sarai0410's Reviews (404)

Like a warm hug from your grandparents (the ones you like) - The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a heartwarming, cozy read about not just finding answers, but finding yourself along the way. The characters were charming, unique, and made me miss my grandma in the best way. While this has a mystery element, do not go into it expecting fast-paced, hard hitting clues and discoveries - instead, this is much more a gentle exploration of the characters, where you'll probably guess the mystery before the ending, but not in a disappointing way. 

The dual-POV between Clayton and Pippa was done so well - multiple POVs (especially with dual-timelines) can be challenging, usually leaving the reader wanting more of one than the other - but this was not the case here thankfully. I enjoyed both POVs and timelines immensely and I think really opened up the story and characters. 

The one thing I wish we got to see was more of was Clayton growing up and his interactions with the residents/members of the Fellowship. I absolutely adored the small bits we got to see between him and Earl and I found myself wanting more of that. 

This was a wonderful blend between folklore and facts and kept me interested throughout. With each plant discussed, we received an introduction to its history via a poem or scripture passage that referenced it - something that I really appreciated from a historical standpoint. My personal favorites that were covered were Fly Agaric (Chapter 10) and Mistletoe (Chapter 13) - both have such a range of folklore and history surrounding them and the author did a great job covering the tales while not going into unnecessary detail. 

Out of all the Bridgerton siblings, Francesca is the most elusive and mysterious. Knowing so little about her character, outside of the fact that she feels rather different from her family and appreciates space to herself, I was looking forward to learning more about her, her husband, John, and her relationship with said husband's cousin, Michael.

To start on a positive note with the aspects of When He Was Wicked that I enjoyed:
- The way grief was portrayed, as something continuous but ever evolving, through both Francesca and Michael was beautiful. Grief for men is not something that is touched on enough, and I appreciate that Quinn did not shy away from showing how losing someone so dear to him affected Michael deeply.
- Francesca's continuing relationship with the Sterling mothers despite their the changes that came to their family showed true family commitment and love. I could feel their maternal love for Francesca through their interactions and reactions so thoroughly.
- Oh the Bridgerton brood how I adore you. No matter how many times I see it (six books worth now to be exact), I fall more in love with their banter, care for one another, and ability to truly see their siblings (and children for Violet). I'm almost positive that I have commented on him in every Bridgerton book review thus far, but Colin is absolutely my favorite Bridgerton brother strictly for his ability to insert himself into the happenings of his siblings love stories.

Unfortunately, on to the negatives:
- One thing that absolutely through me was the timing of Francesca's story, being that it is taking place at the same time as Romancing Mister Bridgerton and To Sir Phillip, With Love. I was having a difficult time placing the story in the timeline until more hints at the previous stories was occurring. Not a huge negative, but did take a little adjustment.
- Even though it started slow, I did end up quite enjoying Francesca and Michael's relationship and the pace of their development as individuals and together. However,

what was that love confession from Michael?? It felt unbelievably anticlimactic and out of place in the pacing up to that point. Not to mention the way in which Francesca accepted his proposal - it just felt so...meh.

- The 2nd epilogue -

Francesca...did you really not tell your entire family, especially your beautiful mother that did nothing but support you in your grief for both John and infertility, that you were pregnant AND GAVE BIRTH FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR??? There's no way you didn't converse with them throughout that year via letters and you just thought..."nah, that's okay I won't tell them yet." GIRL WHAT.

Overall, while not my favorite of the series, Quinn does it again with a beautiful love story. Next up is Hyacinth's love story with It's in His Kiss and oh boy I am so ready for to see her in all her hilarious glory. 

Immediately (and I mean this quite literally) after finishing Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone I went to the library and grabbed the next in the Ernest Cunningham series. I can confidently say that Stevenson is now one of my favorite authors based on these two books alone - they are seriously that good.

Ernest is back with another issue on his hands - taking the leap and writing a fiction murder mystery - and hoping to make an impression on his fellow writers while aboard the Ghan for the Australian Mystery Writers' Festival. Trouble obviously boards with them and it's up to our earnest, budding detective to solve the case.

While it took me a bit to get into the sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, once I did, it had me absolutely hooked. Filled with the same humor, sarcasm, and fourth wall breaks that made me love it's predecessor, Everyone on This Train is a Suspect made me laugh, gasp, and even cry. Twists and reveals that I truly wasn't expecting and a writing style that keeps you hooked even after the Grand Reveal. 

It's always fascinating to learn about medicinal practice from the past and this was no different. The information was provided in bite size bits, getting straight to the point of the matter. The audiobook was well done and the use of two narrators - one being the author with his input and the other with the historical recounting - lifted the book up and stopped it from becoming monotonous to listen to. 

Audible complaint only - I really wish the chapters were labeled by more than just 'Chapter 1' - it makes it so difficult to go back and listen to a particularly interesting section. 

I keep going back and forth on my feelings and final rating for The Antiquity Affair because while I enjoyed the book to a certain degree, there are a couple of things that irked me and took me out of the reading. My biggest complaint is the the sister's POVs - the girls are meant to be complete opposites, one a society doll and the other the rebel following in her father's footsteps, and yet their actions and dialogue feel so similar that it is difficult to differentiate them at times, which is a shame because I did enjoy them as individuals when it shined through (Tess more than Lila but that's just a personality preference more than anything). Unfortunately, the romantic entanglements left much to be desired as well as they both felt rushed and not fleshed out enough for me to consider them as more than just passing fancies. Finally, this is was set in 1907...but was it really? Outside of a couple of technology references, nothing really made me feel as if I was in 1907 rather than 2024. 

While there were aspects of the characters and the plot that irked me, I did still enjoy it - just not as much as I was hoping to. 

Murder mystery mixed with dry, sarcastic humor and fourth wall breaks from the MC 'author' galore? Sign me up. The main character/narrator/'author', Ernest Cunningham, provides the reader with an outline of what to and what not to expect from his story and promises to 'play fair' and be truthful throughout the story - which he absolutely does, just not always in the way that is expected. The way the story came together was brilliant and as more was revealed about the Cunningham family, I just wanted to dive even deeper.

One thing that I really appreciated about the story was that while the title is 100% accurate - it didn't mean they were all outright murderers. About Lucy - "The title of this book is true: everyone in my family has killed someone. It's just that not all of them killed other people." and Audrey, Ernest's mother - "You might think that my mother didn't kill anybody. You'd have a point...Perhaps I could make the argument that a locked care on a baking summer's day was the end of Jeremy Cunningham. That my mother was responsible for that life and birthing another: one who dreamed of choking." Things finally came back around to Ernest and his part in killing someone in a similar fashion to his brother Michael at the start of the story - a truer representation of the world 'kill,' depending on how you believe it played out.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is not only hilarious, with the dry humor and fourth wall breaks that made me quite literally LOL, but it also makes you look at family and what it actually means. I can't wait to step back into Ernest's narration with Stevenson's next book in the series Everyone on This Train is a Suspect.

I am by no means a mystery genre expert - I don't (can't) predict the plot twist 55 pages in and I won't solve the murder before the characters - but I quite enjoyed this story. Annie was a fun character and I enjoyed watching her interact with the village of Castle Knoll as an outsider with a fresh perspective on the residents and her Great Aunt Frances' life. I love a good dual timeline, and I thought Perrin balanced the past and present nicely and I looked forward to being in both perspectives  and it felt like the past had a real purpose rather than being filler.

I'm personally happy to say that I was not expecting the twist at the end but once everything was revealed it really did feel plausible and the setup was subtle but telling looking back at the clues - Rose was really quite obsessed with Frances and Joe did truly appear to be a devoted son just looking to make his mother happy.

It feels like the ending was setting up for a sequel and I'd be happy to follow Annie into her next mystery. 

There is just something about Gaiman's writing that is an excellent blend of beautiful prose and 'wtf is going on?' - whatever it is, I found myself really loving this mysteriously magical story. The illustrated edition is gorgeous and adds just the right about of whimsy and darkness to enhance the story. 

This was an absolutely trippy read. I bought this years ago on a whim strictly because it has the word 'Library' in the title (I'm a sucker for a story about books in any capacity). Considering how long ago I bought it/read the blurb, I went into this pretty blind which is exactly what I would recommend to anyone even remotely interested in picking this up because this story is truly just something you have to give a try. 

I honestly struggled with the book for the first 70 or so pages but then the characters/plot started to actually make sense (only a little though as it is seriously a confusing story) and I started to feel invested in learning more. There were several moments where I thought the plot was wrapping up but I still had 150..100..50 pages left and I'm sitting there thinking 'What more could happen??' - the answer is a lot more. The last 75ish pages were quite a shock and I really loved how the lessons learned were fleshed out and character reactions to these lessons. 

There is very little I can go into detail on without feeling like I'm revealing too much - I highly recommend going in blind, not getting too caught up on the nonsense, and enjoying the ride.