Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang

 
Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang
My Rating: ★★★★★

First, Tillie Pembroke is involved in a horse-riding accident that shatters her shoulder. Then her missing sister is murdered, sending her entire life spinning. The Pembrokes are trying to move on as fast as possible, but Tillie is obsessed. Why is no one investigating Lucy’s murder? And was she really killed by a vampire as it appears? Tillie cannot rest until she gets the answers even if she has to put herself in the line of danger to get them.

I’ve been a fan of Lydia Kang for a few years now, so I was excited when I saw she had a new book coming out. There was an audiobook promotion when I was buying the book, so I got the book and then the audiobook free. Sadly, the audiobook really put me off, so I took a long break before returning and starting over on page one. I’m starting to think audiobooks aren’t for me because I’m taken straight out of the story any time I try to listen to them. I wish I just decided to start over on page one on the same day that I ditched the audiobook because I was sucked in right away. Kang has done it again with such a gripping tale!

We follow Tillie, a young lady living in New York City in the late 1800s. Tillie has always been the odd sister busy learning new things and questioning her surroundings. Because of this, she grew up in her seemingly perfect older sister’s shadow. When Lucy is murdered, not only is Tillie left with a huge hole in her heart, but she begins to discover that she didn’t know Lucy as well as she thought she did. On top of everything, poor Tillie is recovering from a terrible injury and quickly finds herself abusing pain medication. If drug abuse will trigger you, I advise skipping this book because her addiction along with her struggles with it is very detailed. As the story continues and more victims turn up, Tillie questions whether or not vampires are real. The victims certainly appear to have been killed by a vampire, especially with the fang marks accompanying the lack of blood left in their bodies.

I absolutely loved this story. I thought Tillie was an interesting character to follow, and the book has a great cast of characters full of good, bad, and everything in between. I love that there was such a variety of types of characters. We’ve got seemingly good people who are 100% smarmy right next to creepy characters who are actually good people. I can honestly say that I didn’t suspect the murderer once because of this.

While I wish the ending wasn’t wrapped up so quickly, I rather enjoyed the book. There are so many fascinating characters here and Kang really had me going with the potential supernatural aspect. I kept going back and forth on whether or not a real vampire was going to bust out during the first half of the book. Once I recovered from trying to listen to the audiobook rather than reading, I got sucked in so fast. I’m looking forward to checking out Kang’s next book.

Leave It to Fate by Beth Corby

 Leave It to Fate by Beth Corby
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Hodder & Stoughton through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As Ella inches her way toward thirty, she loses her job due to a hilarious and unfortunate event involving a yogurt thief and a trap set with yogurt spiked with hot sauce. A stranger urges her to leave it all up to fate and she does just that when Gillian, her estranged aunt, suffers a bad fall and needs someone to help her while she recovers. When Ella arrives, she discovers her aunt has been struggling with anger and grief after her long-time partner died, leading her to push everyone away. It seems fate has brought the pair together to repair their lives.

I read and loved Beth Corby’s first book, Where There's a Will, so I knew I had to check this out when I saw she published another book. While I did enjoy this one, I do have some mixed feelings that left me feeling a bit iffy about some things by the end. That said, I really did enjoy the story and great cast of characters.

We follow Ella, whose life has been floundering. Her art career never took off, she just lost what she was hoping would become her dream job, and she just had to go crawling back to her old soul sucking job so she can continue to make ends meet. Unsure about where her life is heading or what the point is, Ella is extremely relatable. She’s realistic, funny, creative, and a breath of fresh air. I also really liked her best friend. I wish we got to see more of her, but given Ella had to leave town to help her aunt, it makes sense that we didn’t see much of her.

We also closely follow Gillian, who is angry, and grief stricken after her long-time partner, Mike, suddenly passed away. Her house is a mess, she’s pushed everyone away, and now she needs help she doesn’t really want. The more time Ella spends with Gillian, the more we learn to love her. While abrasive, she’s smart, funny, and straight to the point. Gillian is someone who does not beat around the bushes and anyone who meets her will discover that right off the bat. 

The characters in Gillian’s small town are mostly wonderful. It made me wish I knew most of these fictional people. Plus, while Mike is dead before the story starts, he plays a large role in the story due to some secrets that came out at his funeral. This plays a large role in while Gillian is so angry on top of extremely anguished.

While the story is cute, funny, and even sad at times, I will say that the romance was beyond flat. Ella’s biological father his heavily implied all book long. The foreshadowing is there. Her mom is extremely illusive about it and dislikes her own sister along with this guy. Everything is there and then, surprise! It’s revealed that her biological father is someone else. I assumed the romance between Ella and Joe was super flat because it was super obvious who her father was from the start, and that would make her and Joe cousins. Then it’s revealed that her father is someone else and they’re free to be together with their extreme lack of chemistry. Maybe I could accept this revelation if their romance was on fire before they found out they’re cousins only to find out they’re not, but this isn’t the case.

All in all, I did enjoy this cute and funny slice of life story. It just seems silly to do all that buildup only to not go through with it so that the story ends with Ella getting a cherry on top of her ice-cream sundae. It was not necessary for her to find romance while finding her place in life, so the revelation at the end and the romance that comes from it doesn’t make sense.

Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1) by Maureen Johnson

 
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
My Rating: ★

Stevie Bell is the new girl at Ellingham Academy, a prestigious private boarding school. Obsessed with true crime, she’s interested in the mysterious dark history of her school and wants to be the one to solve the mysterious unsolved cold case that haunts it. Unfortunately for her, she finds a different murder mystery on her hands, fulfilling one of her wishes in a way she did not expect.

I picked up this book after a friend told me she was reading it and wanted me to check it out and tell her what I thought of it. Unfortunately, it turns out I’m not a fan. I disliked nearly every character, including the protagonist. Of the three characters I did like, one immediately dies and the other two are hardly there. I think the book has everything there for me to like it, but it’s sadly a miss for me.

I think I would’ve liked the book better if it didn’t take place in two eras. Majority of the book follows Stevie in the present, but I found that I liked the chapters that take place in the 1930s the best. The characters during these chapters are interesting and there is an actual mystery taking place. The rest of the time, we follow Stevie and her classmates who are all trying a little too hard to be cool, mysterious, and artsy. They come off as one-dimensional versions of stereotypes out of a movie.

As far as the mystery goes, we have a double mystery here. The first is what happened to the school founder and his family, and the second is a lackluster murder mystery that starts a little over halfway through the book. I would have liked it better if it stuck to one mystery that continues throughout the series over having two in this book. It would have also been fun to see Stevie trying to investigate the abduction and murders on a much greater level, especially if she attended the school within 15 years of the events and not several decades later. I just think that too much time has passed to make her determination to solve the cold case and the school’s strange interest in encouraging her investigation make sense.

Weirdly enough, the most interesting thing that happened in the entire book occurs at the end of the final chapter. While I’m tempted to pick up the second book just to see where this revelation takes us, the bland characters and slow-moving plot are not enough to get me to continue the series. I’m sad to say that this is a miss for me.

Trauma is Really Strange by Steve Haines

 
Trauma is Really Strange by Steve Haines
My Rating: ★

This short graphic novel explains what trauma is, how it works, and how it can inwardly and outwardly present itself. The book really had me going with how well it simplified what dissociation is and how it works. I’ve never seen dissociation explained so well in such a simplified way. I’m impressed that it was done so well here since this is such a short graphic novel.

Sadly, I was not impressed by the rest of the book. I understand that it’s hard to simplify the different aspects of trauma, especially for a short graphic novel, but it ultimately came off insulting rather than an informative little guide. By the end, it makes it sound like we’re all built to overcome trauma and we’re not trying hard enough if we fail to overcome it. That’s just not how it works and I’m not sure if that’s the message they intended to give since it starts out as a simplified guide with some great info before it started to sour itself.

Best Laid Plaids (Kilty Pleasures #1) by Ella Stainton

 
Best Laid Plaids by Ella Stainton 
My Rating: ★★

I received a copy from Carina Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dr. Ainsley Graham set his career on fire when he went public with the claim that ghosts are real and that he has been communicating with them. Since then, he’s spent his time drinking and floating around as he desires since the world thinks he’s odd. When Joachim Cockburn is sent his way to check out known hauntings in Scotland, Ainsley thinks he’s just another person coming to poke fun at him for his beliefs. What he did not expect was an extremely sexy man to come knocking at the door. Even more shocking, he wasn’t even expecting Joachim when he arrives, so Ainsley puts the moves on him in a case of mistaken identity. What else could possibly go wrong?

This book had me at spooky romance set in 1920s Scotland. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t care for the story. The book told through the rotating perspectives of Ainsley and Joachim. Despite seeing things through their perspectives, I quickly discovered that I didn’t particularly care for either character. Ainsley is arrogant, both flighty and clingy, and doesn’t know what he wants on top of shutting down when he does get what he was hoping for. Meanwhile, Joachim is arrogant in a different sense while closed off and stiff. I couldn’t connect with either of them in addition to not being interested in following them as I continued to read. The romance couldn’t been on fire if the two didn’t keep waffling about each other to the very end.

Honestly, I found myself more interested in the hauntings, which were sadly lackluster. I would say this is a romance with a touch of paranormal. I was really interested in the ghosts along with the other characters, including Ainsley’s sister. I think I was happiest whenever a chapter came along that included a gathering of characters because I didn’t care for the leads.

I wouldn’t say that this is a bad book. I do think that Ella Stainton had something going here, but I just didn’t care for Ainsley and Joachim as characters and the romance didn’t seem all that romantic to me. If you like romance novels that are sex without the romancing, this might be something you’ll like.

The Tea Dragon Society (Tea Dragon #1) by Katie O'Neill

 

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
My Rating: ★★★★★

Greta is a blacksmith apprentice not sure that she wants to learn blacksmithing when, one day, she stumbles upon a tea dragon. Saving the tea dragon from being attacked, she becomes immersed in their world, learning it’s a dying art. Learning about tea dragons and how to care for them open her eyes to a whole new world, which makes her appreciate blacksmithing and how even the little things in life can create new memories and take on lives on their own.

This book is absolutely adorable, heartwarming, and beautiful. I read a Katie O’Neill book before, so I was excited to finally pick up this book because her artwork is stunning in addition to creating magical and heartwarming stories. I was not disappointed one bit. We follow Greta as she enters the world of tea dragons, creating new friends and learning to appreciate even the little things and their impact along the way. She’s such a sweet and caring character who is really thoughtful and curious. Greta makes a wonderful protagonist, so I loved following her adventures.

Along the way, we meet various characters who become Greta’s new friends. Hesekiel and Erik are tea shop owners who care for tea dragons, and Minette is their ward who has lost much of her memory. These are the characters we see most, in addition to Greta of course, and they are positively sweet and magical in their own ways.

The artwork is absolutely beautiful. I would honestly buy a giant poster of any panel from this book and put it on my wall. Plus, O’Neill makes a point to represent different skin colors, LGBT characters, and disabilities. I can’t wait to pick up the next book in the series. It’s bound to be just as wonderful as this series opener.

Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger

 
Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger
My Rating: ★★★★★

If you’re looking for a bit of history on women writing horror, then this is the book for you. I picked this up because I rarely hear people talking about how long women have been writing horror. As soon as I opened the book, I got very excited because it goes back as far as the 1600s and talks about the lives of the authors focused on in each section in addiction to the books that they wrote.

One of the things I like about this book is that it’s separated into sections with authors that fall under that section. You can find anything from gothic to pulp fiction covered along with the authors who wrote them. There’s also a reading list for each other, which is great for anyone who returns to the book later looking to quickly find something new to read from one of the authors featured.

Plus, it’s not daunting to anyone who normally avoids fiction. Each chapter is extremely engaging and is bound to keep anyone glued to the pages. It’s truly a book that is both a guide and biography.