justinlife's Reviews (916)

A very solid murder mystery about old people in a community solving murders. The writing is witty and the characters are interesting. 

Much more cohesive in volume 2. Loved the plot, the characters, their journeys, and the work that was built. 

This was fine, but damn does Spencer like to create more internal melodrama and not enough rewards at the end. Like girl give me something.  This ain't it. It gets frustrating when cool characters from the first book show up and are NOTHING like theirselves in the second one. This Brooklyn wasn't nearly as interesting as he was in the first one. 

It's fine. Too much melodrama for little payoff. wanted more romance and less fretting and stressing. 

This book was ok. It wasn't great. It wasn't horrible, it was fine. I was hoping for something more, but It didn't happen.  Characters who experience extreme trauma should have options for therapy. It was bit frustrating seeing hurt people do things to hurt people out of fear. Overal, not awful, but not amazing. 

Overall I think I liked it. It felt unintentionally campy. It also felt like a glimpse into what a straight dude with limited exposure to other groups outside of his box.  It was fine. I enjoyed the pulp 30s detective feel of it, but the book used as many tropes as it could and the dialogue was more annoying than funny. 

Overall a solid read. What sets this series apart from other M/M romance is Banner is really good at capturing small town life. When there’s a new one of the series, I make sure to go and read it. He does a great job of capturing a growing community and keeping the side characters moving and progressing as well. Everyone feels different. 

The main characters in this one were fine. Not my favorite and the enemies to friends to lovers didn’t seem believable. A 30 year old is hating on a teenager? Not that I’ve known. 

Overall though stay for the town and the world he’s created.

This was fine. Friends to lovers but an unexpected path. Characters were more interesting than the others of the series. Lennox didn't fall into the "big guy/small guy" trope that feels too analogous to heterosexual couples. On a different note, I'm wishing more m/m romance authors tried not to use the "bisexual awakening" trope. Like a character is straight UNTIL JUST NOW. It's convenient but it's a bit tiring.

Overall, I liked it. Lennox is great with dialogue and silly plots so this was fun. 

I feel like if I read this book 20 years ago, then I would have been blown away by it. The world building is great and Gaiman stays with the fantasy tropes by providing a quest for his characters to go on. It's a good time and a lot of fun. 

I think the concept of "magic in the current city that's around us" has been done a lot and done better. But I don't hold him or the book at fault. To me, this feels like it was one of the first that made the concept popular.  So as trendsetters and pioneers, others will take what has been established and go further. Even Gaiman himself does it better with American Gods. 

The world is still interesting. The characters are still fun. It's still an enjoyable read. I just wish I had read it earlier.