2.5/5

I...I feel uncomfortable with a White author writing about an Indian child coming to England from the child's perspective. I didn't realize this wasn't own voices until after receiving the ARC.

The pacing was honestly rough. It's not a long book but it felt like it. Honestly, just a lot of this didn't work for me.

Rtc

Damn it. I enjoyed this. I wanted to hate it for the offensive amount of cover changes but I'll admit that it's a solid mystery and historical fiction. Now, I don't think it's the cats pyjamas the way some do but I like the diverse cast, the mystery was really good and I enjoyed the "is it an actual murderer or a paranormal" debate this book made me had for the majority of it. The mc Evie is flawed as hell but I really liked her for that. Sometimes I did want to slap her for being so selfish but she is a good person--not a proper person. All of the characters had a pretty well teased and introduced backgrounds. I do cringe a lot at the dialogue because it is so cheesy flapper era but that's a personal taste thing.

I'm definitely curious to see what the sequels will focus on

3.5/5

RTC

Rtc

rtc

This was an incredibly weird topic but SO INSANELY INTERESTING! Very accessible language for those who aren't scientists. I liked that it sort of had a story but didn't read like a fiction novel. I never thought there would be an analysis of the racism in healthcare, the selling of books claiming skin of specific races, and the practices medical professionals partook in to get bodies. Such a unique read!

Rtc

I received this ARC to participate in the TBR & Beyond Tour but it did not arrive in time so it's a tad late. Thank you so much to the publisher for sending the ARC

I'm putting Teri Bailey Black on my auto-read authors list after this. Both her historical mysteries have had such strong female characters doing things society doesn't totally deem appropriate for women. Tons of twists and turns in the murder mystery while developing several characters and a setting. She somehow avoids large info-dumping and making several characters seem totally good and others totally guilty. I had an inkling as to who the murderer was (and I was right for once) but there was so much explanation and reasoning at the end that I had completely not picked up on until it was explained. I find a lot of YA mysteries make it so ridiculously obvious when something is playing a roll...Black does not do that. You spend most of the book deciding what was world and character building...and what was a hint.