Tag Archives: mystery

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Book Reviews: Marked for Life & Marked for Revnege, by Emelie Schepp

I won a copy of Emeli Schepp‘s Marked for Revenge, book 2 of the Jana Berzelius series, several years ago. But it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. This is the year I’ve promised myself to clear that shelf off.  So, I borrowed a copy of the 1st one, Marked for Life, from the library so that I could finally read book 2.

Jana Berzelius covers

About Marked For Life:
When a high-ranking head of the migration board is found shot to death in his living room, there is no shortage of suspects, including his wife. But no one expects to find the mysterious child-sized handprint in the childless home. 

Public prosecutor Jana Berzelius steps in to lead the investigation. Young and brilliant but emotionally cold, Berzelius, like her famous prosecutor father, won’t be swayed by the hysterical widow or intimidated by the threatening letters the victim had tried to hide. Jana is steely, aloof, impenetrable. That is, until the boy… 

A few days later on a nearby deserted shoreline, the body of a preteen boy is discovered, and with him, the murder weapon that killed him and the original victim. Berzelius is drawn more deeply into the case for as she attends his autopsy, she recognizes something strangely familiar in his small, scarred, heroin-riddled body. Cut deep into his flesh are initials that scream child trafficking and trigger in her a flash of memory of her own dark, fear-ridden past. Her connection to this boy has been carved with deliberation and malice that penetrate to her very core. 

Now, to protect her own hidden past, she must find the suspect behind these murders, before the police do.

My Review:

This book is probably objectively worth more stars than I would give it if I used stars on this blog. So, take my review with a grain of salt. But, I enjoyed it roughly three stars’ worth. I don’t read a lot of modern contemporary or procedural thrillers because, honestly, they generally bore me. The same was true of Marked for Life. In fact, I found the first half agonizingly slow. However, I’ll admit that past the halfway mark, things picked up, and by the end, I was invested in finding how things would work out.

Jana is an interesting character, though the oversight that made the bit of a twist at the end possible felt out of character for her (because it’s so obvious and she’s so smart, otherwise). The side-characters are fleshed out nicely, too. All in all, not bad for a book in a genre I’m not a huge fan of.

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About Marked For Revenge:
When a Thai girl overdoses smuggling drugs, the trail points to Danillo, the one criminal MMA-trained public prosecutor Jana Berzelius most wants to destroy. Eager to erase any evidence of her sordid childhood, Berzelius must secretly hunt down this deadly nemesis with whom she shares a horrific past.

Meanwhile, the police are zeroing in on the elusive head of the long-entrenched Swedish narcotics trade, who goes by the name The Old Man. No one has ever encountered this diabolical mastermind in person; he is like a shadow, but a shadow who commands extreme respect. Who is this overarching drug lord? Berzelius craves to know his identity, even as she clandestinely tracks Danillo, who has threatened to out her for who she really is. She knows she must kill him first, before he can reveal her secrets. If she fails, she will lose everything.

As she prepares for the fight of her life, Berzelius discovers an even more explosive and insidious betrayal one that entangles her inextricably in the whole sordid network of crime.

My Review:

Like with the first book, I have a hard time reviewing this because I’m honestly just not a massive lover of police procedurals. So, was I bored up until the action at the end because I’m not thrilled by the genre, or because it’s actually slow and slogging? I don’t know. But up until the very end, I was bored, despite liking Jana as a character. In fact, I read this book one chapter at a time between other books, forcing myself to do even that much. It literally took a month.


Other Reviews:

Review: Marked for Life (Jana Berzelius, #1) by Emelie Schepp

Book Review: Marked for Revenge (Emelie Schepp) @emelieschepp @HarlequinBooks

 

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Book Review: Petals and Poison, by Jess Dylan

I won a paperback copy of Petals and Poison (by Jess Dylan) through Goodreads.

petals and poison cover

Sierra Ravenswood has embraced her role as owner of Flower House floral shop and companion to her former boss’s pet, Gus the Corgi. Sierra’s team are enjoying their new jobs too. At least until everyone realizes their lack of experience might be contributing to their lack of customers . . .

Sierra decides they need a change in luck, so she creates a special window display featuring lucky bamboo and auspicious flowers. It seems the new arrangement has worked when the shop is flooded with customers the next day, including a van full of college students on a horticulture club field trip. Unfortunately, Sierra doesn’t notice that the students’ distracted professor has gone missing until Gus’s urgent barking leads her to the storeroom – and the body of the unfortunate professor.

With folks now referring to Flower House as “Poison House” and suspects galore, Sierra fears her new business is doomed before it has a chance to get off the ground. Determined to reverse course and see justice served, she sets out to solve the crime and change her luck once more.

The Flower House is no place for shrinking violets.

my review

I made a joke to my husband while reading Petals and Poisons that I’m quite capable of cozying up to a mystery now and again, but I really wish a ghost (or something) would show up. I am much more a fantasy reader than a cozy mystery reader. But I entered into Petals and Poisons with optimism. There’s a dog in it, after all.

In the end, I thought it was cute. I couldn’t guess, between the suspects, which would turn out to be the killer. And I liked the budding romantic subplot. However, I also found it odd that Sierra and crew were able to go about investigating, as they did, with no push-back from the actual police for interfering. I also thought the ending felt rush. It wrapped up so fast, once the killer was revealed. Further, I feel like Dylan allowed the reader to care about them, there at the end, and then just abandoned them to their fate. I wanted to know what happened to them and to hope there was a somewhat happy ending for them in the future. (I’ve actually written one in my head for them.)

All in all, I enjoyed it well enough for being outside my normal generic comfort zone. But hey, I maybe got my wish. There were some maybe ghosts.

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Other Reviews:

Petals and Poison by Jess Dylan

Bibliophile and Avid Reader: Petals and Poison, by Jess Dylan

 

 

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Book Review: A Sense of Danger, by Jennifer Estep

Late last year, Jennifer Estep‘s A Sense of Danger was featured on Sadie’s Spotlight’s Insta page and I ended up with a bonus copy of the book.

A SPY . . .

My name is Charlotte Locke, and I’m an analyst for Section 47, a secret government agency that tracks terrorists, criminals, and other paramortal bad guys who want to unleash their abilities on an unsuspecting mortal world. I have a magical form of synesthesia that senses danger and uncovers lies—making me a stealthy operative.

I’m trudging through another day when one of Section’s cleaners—assassins—takes an interest in me. I don’t need my synesthesia to realize that he is extremely dangerous and that he will do anything to achieve his goals—even if it means putting me in the line of fire.

. . . AND AN ASSASSIN

I’m Desmond Percy, one of Section 47’s most lethal cleaners. I’m also a man on a mission, and I need Charlotte Locke’s skills to help me keep a promise, settle a score, and kill some extremely bad people.

Charlotte might not like me, but we’re stuck together until my mission is over. Still, the more time we spend together, the more I’m drawn to her. But at Section 47, you never know who you can trust—or who might want you dead.my review
There was nothing wrong with this. The writing is perfectly readable. The editing is pretty clean. It’s not full of plot-holes. I liked the characters well enough. But it’s also kinda bland. The heroine is a Mary Sue and the hero is exactly what you expect him to be and nothing more (a bit of a Marty Stew too). Section 47—the para-mortal version a governmental alphabet organization— isn’t anything more interesting than any other paranormal alphabet agency we’ve all read about. The plot is pretty easy to fallow and the villains easy to figure out. All of it was fine to read, enjoyable even. But also utterly forgettable.

I did appreciate that, being assassins, the characters have a little grey to them. But it’s all lip service, the reader doesn’t actually feel any of it. The romance is pretty light, culminating in one mostly fade-to-black sex scene toward the end of the book and a HFN conclusion. All of it is fine. But it’s also all kind of ‘meh’ too.

a sense of danger cover


Other Review:

A SENSE OF DANGER by Jennifer Estep-Dual Review & Giveaway