I severely liked the first.
I loved the second.
I GOT BETTER!

I'm so excited I don't even know how to form the words.
I love the details on all the magical creatures, I love that in the middle of a big story we're still learning about small little creatures in this universe. From what the folklore tells us they are, to what they are in the reality of the universe.

And I love the critter-scenes in her home.

I wanted to like this book. I did.
I read a lot of indie urban fantasy, there is only so many best sellers around when you read 100+ books a year.
And normally I can forgive certain grammar errors or sentence structure when it comes to the indies... And I don't know if this book was simply more horrendously written than normal, or if the second person point of view just really threw me but I almost DNF this book multiple times.

I DID like the platonic male-female friendship in this book, that's somewhat rare. Not a single moment of flirting or innuendo between the two and I found that very refreshing.

I severely disliked how the book went from desperately wanting answers to who she is, to when a random dude calls her by another name her reaction is to play dumb and want to get the fuck out of there. I was expecting her to be crawling all over him for answers until

Spoiler

she got disappointed that the person he thought she was died a century or two ago.

There were other minor plotholes that annoyed me,

Spoiler

going from ptsd about vampires to making out with one? seemingly smart woman thinking that just because a vampire can feel empathy they're good and not a serial killer which means necking with one vampire is fine but obviously cant neck with the other one because HE can't feel empathy. And why isn't she more upset about the fact the person she is necking now used to be a famous serial killer? oh no nevermind, he's CHANGED now, that washes the blood off his hands. But apparently she has enough of a moral high ground that she freaks out about HER past self(potentially) being same-level bad??

And let us not talk about the whole getting triggered of a scene with women from the victorian era or whatever, but when someone claims she's the reborn woman from that era or something she's like "oh just a doubelganger, my having a ptsd freakout episode when seeing someone wearing clothes from that era can't possible mean I'm either a reborn someone, or some kind of being that is immortal or cheated death or whatever. Let's juuust ignore all the dreams about eras you can't possible have been alive for.

I am so so SO tired of the setting of where magic is real. Shifters is real. Weird creatures is real. It’s not a secret. Everyone knows and accepts.
But ghosts? No no we draw the line at ghosts. Cant possible believe in ghosts or be open to the idea of ghosts.

And let’s not get started on this heroine and her quest to find answers when SHE IS IGNORING THE EASIEST WAY TO GET THEM!! Talk to your father! You live with him. Interrogate him! He’s been living in a magical town all his life in a house that goes back generations? You don’t think he won’t know anything about the house maybe being haunted? Or what your so-called magical abilities should be? You don’t think he won’t know anything about this creature that used to kidnap kids and is now mysteriously back into play?? You don’t think he maybe knows something about that considering HE LIVED THERE AT THE TIME???

I finished this book in pure spite and I’d like to sit down the author and shake her senseless.