whatsheread's reviews
2190 reviews

A GAME OF LIES by Clare Mackintosh is the second book in the Detective Ffion Morgan series, and, like everything else Ms. Mackintosh writes, it is outstanding. Ffion is such a great character. She is most definitely not your ordinary detective hero. She is as quick to anger as she is to ignore orders and flout the rules. She is more likely to protect a friend than to follow procedure. She’s rough in appearance and manner, foul-mouthed enough to make a sailor blush, and I love everything about her. In this second book, we also meet Dave. I love Dave. Dave is the best character in the series. All books need a Dave in them. 

When you have such great characters as Ffion and Dave, the murder mystery almost takes a backseat to their antics. Ms. Mackintosh is able to keep her characters under control long enough to highlight the exploitive nature of reality TV shows and pop culture media. The murder itself is chilling, not because someone kills someone else but because of the reasons why. 

In A GAME OF LIES, Ms. Mackintosh takes the premise of a locked room murder mystery and modernizes it, complete with 24/7 surveillance and near constant social media coverage. Combined with Ffion’s rough and ready approach to mystery solving, and Dave, and you have another excellent mystery/thriller by one of the best in the business!

THE HEMLOCK QUEEN is Hannah Whitten’s exciting sequel to THE FOXGLOVE KING, and I am here for it! Picking up a few months after the shocking ending of the first novel, the action and angst starts right away as Lore questions who she can or cannot trust. I love Lore. I love everything about her and seriously hope she gets her happily ever after at the end of the series. For now, however, Ms. Whitten tortures Lore with a severe lack of allies and even more severe lack of answers. In a classic example of “not all characters are heroes”, we see a massive change is Bastian that only confuses the situation. Add to that Gabe’s distant smoldering, and it’s enough to drive a girl wild! 

THE HEMLOCK QUEEN sets up the final book quite nicely, even as the ending is every bit as infuriating as THE FOXGLOVE KING’s ending. There isn’t as much action in this second book, but there is a lot of skullduggery and searching for answers. By the time the story draws to a close, we have set lines of demarcation and no idea how Lore, Bastian, and Gabe will resolve anything. The wait for the final book is going to be interminable, but I know it will be worth it.

ARIEL CRASHES A TRAIN by Olivia A. Cole is a tough, tough read, only because I saw way too much of myself in Ariel. Ariel’s struggle with intrusive thoughts, as well as the compulsions she uses to combat them, is one of the first realistic portrayals of OCD I’ve experienced in print. Ariel’s pain brought back all those times when I knew there was something that made me different, that was wrong with me, and was the reason why I felt like I didn’t fit in anywhere. That Ariel obtains the help she needs so much earlier in life than most people struggling with OCD is a comfort because it shows that people are finally beginning to realize that it is not cleanliness and everything at right angles. That Ms. Cole chose to write Ariel’s story in verse helped ease the pain of watching this poor girl fall through the cracks and needlessly suffer. While not an easy read, ARIEL CRASHES A TRAIN is a powerful one, made more impactful because of knowing that we both struggle with the same mental health disease. 

THE ASHES AND THE STAR-CURSED KING by Carissa Broadbent is another fantastic ending to a great duology. It has everything you would want in a romantasy novel - plenty of action, violence, romance, and smut. I am particularly impressed by Ms. Broadbent’s clever method for extracting key information from certain characters. Oraya’s and Raihn’s story is satisfying on many fronts. Better yet, we know that while their main story is over, we will still see them in future Nyaxia books, of which there will should be four more. I can’t wait!

MASQUERADE OF THE HEART by Katy Rose Pool is a fantastic ending to a duology that melts your heart. Once you get past the self-sacrifice for your love trope, the rest of the story is exciting and full of surprises. Ms. Pool’s resolution to the many problems Marlow faces may be a little too clean, but it still satisfies as it also shows that you can’t win them all. I particularly love how Marlow truly acts her age. She is very much still a teenager making rash decisions and creating many avoidable mistakes. However, she shows her growing maturity in taking ownership of those mistakes and seeking to rectify them. At the end of the day, however, my heart belongs to Adrius, who once again is as golden, as melancholic, and as hopelessly in love as he was in the first book. MASQUERADE OF THE HEART ends Ms. Pool’s second series, and with it she becomes a must-read author for me. Her ability to create fantasy that is somehow realistic in feel despite any magic is excellent. I can’t wait to see what she has for us next!

SONG OF THE SIX REALMS by Judy I. Lin is a beautiful story that is almost lyrical in its prose. The entire narrative has an ethereal quality to it that, I feel, mimics Xue’s music. The romance between Xue and the Duke is sweet in its naivety. And it is lovely to watch Xue grow in confidence and strength as she learns to fight for herself. SONG OF THE SIX REALMS is a welcome break from all of the Eurocentric fairy tales that exist, and I will gladly read anything else Ms. Lin publishes. 

WOW! THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK by Emiko Jean is an intense thriller where you know from the start that what you see is not the whole truth but have no idea in which direction the story will go. The identity of the abductors took me by complete surprise, as did another reveal at the end. With Ellie’s story touching on not just abduction cases but also misogyny, racism, and the power of wealth in the justice system, it is as timely as it is enlightening. THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK is a welcome addition to the thriller genre, and I look forward to reading what Ms. Jean publishes next!

THE FIREBORNE BLADE by Charlotte Bond is a good example of a novella that does not work for me. While there is a good amount of action that is both interesting and suspenseful, the story lacks the depth that would put the action into context. There is little world-building and no character development. We know nothing about Maddileh’s past, even though she thinks about her parents and about going home to them. We don’t know what made Maddileh pursue a life as a knight, nor do we really get a full explanation for why the Fireborne Blade is so important to her. We don’t even know why it is so special other than the fact that it is in a dragon’s lair. As for the dragons, we get glimpses that not all of the dragon slaying stories Maddileh knows are true, but nothing comes of that knowledge. To me, THE FIREBORNE BLADE would be better as a much longer novel, one that would afford Ms. Bond the room to develop her world and her characters. As it stands, it needs a detailed backstory, complete with a better picture of the world Maddileh inhabits, to make it complete. Right now, THE FIREBORNE BLADE is all action with the rest of the story and the necessary context missing. 

WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth had me from the very first sentence. After all, when the author herself describes this novella as The Wizard of Ox meets The Witcher, it is difficult to resist. Me? I’m a sucker for any story about Polish mythology, and WHEN AMONG CROWS has that and more. In the true Polish spirit, so many of the characters are resigned in their self-sacrifices and tortured by their past deeds, but they all obtain the peace they seek. WHEN AMONG CROWS is a rarity among short stories in that Ms. Roth is able to not only create a fully visualized world and tell an entire story arc, but she also includes the necessary backstory and character development to engender empathy for the characters. While I am not normally a fan of novellas because they tend to lack the story depth I enjoy, this is the second of Ms. Roth’s novellas I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I can’t wait to see what she does next!

MIND GAMES is yet another stellar novel by Nora Roberts. Breaking from her normal story formula, MIND GAMES focuses less on the criminal element’s need for revenge and more about the importance of relationships and the challenges that come with opening yourself up to someone else. It is a sweet story, somewhat sappy and a bit wholesome in its rural setting complete with home-cooked meals made with ingredients fresh from the garden, but I find it a balm to the soul in these turbulent times. MIND GAMES reminds us that we choose our families, and there is beauty and love where you least expect to find it.