dapperreads's Reviews (1.29k)

When hell breaks loose - literally. 

This is a long book - I love long books. While I do seem to say “wow so many words for no reason” a lot in reviews, I don’t feel that way with this one. Was it long? Yes, but did it feel long? No, I can’t say I noticed it. 

I love horror, especially when we’re dealing with the supernatural. This book has so many things that I love included in it and it’s done in a way that makes it creepy while still completely sucking you in. I had to know what happened next - and I love it. 

I really enjoyed that there was plenty of skepticism included with this story. This isn’t always the case with horror novels and it’s included in here. I love it. While you see a decent amount of denial, this one includes straight up disbelief tied with the skepticism and I found it both enjoyable and refreshing. 

This book features the story from multiple POV which I absolutely love especially with a horror book where there are many players and moving parts. Having all the POVs available really give us the full picture and added to the creep factor. 

I was gifted a paperback of this novel from the author, but my review and opinions are my own. 

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This was an interesting dystopian read that revolves end of the world predictions. 

As a millennial, I’ve lived through many “this is the day the world ends” scenarios. None of them have had any part come true like happened in this book. As it turns out, while the world is going to end of it continues down its current route, there is a way to stop it. The keys to changing the fate of the world fall into the hands of the chakra’s- which are embodied in a group of teenagers. 

These teens find themselves in a sort of boarding school where they work to not only activate their specific chakras, but to figure out who they are and where they fit in the world. 

Naturally this is book one of a series and it ends on a cliffhanger while also wrapping up the main part of this particular story. It’s really interesting. 

This was originally published in French and was recently released in English and the translation was great.

Thanks to NetGalley for the access to the ebook!

Such a cute historical cozy mystery! 

I really enjoyed this story. I see that it is the beginning of a series and I have high hopes for the rest of it!

We follow a couple of step sisters who live with their aunt. When their aunt needs to leave, she shares a secret with the elder sister and leaves a very important task in her hands. The younger sister is the typical boy-crazy heiress that we see in books like this while the older one is the spinster you tend to see. 

It’s told in a dual POV with both sisters. It’s interesting to get those chapters from the younger ones POV since we see what’s going on in her head. 

I received the audio through NetGalley and I thought the narrator did well with it. As usual I wish the different POVs had different narrators to match, but it was clear enough that it really didn’t bother me that they were shared. 

I enjoyed this and look forward to more in the future!

This is a pretty solid cozy mystery. I really only have one issue with it - I personally read the cozies to get away from the real world but this one brought the real world to me in the form of politics a little too often for my liking. 

Now if we remove those political tidbits we still have the story so I can look past it. Their addition was unnecessary but I understand the authors need to add it in. It’s clear she’s passionate about what’s brought up. I just personally would have preferred it be left at wow this sucks and then move on since it’s hard to escape reality when it’s mentioned in your escape. 

Regardless, I love the story. I love our murdery pie baker finding herself in a mess while participating in a baking show. It was hilarious and had every vibe necessary for a cozy mystery. I received an audiobook through NetGalley and found myself really enjoying not just the story, but the narration as well. The narrator was perfect for this book and I have no complaints. 

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Have you ever wondered about the many things that are found in ancient Egypt? Cuz I am MIND BLOWN honestly. The things they built? Heck yes ancient Egyptians. 

This book places the focus on the obelisk and what happened with them after they were discovered. Who paid to have them moved? What happened with them then? Well it’s in here. 

My one beef with this book is that it felt like it was everywhere and nowhere all at once. We’re talking about obelisks and then the Statue of Liberty in the same paragraph. While it made sense…it felt more like a “fun fact” than an actual essential part of the book. 

Now I received the audiobook version through NetGalley and this could be where my issues arise from. It does state that we’ll get the blips included in the book itself as well and so the random fun facts could be just that in the book - for example a photo is included with that fun fact as the caption - but that gets lost in audio translation. The narrator is one of favorites for nonfiction. There’s something about his voice that is just perfect to me for books like this. 

I did enjoy it, though. I like books like this. 

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A surprise Murder mystery? Yes please!

When a thriller/mystery writer is approached to ghostwrite the memoir of a wanna-be diplomat, she’s thinking absolutely not. But Callie does not want to take no for an answer. Eventually, our author agrees to attend a dinner party hosted by Callie. And that’s when things get interesting. A mysterious death occurs at this party - is it a heart attack or something more sinister? Augusta Hawke is determined to find out. 

This was a fast paced murder mystery story. The narrator did a fantastic job of keeping the mystery alive by making it feel like we’re there with the characters as they try to figure out what really happened to Doc Burke. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook copy!

Whoa. This book was something else. 

You know when you read a book and say “oh whoa wait what?!” Yeah. I did that in this one. It’s a super creepy ghost-like story with a hellava twist to keep you invested to the end!

This is pretty fast paced. It’s probably more of a medium pace toward the end but overall it’s pretty quick. Looking back it may have been a slower build but it didn’t feel like it at the time. Enough was happening that it didn’t feel like a slower build until you hit that twist and you’re saying “whoa, what?!”

Definitely creepy over scary. Twists you probably wont see coming. Fantastic narrator. Thanks for the audiobook NetGalley!

I broke my number one rule (for myself) with this book. 

I read the Goodreads reviews before I started it. 

So why is this a rule? Well my friends, I got my hopes up - and I’m disappointed. 

This was a basic collection of ghostly stories. While good, that’s just it, they’re nice and basic ghost stories. Admittedly I was hoping for a solid scary one in the bunch and for me, I didn’t get that. I do see why this is enjoyable and rated so highly but for me it’s a miss. 

Lesson learned : don’t break rule number one. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the ebook!

If you read Heron Mill, you know what you’re getting into with Hunter and Gracie - if you didn’t, I’d recommend starting there. These two have one messed up love story - it’s dark, it’s bloody and it’s good!

This one does a little fast forward from Heron Mill, but we get the blanks filled in pretty well. There’s shoutouts to the Swallows (from the Swallows and Psychos series by the same author) and I really hope that continues with the other books in this series. 

Now when I think of dark romance, this is where I go. It’s bloody, it’s gruesome, it’s DARK. This is a trigger heavy series so check those out before you pick it up. Protect yourself if you need to. 

I definitely enjoyed getting more of Hunter and Grace, glad that there are other brothers so we’ll get to keep up with their relationship and their children as well. Their story got the wrap up it deserved and I’m happy this second one came to be. 

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What woman hasn’t heard this at least once in their life? I know I hear it all the time - but I can honestly say that I’ve been fired because of my face and its lack of smiling. Our MFC cannot say the same. 

After she’s let go from her job as a telemarketer, our MC finds herself in the quite the spiral. She’s jobless, the company is fighting paying her unemployment, she’s fostering a little of tiny terrors (aka kittens) and on top of everything - her mother is insisting she can help by meddling. Hilarity ensues. 

I’ll admit, I requested this entirely based on the title and it’s worth it. It’s funny but still deals with serious topics (like job loss) in a way that doesn’t diminish the very real struggle. I received an audiobook through NetGalley and found the narrator to be quite enjoyable. It was kept lighthearted while still clearly portraying the frustrations and other feelings of the characters. It was such a cute read. 

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