In 2021, I picked S. Young‘s War of Hearts up as an Amazon freebie. I finally got around to reading it.
Thea Quinn has no idea what she is. All she knows is that her abilities have been a plague upon her life since she was a child. After years of suffering at the hands of a megalomaniac, Thea escaped and has been on the run ever since.
The leadership and protection of his pack are of the utmost importance to Conall MacLennan, Alpha and Chief of Clan MacLennan, the last werewolf pack in Scotland. Which is why watching his sister slowly die of a lycanthropic disease is emotional torture. When Conall is approached by a businessman who offers a cure for his sister in exchange for the use of Conall’s rare tracking ability, Conall forges an unbreakable contract with him. He has to find and retrieve the key to the cure: dangerous murderer, Thea Quinn.
Thea’s attempts to evade the ruthless werewolf are not only thwarted by the Alpha, but by outside dangers. With no choice but to rely on one another for survival, truths are revealed, intensifying a passionate connection they both fight to resist. At war with themselves and each other, Conall and Thea’s journey to Scotland forces them to face a heartrending choice between love and betrayal.
I enjoyed this. It reminded me a lot of older PNR, except that it didn’t have a toxic alpha a-hole MMC, and the FMC isn’t a doormat. (Yes, that’s a generalization about gender tropes in older PNR and doesn’t always hold true. But it was definitely the fad for a while.) I mean, it’s not wholly free of the icky genderings. The FMC still finds love but has to give up much of her power, as they so often do (and he doesn’t). She also gets awfully weepy as soon as she accepts him. But, honestly, it was so much less than is common. I’ll take any improvement I can get in this direction.
All in all, I liked the characters a lot. The world and the larger plotline seem interesting enough, and the writing is clean and easy to read. Plus, it didn’t end on a cliffhanger! The villain is pretty cliched, and the whole thing is largely predictable. There are no surprises here. But if you like earlier 2000s PNR, this one, published in 2019, will still serve the purpose.
Elinor Chalamet’s talent to speak with the dead may have landed her in the soup.
Witty and clever, Elinor uses her mediumship skills to hunt for her father’s killer. So when a body in the canal brings her to the morgue, she’s happy to help until Tristan Fontaine, the Duke de Archambeau, takes over the case and places her under house arrest.
Between possessions and poltergeists, she’ll solve the case even if it means putting the duke in his place. Actually, that part of the investigation may be a pleasure!
Welcome to Alenbonné, a coastal city with picturesque promenades along the canals and where the ghosts never sleep. A country where spirits and murder are just a breath away.
Ghost Talker
After a little bit of a rocky start, I ended up enjoying this a lot. I liked the characters, the soon-to-be slow-burning romance pairing, the wit, and I simply had a good time with it. I will be continuing the series.
However, I also thought it felt a bit sloppy. It could use another round of copy edits, especially around homophones (than/then, especially). And more importantly, the big bad that had to be defeated at the end felt much like a breach of the bounds of the world the author had established up until that point. Without too much of a spoiler, it required the existence of a mythical element that nothing in the book up to that point had hinted at existing, taking the book from gaslamp fantasy to straight-up fantasy, in a sense. It felt jarring and very much like an inconsistency. I’ll be curious to see if any other such elements show up in future books because my sense is that they won’t. Of course, my point isn’t so much that I’m making a prediction as stating that the misalignment in this book gives such an impression, and that’s the problem I’m trying to highlight.
All in all, however, like I said, I’ll be reading at least the next one. Though, on a side note, why all the dark-haired cover models for a blond character?
Delicious Death
I’m still enjoying this series. I like Elinor a lot. I’ve always appreciated a practical heroine. Somehow, especially in historic settings. (This series is set in the 1910s.) Though I think Charlotte is my favorite character in the series, we get more of her here than in the first book. The romance is starting to bud just a little bit, and I like the Duke. However, he’s a bit of a cardboard cutout. The romance aspect is definitely in the background, with the mystery taking the main stage here.
My only real complaints are that, as in the first book, the copy editing has a hiccup or two, and Elinor’s deductive skills are sometimes a little too extreme to believe. Regardless, I’ve purchased the rest of the series now and intend to finish it out.
Spirit Guide
I had fun with this third volume of Madame Chalamet Ghost Mysteries, especially toward the end. Elenor and Tristan have become comfortable enough with one another to show their emotions somewhat openly, irritation especially. And I legitimately laughed at some of their snipes at one another. Nash also threw in some amusing moments in general. “Hm, well, that’s enough of that…” about something truly devastating to the other person was my favorite. It just showed Elenor’s practical personality to its fullest—no hysterics for our girl. We also get one more small step forward in the romance department and see a little more of Tristan’s actual personality. It’s still playing second stage, though, which is fine. I look forward to the next book.
Grey Lady
In general, I’m still very much enjoying this series. I like the characters a lot, and seeing both the FMC save the day and the MMC be 100% on board with that. Plus, the mysteries keep me interested. I do think the addition of the colors/music descriptions while in the Beyond feels cringy, and I was left a little cold by the fact that, even though the Guardian acknowledges he did something HORRIBLE in life, it’s literally never addressed. As with the previous books, I caught a few copy-edit mistakes. But I’ll be continuing the series all the same.
Haunted Grave
This is the first book in the series that ended on a cliffhanger instead of wrapping up so that the next book could start a new mystery. I wasn’t thrilled by that. But the books have also been getting progressively (if only by a little) longer with each one. So, I suppose I get it.
I also didn’t happen to like this one as much as the previous one in general. (I mean, I liked it, but not as much.) The FMC and MMC are officially a couple, and, thus, some of the tension has been lost, but I didn’t really feel like it was replaced with much of anything. One might expect romance, but it’s pretty thin on the ground. Mainly, this felt like a whole lot of running around, rather than clever problem-solving.
Ghastly Mistake (w/ spoiler)
Well, that wrapped up nicely. I felt like the first half of the book was more of a continuation of the previous one, and I was a bit bored. (The last book being my least favorite in the series.) But the second half brings Elinor’s clever, socially irreverent side back to the fore, and I appreciated that. And the not-Duke is marvelously accepting of her quirks.
I probably could have done without the whole
Like in all the books, there were some copy-edit issues on occasion. But honestly, it wasn’t too big a deal. Just enough to notice, really. I’d 100% read another Nash series.
I somehow picked up a BookFunnel copy of Adored by the Grumpy Ghost (by Ivy Knox). The problem is that I have lost track of who gave me the book and why, and I suspect I was supposed to post something on Instagram that got lost. (which means I probably flaked on someone, sorry.) So, I opted to read it instead.
Unemployed, broke, and on the verge of homelessness is not how Natalie pictured life in her early 40s, but since being her mother’s caregiver wiped the last of her savings, she’s forced to grieve her mother’s death in a state of panic as she looks for a job. Any job that’ll pay enough to keep a roof over her head.
Luckily, her college roommate just inherited an old Victorian mansion in the mountains of northern New Hampshire, and doesn’t have the time to fix it up or rent it out herself. Natalie can stay rent-free as long as she needs. There’s gotta be a catch, right?
A grumpy ghost set in his ways …
There’s nothing Winston hates more than roommates. Now this irritating blonde woman has moved in, she won’t stop crying, she leaves crumbs everywhere, and she plays way too much Taylor Swift for his liking. It should be easy enough to scare her away.
As much as he hates sharing a space with her, though, he can’t deny his attraction. Those soft lips. Her luscious curves. The adorable scrunch of her nose when she’s frustrated. He can’t get her out of his mind. But this isn’t her house. At some point, she’ll have to leave. How can he keep her by his side when she deserves more than a penniless ghost could ever offer?
This was cute, but it is very low stakes. Other than the obligatory 3rd act breakup, there is almost no tension in the plot. Even the discovery of ghosts and monsters, more generally, is glossed over with no reaction, not once, but twice (two characters). Once, it was such a non-issue that it was even off-page.
This low angst, shallow plotting is often fine for a sweet, cozy romance. And it likely would have been here, except that this book is 268 pages long. That is dragging a wafer-thin plot a looong way. The characters deal with some heavy topics in their past. But other than that, the plot is about as deep a puddle. And it struggled to stretch to the page length.
I did like the main character a lot and appreciate that she is both plus-sized and in her 40s, not to mention child-free and without a successful career. She is relatable, is what I am saying. The MMC is not without issue, but he is also eager to please and careful about his partner. That’s a whole lot in his favor.
All in all, if you’re just looking for a cotton candy, feel-good read. This will likely fill the bill, but won’t do much more.
