Sacrifice by Tim Svart

November 24, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Sacrifice by Tim Svart
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A hidden scheme. Suspiciously pat answers. Can one untested leader navigate the thin line between professional and personal justice?
Essen, Germany. Chief Inspector “Karre” Karrenberg has no appetite for overseeing a homicide squad. Still grieving over his ex-wife’s fatal car crash that left his daughter in a coma, the veteran detective’s gut tells him to ignore all the evidence that it was an accident. But he’s forced to put his own needs aside when a poor young woman’s lakeside adventure transforms her into an unidentified body.

Willing to make risky trades for more information, Karre discovers the mysterious female was a high-class escort. But his attempts to find the dead girl’s client are stonewalled by tight-lipped suspects, iron-clad alibis… and a growing number of bodies.

Will Karre’s private tragedies blind him to clues that could prevent another murder?

Chief Inspector Karre Karrenberg is reluctant to be the acting head of his murder investigations team. With the recent tragic car accident killing his ex-wife and leaving his teenage daughter in a precarious coma, Karre has plenty on his mind already. But when an unidentified woman’s body is found near the lakeside, clearly murdered and there’s no one talking and everyone seeming to have a strong alibi Karre realizes he needs all his effort to try and find justice for this lady – as well as his own family.

I mainly purchased this book because I don’t believe I have ever read a police murder mystery based in Germany. I was strongly intrigued and am very pleased with this book. With a complex mystery that circles around nicely and has plenty of depth and questions, I was also easily dragged in by the small number of very strong secondary characters. Karre’s team-mates as well as a few key forensic characters made an excellent group and they all retained my attention. The fact this plot also clearly linked somehow to the car accident that recently killed Karre’s ex-wife and put his teen daughter into a coma also intrigued me – because at a first glance I assumed the two scenarios were not linked at all.

I have read a number of British police procedural mysteries, as well as a few Scandinavian police mysteries and I would place the tone and voice of this German offering somewhere in between the two. I felt this wasn’t as cosy or rural as I find British police procedural books tend to be. This definitely had more of a city feel to it with a somewhat darker or gritter turn than many British mystery’s feel to me. That said I didn’t feel this was as bleak or dark as many Scandinavian mysteries appear to me. There was still a fair bit of emotion and hope to this book – whereas I often find the Scandi crime novels to be quite terse and often bleak.

I very much enjoyed both the setting, pace and tone of this book. I was easily hooked on the characters and found the mystery complex enough to retain my attention all through the book and I am definitely interested in purchasing the second book in this series. A good first novel and a set of characters I hope to explore further as I work my way through the series.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Scarred Santa by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

November 23, 2023 By Leave a Comment


The Scarred Santa by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Romance, Inspirational, Holiday, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Once handsome Rafe Sullivan is left scarred, injured, and with PTSD from his Marine Corps service in Afghanistan, returning to civilian life is far from smooth, and the burn scars on his right side are extensive. Although he lives close to family, he lives a solitary life and changes jobs more often than most people change their socks. A temporary job as Santa at the mall is presented, but Rafe first rebels, then relents. His Santa gig affects his PTSD. Then he meets Sheena Dunmore. When she doesn’t run from his scars or issues, she intrigues him. An unmasking by some rowdy children is a test of his stamina and spirit. His greatest fear is fire. Will Rafe conquer the fear so he can move forward into the new life he desires?

Kindness is for everyone.

Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that showed how difficult the Christmas season can be for certain people. There are many reasons why someone might avoid crowds, be wary of celebrations, or not want to spend time with anyone. It made me happy to see how often the people around Rafe understood his limitations and encouraged him to do whatever he was able to do without pressuring him to do things that were too painful for him physically or emotionally. Their empathy for him was lovely and really embodied what Christmas should be all about.

There were a few plot holes in this novella that were never explained. For example, Rafe explored the idea of becoming a police officer but never fully answered the question of whether or not his PTSD and permanent leg injury would prevent him from pursuing that line of work. There was also a scene at the end involving another character being in terrible danger. It appeared to me that this person could have walked or crawled away from the threat, so I was confused by the fact that they stayed put. I wish these things had been explained better!

With that being said, I did appreciate the author’s realistic descriptions of what daily life as a civilian would be like for someone with Rafe’s extensive injuries. He struggled to do things as ordinary as go to the mall or have dinner at the homes of his relatives due to his many triggers and deep shame about his scars and missing ear. I never stopped rooting for him and hoping that he’d find a way to heal. If the author ever decides to write a sequel, I’d like to know what this character’s life was like five or ten years after the events of this tale.

The Scarred Santa was a heartwarming read.

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Walk The Wire by David Baldacci

November 21, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Walk The Wire by David Baldacci
Publisher: Pan Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

When Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are called to London, North Dakota, they instantly sense that the thriving fracking town is ripe for trouble. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, and the community is growing faster than houses can be built. The sudden boom has also brought a slew of problems with it, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution—and now murder.

Decker and Jamison are ordered to investigate the death of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was expertly autopsied and then dumped in the open—which is only the beginning of the oddities surrounding the case. As Decker and Jamison dig into Irene’s life, they are shocked to discover that the woman who walked the streets by night as a prostitute was a teacher for a local religious sect by day—a sect operating on land once owned by a mysterious government facility that looms over the entire community.

London is a town replete with ruthless business owners, shady government officials, and religious outsiders, all determined to keep their secrets from coming out. When other murders occur, Decker will need all of his extraordinary memory and detective skills, and the assistance of a surprising ally, to root out a killer and the forces behind Cramer’s death . . . before the boom town explodes.

Amos Decker and Alex Jamison are in a remote fracking mining town in North Dakota for reasons they’re not quite certain of. A highly unusual murder of a school teacher set off alarms within the FBI hierarchy and Decker and Jamison were sent to investigate – without the request of the local police force nor a reasonable explanation for them being sent out for a singular murder. Decker and Jamison quickly realise all is not as it seems in the small community and they both will need to keep their wits about them if they are to survive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was particularly pleased that there were a number of plots interweaving together with a strong enough complexity it took me quite a while to separate out what was linked together and what was not related. Baldacci did an excellent job to my mind of interlacing a number of plotlines together and it was complicated enough that I could gauge that a number of things were happening simultaneously and it wasn’t a simple matter unraveling everything.

I was also thrilled that a few characters from a different series written by Baldacci were very strong secondary characters (and not just cameos but quite integral to the plotline as well) and it was utterly wonderful for me to read about these much loved characters and see how they were going. I also quite enjoyed the cross over – seeing how Decker and Jamison interacted with them and it was a true joy for me to read this.

While I absolutely feel readers can pick this book up as a stand alone and enjoy the intricate plot and well written FBI mystery/suspense story I think fans who have read previous books in this series and in particular who are at least passingly knowledgeable about a few other series written by Mr. Baldacci should find this an excellent book with a few deeper layers that non-fans might not fully appreciate.

I feel readers who enjoy a well woven, complicated and interesting murder/mystery/suspense style FBI book should thoroughly enjoy this book and characters and I can strongly recommend it and the others in this series.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Rag Lady by Susie Black

November 20, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Rag Lady by Susie Black
Holly Swimsuit Series, Book 1
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary, Fiction
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other plans. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t happen the way she plans, the irrepressible young woman takes a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling and shatters it to smithereens. The wise-cracking, irreverent transplanted Californian goes on a raucous, rollicking rollercoaster ride of hysterical adventures as a ladies’ apparel sales rep traveling in the deep South and finds herself along the way.

Change is inevitable.

Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that explored the many ways in which life can suddenly veer off into directions one never saw coming. For example, Holly’s college major had nothing at all to do with the sales position she eventually took at the company her father worked at, but she muddled through and eventually discovered all sorts of things about her new job that suited her nicely. This was one of many examples of how characters adjusted to new circumstances and found ways to thrive when nothing went the way they thought it would. They were all enriching for the plot and interesting to think about.

I struggled with the slow and sometimes uneven pacing of this book. The narrator went into plenty of detail about every twist and turn Holly faced while adjusting to her new job. This was necessary in some scenes, but in other ones it slowed the storyline down and made readers wait even longer for fresh developments than we already had waited. As much as I wanted to give this a higher rating, I didn’t feel comfortable doing so given my experience with it.

With that being said, I did appreciate how much effort the author put into describing such a wide variety of characters. The people Holly met were from all sorts of backgrounds. Some of them I liked immediately, while others needed some time to work their charms on me. It was interesting to see how my opinions of the latter evolved over time as I got to know them better and understand why they behaved in certain ways.

This was a prequel to the Holly Swimsuit series, but it worked perfectly well as a standalone story, too.

Rag Lady was a thought-provoking read.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis

November 16, 2023 By Leave a Comment


The Plague Maiden by Kate Ellis
Publisher: Piatkus
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A stir is caused in Tradmouth when a letter arrives at the police station claiming that the man convicted of murdering the Vicar of Belsham is innocent. DI Wesley Peterson already has his hands full with threats made to local supermarket chain, Huntings – the last thing he needs is an alleged miscarriage of justice to investigate.

Meanwhile, Wesley’s friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, uncovers a medieval plague pit at a site near Belsham church earmarked for Huntings’ new superstore. As Wesley’s investigations continue, he begins to suspect that the vicar’s murder, the disappearance of a woman and the threats to the supermarket may be linked in some way.

Dr Neil Watson and his archaeology team uncover what they believe to be a plague pit in an open field earmarked as the site for a new local supermarket. Despite the growing number of bodies, DI Wesley Peterson is relieved, since the bones are clearly mediaeval and solving their deaths is not his problem. Wesley’s plate is already quite full, with his wife due to deliver their second child any day now, new evidence found that clearly shows an innocent man has been in jail for a decade for the murder of a vicar he can’t have committed, and an unknown person leaving infected products at the local Huntings supermarkets which has killed a number of people. When Wesley begins to find more and more connections between all these cases he will need every talent he can draw on to uncover what’s really going on.

This is another book in the DI Wesley Peterson series and I have been really enjoying them so far. Many of the books are primarily a British police procedural style with a good hit of history/archaeology running through the plots and this book is no exception. While some of the connections between the team members and Neil with the various other characters does have plenty of history from the previous books, I strongly feel this story can be picked up easily by itself and really enjoyed. The plot and central focus of the investigations are well contained in this story.

Readers looking for something very heavily historical might not find this quite suits their purposes. While Neil’s archaeology dig and investigations does indeed create quite a strong sub-plot there are a number of modern mysteries and police investigations that take up the main aspect to the plot in my mind. I feel the author has given a good balance between the past mystery and the current problems facing Wesley and his team but readers wanting something more historical might feel this balance isn’t quite right. I also could appreciate there were a number of cases that interwove here and that took some exceptional writing both to make it believable but also to knit it all together. In such a small town it makes sense that seemingly unconnected events actually could have cross over in parts since with such a small pool of people, the interactions and connectedness really would make sense to cross over into all aspects of the town’s life.

I found this to be a well written and strongly plotted police procedural with a number of interesting plots and a strong and equally interesting historical aspect too. I’m very much enjoying this series and am eager to get to the next book.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Dead To Me by JM Dalgliesh

November 10, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Dead To Me by JM Dalgliesh
Publisher: Hamilton Press
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Let go of your past… or it will be the death of you…

When a man’s body is discovered crammed into the boot of an abandoned car in a remote location, DI Tom Janssen and his team must unpick his life to find out how he came to be there.

The victim was a local man, popular with some although hated by others, and he had a habit of making enemies, enemies that any sane man would seek to avoid. For once, the team do not struggle to find a suspect or a motive for his murder, but with several to choose from, how can they determine who delivered the killing blows? Those who despised the man are unrepentant and as the investigation develops there seems to be more going on than a simple act of vengeance. What did the deceased have to hide and who was so intent on keeping their own secrets that they were prepared to brutally kill to do so?

With a killer at large the public are restless, reassured only by the suggestion that the murder is an act perpetrated by figures within the criminal community against one of their own, but when a troubled teenage girl disappears fear takes hold in the small coastal town. The only potential witness is an eccentric homeless man who comes and goes as he pleases, often disappearing for months at a time. Who did he see? What does he know? Will he be the next to be silenced?

What looked like a simple revenge attack will turn into a race against time for Tom and his team as they try to protect the innocent and reveal the guilty… only no one knows with any certainty who belongs in which camp.

DI Tom Janssen and his team are called in when the body of a man is found crammed into the boot of a car in a remote and abandoned lot. After quickly identifying the man, the team all too soon realise that with his shady dealings there were any number of people who might have wanted the man dead. Can they uncover what really happened when there are so many different things that might have gone wrong?

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this series and found this book to be an excellent addition. While most of the team are very well known friends there are a few new characters that appear to be sticking around and that helped keep the various dynamics and relationships feeling fresh. I have been particularly pleased with Eric’s character and – admittedly very slow moving – development. I am very hopeful that things might finally be getting better and easier for him. I was also really impressed that the two different plots managed to cross over without feeling like it was forced or too cliched. I feel like the author did an excellent job making this believable and it didn’t push me too far out on the logical and believability scale.

Readers who pick this book up fresh might find they need a bit of help to piece together some of the history and camaraderie between the team members, but overall I feel this book should prove equally enjoyable to readers new to the series as well as readers like me who have read them all previously. The plot itself and much of the interactions are very well contained in this book and quite well explained.

I feel readers who enjoy British police procedurals with a solid mystery plot and interesting and modern characters should find this an excellent book and I can easily recommend the entire series as well worth the effort. Recommended.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz

November 7, 2023 By Leave a Comment


A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.

Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.

When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?

Both a brilliant satire on the world of books and writers and an immensely enjoyable locked-room mystery, A Line to Kill is a triumph—a riddle of a story full of brilliant misdirection, beautifully set-out clues, and diabolically clever denouements.

Anthony Horowitz and Daniel Hawthorne have agreed to go to a literary festival on the Island of Alderney to talk about and start the PR for Horowitz’s first book featuring Hawthorne and one of his cases. Horowitz knows Hawthorne appears to have an ulterior motive for this unusual agreeableness but in many ways both men are still a mystery to each other. Horowitz figures nothing to drastic can happen on the small island, but he’s quickly proved wrong. One of the wealthy festival sponsors is found brutally murdered – the first murder ever to occur on the island. And with only a certain number of people on the island, it’s clear Hawthorne has a limited number of suspects to search amongst. When a second death occurs, only then to Horowitz and Hawthorne really begin to understand the level of danger there is.

This is the third book in this series and while with the plot and characters I strongly feel it can be read by itself I have to admit the writer’s style is a little unusual and I’m still getting used to it. The author actually is Anthony Horowitz, so having him write a story about himself as one of the main protagonists always feels quite jarring for me to read as he doesn’t really write in the first person in a manner I’m used to. I thoroughly enjoy the characters – though do admit Hawthorne can easily appear both arrogant and somewhat odd at times, which I’m sure in on purpose – and the plot is excellent with a number of twists and convoluted enough to keep most readers guessing. I think it’s just the tone and writing style that takes me, personally, a bit to get used to and I find it hard sometimes to really sink into the story because of how the author is so deeply immersed in the story. It just reads a little odd to me.

I have to admit the plotline itself was very well handled – believable and logical with a strong element of realism to it. While I might question or find jarring the two main characters and the way the tone/voice of the book is handled the plot and murder mystery and the set up around that part of the book is very believable to my mind and I feel readers who enjoy a different kind of murder mystery might find this book – and the two prior to this as well – highly enjoyable.

Readers who like a slightly different plot or characters who are a little outside of the box should find this an enjoyable and strong read.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Survival by Shirley Bigelow DeKelver

November 6, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Survival by Shirley Bigelow DeKelver
Climate of Fire Book 1
Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc.
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The year is 2045, global warming escalates, and wildfires are rampant. Vancouver has been devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. Those who have survived have moved north or taken up residence at Little Mountain, the highest point in the city. Food and water are scarce, there are more violent storms and rising temperatures. The ashfall from the volcanoes increases daily, making it difficult to breathe. Four young adults, Taylor West, Carlie Fleming, Mai-Li Wong, and Willie Arbuckle, and three children, twin brothers Rusty and Eddie Coleman, and Debbie, who has Downs Syndrome, have gravitated together, forming a motley crew of survivors, living in constant fear of the violent gangs.

Making a life-saving decision, they decide to walk to the Interior, hoping to find a better life. Inexperienced, they face unknown obstacles, daily hardships, and hunger. Traveling across the devastated Wastelands is fraught with danger with unexpected complications making the journey more treacherous than they ever imagined. Reaching a sanctuary and indeed their very survival hangs in the balance. Relationships are tested time and again. What will remain strong and what will shatter?

Nothing is guaranteed in this dangerous, new world.

Compassion can be expressed in many different ways. I enjoyed seeing how the characters wrestled with the thought of what total strangers should do for each other in a crisis and how much someone should be expected to risk their own safety to help others who may be injured, young, or helpless. These aren’t questions that have black and white answers in most cases, but they are good jumping-off points for all sorts of discussions about many of the scenes in this book. Sometimes I found myself wishing I’d read this as a part of a book club so I could discuss my thoughts on what certain characters should or shouldn’t have done in specific situations with other readers!

The main characters made odd and illogical decisions that I struggled to understand. For example, Carlie was given the chance to be rescued by the military in one of the earliest scenes, but she decided to hide instead for reasons that were never clear to me. This was the first of many examples of characters refusing to do simple things that would make their already-difficult lives easier without explaining why they thought those choices were the right ones. I don’t expect teenagers to always think things through the way an adult would, but this pattern of picking the hardest option for no reason happened so often that it did reduce my enjoyment of the plot in general.

I enjoyed the strong, steady pacing. Carlie and her companions regularly had new problems to solve on their journey whether they were minor ones like disagreements between certain characters or major ones like not having enough food or water. There was never a good time for me to stop reading and do something else. That’s the sort of conundrum I always like to have when I’m reading as it means that the author planned everything out evenly and made sure that their audience would have plenty of things to think about when we did eventually need to take a break and do something else.

Survival was adventurous.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , ,

See Them Run by Marion Todd

November 2, 2023 By Leave a Comment


See Them Run by Marion Todd
Publisher: Canelo Crime
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

In a famous Scottish town, someone is bent on murder – but why?
On the night of a wedding celebration, one guest meets a grisly end when he’s killed in a hit-and-run. A card bearing the number ‘5’ has been placed on the victim’s chest. DI Clare Mackay, who recently moved from Glasgow to join the St Andrews force, leads the investigation. The following night another victim is struck down and a number ‘4’ card is at the scene. Clare and her team realise they’re against the clock to find a killer stalking the streets of the picturesque Scottish town and bent on carrying out three more murders.

To prevent further deaths, the police have to uncover the link between the victims. But those involved have a lot more at stake than first meets the eye. If Clare wants to solve the case she must face her own past and discover the deepest secrets of the victims – and the killer.

After leaving the armed response police unit under a cloud, DI Clare Mackay is slowly settling into her new position in the St Andrews Force. With a far smaller team and a much smaller township to protect, Clare is beginning to find her feet when a guest at a local wedding meets a grisly end in a suspected hit and run. When days later yet another man is hit in a clear hit and run Clare and her team rush to uncover what could possibly link these two men – because Clare knows there will soon be more victims if they can’t stop this killer.

This is a brand new (to me) author that I found and picked up on a whim. While I admit the story started a little slowly to me after the first 20-30 pages I found myself really getting into the story and before I’d reached the half way mark I’d already ordered the second book in the series. I found this to be a well plotted and decently paced small town Scottish police procedural style of story. Readers looking for something more action-orientated or a more busy city style of action/mystery might not find this really hits the spot for them.

I was of two minds that Clare’s past/history took a while to unfurl throughout this story. For quite a bit of the book (maybe as much as half of the story) aspects of the reason behind why she left behind Glasgow was left mysterious. I felt that a little odd how long it drew out, particularly since this was the incident that caused her to so drastically alter her entire life. While I could believe this plotline might follow DI Clare Mackay into the next book or two there was certainly a good amount of resolution and conclusion to this event and I am intrigued how Clare will rebuild her life and move on.

Readers who enjoy police procedural mysteries and are looking for something a little different should definitely give this a try. I thoroughly enjoyed the Scottish dialogue, accents and setting and really enjoyed the slightly different lens this gave the book as a whole. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next in the series.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Veronica by Asif Hossain

October 30, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Veronica by Asif Hossain
Publisher: Turquoise Book House
Genre: LGBTQ, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Veronica is a young (18-year-old) girl who recently graduated from high school and plans to attend college. Loneliness is her best companion. She has a quiet personality and spends the majority of her time reading. She decides to embark on an adventure with no set destination in order to see the world from another point of view. As she continues, different perspectives, including her romantic awakening, start to fill the void in her mind.

As she drives through the streets and wanders around, she finds herself in places she has never been before. A quiet, empty motel, a cafe with old-fashioned people in a deserted area—entering all these becomes a discovery for her. The calm atmosphere and sudden downpour of rain bring a sense of nostalgia to her life. However, meeting a captivating college student named Olivia in the Ozarks brings a different flow of emotions into her life.

The book is divided into twelve chapters with an epilogue, each titled after an art form that Veronica’s feelings resonate with, which is mostly songs and sometimes poetry.

Love makes everything better.

Veronica was a thoughtful and kind protagonist. I appreciated the way she took note of how her actions might affect others and did everything she could to make the right decisions that would have the highest probability of being good for everyone involved. There is definitely something to be said for characters who care about social harmony as much as she did!

I struggled with the slow pacing of this book. The plot development that was there took a lot of time to show up and included a lot of filler scenes that could have been cut out or trimmed down. As much as I enjoyed the thoughtful atmosphere of certain scenes, having everything move so slowly meant that I didn’t have as many incentives to keep reading as I would have liked to discover. Some of the scenes did make me eager to see what would happen next, especially in the last fifteen percent of the storyline or so, but sadly there weren’t enough of them to warrant giving this a higher rating.

The friends to lovers trope is one of my favorite romance tropes, and it was handled nicely here. It was refreshing for Veronica and her love interest to have so much time to get to know each other before anything romantic happened to them because it gave them the opportunity to get to know each other on a deep level. There’s a lot of overlap between what makes two people compatible as friends versus what makes them a good match romantically speaking, so confirming just how much they had in common ahead of time did them both a service.

Veronica was a quiet read.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,
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