Sooo...I was bored.

To clarify, I enjoyed the first part of this book, up until the point of the incident that landed our protagonist, Oliver, in prison. I can't say I 'liked' the characters, as all of them are highly pretentious and unlikable. But I was enjoying their friend-group dynamic and the setting of a dramatic arts college. But as the book continued, I found myself caring less and less about the characters and what was happening. It all felt pretty unnecessary. There were passages that felt very repetitive and the reveal of what was really going on wasn't surprising in the slightest. I also didn't buy the reason Oliver did what he did. I don't feel like I ever bought into any of the romantic relationships. I liked them as a group of friends and classmates, but none of the love stories did anything for me.

I know that there are many people out there who love this book and that's great. I wish I was one of them. I think my biggest problem is that I didn't know what this book was going to be. I knew that it was about a young man who was in prison for a serious crime and we're going to learn what actually happened. So I was thinking it would be more of a mystery/thriller/suspense. But really, this is a coming-of-age story disguised as a mystery. Because if you're paying any sort of attention, you can guess what the answer to the mystery is going to be without exercising much brain power. And as a coming-of-age drama, I think this book is just okay.

I appreciate the author was trying to do something interesting with the insertion of Shakespearean quotes into the dialogue, and even she admits that it's a very pretentious way for her characters to speak. But that doesn't actually make me like that. I'm not saying it isn't realistic to the way a bunch of early 20-somethings in drama college would speak. After all, my friends and family and I speak in movie quotes all of the time. But it didn't make it any more palatable.

I'm not saying I would never read another book by this author, because I think that she has talent. I just didn't enjoy this story.

P.S.
The author uses the word 'spliff' when she is talking about the characters smoking marijuana. I'd heard this term before, but it is not a word that I think I've ever heard someone actually use in conversation when speaking about marijuana. Joint? Yes. Blunt? Sure. Spliff? Nope. So I go and look up the origin, and sure enough, it's a word that originates primarily from Jamaica and has spread to many Western European countries. Why do authors set their books in the US and then use terminology that is primarily used in the UK and Europe? It doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, I'm nitpicking. No, I don't care.

I wanted to try this author out, so I downloaded this novella on Overdrive. I don’t know if I’ll read any more from her, but I wasn’t super impressed by this. I understand it’s a novella, but there is no depth here. Also, there’s a theme running through this that I just don’t like. The woman in this book is a single mom who runs her own business. Apparently, she isn’t doing any of this well, so lucky for her a big strong man came to her rescue.

This book is currently a 3-star for me, but I think I need to give it another chance when the third and final book in the series comes out next year. Normally, I would've re-read the first book before going into this one. I read over 150 books a year, so it often happens that specific plot points may not be at the forefront of my mind when picking up subsequent books in a series when I read the previous entry a year or more before. Unfortunately, I decided not to do that with Kingsbane, and I think the book suffered in my estimation because of it.

I still enjoy the writing, and the world is still very interesting. But there were moments when a character would show up from the first book and I couldn't remember who they were.

I also think this book doesn't need to be as long as it is. There are a lot of repetitive scenes and internal dialogue that could've been trimmed.

I would also like to point out to anyone interested in this book that this is marketed as YA, but there are some very graphic sex scenes in this book that veer closer to Adult than YA. For anyone sensitive to that sort of content, I would take note.

I didn't see the ending coming. I don't want to say exactly what I'm referring to, but there is a character reveal that shook me. I had to go back and listen again because I was sure that I'd misheard. I'll be interested to see where the story goes from this point.

I will read the third book when it comes out, and this time I will absolutely re-read the previous two books, because I think this series is good overall.

So, I am not sure what I just read...but I think I kind of loved it?

Trigger Warnings:

child death; gory birthing scene

I had no real expectations going into this book. I am vaguely familiar with the source material, the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, but this puts a twist on it right from the very beginning. Instead of twelve sisters, we begin the book with eight, four sisters having died prior to the events of the book. There is a level of suspicion surrounding the deaths, specifically the most recent. Our protagonist, Annaleigh, suspects that foul play may be involved, and is determined to find out the truth behind the death. The dancing comes into play about a quarter of the way through the story, when the sisters discover a magical doorway of sorts.

For the first 100 or so pages, I was entertained but not loving the book. I would've guessed it wouldn't get more than 3 stars from me. But then something happened. I fell under this book's spell, and just devoured it. I can't exactly explain how thoroughly entertaining this story was. There were moments that felt magical and others where I was utterly disturbed. This would've been a perfect October read, in my opinion.

It's not a perfect book. I can stand back and spot the flaws. The writing is simplistic, the transitions between scenes are abrupt, the romance was too fast, and the characters and world could have been developed more. But I just didn't care. I had such a good time reading this book.

Trigger Warnings:

suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide, death by suicide, mental and emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, anxiety, depression

This was not an easy book to read. There are so few light moments to cut through the heavy content that makes up this story.

I absolutely hated Cassie's mother. I've seen some reviews that call her one-dimensional and not authentic, but I have personally known people like her. Everything revolves around them and their comfort and happiness and nothing satisfies them. In that sense, I felt that she was a perfect example of a narcissist.

I didn't feel like there was any point in this book where I was surprised by anything that happened. The thing that Cassie is repressing is pretty easy to deduce if you're paying even a moment of attention.

James' death by suicide was also something I assumed was going to happen from the very beginning of the book.

I had a tough time buying into parts of the premise of this book. Cassie has been in a mental institution for years and all of a sudden she jumps right into college? I also wanted to see her interact with her father and brother after her release from the hospital, and felt that it could've added a layer to the story.

I don't think a romance was necessary in this story, it felt very much like a contrivance to get Cassie to remember her past.

I appreciate this book, and I think that if someone is able to read it without being triggered by some of the heavier content, it's a respectful look at a person dealing with mental illness and trauma.

So I'm having a difficult time articulating my thoughts around this book. I've read two novels by this author prior to this one. I liked Tiger Lily, and I LOVED Midnight at the Electric. The latter of those is by far my favorite book by her.
When I picked up this book, I didn't look much into the synopsis, I just knew that I liked this author and that the title was intriguing. As I began the book and realized that a) one of the POV belongs to a ghost; and b) there is a murder mystery, I was even more intrigued.
But as I continued my read I realized that the story isn't actually about either of those two things. They both just kind of happen in the periphery of this coming-of-age story and only one of them even means anything in the grand scheme of the book.
I feel a little strange giving this book 4 stars, because there are so many things that I can point to that I wish were more developed or storylines that had played out differently. But I just love this author's writing so much, and I wasn't angry at the ending like many reviewers seem to be. Actually, the vitriol leveled at this book's ending is a little astonishing to me. Sometimes things don't always end happily ever after tied up in a little bow. That's life. Now, if the book had been marketed as some sort of cutesy YA contemporary rom-com and ended the way it did, I would kind of understand it. But that was not ever going to be this book.

I was actually shocked to see that this book has such a low average rating. Yes, 3 stars is technically an average rating in the 5-star, no-half-star rating system. But, with the way that reviewers rate books on this platform, 'good' books usually have at least a 3.75 rating. At the time of this review, the ratings for this book are a 3.42, which is very low. I don't know that I've ever enjoyed a book with that low a rating on GR. Not that I base my opinions on GR ratings, but that's just how it usually is. To compare, Fifty Shades of Grey has a 3.67 average rating, and that 'book' is a pile of shit. Sorry, not sorry. The idea that this book has .25 lower star rating is ludicrous to me.

I will continue to read anything this author publishes. I feel like her books get better and better with each one that comes out.

This is my first Lisa Jewell book and I have to say I was thoroughly engrossed from beginning to end. Even when I wasn't quite sure what was going on with characters and timelines, I WANTED to keep going.

It's interesting, because this book is a case of nothing truly shocking me, but I appreciated the way the story was crafted so much that I didn't care about the lack of real twists. There are a couple of reveals that I felt were guessable if you were paying attention, but I didn't care. I was all in.

I have always had a fascination with the type of person who would let themselves and their families get sucked into a cult, which is basically what happens in this book. Some of the characters try to downplay that word, but if it looks like a cult and represses freedoms like a cult...it is a cult. Call it whatever you want, but it's a cult.

Anyway, I thought the exploration of this was done really well. It shows how at first, the ideas of a cult leader don't seem all that extreme. He (because it's almost always a man in charge of these things) may even have decent reasons and justifications for his demands on his followers. He grooms them to accept his domineering ways, continually moving the line further and further as he takes away more and more of his followers freedoms and belongings, until they rely completely on him to 'provide' for them. It's not until it's too late that they realize that they've given up their own personhood to foster the ego of a maniac, if they ever do realize it.

Where this book really succeeds is to show us all of this through the eyes of one of the children being kept captive and the effect it has on him. The result is seriously disturbing, and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him, even though he ends up having serious issues of his own and being largely unreliable in his version of events.

I don't know if I would classify this as a straight-up 'thriller' because to me it's more of an examination of a seriously dysfunctional family and how the actions and choices of parents can have lasting and detrimental consequences on their children and subsequent generations. Where it loses a star from me is that I wasn't exactly shocked by any of the events. I had an idea of where the story was heading, and it unfolded in pretty much the way I expected. But that being said, it's creepy as hell and I would highly recommend.


I really enjoyed this book and will read more again from this author.

I think K.A. Tucker is just an author I'm not going to get on with. I didn't HATE this book, but I didn't like much about it either.

First, I don't think this is well-written. It felt clumsy and obvious. The character who our character thinks is the bad guy...turns out to be the bad guy. Dun, Dun, DUUUUUUN.
Yes, we are supposed to think that she is barking up the wrong tree, and for a moment it looked like the crime was going to be pinned on the second most suspicious character in the book, but then we get another reversal and it actually was the guy she suspected all along.

I wish this had been more about the twin statue and less about the fact that our main character was an escort. The 'He' in her writing could have been talking about the statue and I think the book could've been stronger for it. Like, she thought finding the priceless statue would be her salvation, but something happened and it instead became her ruin. I don't know, it's an idea.

It felt as though this book didn't know what it wanted to be. Whenever I've heard this book described, it's as a romance/suspense. That would be inaccurate. There is no real romance in this book, because both of the sex partners she has during the book are scumbags. That's not romantic. Now, I could see the label of 'erotic suspense' possibly, but don't go into this book looking for a HEA.

I thought Maggie was ridiculous. She made some truly bizarre decisions, and would come to conclusions that weren't at all obvious, even when they would turn out to be true. Like, she would see something and just assume one thing or another for no real reason.

I also didn't like the way she talked/thought about Celine. There was such an emphasis on the fact that Celine was a sex worker and it was all as if she was lesser than because of it. Meanwhile, Maggie is having sexual encounters with two men in the course of a two-day span. But it's okay because she's got a 'one cock a day' policy.

By the way, her sexual encounter with Jace in the elevator was fucking stupid and honestly, I can't think of anything less sexy than having a panic attack. There is no way when I am in the middle of an anxiety attack that I could even think about anything to do with sex. When that scene first started, I liked how she called him out over his 'just calm down' comments, but then she flips on a dime and they're having sex in the elevator. What in the actual hell?!

Circling back to the reveal that the guy she originally thought might have killed Celine WAS actually the killer, it just felt to me like the author maybe didn't know how to end the book and thought that making the red herring actually the killer was some stroke of writing genius. Really, it felt lazy to me. And then the explanation of it all was such a convoluted, info-dumpy mess. I just wanted the book to be over by that point, and the part was almost entirely unnecessary for me.

I don't plan on picking up anything else from this author. I've read two of her books and DNF'd a third, and I think I'm done.

So, my experience with this book is interesting. It's something that has been on my shelf for quite a long time, well over a year. I think when I originally purchased it, it was off the part of the synopsis that talked about the protagonist, Katelyn, reuniting with her first love, Jackson. I'm a sucker for second-chance romances, so it makes sense I would pick this up.

But when I picked this up and re-read the synopsis, all I could think was, "Why on Earth would I pick this up?! The last thing I want to read about is this woman on a road trip with her mean soon-to-be ex-mother-in-law...

Funny enough, the parts between these ladies and her MIL and the other elderly ladies in town were my favorite parts. They had the most life to them, and felt the most authentic. The romance, on the other hand, felt under-developed and watered down. It wasn't slow burn so much ice cold. I could deal with angst, but this felt more tortured than anything. I liked the idea of the romance more than the execution.

Also, the writing was incredibly simplistic. Characters have conversations where they talk about things that happened in the previous scene pretty much verbatim. I understand that if you were telling someone a story about something that happened the day before, it would be realistic, but as a reader I don't need each conversation and scene rehashed for me in the next scene. It would have been as simple as, "When Katelyn got to work the next day, she filled Layla in on her conversation with her mother the day before." Then they could get on with the story.

I loved the scenes with the old ladies, but the end of the book was focused on the mediocre romance. I did like that Shirley found someone who made her happy, but I didn't enjoy the wishy-washy nature of Katelyn and her relationship with Jackson.

As far as Jackson goes, he was kind of a wet blanket. Like, I get that he's in recovery and has to make sure that he's not making decisions that could put his sobriety at risk, but damn. He's dull as dirt.

I could see how this could appeal to someone who doesn't enjoy sex scenes in books, but I find it amusing that with how much these characters talk about sex and sleeping around with people, there are no sex scenes in the book.

I could absolutely see this as a movie. Parts of it gave me Sweet Home Alabama vibes and I'm not mad about it. I just wish the romance was more developed in the text.

I am glad that this book exists. Too often we forget what an important role people of color have played in our country's history.
I was fascinated reading the beginning chapters of Ned's life and culture. I confess I didn't know much about the Navajo people before I picked up this book, but it felt very similar to what I know about other Native cultures, and also what I know about how those people were mistreated by white people in power.
I wish there had been more culture/social information in this story. I get that the author didn't want to bog down the narrative, but understanding the Navajo culture and Ned's feelings about his own place in the world are very important to me as a reader.
I also wish we would've had a little more about the Code Talkers themselves. It felt like this book just skimmed the surface. There was more emphasis on the battles and I wanted the emphasis to be on the people.
I didn't realize when I picked up this book that it was a fictional account. The main character, Ned Begay, doesn't exist. There are many characters mentioned in the story that did, in fact, exist, but we don't really get much of their story. It felt a little like the author was just inserting little bits here and there about them as an attempt to pay homage to them. I think I would've preferred this to be an actual non-fiction story, rather than a fictional story told in the style of a memoir.
All that said, I think that this could be a great resource for young people who are learning about Native American culture and the importance of preserving that culture. That message is very strong. The book is written in a style that I think would be very palatable to most young people. There are moments in here that are uncomfortable from a 21st century viewpoint, where characters display prejudiced views against the people they are fighting, but unfortunately I can't say that this kind of rhetoric wasn't authentic for the time. I would just say if you are a parent or teacher having young people read this book, it's important to have a real conversation with them about those aspects.

I saw on Overdrive another book written about these heroic men, and I believe it is actually non-fiction, so I think I'll definitely look into it next.