RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

3.5* The title was too much of a giveaway of the storyline. Decent read but no surprises, except for Natalie. This is a decent read but there were no surprises about it. Names, events, hsppenings, characters, were all a bit clunky and plonked-in, rather than blending in. I figured out who the bad guys were just from the mention of 10 years. And all the body parts that Cam's dad had been collecting for years. The only kind of nice thing about the tale was that life goes on. Natalie was a surprise, and even when her life as a kid was mentioned, I wasn't sure where she was going - prostitution was what jumped to mind. The book ends well. There's life for more than I expected, although with social media, VPNs and the likes, it could've been happier for many more people. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing, for my reading pleasure.

3.5* Decent intro to this author, despite a rather slow, unexciting yet it-pulled-me-in tale. I don't recall reading the blurb to this book, so it was pretty much all reveals. Done UK-style, so without faux American gloss ir bigging-up, which made it work. Was it creepy? Yes. How does someone get so evil so quickly, without anything huge enough to be their catalyst?  I'm not sure I felt for either Bella or Jade; neither had enough depth to them. Neither felt capable of real feelings - was it because of what happened to them? Because of the circumstances of their birth? If they were victims, they were very different ones. One silver spoon nepo baby, one council-house-ish, although she maybe hadn't needed to be because of the reveals.  Anyway, the ending was satisfying although I needed to suspend disbelief a bit.  ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for my reading pleasure. 

 5* Struggling to think of a title for one of my best reads this year. It's beautifully British, believable, and it ends in a way that makes me impatient for book 3. This picks up immediately where book 1 ends, with the police and Callie trying to figure out her mentor's murder. And there's more death. Senseless death, it seems until someone presumed dead happens not to be and Blackbird comes to light. The author's drawn on some of the frankly shit, abominable, unpalatable, racist, private militia stuff that's come out in that orange twat's 2nd administration in the formerly decent US of A, now more so the plaything of said orange twat. It's only a small part of the tale but it's the thing that set things into motion, with an abuse of power - or maybe a head trip - and political lies and eventual cover-up. It's utterly believable and dovetailed.  Callie's her usual self - boozing, smoking, junk eating, but wised-up to Richard, despite her guilt a...

 4* Good, but best to re-read book 2 so as not to be lost here.  I'm glad that the romance that was a non-starter for me in both books 1 and 2 takes a back seat in this book that starts with a walk in a forest, only for Nicole, Rowan and Thor the dog to discover a serial killer's lair. And connections to Emma, Nicole's adopted daughter.  It becomes a battle against an adversary that seemingly has the upper hand, until a spectre from Emma's past is revealed. Not a scary spectre, but one that was self-serving for the most, until it decided to do the right thing, and paid the price. The red herrings and investigation are solid. There's a glimpse of Mercy and Truman, but the book sticks to the policing aspects. The romance still doesn't work for me. Nicole and Bloke kind of feel dead from the waist down in those stakes. But they're better working together, thankfully.  Emma is the heroine of this tale, and boy does that woman deserve a break. It was bad enough w...

3.5* It drags a bit, and is a tiny bit obvious as to the mole's identity, but a decent enough whodunit. This tale was my intro to this author, in a bit of a twee cosy mystery with a not-needed broken-off romantic aspect that was hinted at, not really present in the tale, but bigged up from Ali's end right in the closing chapter, that put a bit of a dampener on the book, tbh. Her ex did pretty much nothing but spout in a bit of a MCP way, and had pit his career over what they'd spent 3 years building, so in my book, that made him no prize. If he'd not been in the book, it'd have been better. The final pages felt forced. So, a worth-reading tale that had a killer I'd not seen coming, with stuff that came out of the woodwork giving rise to a few not-bad red herrings. Was it believable? Not really in rural Ireland, with Ali and her nephew Gavan pretty much showing up the local Garda.  ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.

4* Another good book in this series, that ideally does need to be read in order. This book doesn't have harrowing detail of the murder, but the deed is fairly gruesome and I'm not sure when the killer's identity is revealed, that they'd actually have known to carry out the vindictive attack they did. I'm using "they" so as not to Spoiler the tale, ss there didn't appear to be an abundance of suspects to me.  The tale loses 1* for me because at the end, someone with clout jumps on a bandwagon and goes #MeToo, unconvincingly. I was left wondering if justice would get done for the victims, because there was more than just one, especially financially. I hope that gets picked up as an aside in the next book, when things go to court. Malkie has very little time for his loved ones because of the murder and because of pressure and bullying by the CI aiming to become a DCI off the back of this high profile case. And I LOVED how he turned the tables and called o...