I received this free from the publishers via NetGalley

Jo comes from an aristocratic American family, her family’s only expectation of her is to marry well. However, when her father dies unexpectedly due to an accidental gunshot, Jo is suspicious and is determined to find the truth behind her father’s death.

I am a fan of Jennifer Donnelly, I loved both Revolution and A Northern Light, yet These Shallow Graves really does lack in comparison. For me, there was a certain lack of emotion compared to her other novels and I never really connected to or cared much for Jo. Perhaps because there was a lot of focus on the plot and the murder mystery rather than on the actual characters. However, I’m much more of a fan of character driven novels, so this one just fell a bit short for me.

The plot was engaging and it did keep me interested, but at times it was slow, especially in the middle. I did have an inkling about who did it, but I wasn’t sure. The ending was good, and I really loved the female friendships. It was cliché at times, as was the romance, but I actually really enjoyed the romance despite the insta-love – perhaps it was because I really loved Eddie.

Jo was a decent character, she was naïve a lot of the time which was sometimes irritating, but she was headstrong and daring which I admired. Ultimately a good character, but unfortunately I didn’t connect as emotionally to her, or other characters, as I hoped.

Overall, a decent recent with a good and compelling mystery, but fell short of my expectation.