RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

 3* Half-decent tale spoiled by a woman cop who gives women in position of power a bad name and rep.  It was easy to get into this book despite my not having read any others. I didn't like the female character at all - the title of my review suffices as explanation. She was brash, arrogant, rude, in need of DEI training (maybe they could ship her to 2025 USA? Sounded like she'd be at home there). Not liking her didn't quite manage to spoil that she's got good cop instincts and a nose for the truth, however farfetched it was.  Was I sorry for her predicament at the end? No, because of how unpleasant she'd been. Would I read another? Yes, because she'll get out of this situation and for the life of me, I can't fathom how. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.

3.75* Why does Georgina think Colin is worth hanging onto? Like she herself says, he's boring.  This is a decent tale with Georgina and her cast of friends that I feel I already like and know for their loyalty and acceptance, after only reading one previous book in the series. This series doesn't really need to be read in order, but if you're in it for Georgina's relationship with Colin - I'm not - you may want to read all/in order. There's another good cozy mystery here, and I liked how Doris played her part but didn't fully reveal what'd happened, as it seemed that the hundreds-of-years old body she'd sensed didn't know themselves; all they knew is that they felt a pain and then nothing. It was sad in parts, as as the mystery got revealed, more deaths, lies and betrayals came to light, but at the end, I felt as of wrongs had been righted, however many years too late. That's the good parts of the tale.  The not-so-good parts - there's a ...

 2* Couldn't engage with either character after the 1st or 2nd chapters. This isn't your usual 'my child is missing' thriller. I was hoping for the parents to be found out. I couldn't engage with either of them and found their ability to lie, to fake emotions and to conceal stuff from each other, made them unpleasant. There's also too much hinted at too lightly for me to clock whether they were bad, or shades of grey. The policing wasn't up to much, unfortunately. Not a winner for me, I'm afraid.  ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Joffe Books for my reading pleasure. 

3.5* Wasn't expecting the final chapter. Tbh, I wasn't expecting much of what transpired in this tale. So, this wasn't particularly true to the blurb,  but it was a tale full of secrets, selfishness, flawed characters, and lies. I didn't like the narrator, Stephanie, and couldn't figure out if she was damaged or neurodivergent or just plain and simple unpleasant. I couldn't warm to her and the other characters were so unpleasant, too, that it actually didn't matter what was truth and not. I couldn't care about any of them, but the clever blurb drew me in. It delved in and out of the past from Stephanie's POV, and it was only at the very end, with the triple shocking events (Stephanie's doing), and the reveal from  Aunt Jane, that I was stunned and a bit in awe of the author's somewhat crazed ending that I'd not seen coming. Was it believable? Unfortunately, not, but it did tie ends up. And showed what a horrible, horrible character Stepha...

 4* Yikes, reminds me a bit of the old 70s series Logan's Run. This is really well-written and quite freaky that so many people could allow themselves to be manipulated. And that in this day and age, they wouldn't check things out and have MAJOR warning bells ringing that there's basically nothing online about the... thing they're about to join. Seriously, that's where the tale lost 1* for me, but it was still decent enough that I could overlook this. I did like Julia, but how her instincts, especially with her training and profession, let her down so badly, was hard to fathom. Admittedly things got clearer and even more freaky, especially with the lemongrass scents and the fringes - trying not to Spoiler here - but it still bugged me that she was so passive for so long. I'm also a bit bugged not to know what happened to Lin, though I did think for a while that she might be a victim, too, and half decent, but right at the end, I wasn't sure. Another thing th...

 3.5* Not read this author in ages, and she, too, has succumbed to the M.O. of using hip language and tropes... Sigh. I used to really enjoy this author's writing, as she kept it fresh and didn't subscribe to the trope'y stuff that Bigger Name MM authors jumped on, like the fads featuring heterochomia, GFY, no filter, neurodivergence, etc. but it feels like she's bandwagon'ing, too, with expressions that Brit-me had to try and suss out, and writing about a band of brothers adopted by a rich guy - a la Onley James - who each have their darkness and intrigue, who straddle good/bad. This is likely to be the tamest book of the lot by the hints dropped, but you have to suspend disbelief that all 5 brothers are bi/gay. There's likely to be a pairing between them, I think, but at least is won't be as gross as the 'dad'/adopted son that OJ featured in her Necessary Evils, nor as dark as those books, with psychopaths and sociopaths and blood play. This was re...