Books 1-3
The Misfits #1: A Royal Conundrum by Lisa Yee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Olive Cobin Zang is a young girl who (like so many) doesn't fit into her school. To top it off, her parents are barely there, almost always gone for work. That was okay because she had her grandmother to watch her but now her grandmother is gone and Olive has to deal with that grief on top of being an outsider.
Unsurprisingly her parents have to leave so Olive is pulled out of school and sent to a boarding school off the California coast (drawing from Alcatraz's vibe). To her shock, Olive loves her new school. It allows the kids to play to their strengths and gives her some self esteem.
As per the blurb the school RASCH is a cover for an elite group of misfits who fight crime and Olive and her little group are being trained ala spy training to stop crime. They love it. There are computer geniuses, inventors, natural athletes and more (Olive is trained in gymnastics) But when the 'Bling King' steals amazing diamonds and a cat pin from the school's main donor, Olive and her friends face the school closing unless they can stop the king.
I think the target age group will have a lot of fun with this. Olive and her friends are fun and relatable. I would have liked a bit more development of the others though (as this is definitely Olive's story and it's her close pov). I would have liked more description too because without the cover it was hard to tell there was as much diversity as there was.
Still, those are minor quibbles. This is cute and I'd like to see more. The arc I have has only initial sketches and line art. I bet it will be very cute when it's finalized.
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Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Solid 4.5 read for me. It was so close to 5 stars but I tripped up on some of the unreliable narrator stuff and a bit of an unbalance in the story but honestly that was mostly minor (and that's from someone who usually dislikes unreliable narrators)
Wyatt has returned to her family home in rural Maine. Her father has died and she plans to burn the farm to the ground. Her mother had taken her away a handful of years ago leaving Wyatt angry with her father. But when she arrives, she finds her childhood friend, Peter, chained up in the basement, suspended from the ceiling, left for dead. Only Peter can't die. Her family and the magical cult that grew up around them has been ritualistically murdering Peter for more years than Wyatt can wrap her head around.
Peter (Pedyr) should have died back in the colonial days but his father made a deal with the darkness in the woods and he was revived, made immortal but his deaths feed the beast as well. They're trapped together. Peter is now as old as he's ever been allowed to get (late teens)
The story is told in alternating points of view (his and hers) going back and forth between present day and their childhood along with the third kid in their trio: James, the wealthy boarding school kid who summered there with them. Both boys had their crushes on her. Wyatt had no idea the destruction she wrought when she was taken away.
Now the monsters in the wood want out into the world and with Wyatt's father dead and his magic failing, it falls to her and the boys to stop it. Only there's something wrong with her magic and she has no desire to learn what her father did to keep back the dark (hint, the title of this book is fitting).
I think, for me, one of the scariest parts of horror as a genre is there is no guarantees everyone will make it to the end. In romances you know they'll get their happy ever after. In mysteries, the sleuth will solve the case. In horror, we expect people to die (the last girl isn't a trope for nothing). Truthfully no one should survive this book. The horror both interesting and just that dangerous.
It's not the first time (even in the last few months) I've read the horror from the woods. That's a trope in and of itself, but it is done very well here. I very much liked Peter. Half the time I wanted to slap Wyatt hard but she does rise to the occasion. What I tripped over, isn't so much the unreliable narrator (both are) in so much as around mid way we learn that Wyatt is magic on both side and boom, suddenly there's this whole other side of the family who becomes important with now warning and that bugged me.
Overall, I did really love this (and wow, that cover!)
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A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffanie Holmes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I would have liked this better without the 'romance' (more like outright lust than romance). Mina had potential but there was a lot repeated whining and letting herself being manipulated by everyone around her. Now, yes, she has reasons to be upset and feeling sorry for herself. I have friends with RP and it's an awful disease that slowly steals your sight. I know exactly what it's like to train hard for a job and have a friend stab you in the back to get it. On the other hand it goes on for a very long time.
Mina has come back home with her mother who is a career get rich quick scammer after her bff Ashley blabbed about her eye disease to a hugely important fashioner designer who was about to hire Mina. He turned around hired Ashley, blackballed Mina and her dreams died so she retreated to England, to the Nevermore book shop she loved as a child.
Seeing a bizarre job ad for the place, Mina applies and gets it, in spite of how obnoxious the owner, Heathcliff is. He lives above the bookstore (which is in a Georgian/Victorian old home) with Morrie (James Moriarty) and Quoth. There is also a raven and the cat Grimalkin. It doesn't take long before a) Ashley returns and is murdered in the bookstore (guess who is the chief suspect) b) Mina learns the book store is magic and characters come to life out of the books.
So this really IS James Moriarty, Heathcliff and the raven from Poe's poem (who is both the raven and the narrator shifting back and forth). Together they try to solve the case of Ashley's death before she's arrested for killing her former friend.
And if that's where it concentrated its efforts I might have rated it higher. Now, I will say for me the only way I want to see love triangles (or quadrangles in this case) resolved is in some polyamorous fun and this does do that (Not really a spoiler since it's labeled as a reverse harem). However for me this was the weakest part of the book. I'm easily annoyed when all we hear about it how hot everyone is (and yes you're going to hear about it every chapter) and the sex scenes were like bad fanfiction ones (and as someone whose been reading and writing fanfic for decades, I know whereof I speak).
While I'm fine with her sleeping with all three (well two of the three in this book), I don't constantly need to hear how wet her panties are.
I liked the mystery part, I thought the guys were interesting (though that Heathcliff and Catherine's story is NOT romantic but rather abusive is a hill I'm willing to die on) I just hope the next books has a lot less oooo we're gorgeous in it.
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