Review: Murder on the Last Frontier

Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Set in a small frontier town in Alaska after the first Word War, Murder on the Last Frontier has a lot of really interesting aspects to it, but it just didn't make it over as few nit-picky things to land itself into 'really good' for me.

The writing was just a touch clunky for me, a lot of repetition of things, and a bit too much telling instead of showing from the main character Charlotte. At the start of the book there is quite a bit of her alluding to a traumatic incident in her past that as a reader you figure out pretty quickly. However, it takes forever for Charlotte to clearly say what it was which also happens at the same time as a rather graphic autopsy. The description of the autopsy caught me off guard, a cozy mystery this book isn't.

Charlotte's detective powers lag a bit behind the reader's which can be either a good or bad thing depending on how you prefer your mysteries to play out. she is an interesting character, and the town is an interesting setting, Pegau has a good start at building both up for future books in this one. But if you are looking for romance there is only a fleeting wink to it for the future.

Good first book, interesting setting and character, I might pick up the next book to see if Pegau is able to work out some of the weaknesses as well as flesh out the town.

SPOILERS BELOW***

I did like how Pegau wrote and treated the sex workers (the ones who survived), although I found the murder of one to be a overdone plot. Having that as the main mystery made it fairly easy to solve from the reader's perspective even with the waving of red herrings.


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Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pretty excited to read this, the tone sounded like a fun rollicking adventure. I was not quite prepared for the depth of feelings that Monty and Percy express. But at the same time, oh good lord but did I wan't to give Monty a good shaking!
The almost willful blindness to other people by Monty gets a bit much, at a few points I would not have blamed his sister and Percy if they just left him.

Perhaps all 18 year old rich boys can be that irritating, but it did get a bit wearing to where I wasn't really excited to read further. Thank goodness for Monty's sister Felicity.

I'm glad to see that the follow-up book seems to be about her as the whole second half of this one I just found myself wanting to hang out with her.

All in all, it had an interesting take on some very serious subjects so the narrative got a bit intense but it was a good read. Not quite as fun as I had hoped, but at least it gave us Felicity.

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Review: Dark Whispers

Dark Whispers by Debra Webb
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A perfectly serviceable book.

I've never really read much in the way of romantic suspense, add to that the fact that this book is a spin off from an already established series and I just didn't really get into it.

Perhaps had I read any of the other books I would have had more connection to Clint Hayes, he seemed to have a pretty interesting backstory that I would have rather learned about than spend time with his client/love interest Natalie Drummond. As it was, although the set-up of her traumatic brain injury was quite interesting I found myself groaning at some of her actions and choices a bit too much. All the other side character just seem to pop in and out to drop little bits of information that furthered the investigation a bit and then half the time we never see them again.

Perhaps readers of Webb's other series will enjoy this book as there are cameos of characters from other books, at least I assume they are with how they are presented.

The mystery is perfectly fine, the romance is a bit lackluster and I found myself thinking 'eh, good for them I guess' at the end. It was fine.

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Review: The Ghost Bride

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The setting and mythology of this book are wonderful, the pacing, is not.
With the main character Li Lan bridging not only the world of the living and the dead, but the traditional Chinese and the more western cultures as well, the story has a somewhat dream-like feeling. However, it drags and I found myself more than once bothered by how long it took Li Lan to come to some sort of conclusion or action. Sadly the really interesting bits don't happen until the last 80% of the story and then there isn't much of a pay-off at the very end.

Read it for the setting description, read it for the mythology and cultural background, but don't read it for Li Lan. she's a nice girl, but...eh, not really someone that you will find interesting enough to want to hang out with the length of this novel.

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