored this couple I have to admit that Wei-Wei was probably my favorite character in the book. And yes for those who have read the series I totally read the synopsis for the rest of the series and cannot wait to get to Wei-Wei's story.

The mystery side of this was just that perfect level of complicated, where you think you know what's going on and then bam right at the end of the book a plot twist you didn't see coming. Lin does an excellent job of balancing out the romance with the mystery side of things which really makes this an edge-of-your-seat read with just enough adorably sweet moments between Yue-ying and Huang to level out the old heart after a plot twist. 

One thing I really absolutely loved about the series is that starting with book two it's not about Yue-ying and Huang anymore. The only thing that really worried me about this was that I was afraid this was going to end up being some Pretty Woman version of Eve Dallas and Roarke just set in the Tang Dynasty. And don't get me wrong I'd read an entire series about Yue-ying and Huang solving crimes but all of the characters in this book are really great so I'm glad that we are going to be able to see more of their lives as well. 

Overall I found this to be a sweet little read that addresses some very serious and important topics in terms of the sex trade that are still valid today. Lin's characters are really what makes this stand out though they are relatable, realistic, and ridiculously likable. Even Mingyu, the most unlikable character for most of the book coming across as cold and uncaring has her reasons for it and they are absolutely understandable. Highly recommend it for fans of the In Death Series by J.D. Robb or the Sano Ichiro series by Laura Joh Rowland.

The Grim Reaper and an Argent Cavalier Vol. 1 by Irono

 I have this tendency to forget I pay money to Crunchyroll every month for access to anime AND manga. I remembered last night and I found this little gem that I hadn't heard of yet so I'm super glad I remembered!

Two-Hundred years ago there lived a brother and a sister. The brother dreamed of immortal life and found a way to accomplish this by creating monsters, called Larvae, that reap the souls of the living, thus the brother became the Grim Reaper. His sister's magic was the only one who could stop him. And so she did and to ensure that the Grim Reaper would never win she created the Argent Cavalier a group of knights tasked with killing the monsters her brother created. 

Cyan becomes an Argent Cavalier after witnessing both of his parents' deaths at the hands of Larvae dedicated to defending humanity and Lady Reinette the current head of and a direct descendant of Lemuria the Grim Reaper's sister. After a devasting attack by larvae, Cyan realizes that sometimes you have to embrace the darkness in order to defeat it. 

I really enjoyed this right off the bat but I found it even more enjoyable after reading Irono's inspiration for the story at the end of this volume. He takes the Festival of Lemuria and the story of Godfather Death (Grimm's brother) and came up with this really unique tale of soul-stealing monsters who are fueling the Grim Reaper's immortality. There are so many dark fantasies that include the Grim Reaper so it's always fun to come across one that is unique while pulling elements from other tales. 

Cyan is a great lead character but gotta admit I love Jade. Their motivation is the same of course (mostly) but Jade is just way more laid back than Cyan. Cyan is kinda wound up like a top. Even Reinatta recognizes that and doesn't tell him certain aspects about the magic she uses. The art is absolutely gorgeous, Irono is exceptional at making the character's expressions, especially in their eyes. I found myself watching for a change in their eyes probably more than any other facial expression while reading this, in many cases all Irono does is simply remove the most color from their eyes and it has a profound change in that character's emotion. I'm sure other manga artists use this technique but I don't believe I've ever noticed it before, or at least not to the extent that it stood out to me here. 

Overall, a solid start to what looks like it will be a really fun dark fantasy series. I'm reading the second volume currently and I'm enjoying it immensely! 

The Crowns of Croswald by D.E. Night - Truly a magical read!

 

I honestly love middle-grade books and I don't ever seem to have the opportunity to read them. Or to be completely honest reading more "adult" books always seems to take precedent. Children's books, especially middle-grade books are so full of magic and imagination. In a children's book, there is nothing stopping the author from being silly or creating scenarios where physics is absolutely thrown out the window with no explanation because kids don't care about physics. The Crowns of Croswald has all of what makes a middle-grade book fantastic without a care as to whether or not it makes sense, just that it's magical. 

Ivy Lovely is a scaldrony maid, her job is to keep the Scaldrons the domestic dragons that do all of Castle Plum's cooking in line. Ivy has spent her whole life in Castle Plum berated by Helga the maid and forced to sleep in a tiny room, but she wants more. She dreams of going to the Halls of Ivy to learn how to become a scrivenist. Little does Ivy know that on the morning of Moonsday when everything seems to go wrong a sick little Scaldron will end up the being the catalyst to an adventure of a lifetime; one where Ivy discovers who she really is and that there are people in Croswald who will stop at nothing to keep Ivy from her destiny. 

I only have one complaint about this book and that's that Ivy seems to be really adventurous and brave *most* of the time but at some of the most important times she loses her courage. Obviously, this is to create tension but it is in so much contradiction to who Ivy is in the rest of the book that it got old after a while. It's another case of the wishy-washy protagonist, she second-guesses herself just a little bit too much for my liking. That being said it wasn't enough to keep this from being a five-star book. 

As I said in my opening I love children's books. There is absolutely nothing holding an author back when they write a child's book but their own imagination and Night seems to have no problems there. Fantasy books that are written for adults always seem to need an explanation of how things work or *why* it works within our own knowledge of our world. Children's book authors don't seem to have that problem because for the most part kids don't care. And if they do they can just make up their own reasons why it works that way, if no explanation is forthcoming. Night takes advantage of that and crafts a unique world with recognizable fantasy elements that are just this side of not like anything else you've read before. Dragons serve as ovens, fairy-like creatures create light, and ghosts serve up dinner. 

And while yes I did have some complaints about Ivy overall I loved her character, she's so inquisitive and very set on her path, even though she knows it could get her in trouble. And since this is a story set in a school there has to be a character that is kind of the school bully, however, Night spends very little time on that character and I found that refreshing. The Bully character is there to help Ivy discover things about herself she didn't know, not to be a constant thorn and a distraction from the real story. Rebecca, Ivy's best friend, is absolutely wonderful as well. She's that perfect side character who is completely down to help Ivy no matter what crazy plot she has. 

Finally, I loved that this is a story about a girl discovering herself but also staying true to herself. Ivy's character really doesn't change much in this story because there's not much that needs to change. Ivy knows she's going to get herself in trouble time and again and yet she bullheadedly keeps down her path and ends up discovering just how powerful she is and that in itself is a bit of magic. 

Overall, this was a fantastic fairy tale. And yeah I feel comfortable calling it that, it hits all the right elements. I really can't wait to read the next book and find out what happens to Ivy next!

And thanks to NetGalley and Stories Untold for the eArc of this book in exchange for my review!

Happy World Book Day!

 

That's the only World Book Day Picture you'll get from me! Because in honor of World Book Day and the fact that I've officially read 100 books this year as of today I've decided to hold the page first Giveaway! All you need to do is follow and then tag the Facebook or Instagram Page in your favorite reading/books photos and you'll be automatically entered to win a $50 gift card to Amazon or Thriftbooks! 

The Fine Print

The winner will be picked randomly and announced on May 7th, 2022, winner can choose which gift card (Virtual Giftcards only) they would like, if under 18 must have a parent or guardian permission to enter. The contest starts on April 23rd, 2022 at 10am Pacific Time and ends on May 1st, 2022 at midnight Pacific Time. Photos must be owned by the winner or have permission from the owner to use it. Permission must be documented if chosen as the winner. 

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea By Axie Oh - A beautiful retelling with a Spirited Away twist!

 

The tale of Shim Cheong is one of my favorite Korean folktales, I've collected as many English translations as I can and I love each and every one of them. So I was super excited when I heard about this book, and I won't lie I really expected just an updated version of the original tale. Which is what we got, but with a twist!

Mina's home has been ravaged by storms since the Sea Dragon fell asleep over a hundred years ago when the last Emperor was killed. The usurper in trying to calm the Sea Dragon's wrath sacrificed his own daughter, the most beautiful girl in the kingdom to appease the Sea Dragon. And it works, for a time, so since then every year another girl is chosen as the Bride of the Water God and sent to the abyss. Except for this year Mina chooses herself as the Bride, jumping into the sea on the day her brother's beloved, Shim Cheong, is to be sacrificed. Now, Mina is in the Spirit Realm and she either has to wake the Dragon or become his bride in thirty days or she'll become a spirit herself. 

Not gonna lie the ending of this reminded me of Spirited Away, actually, I'd say about halfway through when Shim announces he's a god who has forgotten his name it started to remind me of Spirited Away. That's not a complaint at all though as Spirited Away is a beautiful story in its own right. And I think that premise worked really well for the way Oh wanted to retell this story. I also found myself enjoying the first-person narrative here. That's not something I normally focus on, but, in this, it worked well as Mina is explaining her role in this well-known tale. 

I loved Mina. I really did. I know, I know she's the main character and I should love her so that should be a give-in, but honestly, I enjoyed her much more than I did the original Shim Cheong. She's smart but not in the over-the-top way where she has everything figured out right off the bat. She has to work through everything and this is where she really reminds me of Chihiro from Spirited Away, her intelligence lies behind her paying attention to everything around her, if she wasn't so perceptive she would have never figured out how to save the Sea Dragon. Although I have to admit I was a little surprised that she ended up having a flash of insight in terms of how to save the Sea Dragon but couldn't figure out that her ancestors had been helping her the whole time. That seemed a bit silly especially since her grandfather basically gives it away. But hey a character can't be perfect. All of the side characters are fantastic as well. This is a pretty short book so I was pleased that we had the opportunity to spend time with each of the side characters, just enough to understand them and their motivations. And if I am going to continue to compare this to Spirited Away (because I am) Shim is the perfect Haku! 

I enjoyed the pacing in this book as well. This really isn't a very long story (this is just one translation of the original story http://asianfolktales.unescoapceiu.org/folktales/read/korea_1.htm, not the best but as you can see it's very short), to begin with. Even with the changes that Oh makes to the story (as they *almost* completely change the story) making this longer I think would have been a disaster. I think Oh sticks perfectly to the folklore roots of this tale in her pacing and the length of the story. 

Overall, this was a fantastic retelling of a story I have loved since my grandmother gave me a child's book of it when I was nine and it has become a new favorite book of mine. One that when I pass along all of my folktales to my children this one will be right beside them. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good story, but also anyone who is trying to wade into the vastness that is Eastern Folklore. I think this is an excellent starting point even if it is a retelling. Especially since the original tale (an even shorter version than the one I linked) is found in the book as are several other Korean folktales. 

Nighttime for Just the Two of Us by Maki Miyoshi - Super Cute Alien Boy!?

 I seem to be reading a lot of really adorable manga recently and I'm not even remotely mad about it! 

Miyako Nikaido is invisible, no one at school even knows her name and she is pretty okay with that. All she needs is her dog videos to cheer her up when someone calls her by a name that is not her own. That is until she runs into the super popular Shuichiro Kuga one evening, and she discovers that he is not really Kuga-Kun at all but an alien inhabiting his body and that alien wants to be friends! Now Chiro Chan and Miya Chan have to work through the perpetually grouchy Kuga-Kun if they want to keep up their friendship and Kuga-Kun doesn't plan on making it easy for them!

This was super cute as a human that was a loner in school I can completely understand how Miya felt, finding one special friend can make all of the difference when you realize you are lonely. I also enjoyed how the alien is presented in this book. I honestly can't stand anything with aliens normally (unless it's Sgt. Frog) so having the alien (if it is an alien, I have some theories on that already) be a super cute boy was incredibly helpful.

Overall this was an adorable first volume and I'm looking forward to the next one! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for the free eArc of this manga!

Hellion Pride by Vicky Walklate

Since I finished reading the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club trilogy I've been looking for a series or even a stand-alone book that captured the same energy in that trilogy. I haven't really been able to find one though, until now. The Hellion Series has that same kind of feeling. A group of amazing women kicking ass and taking names, rebelling against all of society's norms, and living how they want to. And they could care less what the ton thinks of them.

Tamar and Zahra are best friends on the run after Tamar's older brother framed her for the murder of their father. Taken in by Jonah Johnson a tavern keeper/"thief-taker" the girls train under him to become thief-takers in their own right. At twenty-one, the girls are living a relatively carefree existence (if you don't take into consideration their trade) in St. Giles one of the worst neighborhoods in London. One evening a local comes requesting Jonah hunt down his missing lover and their daughter, at first the thief-takers are going to turn him down, but seeing an opportunity to train their young apprentice Thelia Tamar agrees to take on the job. Little does she know that the case of a simple missing woman will turn into a very real fight for her very life.

I think if you follow my Goodreads it goes without saying that I am an absolute sucker for 19th-century crime stories. Really almost any period crime story to be honest, but when you throw a group of amazing women in the mix who have persevered through some horrible circumstances, I simply can't ignore a book like that!

Naoko Takeuchi said that when she wrote Sailor Moon she wrote the Sailor Scouts as girls that she would like to be friends with and while I certainly can't speak to Walklate's motivation behind the four amazing women in this book when I finished reading it that quote hit pretty hard. Because these four women are not just women I'd like to be friends with they are women *I* know, women I call my friends. They were so well written that I could see facets of my own friendships in them and I ended up forming a bond with the characters almost immediately because of it. They are realistic, their reactions to their circumstances are realistic, and their emotions are relatable.

In terms of the mystery itself, there are actually two in this book and I'm not going to delve too far into it because I don't want to spoil anything but suffice it to say the second unresolved one allows this book to end on the perfect cliff hanger, I genuinely cannot wait to see what happens next and to find out more about our mystery killer! The pacing in this was perfect as well, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time and I seriously almost threw my Kindle when Tamar's past catches up with her. I'm not giving any more away than that, if you read it you'll know what when you get there!

And as a side note with absolutely no context, I'm totally pulling for Alexis.

Overall this was absolutely fantastic. I honestly was a little trepidatious because it is pretty short but it ended up being one of the best books I've read this month.

Thanks to BookSirens and Champagne Book Group for the free eArc for this review!

The Name of the Wind By Patrick Rothfuss - I can't believe it took me this long to read this!

 Drug-addicted dragon. Three little words that I never thought I'd use in the same sentence. But here we are. I've seen some fantasy authors come up with some pretty insane things but to spend a whole page or two describing how docile the dragons in your world are and then making it addicted to drugs is like killing the dog in the worst possible manner. I freaking loved it. This is just a prime example of what makes this such a familiar yet unique tale in the world of fantasy. 

Kote is just a regular old innkeeper in a small village. He serves up beer and food to the locals and if his inn is struggling a bit well that's probably because of the war. At least that is what he wants everyone to think and he does a pretty good job of fooling everyone until a fateful night when he runs into a Chronicler because Kote is actually Kvothe the Bloodless the type of man stories are told about. And the Chronicler in question has been looking for Kvothe to lay down the real story of his life because when you are a man people tell stories about those stories have a tendency to get a bit exaggerated...So this is the story of Kvothe from his start as a child in his family's trouper band, to the death of everyone he knows and loves, to his years living on the streets, and to the beginning of him becoming a Hero. 

I love Kvothe. He's witty, completely reckless, incredibly intelligent (sometimes a little too smart), and he's a musician to boot. There really isn't much not to love about Kvothe. And that's the thing even though Kvothe is the perfect hero for this type of fantasy story it should actually be sickening, almost patronizing that Kvothe even exists. But it's not he's such a well-written complex character that even though half the time you are like, can this character be anymore <i>perfect</a> you are jarringly brought back to the reality that he's telling this story as a failing innkeeper so something obviously went very wrong. 

The side characters are really exceptional as well. Wil and Sim are just great friends, they and Kvothe have that kind of friendship that people are so lucky if you find it in real life, Ambrose is the perfect asshole lordling, and Kvothe's a complicated relationship with Denna because she is so freaking mysterious is a great addition to the cast. I already kinda don't like her because I feel like she's going to break poor Kvothe's heart!

I really enjoyed the magic system in this as well, it's more of a science meets magic type of thing and I enjoyed his educational explanations of how Sympathy actually works. It was definitely unique and with all of the fantasy books, video games, and anime I read/play stumbling across a unique magic system is like Christmas.

Overall, this is set to become one of my new favorite series! (I have so many people really need to stop writing good books, I'm so kidding please don't but I'm running out of shelf space!) Honestly, I'd normally recommend a fantasy book for those that are already into the genre but I think the characters in this, the setting (mostly a University), and the magic system make this a really good book for people that are looking to start reading fantasy. 

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Killer Looks: The Forgotten History of Plastic Surgery in Prisons by Zara Stone - An engrossing tale of a little known portion of American Prison Reform

 

I enjoy history, my major is in history so reading history books is basically half of my life. What I don't enjoy about history is that somehow many history writers can take a fascinating portion of history and make it boring. Listing facts, dates, names, and places like history isn't something that is exciting, nerve-wracking, bittersweet, heartbreaking, and angering all at once. I'm happy to say that this book has none of those issues. Stone has written an engrossing story about a little-known portion of American history that honestly keeps you interested from beginning to end. 

In the '50s a Plastic Surgeon, a Judge, and some college students stumbled upon an interesting thing in terms of convict rehabilitation; simply changing how a convict looks through plastic surgery may reduce recidivism rates. Maybe not a lot but enough that it's worth looking into. So they embark on a year-long study to find out just how effective this may be. It's hard enough to convince people that convicts deserve a second chance but during a time when racism is rampant this unlikely group faces all sorts of issues from funding, to the racism that their patients face, to getting the convicts to actually trust them, to one of their own eventually disavowing everything they worked for. 

The way that Stone tells this story is exactly like it is a story. Yes, she includes facts but they are woven into the story of these little-known historical characters who honestly set out with their hearts in the right place. And it really is about these five or so men and women who really believed in prison reform. And I have to say that Judge Anna Kross is one of my new heroes and I had never even heard about her until I read this book. 

Stone also does an exceptional job of keeping the emotion in this without letting her emotions seep through, which I think is a hard thing for anyone writing non-fiction to do. Non-fiction books (in my opinion) should always allow the reader to come to their own conclusions based on the evidence presented and Stone does a wonderful job of that. At no point did I feel like the author was trying to sway me in one direction or the other. 

What I found incredibly interesting about this though is just how progressive many of these people were at a time in history we do not usually associate with forward-thinking. Not just with the use of plastic surgery in the hopes of reducing recidivism rates but in all sorts of programs that Judge Anna Kross had been looking into at the time. While this book centers around the plastic surgery aspect I learned about many valuable programs including the Stay 'N Out Program that quite frankly we could use NOW with the current opiate epidemic. This one portion of history touches so many facets of prison reform that I simply never knew about that I actually took notes and I know for many of you annotating books is a huge thing but unless it's for a class I can't do it, but I found it so important to look into some of these programs and the people that started them I have a stack of notes of programs and people I'd like to research more. 

Overall this was one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a very long time. Informative while keeping me not just interested but engrossed in the story. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys American history. Especially those hidden little facets that unless you look for them you'd probably never even know they existed. 

I want to thank Zara Stone so much for the copy of her book in exchange for this review. It was an absolute pleasure to read.

Log Horizon Vol. 1 by Kazuhiro Hara original story by Mamare Touno

 

Shiroe is probably my favorite protagonist in an isekai! I really love that his character is one of those underrated character classes that people view as useless but are in reality totally badass!

Shiroe is downloading the twelfth expansion of  Elder Tales, an older MMORPG when he and 30,000 Japanese players are pulled into the game! The real-life version of Elder Tales leaves much to be desired; cooked food tastes like cardboard and even death doesn't exist as players are brought right back to life as soon as they die. As players begin to grow desperate to escape the game chaos descends and in one town, Susukino, a guild of violent players has taken advantage of the situation and taken over. Serara a player from a small guild located in Akiba has been stranded in Susukino, Shiroe and company accepts a request to save her from her guild. The question is will they be able to reach her while navigating this familiar yet strange new world?

Log Horizon is a criminally underrated isekai! It has such a great cast of characters and the art is gorgeous! This first volume does a really good job of establishing the state of the player's minds as well as giving us just a taste of how Shiroe's quick and clever thinking will affect the rest of the story. 

 I really can't wait to read the next one!

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The Black Dog of the Sea by Natasha Ruhwald

 

I tried really hard to get into this book but I just couldn't. I know it's supposed to be a series and we'll find out more about the world the book introduces at a later date but I felt like there was just too much background information missing for it to keep my interest. 

Corvin is a faeble, a creature not trusted by humanity at all, and for what it's worth he doesn't trust them much either. So when he finds himself acting as a navigator on board a human ship taking both himself and Lady Laia Hexton to a ritual where the Inner Circle, a mysterious group of human and faeble magic users, will use Corvin and Laia as sacrifices he knows that he'll have to trust at least one human if he wants to live. As fear of Corvin grows among the ship's crew and Richard a marine with a reputation as being a faeble killer instigates a mutiny so he can kill Corvin, Corvin and Laia see their opportunity and escape. Corvin just hopes they can trust each other enough to keep themselves alive. 

Like I said it felt like I was missing so much information while reading this almost from the beginning to the point where I'd end up going back to see if I maybe missed something. Important characters like Corvin's Dad are just kind of dropped into the story. And the book just doesn't flow well. We leave one scene to go to the next without much of a segway so I felt lost a lot of the time while I was reading it, honestly, it almost felt episodic at some points. 

That being said, when this book was going smoothly it was great. Individual chapters were fantastic they just didn't flow into the next one very well all the time. The dialogue was wonderful and I did for the most part enjoy the two main characters. I hated Richard with a passion and since he's a hateful bastard I think Ruhwald hit the mark with him. 

Overall, it just wasn't my cup of tea, but it really isn't a half-bad fantasy adventure book. The action is well done and it does keep you are your toes for most of the book trying to see if Corvin and Laia are actually going to getaway. However, when there was no action I felt a little confused and like I had missed an important plot point only to go back and realize I hadn't. 

And thanks to BookSirens for the eArc of this book!

The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber - A beautiful story about the people who brought us beautiful stories.

 

For many of us, myself included faerie tales are the first stories we hear told by loving parents and grandparents at bedtime or in my case at lunch in exchange for practicing my ABC's, much to my grammy's horror my penmanship never got much better than it was at five. For me especially faerie tales are things I always come back to you. If you follow my Goodreads a good portion of the books I read are re-tellings of these tales. I hunt them down and read every one of them no matter how awful the reviews are and to be honest I don't believe I have come across one yet that is actually awful. So when an I guess "scholarly" look at the people who brought us these tales popped up as a suggestion on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it. And then I became a little worried. A scholarly look at anything unfortunately has a tendency to be dry. So I sat on it. I loaded it on my Kindle several times only to close it out and grab a different book, afraid that this book would take the heart out of the tales I have loved my whole life. I am happy to announce that Jubber crafted his own magical tale while bringing these storytellers that many of us have probably never even heard of to life. 

Jubber looks at seven individual storytellers who either collected tales or invented their own. People that in many cases have been lost to history, being overshadowed by the people we credit for these tales today. Such as the original author of Beauty and the Beast, or Wilheim Grimm's wife who told the brothers the bulk of their stories. His look at Hans Christian Andersen was possibly my favorite though, especially since many of his stories have been blasted over the last several years. When his life story is brought into the mix the tales (especially The Little Mermaid) take on a new and heartbreaking dimension. 

What truly makes this amazing though is Jubber's ability to conjure a time and place and the people living in that time and place. I have never seen an image of many of the people in this book and yet I have an image in my head that after a brief google search of the ones I could find matches his descriptions. His descriptions of places like Kashmir in the 10th century Ad (it could have been the 11th doing this from memory) are on par with (and in many cases better than) any fiction or travel writer. His words evoked real emotion and I'm not going to lie I teared up a bit at the epilogue because he had lovingly taken me through time by telling the lives of these amazing people who shaped much of my worldview as a child. 

I honestly cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who is a lover of stories.

Land of the Dead by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi - My favorite supernatural crime fighting duo are back to save the world!

 I think we all need a series that we fan out just a little bit on (or in my case a lot bit) and for me, Stoker's Wilde is one of those series. It has such an awesome cast of characters from The Stokers to Teddy Roosevelt saving the world from the forces of supernatural evil. And really can you think of any historical figures better than Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Teddy Roosevelt to stop the forces of evil and then men (and women) trying to control them? I don't think so. 

Dr. Victor Mueller is one of the members of the Order of the Golden Dawn that was not rounded up by the White Worm Society when the Black Bishop was taken down, in fact, he's been continuing his experiments in bringing people back from the dead quietly in Finland and he's succeeded! However, he needs Bram Stoker's special blood to continue his work and arranges to get Bram under his control by any means necessary. Meanwhile, in London, a young woman by the name of Lorna Bow is reunited with her mother who had abandoned Lorna for all intents and purposes at a young age. Now though Endora is back and she informs Lorna that she is not just a witch but a witch with the power to call people back from the dead. With the rise of the Spiritualist movement in London Dr. Mueller and Endora will join forces to create an army of the dead with the Black Bishop as its General. The Stokers and the Wildes must now face old foes in superhuman bodies and new foes hell-bent on playing god and with the White Worm Society in disarray, they have no hope for backup this time, they'll have to figure this out on their own and there isn't a moment to spare. 

I love this series! This time in history is so interesting because we really do see this mixture of science and the supernatural as is portrayed in the book. People may not have been trying to bring humans back to life but they were trying to create machines to communicate with the dead and all sorts of other things to "thin the veil". And it's because humanity had all of these new technologies at their fingertips like electricity that we are able to get this weird meshing of sci-fi and supernatural during this time frame. It was just the perfect time and the perfect place and Hopstaken and Prusi capture that feeling perfectly in this series!

I loved that Dr. Victor Mueller is a nod to Victor Frankenstein, I don't believe you can write a series like this without giving Shelley her due and I enjoyed Mueller's character immensely because he isn't focused on very often in the book. We get just enough input from him to know he's not playing with a full deck of cards and then he just becomes the bad guy that has to be taken down. And the manner in which this Victor is able to bring people back from the dead is so interesting!! It's really a no-brainer when you think about it (I'm not spoiling it) and it makes perfect sense that this would be a way to bring people back but up until this book I'd never thought of it!

I wrote this review without going into the background of the first two books, while I don't believe it's entirely necessary to read the first two books, I would recommend it as there are conflicts within the relationships with the characters that wouldn't make sense without that background, especially Florence and Ellen's relationship troubles. 

Overall, this was a solid entry into one of my favorite series and I look forward to the fourth book and I'm hoping Lorna doesn't go sideways. I liked her character!! 

And as always thanks to Netgalley and Flametree Press the eArc of this book!

Asian Ghost Short Stories Compiled by Lee Murray

 

This was a great compilation of Asian Ghost Stories and folktales involving all things spooky! I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I've read several of them throughout the years. The thing about reading stories from other countries is translations can be drastically different from one person to the next or one era to the next so sometimes it's like reading a whole new story. 

Murray seems to have chosen her stories based on the cultural impact they would have left at the time they were written (reading the introduction is an absolute must here as he discusses the social impact these stories were written for in the intro.) so I found it important to remember that in many cases these stories are at least a century old if not older. Judging them based on today's morals, values, and social norms will almost guarantee you won't like them. Or your own culture's morals, values, and social norms. 

My one complaint would have to be that I would have liked the author to have titled this differently as they definitely are not all "ghost" stories. I know that's super picky but something along the lines of Supernatural folktales would have been more fitting. 

Other than that I'd recommend this to anyone who likes spooky tales!

The K-Frost Caper by James Blakely - Who said Insurance had to be Boring?

As an ex-insurance agent, I'm pretty much all over anything that will spice up the tediousness that is insurance, so when the author asked me to review this I couldn't wait to get it started! 

 Luna Nightcrow has just wrapped up a case; finding an expensive and rare amulet for Charmed Mutual Life when their CEO Farad Alms requests her help again. One of their investigators has gone missing in Miami while investigating what appears to be a case of insurance fraud on a life insurance policy payout and Charmed Life is willing to pay her handsomely to find their missing investigator and determine if they've been defrauded out of $50k by a man named Kelvin Frost who may have faked his own death several years earlier. Luna wastes no time in getting down to Miami where she finds a tangled web involving a Paranormal Museum, a fictional character, and murder. 

The mystery portion of this was absolutely fantastic, a complicated plot with a clever fraud case involving fake deaths and identity theft. I truly enjoyed all of the twists and turns the case took and found myself stumped by who the killer was more than once. It was fast-paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. 

Some of the dialogue was great but a lot of it was awkward sometimes and just straight cringey at others. The dialogue really is the only thing holding this book back from being a four-star review.  

Overall, I really enjoyed the mystery side of this, as an insurance agent and then broker I can understand how important it is to recoup the money lost on possible fraud, and turning that into a mystery/thriller series is an exceptional idea. 

And thank you so much to James Blakely for access to his book in exchange for this review.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo - A stunningly, hauntingly beautiful story.

I'm not sure I like Luli Wei, but I'm 100% sure that I love her. 

The minute Luli steps into a theater for the first time as a child she knows that what she sees on that screen is what she wants out of life, that the magic in front of her is beautiful and she wants to be able to make it her own. And after a chance encounter on a movie set, she sees her pathway to stardom. But, she sees the other young girls around her who started out with the same stars in their eyes and are now used up, husks of who they were. Luli vows not to become one of them, she'll make her own path and if she has to become a monster to do so she will. 

I started reading this about a week ago now and at first, I really couldn't get into it. I'm not really into movies and I'm even less into books about movies so it was hard for me to understand Luli's desperate need to become a movie star. However, I've never read one of Vo's books and I've wanted to so I was determined to "get through it". I'm so glad I made that decision. Luli is such an interesting character, reckless but in a way that is absolutely inspiring. The kind of recklessness that people say that you are either brave or really stupid and Luli was not stupid, at all. What I thoroughly enjoyed about her though is I'm really not sure if liked her; admired her absolutely. Inspired by her most definitely, Loved her in a way that I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was okay. But liked her? I'm just not sure. 

In terms of the progression of the book at first, I thought it was moving a tad bit too slow but as I read farther into it I realized the pace was necessary. There are a lot of issues that arise that Luli has to confront and you need time to process what's going on. Any faster pace and I think a lot of important points the author was trying to convey would get lost. I also found that Luli's character development was spot on to the story progression as well. I find that with stand-alone books you sometimes will have a character progressing faster than the book is going or vice versa. One minute you've got a reckless and ambitious character the next minute they are a little tamer and you have absolutely no idea how it happened. There was none of that here. 

As I said this is my first time reading a book by Vo and I have to say that her writing is magical. There is no other way to put it. Magical in a way where you find yourself so lost in the spell that she's weaved that when you finally look up you are momentarily surprised that you aren't in some backlot of a film studio watching the organized chaos that is the business of making films because you were absolutely sure that was where you had just been. Vo is a storyteller, through and through which is a truly rare and wonderful gift.

Overall, I don't have one complaint about the Siren Queen, it was spellbinding and hauntingly beautiful and I pre-ordered my physical copy as soon as I was done reading it.

The Pineys Book 1: My cousin, The Piney by Tony DiGerolamo - A New Twist on an old favorite!

 

If you are into the paranormal you've probably heard of the Jersey Devil, I think I was probably in third or fourth grade when I read my first version of the tale. It's always been one of my favorites and whenever my dad who was a truck driver had to go anywhere near Jersey he'd come back with some sort of "sighting" or that he'd heard of some sort of sighting. And as a Mom today I can absolutely understand poor Mrs. Leeds finding herself pregnant with her 13th child and accidentally laying a curse on it, hell I'd be the next Mrs. Leeds if I found myself pregnant again and I only have four! So when the DiGerolamo asked me to review this I was all over it, he had me at The Jersey Devil.

Lewis is 100% sure that even though he's failed at a lot of other things being a professional gambler is his true calling, so he's borrowed a thousand dollars from an unsavory source and is on his way to Atlantic City to make his mark on the world of professional card sharks. Unfortunately, he runs out of gas on the way there and has to make a pit stop in the "backwoods" of Southern New Jersey. Sure, he finds it weird that the cashier at the local convenient store he found himself at told him to just grab his gum and throw his money on the counter, but hey when in Rome right? But when a boy exits from the forest across the way and the cashier and his friend pull out a sword and gun and point them directly at the boy Lewis decides he is decidedly not Roman. As he dashes out to save the boy from the crazy hillbillies he quickly realizes that maybe he should be armed as well because he is looking straight at the infamous Jersey Devil and it looks hungry. 

If you've ever wondered what Supernatural would have been like if Sam and Dean had been from Jersey, this is a good book for you! The Piney's takes the idea of "The Family Business" and expands it to include a whole town of Devil Hunters who are all loosely related. I really enjoyed the twist on the tale that the curse becomes a generational thing as well. It gives a reason for sightings of the Devil(s) to still occur even today.  

This was a shorter book than I normally read and I've found I dislike reviewing those at it's not my usual thing, I feel like every short story would be significantly better if the author just had a hundred more pages and The Piney's is no exception. I found the plot progressed too quickly and that we find ourselves getting to know the characters through the dialogue, so we are getting to know the characters strictly through what they are saying, not what they are thinking as well so it's very superficial. That being said we do get to dive a little further in-depth with Lewis towards the end of the book which was very helpful to get a more complete picture of who he is. 

The quality of the dialogue and its content really started to get to me towards the end and I honestly considered not finishing it. A lot of the dialogue feels unnatural or an under/overreaction to something another character said. Exclamation points were in spots I didn't feel warranted them or missing where I felt like they should have been. I also often found myself cringing for some of the characters because their lines were just weird. It also felt like the author was *trying* to be politically incorrect but mostly failing because even that was awkward. It was like when your child swears the first time but uses it in the wrong context and on the one hand, you are like, "okay we don't say that." But what you really want to say is, "Look, let's practice this so the next time you don't embarrass me by using it wrong." 

Overall, I'm on the fence about it. I think it has an original plot and a set of characters that are deeper than what we get to see in the first book (hopefully). I'm just not sure if I'm intrigued enough to want to continue the series. Connecting with characters is one of my main motivations for reading and while I found that I enjoyed Lewis's character at the end slightly more than I did at the beginning I didn't get to that point with the rest of them. I probably will go ahead and read the second one though, to see if this cast of cousins gets a little bit more fleshed out.

A Daydream a Day by Ivan Tu - My day is just a little better because I read this

 

I planned to give this book to my kids after reviewing it, it is an inspirational collection of poems directed towards children and teens so who better to have it than my children? I decided after reading it that I'm keeping it and they can get their own copy! 

I found these to be much deeper than I had expected and Tu accomplishes what the book set out to do: Be Inspiring. And for children or teens, that's exactly what it is. As an adult I found many of the poems to be a pleasant reminder of the person I set out to be when I was young. So this copy is headed to my bookshelf right next to my old beat-up copy of The Last Lecture and I have a feeling it will be read as often as Pausch's book is. And yup, I have a favorite, actually a few but if I had to pick one it would be Tied Down, which is in the first section of the book. 

Overall, I would recommend picking this up for yourself or your children if you are in need of a little inspiration.

I'd also like to sincerely thank the author for my copy of the book in exchange for this review!

A Stranger From The Storm by William Burton McCormick - The Perfect Mystery for People Short on Time

 

The "good" guys were definitely as bad as the bad guy in this one. 

Tasia and Eleni help their mother run a boarding house in Odessa, business however has not been kind to them recently and when a stranger with a terrifying scar on his face shows up at their door one stormy night against their better judgment the girls agree to let him a room. When their mother returns later that evening she informs them that another murder has taken place, the 5th in a series that has plagued their little community recently. Now the girls are even more terrified of their strange new lodger and as his behavior grows more and more peculiar the girls set out to prove that he's the murderer even if they have to put their own lives at risk. 

So I'm not going to give that first sentence away but seriously the girls, Eleni in particular, were kind of sociopaths. For a good portion of the book, I figured Eleni was the murderer. She was seriously cold-blooded. I kind of even wanted her to be, her sarcasm went too far even for me sometimes. It felt less like sarcasm and more like she had no emotions and she really pushed Tasia to do some pretty horrible things. 

I really don't believe I have any complaints, it's super fast-paced given the length but overall the author does a good job of building up tension at just the right spots. And it was a surprisingly complete story. I was really afraid that since it was only 110 pages long there would be some serious plotholes but there really only ended up being a few and they didn't affect the overall story. Definitely recommend it for someone who just wants a really quick, well-written, mystery.

And as always thank you to Booksirens for the free eArc!

Figurehead by Carly Holmes - A beautifully written walk down a very disturbing path

 

I've been on the lookout for a scary book for a while and I was hoping this would be it unfortunately the stories are more disturbing than they are scary. And that's not a bad thing in the least I just definitely wasn't prepared for a walk down humanity's darker side. 

The thing that stood out for me the most with this collection is Holme's writing style, honestly, everything was written so beautifully that it would never even cross your mind that something horrible was going to happen that the end. And she does such an amazing job of building up the tension in every story, but I found that Sleep demonstrated this the best out of all of them. It just builds like you are climbing up a steep hill and you don't know that at the end is a drop-off and when you finally get there you just barely keep yourself from falling off the edge. That being said Sleep is not my favorite, The Demon L was, it's the first one in the book and I honestly kinda felt bad for L. 

Overall even though I wasn't scared out of my wits I still enjoyed this book, especially since it was made up of short stories, I could read a couple at a time and then come back to it a couple of days later. And with stories like Sleep, I needed that break. It's one of those things that as a parent it's in the top of five of your worst nightmares. 

I want to thank Netgalley and Parthian Books for the free eArc.

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White - Come for the dystopian future, stay for the character development

 

If you've ever wondered what would happen if you turned The Umbrella Corp into an evil right-wing church and had a group of LGBTQ+ kids save the day then look no further because that's this book in a nutshell. Or the K-Drama Sweet Home. I could go on this book reminded me of so many different video games, shows, and other books those are just the first two that came off the top of my head. And yes after calling out the whole plotline just a couple of chapters in it decreased my interest in the book greatly. That being said, my eldest son is transgender, and no matter how formulaic this book was I still found it to be an important book to read because no matter how supportive I am and how much anger I feel myself over the shit that he has to deal with from the rest of the world I can never understand fully how that feels to him. 

The world as we know it has ended, a Reformation Faith Evangelical Church has released The Flood, a virus that causes humans to mutate into something monstrous in an attempt to wipe all sinners from the face of the Earth. Benji is a transgender sixteen-year-old boy whose mother is the Reverend Mother, one of the highest-ranking members of the Church they escaped The Flood by taking shelter at New Nazareth where the Church commands the Graces the monsters The Flood created, having them slaughter everyone that the Church deems to be heretical, which includes Benji and his father. In a desperate attempt to save his son Benji's father flees with him and is killed in the process, Benji knows though that they won't hurt him because he is special he is The Seraph, and the Church and his mother plan on using Benji to finish what The Flood started. Benji, however, has other plans he won't be used any longer, and when he discovers that a local LGBTQ+ Youth Center survived he finds the support he needs to bring The Church to it's very knees. 

I honestly wished this book wasn't as formulaic as it was I hoped that at some point there was a twist that made me sit up and become just a little bit more interested but it really never happened and the one that kinda does at the end of the book just kind of prolongs it. And honestly, I could not get past the fact that every time I pictured one of the Graces I just saw the boss from Resident Evil 2. Every time. 

That being said Benji's journey is awesome. Meeting other trans kids for the first time, having actual friends, learning to trust people, and learning to be angry. Those parts were wonderful. This is probably one of a few horror books where I really didn't care about the main plot, I wanted to head down that side story. Nick was a fantastic character as well. Two out of four of my kiddos are autistic and Nick reminded me of my son completely, which endeared him to me almost immediately. 

Overall, I'm not going to lie while the predictability of this book at some points bored me to tears Benji's story made all of the difference. 

And of course, I'd like to say thanks to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for the free eArc of this book.

Ex Tempore by Tiina Utoslahti - A solid murder mystery with a Finnish Twist!

 

I want to start out by mentioning that the translations in this are a bit rough. That being said there is no mention of an actual translator which leads me to believe the author did their own translating if that is the case I'd give this five stars on that alone because this was a fantastic book. And on that note who may be reading this that is Finnish or reads/speaks Finnish I apologize in advance if screw up the spelling of any of the characters' names. 

Sanna Blinck walks into work one day to find the body of their part-time cleaner sprawled in a back door. It's clear to her that this is a murder and she informs her co-workers. As the police arrive she's more than a little shocked to see her "dream man" Juho Seppa, is one of the detectives. Several years earlier Sanna and her husband had been in a devastating accident, killing her husband and leaving Sanna a young widow, Juho had been the investigating officer but since no one but Sanna had met him and she had forgotten everything else from her hospital stay her friends and family just assumed she'd dreamed him up. Sanna is initially annoyed by Juho and his partner though, they seem to take nothing she says seriously and even treat her as a suspect. But Sanna isn't going to take that lying down, she starts her own investigation into her co-worker's murder that puts her right in the murderer's crosshairs. 

As I said once you get passed some of the rougher translations this is a perfect murder mystery with a side of romance. Sanna's independent streak paired with her vulnerability makes her on par with JD Robb's Eve Dallas as far as I'm concerned. Juho is great as well. He admits that he's overlooked several lines of inquiry that he provided shouldn't have and he realizes that Sanna could be more helpful than he'd initially thought thanks to her no-nonsense attitude. And he's incredibly sweet and thoughtful. 

The pacing on this was spot on for a mystery of this length I never found myself bored and when they wrapped everything up I facepalmed a couple of times because there were clues that I had clearly overlooked. 

Overall I'm genuinely hoping this will be a series, personally, I think that Sanna and Juho could give Eve and Rourke a run for their money.

As always I'd like to thank Netgalley and The Book Guild for the free eArc!