#Review - Cursed by Fire by Danielle Annett #Fantasy

Series: Blood & Magic # 1
Format: Kindle, 235 pages
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Publisher: Coffee and Characters
Source: Amazon
Genre: Dark Fantasy

Blood is going to spill …
It won't be mine.

Someone is feeding the flames, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. The victims are innocents, chosen to pit the shifter Pack and the vampire Coven against one another.

If war breaks out, humanity won’t survive.

But controlling fire is my thing, and I won’t let that happen.
I’m a mercenary, but this is about so much more than money. It’s my city and someone is threatening it. I won’t stop until I find them.

When the good guys start to look more like villains, I have no choice but to question everything I knew, including the people I thought I could trust.

It turns out the humans might not be as helpless as they seem, and I'm in more danger than I realized.

Cursed by Fire, by author Danielle Annett, is the first installment in the authors Blood and Magic series. In this world, it has been 6 years since the Awakening when all things that went bump in the night came out. That includes vampires, shifters, mages, witches, and many more. Humans are no longer at the top of the food chain. The protagonist of this series is Aria Naveed currently in Spokane, Washington working as a mercenary. She's also a Psyker - human born with pyrokinetic abilities aka pyrokinesis.  

After a case involving a 7 years old seems to end up as a cold case, Aria is devastated she couldn't find who was responsible. Then the alpha of the local shifter community, Declan Valkenaar, approaches Aria and her partner Mike. It seems as though what appeared to be the murder of a human child, is actually the murder of a shifter from the Pacific Northwest Pack. Let me know if you have heard this before. Shifters in this book have been infected by a virus called Lyc-V. It spreads by blood to blood contact unlike vampires who actually have to bite you. There are packs in this book called Clan Cat, Clan Wolf, Clan Feloidea (hyenas), Clan Muridea (rodents), Clan Canidea (foxes) and Clan Big (bears). 

Aria ends up working with a man named James who is also a shifter and the packs hunter aka enforcer. If that’s not enough, Aria has a stalker named Inarus who evokes something in her each time they collide, he can do things Aria has never seen. Can she trust him? Why is he following her? To make matters worse, it seems that there is also a human run group that truly hates the supernaturals and would love to see them eliminated. Strangely enough, it seems that this rift may also be causing the pack and vampires to grow closer to a war which humans would lose badly.

So, do I think this was ripped off from other authors? Close. The idea behind the pack, as well as the vampires was definitely similar to another well known series. It's not plagiarized in that there are no copying and pasting of parts of the Kate Daniels series. There are also other differences like whether or not we will get the truth from the author about what really happened to her parents and why. So, would this book be considered fan fiction? I would have to read the sequel to find out and I have plenty of others books to get through first. 

#Review - Royal Blood by Aimée Carter #YA #Contemporary #Royalty

Series: Royal Blood (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Contemporary / Royalty

An American girl becomes the British monarchy’s greatest nightmare in this thrilling new series where royal scandals just got deadlier.

As the illegitimate daughter of the King of England, seventeen-year-old Evan Bright knows a thing or two about keeping secrets. 

But when she’s forced to spend the summer in London with her father and the royal family, who aren’t exactly thrilled she exists, her identity is mysteriously revealed, and suddenly the world is dying to know every juicy lie the press prints about her. 

After a fun night turns deadly and Evan becomes the primary suspect in a murder investigation, the escalating rumors and fallout threaten to tear her life apart. As she fights to uncover the truth about what happened, she discovers royal secrets that are even more scandalous than she imagined—secrets that could change the monarchy forever.

And her own may be revealed next.

Royal Blood, by author Aimée Carter, is the first installment in the authors Royal Blood trilogy, with books #2 and #3 releasing in 2024, and 2025. This is the story of Evangeline (Evan) Bright. Evan hasn't exactly had the perfect life. She's been kicked out of 9 different boarding schools. She hasn't seen her mother since she was 11 because she has health issues. She's the illegitimate daughter of King Alexander of the United Kingdom who she's never known or met but he tends to send her expensive presents that she considers to be bribery.  

  

Facing felony charges and 5 years in prison for arson at St. Edith's Academy for Girls, Evan is spirited away to London for the summer by Jenkins, who has always been there for her when she needs something, where she is about ready to meet the family she never knew she had. With a major chip on her shoulders, and being made to feel 6 inches tall by her sister Princess Mary aka Maisie who is the heir to the crown (and was born on the same day!) and the Queen Consort Helene who has nothing but disdain for Evan's existence. 

 

Evan knows that in 25 days she will turn 18, and she will be free from all expectations. Then the unexpected happens. While at a party thrown by Jasper Cunningham, a boy she barely knows, she is assaulted, and escapes from experiencing a woman's worst nightmare. Soon thereafter, Scotland Yard names Evan as the prime suspect in Jasper's death that happened that same night and everyone in the UK as well as everywhere else, believes that Evan was responsible. Knowing she was drugged, knowing she didn't kill anyone, Evan is in a bad place emotionally.

 

Her only friends are Kit, a boy who seems genuinely interested in making sure that Evan doesn't get railroaded by the Royal Family, the Presses, Scotland Yard, and the trolls on social media. She also has Lady Tabitha aka Tibby who is a wonderful character who guides Evan through the darkness and into the light. Evan is a genuinely interesting character. She was able to keep the secret of who her father is. She was able to keep the secret as to what her mother has gone through. She may want to give up and run away, but when the chips are down, Evan pushes back and tries to expose who is trying to destroy her life, and that of her mothers.

It is fair of me to say that if you like reading about the British Royalty, and have read the Princess Diaries, this book is cat nip for you. Nothing is off the table. Blackmail, mystery, suspense, and a bit of romance with an interesting ending to the story.

 

Chapter One

To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.

—­Queen Elizabeth (b. 1533, r. 1558–­1603)

Breaking into the academic wing of St. Edith’s Academy for Girls isn’t the most reckless thing I’ve ever done, but it definitely comes close.

What makes the whole thing exceptionally irresponsible is the fact that I have only one week to go until graduation. In one week, this nightmare that has been the past six years of my life will end, and I’ll never have to set foot in a boarding school again. I should do the smart thing and stay in my dormitory, where my roommate is crying into her pillow and thinks I can’t hear her. But I’ve built my reputation on never doing the smart thing, and there’s no point in subverting royal expectations now.

And so, at ten o’clock on a Monday night, I creep down the windowless corridor in complete darkness, my fingers brushing against each door handle as I pass. Though it’s almost impossible to navigate without banging into something, the lack of light also works in my favor. I’ve already disconnected the sole ancient security camera—­the only piece of technology allowed in St. Edith’s hallowed halls—­but there’s always a chance a custodian might be lurking, and all the careful planning in the world won’t hold up against someone else’s outrageously good luck.

I stop in front of the fifth door on the right and dig through my pocket. The lockpicks were a Christmas gift to myself last year, and while I’ve practiced on my dormitory door, I haven’t had the chance for real-­world application until now. A thrill runs through me as I hold the lock taut with the tension wrench, nudging each tiny pin one by one with the pick in my other hand. Headmistress Thompson would spontaneously combust if she knew what sort of education I’ve been giving myself while everyone else has been vying for acceptance into Harvard and Yale, but this is quickly becoming the most worthwhile thing I’ve learned since arriving at St. Edith’s in January.

The lock gives way before I expect it to, and I almost drop my tools in surprise. I’ve done it—­I’ve actually picked a lock. Pretty sure it won’t win me an award anytime soon, but it feels like a superpower, and adrenaline courses through me as I push open the door.

Creak.

The hinges complain loudly, and I freeze. As my heart pounds, I remain perfectly still, listening for any sign that someone’s on their way to investigate.

Nothing.

With a renewed sense of urgency, I slip into the classroom. Calculus. Not my favorite. When you start trying to apply logic to the imaginary and infinitesimal, the rules get murky, and I like knowing the rules. I read the code of conduct for St. Edith’s—­along with the eight other boarding schools I’ve attended since the age of eleven—­cover to cover, and I can quote whole sections in a pinch. Knowing the rules, after all, makes it easier to manipulate them. And to break them in spectacular fashion.

Moonlight shines through the stained glass windows, offering a kaleidoscope of relief from the oppressive darkness, and I hurry on silent feet to the teacher’s desk. Mr. Clark isn’t a bad person. He’s just stuck teaching in an archaic system that values test performance above learning, the same way I’ve been stuck in a Vermont forest for the past five months thanks to an archaic system that values image above family. We’re both victims of circumstance, and I already feel a hefty dose of guilt for what I’m about to do. If there was a better way to handle this, I would, but there isn’t. So here we are.

The single drawer in his wooden desk is also locked, but I have it open in under thirty seconds. And there, nestled between stray pencils and paper clips in all its hunter-­green glory, is my holy grail.

The grade book.

It doesn’t take me long to find the right page, and I tear it out with a single satisfying rip before pulling a lighter from my pocket. While St. Edith’s draconian ban on technology makes life infinitely more difficult than it has to be, this is the one time it works in my favor.

The paper browns and shrivels as the flames devour it, leaving behind curls of gray ash. I’m not a pyromaniac, but there’s something poetic about all that hard work disappearing in seconds. Everything is temporary. Even permanent records.

“Evangeline Bright! What on earth do you think you’re doing?”

The overhead lights buzz to life, and I wince. Headmistress Thompson stands in the doorway, her hair in curlers and her face purple. I’ve never seen her in anything other than a matching tweed skirt and blazer, and I’m so transfixed by her shabby pink robe that for a moment, I forget what I’m doing.

“Put that out,” she demands, her voice shaking. “At once, Evangeline!”

“I would,” I say slowly. “But I’m sort of all in on this now, you know? And it’s only one page. Mr. Clark will barely even miss—­ow!”

The flames reach my fingertips, and I hiss in pain, dropping what’s left of the burning paper. As Headmistress Thompson and I both watch, it floats down onto the desk—­and lands right in the middle of the grade book.

Within seconds, the entire school’s math grades go up in flames.

Headmistress Thompson gasps, her face now a sickly mottled color. “The fire extinguisher! Where—­”

But as she darts back into the hallway, clutching her curlers, I’m rooted to the spot—­by shock or disbelief or dissociation, I don’t know. All I can do is stare as the hungry flames grow bigger and brighter, until they spread to the pile of dry timber that is Mr. Clark’s desk.

Shit. Shit.

I rip off my cardigan and try to smother the flames, but they’re too strong, and all I accomplish is setting my school-­issued sweater on fire. A spark jumps onto my skirt, threatening to catch, and I bat it away, my pulse racing.

It was only supposed to be a page.

“Evangeline!” booms Headmistress Thompson from the doorway. “Get away from there!”

“I—­” I begin, not sure if I’m about to apologize or insist that I can put it out with my smoldering cardigan, but it doesn’t matter. Headmistress Thompson surges through the thickening smoke and seizes my elbow, yanking me away from the blaze.

There’s a dull roar in my ears, drowning out whatever it is she’s shouting at me, and as she drags me into the dark hallway and toward the nearest exit two corridors down, I glance back at the classroom. The fire is spreading, faster than the single missing fire extinguisher could handle, and I’m dimly aware that the anemic alarm going off is identical to the bell that rings when class begins. I don’t know much about buildings, but I’m pretty damn sure that none of this is up to code.

At last, as Headmistress Thompson shoves me through the side door and into the cool night air, I take a deep gulp and stumble across the grass, my lungs burning and my eyes streaming. We turn back toward the school, and our mouths hang open as flames shatter the stained glass windows of Mr. Clark’s classroom in an explosion of rainbow shards.

Well. At least it’s spectacular.

Chapter Two

Watch out, Britain! We’re less than a month away from Princess Mary’s eighteenth birthday, when the traditional media coverage restrictions on underage royals are lifted, and the world is champing at the bit. What kind of juicy gossip will rise to the surface? After a lifetime of private tutelage and being sheltered from the limelight, is our enigmatic future queen ready for the scrutiny she’ll face now that the silk gloves are coming off?

We’ll certainly see plenty of her in the weeks to come, as Her Royal Highness has reportedly already sat her A levels and is expected to make a splash during the jam-­packed social season this summer. Trooping the Colour, Royal Ascot, Wimbledon—­according to our royal sources, she’ll be there for them all.

What will she wear? Will she have a date? And most important, how long will it take for our beloved princess to headline her first royal scandal?

—­The Regal Record, 6 June 2023

I’m sitting inside an interview room at the police station, staring at my haggard reflection in what must be a two-­way mirror, when the door opens for the first time in hours.

A brawny officer stands on the threshold, a deep frown etched onto his bulldog face. We lock eyes, and even though I’m nauseated from exhaustion and the fear that’s been simmering in the pit of my stomach all night, I keep my expression painfully neutral. I know better than to say a word without a lawyer present, but it also means that he and the rest of what passes for a police force in the tiny town near St. Edith’s all believe Headmistress Thompson’s highly dramatized story about what went down in Mr. Clark’s classroom. And while I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing the entire scintillating tale, judging by her wails the night before as another officer took her statement, it doesn’t exactly paint me in the best light.

I brace myself, expecting yet another round of questions I won’t answer, but instead the officer crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Evangeline Bright,” he says gruffly, “you’re free to go.”

I stare at him, not sure I’ve heard right. After nearly ten hours in this room with only a plastic water cup and a ticking clock for company, I’m expecting handcuffs and a court date, not freedom. But before I manage to form a question I shouldn’t be asking, the officer steps aside, revealing a balding Englishman with a trimmed salt-­and-­pepper beard. And suddenly I understand.

“Jenkins!” I leap to my feet, even though my whole body aches after spending all night in an agonizingly uncomfortable chair. “The police said they couldn’t get ahold of you—­”

“Your headmistress contacted me first,” he says, stepping past the officer as if he isn’t even there. “I was already on the plane when they called. Are you hurt? When is the last time you had anything to eat or drink?”

I shake my head, suddenly aware of the fact that my mouth tastes like a dirty sock. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What happ—­”

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#Review - Operation: Cupid by Michael Anderle & M Guida #YA #Fantasy

Series: Paranormal Mercenary Corps # 2
Format: Kindle, 221 pages
Release Date: January 17, 2023
Publisher: January 17, 2023
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Chelby has escaped Sector Nine’s detention center and avoided execution, but her troubles are only just beginning…

Her sleep is disturbed by terrifying nightmares of Fae assassins shooting down a blue dragon. As the dragon turns to stone and shatters, Chelby wakes up to a blazing inferno in her room.

She lost control—again—and there are consequences.

Too many lives are at stake and Chelby is too dangerous to stay in the dormitory.

Dr. Gould has no choice but to move her to the therapeutic center until she can master her fire abilities. Banished from her friends and taken out of training, Chelby sees the center as a pretty version of jail.

Will she be stuck there indefinitely, or will the continuing revelations about her origins change everything for her?

Sector Nine is up to their old tricks again.

They’re using the Edinburgh orphanage Chelby lived at while she was a kid as a front to develop super soldiers to hunt down supernaturals.

The orphanage is the key to her past, but the only way she can go with her team is to prove to Dr. Gould that she can control her powers.

Can Chelby break through the fear holding her back from getting the answers she needs? Or will her family connections get to her first?

Operation: Cupid by co-authors Michael Anderle and M. Guida is the second installment in the authors Paranormal Mercenary Corps series. This book picks up 2 days after Chelby was rescued from Sector Nine's infamous prisoners under the control of her stepfather Robert Brooks. Even though she's safe with her team, her sleep is disturbed by terrifying nightmares of Fae assassins shooting down a blue dragon. As the dragon turns to stone and shatters, Chelby wakes up to a blazing inferno in her room.

Who were the people in Chelby's dreams? Dr. Gould who is not only a Gold Dragon, but leader of the Paranormal Mercenary Corps., has no choice but to move her to the therapeutic center until she can master her fire abilities. Banished from her friends and taken out of training, Chelby sees the center as a pretty version of jail. She also knows that even though she escaped, there are plenty of people who want her dead. In fact, one could say that she's so important that assassins are eager to find her and remove her off the board.

This is going to be spoiler-y since this book is filled with some major revelations. Chelby learns that not only is she dual blooded, which is unheard of, but she's part fae, and part dragon which is why assassins went after her mother and father. It seems as though a certain individual from the Court of Blossoms isn't all that happy that Chelby exists. She's a threat to his reign. As is Commander Wyland who just happens to be Chelby's uncle, and Dr. Gould who just happens to be Chelby's grandfather on her father's side. 

After learning a whole lot about who she is and who her family is and the importance of keeping her safe, Chelby's team consisting of Kog (Orc), Maggie (Dire Wolf), Hicks (Wolf), Jonas (Fae), and Justice (Vampire) is now called Anchor of Salvation and they are given a mission of utmost importance. Dr. Gould advises the team that Section Nine is up to their dirty tricks again. They are using an orphanage in Scotland, one that Chelby spent some time in, for nefarious perhaps, and they may have supernaturals in their custody that they are using their blood to create super soldiers.

One new character is added. His name is Brody O'Hara, and he's a human who has been experimented on to create said super solders. It seems as though Section Nine has been taking children who won't be missed and pumping them with supernatural blood. Brody knows who Chelby is, and he knows who her mother was. He knows why fae assassins are so eager to hunt her down as well as Wyland. But can he be trusted? King Ash is obsessed with keeping the crown for himself, and if Chelby remains alive, she has every right to claim the crown for herself. But Chelby isn't going to take Ash lightly, especially when she proves how dangerous she really is.

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#Review - May Contain Magic by J.A. Cipriano #Fantasy

Series: Meet Abby Banks # 1
Format: Kindle, 217 pages
Release Date: January 24, 2017
Publisher: Createspace
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Abby Banks is your typical college student, except that her entire life has been one big lie. Kidnapped as a young girl and fostered by a government agency as collateral, Abby never knew she was important… until her birth mom’s terrorist organization unleashes a devastating attack on the facility.

With magic.

Now Abby’s world is in a tailspin. Her birth mom wants to harvest her organs, her only protector is a vampire, and she can do magic. Well, sort of. She’s supposed to be able to do magic.

And if she can’t figure it out in time to stop her mom, not only will she get her organs stolen, her mom will blow up two major cities to fuel her doomsday ritual.

May Contain Magic, by author J.A. Cipriano, is the first installment in the authors Meet Abby Banks series. 20 year old Abby Banks thinks of herself of just another college student in a town called Folsom. But the truth is that Abby was kidnapped from her mother and fostered by a government agency to ensure her mother walks the straight and narrow. Abby knew nothing about this until one day she is kidnapped away from all she knows in order to protect her against, you guessed it, her mother who just happens to be the most dangerous woman in the world.

Her mother, Esmeralda Banks, is desperate to have Abby back but only for her own selfish reasons which are frightening to Abby when she finds out what her mother is really up to. Stephen, a secret agent, who is also a vampire, is assigned to protect Abby from her mother, but he has his own vulnerabilities but whose side is Donovan DeMarco, the alpha werewolf whose loyalties change at the drop of a hat. So begins a struggle between good and evil to save Abby and to stop her mother from dominating the world. Who can Abby trust? Who is telling the truth and who is lying? And who are the good guys really?

Abby is the center of all action, but she isn't directly involved in it till the end when we learn why she's special or not. She's either being dragged from place to place or rescued from captivity while Stephen, the love interest in the story is right in midst of the action scenes. He seems contradictory in nature, being a first class spy yet getting embarrassed easily. The story makes you wonder who you can truly trust. Is it the government agency with no name that has kidnapped children in order to prevent their families from blowing up the world? Or, is it Esmeralda Banks who just wants her daughter back so she can rid the world of the corrupt government itself?  

#Review - Kill it with Magic by J.A. Cipriano #YA #Fantasy

Series: The Lillim Callina Chronicles # 1
Format: Kindle, 204 pages
Release Date: September 22, 2014
Publisher: LMPN Publishing
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

Sixteen-year-old Lillim Callina is good at two things: running away and magic.

Now, Lillim's half-demon ex-boyfriend is contacting her for help, she has somehow gotten herself mixed up in a kidnapping, and her long-dead rival has risen from the grave.

So when a dragon plotting to take over the world offers her a choice: Work for him or else.

Lillim Callina is going to choose else.

Kill it with Magic, by author J.A. Cipriano, is the first installment in the authors The Lillim Callina Chronicles. Technically, there's a prequel called Ward Breaker which I read several weeks ago that kind of skims on who the main character really is and what she's capable of. Let's get the who, what, where, when, and why out of the way. Lillim Callina is technically a 16 year old teenager who belongs to a group known as Dioscuri. 

In this world, however, everyone who dies, ends up reincarnated and that's what's happened to Lillim. Lillim is a reincarnation of one ass-kicking, name-taking female with a nasty streak and some deep, dark secrets. And, to top it off, Lillim's alleged surrogate mother, Diana Cortez, never got along with the woman who was reincarnated into Lillim. So, Lillim was trained by Diana to be the best of the best, a demon hunter with the abilities to do magic. 

She carries several powerful swords she named after Set and Isis as well as a slew of other weapons filled with silver. Her job is to fight monsters and keep people safe. But things are going to get a whole lot more exciting for Lillim. First, her ex-boyfriend Joshua sends a message to her asking for help. Second, a group of men, including an angry Dragon, show up at her door and demands that she track down an important package which just happens to be a baby dragon.  

Lillim is sent to retrieve a jeweled box from werewolves, but when she gets there, she ends up fighting for her life against powerful vampires, including Logan who she helped a year ago take over his current caste, because of what's in the box, and what the vampires want to use what's inside the box to gain power in a battle of Dragon vs Dragon with one particular dragon being protected by none other than Warther, Dragon Knight, the man who drained hell in order to get the woman he loves back. Add in a few demons, a dragon, and a crazy mentor and you have non-stop chaos.

Lillim appears to be sixteen, but her growing process was expedited and now she has memories from her eight former lives – especially the previous one – making her a clever mix of teenager and burned-out middle aged woman. Lillim really can't get a minute of down time. There are moments where you likely will have to suspend belief. She's allegedly mortal, but she's constantly being slammed into brick walls by dragons, set on fire, and basically subjected to brutality that should have killed her. We also have several males who refuse to accept that Lillim's former persona is gone, and that may be the biggest downfall of this entire story.

#Review - The Headmaster's List by Melissa de la Cruz #YA #Mystery

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Thrillers & Suspense

Friday night. The party of the summer. Four teens ride home together. Only one never makes it.

When high school sophomore Chris Moore is tragically killed in a car crash, Armstrong Prep is full of questions. Who was at the wheel? And more importantly, who was at fault?

Eighteen-year-old Spencer Sandoval wishes she knew. As rumors swirl that her ex, Ethan, was the reckless driver, she can’t bring herself to defend him. And their messy breakup has nothing to do with it – she can’t remember anything from that night, not even what put her in that car with Ethan, Chris, and Tabby Hill, the new loner in school.

The hunt for answers intensifies when a local true crime podcast takes an interest in the case, pushing Spencer further into the depths of this sinister mystery. Was it all just a night out that went very wrong? And is it a coincidence that all but Chris is on Armstrong's esteemed honor roll, the Headmaster’s List? In a place ruled by pedigree and privilege, the truth can only come at a deadly price.

Set against the glitz and glamour of an elite LA private school, Melissa de la Cruz's first YA thriller is an addictive mystery perfect for fans of Gossip Girl and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

 

One of Us Is Lying meets Riverdale in author Melissa de la Cruz's The Headmaster's List, an edge-of-your-seat YA thriller about a fatal car crash and the dangerous lengths one teen will go to uncover the truth about what really happened. Set against the glitz and glamour of an elite LA private school, The Headmaster's List, is an addictive mystery as well as the authors first Young Adult mystery.

One of them was driving.
One of them was high.
One of them screamed.
And one of them died. 

Friday night September 3, 2021. The party of the summer before classes begin. Four teens ride home together. Only one never makes it. When high school sophomore Chris Moore (15) is tragically killed in a car crash, Armstrong Prep is full of questions. Who was driving? And more importantly, who was at fault? There were four people in the car; 18-year old Spencer Sandoval, 17-year old Ethan Amoroso, 16-year old Tabby Hill, and Moore. Spencer wishes she knew the truth, especially since she has a traumatic brain injury. 

As rumors swirl that her ex, Ethan, was the reckless driver, she can’t bring herself to defend him. And their messy breakup has nothing to do with it – she can’t remember anything from that night, not even what put her in that car with Ethan, Chris, and Tabby Hill, the new loner in school. Ethan will probably spend time in jail as this is not the first accident resulted with tragedy he got involved into! Mixed in with a True Crime Podcast called Get Salty with Peyton Salt, the answers the reader is searching for may be at your fingers since it appears that Peyton has some very interesting contacts who may know the truth. 

Spencer is at the top of her class and has a near perfect GPA which is good since she wants to get into Cal Tech when she graduates. She basically an overachiever with few friends outside of Olivia Santos. She is on the varsity field hockey team, as well as several clubs that make her resume to any colleges look good. After the crash, Spencer, now wearing a cast on her left arm, and sporting a new facial wound, is also given a special service dog named Ripley who is supposed to guide her around school and be there in case she starts having nightmares. 

I adore Ripley. I also loved Spencer's perky sister Hope who is a bloody genius at 12! As Spencer's memories start to come back, she is helped by Jackson Chen, the best friend of Spencer's former boyfriend who is now looking at spending a long time in prison for manslaughter. As Ethan's trial begins, Spencer realizes that she is slowly gaining memories of what really happened that night. Can she discover the truth, or will she be the next victim? The mystery of the whodunit was pretty good. I had two characters on my guess chart, and came pretty close to guessing correctly. Points deducted for the woke character who just happens to be a drug deal. Sorry Not Sorry but I've had enough.

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#Review - The Last Grudge by Max Seeck #Mystery

Series: Jessica Niemi # 3
Format: Paperback, 448 pages
Release Date: February 7, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery

While her colleagues investigate the brutal murder of a prominent businessman, Jessica Niemi must battle demons from her past in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Hunter.

Powerful executive Eliel Zetterborg has been found murdered in his upscale Helsinki home. What at first seems like a straightforward case soon proves to be anything but when it becomes clear the murderer has other targets. The only clue the police have is a photo of Zetterborg with three men whose faces have all been scratched off.
 
Detective Jessica Niemi has taken some time off from her work with the Helsinki police to track down the coven that nearly killed her, and her partner, Yusuf, is assigned to lead the investigation. But as Yusuf delves into the case, he realizes he needs Jessica’s help. And as they dig deeper, they realize that the evil they’ve been hunting all along has returned and is lying in wait for the right moment to strike.

The Last Grudge, by author Max Seeck, is the third installment in the authors Jessica Niemi trilogy. Once again, this story takes place mostly around Helsinki, Finland in 2020, and you may encounter words that you don't quite understand. Powerful executive Eliel Zetterborg has been found murdered in his upscale Helsinki home. What at first seems like a straightforward case soon proves to be anything but when it becomes clear the murderer has other targets. The only clue the police have is a photo of Zetterborg with three men whose faces have all been scratched off. 

 

A month ago, Detective Jessica Niemi, was assaulted and attacked by a group lead by Camilla Adlerkreutz, and badly injured to the point where her sanity is being tested on a daily basis by the appearance of her dead mother. She has taken some time off from her work with the Helsinki police to track down the coven that nearly killed her, and her partner, Yusuf and maybe think about what her future is going to look like. Jessica is haunted by her dark past from 20 years ago, and a coven of witches with horns intent on destroying her and she won't be safe until she is sure that Camilla and her group has been found and defeated.

 

Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Yusuf Pepple is assigned as lead investigator into Eliel Zetterborg's murder. He’s slightly unsure of himself in a leadership role. Along the way, he learns things about himself as well as his co-workers Nina, Tanya, Rasmus, and Jami Harjula. The high-profile murder leads to another and the investigative team becomes concerned that the bodies are going to start stacking up, time is of the essence. As Yusuf delves into the case, he realizes he needs Jessica’s help. But Jessica finds herself in dire straits and needing rescuing. 

 

But true to form, the clues aren't answering questions so much as adding questions to the investigation. As a key piece of the mystery is revealed by the author, you will need to pay attention to the characters that are mentioned, as well as a key character in the beginning, as well as the ending. Apparently, this is the final book in the series which is also called Ghosts of the Past. Even though the mystery is wrapped up, there are other items that are left open ended, and I'll leave that alone for fear of spoiling the end game.

1

The car of the old elevator thunks between floors. The cable hums at the ceiling.

Greedy old shit.

Eliel Zetterborg catches a whiff of his bodyguard's powerful aftershave and turns up his nose. He thinks about the words painted on the placards he saw through the Maybach's tinted windows an hour ago.

He clenches and unclenches his fists; his hands feel weak. Those ungrateful idiots don't know what they're talking about.

Eliel steps out of the elevator and crosses the short distance to his front door, key in hand. Joonas shuts the elevator gate behind him. Eliel feels a pang of nostalgia when he hears the metal clank. The sound reminds him of the mechanical equipment of days gone by, iron and metal parts that smelled of lubricant and were powered by springs, steam, or mere gravity to perform work on people's behalf. In contrast, present-day technology is completely odorless and tasteless. Machines you could touch with your hand have turned into a series of elegant algorithms and mechanisms whose functioning is guided by principles so abstract that advertising and marketing professionals have to create beautiful stories around them to inject the tiniest hint of life. Even then, customers have only the faintest idea of how they work. No matter what these millennials say, things were better in the old days.

You killed this town, Zetterborg.

When Eliel Zetterborg founded EZEM Pipes Co. with Eetu Monto fifty years ago to the day, the name of a company still communicated its primary business. Back then, no one fiddled with computers at the machine works in the Herttoniemi industrial area; they hammered and turned parts used to build something real, something tangible. Not circuits or transistors, but industry that reeked of blood and sweat. Heavy industry-in its most literal sense.

Eliel shuts his eyes and imagines the sweet smell of red-hot metal, hears the splatter of welding at the rear of the manufacturing hall on the south side of Puusepänkatu.

"Will you be all right?" Joonas says with a discreet glance around the stairwell.

Joonas Lamberg is Eliel's long-term driver and bodyguard and is escorting his employer to his front door on this evening as on every other. He will then wait at the wheel of the Maybach down on the street until Eliel is ready. Then Joonas will drive Eliel to tonight's dinner venue, a restaurant located only a block from the latter's apartment. Joonas would typically be heading home at this point, but the times are exceptional: so many members of the general public hate Eliel Zetterborg and the board of RealEst from the bottom of their hearts that it's best to keep Joonas close at hand all evening.

"Yes, thank you. I'll see you downstairs in a minute," Eliel says, then opens the door to his apartment and taps the code into the alarm system.

Joonas gives a curt nod, peers up to the top floor, then starts descending the stairs. He does so every evening because he wants to make sure no one who doesn't belong there has snuck into the stairwell. Joonas is loyal and conscientious. He's a former SWAT unit officer and still dangerous, despite being almost fifty and unarmed.

Eliel Zetterborg knocks his shoes against the mat in the entryway and takes off his coat, the shoulders damp from the walk between the car and the building entrance. The apartment smells like a new fabric softener he asked the cleaner to buy. It masks the cloying, stale odor of antiques and upholstery dating from the war, as the scent has recently begun to repel Eliel. It reminds him that he is old and that he-just like everyone else on the planet-is condemned to die sooner or later. In his case sooner, no doubt. Ever since Anne-Marie passed, his days have felt like a slow slide toward death; it's as if his heart is beating less and less frequently, until one night it will stop and release him from his pain.

Eliel's eyes strike on a yellow plastic bag on the floor of the entryway. The cleaner was supposed to return the books to the Rikhardinkatu Library that morning and pick up the new ones he had reserved.

Hell's bells. That woman is getting careless.

Eliel steps into the living room, stands there with his hands in his pockets, and lets out a deep sigh. The company's anniversary has put him in a nostalgic mood.

Half a century. Over that time, RealEst has grown into a global corporation, and it's difficult these days to find any similarities to the small machine shop he and Eetu founded fifty years before.

The year 1970 was like a different reality in every respect: under the Finlandization policeis of President Urho Kekkonen, the country was a very different place from what it is today, for better or for worse. In his parents' view, no doubt the latter. Eliel Zetterborg's father covered politics for Finland's largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, and was a huge champion of freedom of the press. His mother enjoyed a prominent career as a playwright. The artistic, liberal Zetterborgs experienced the postwar atmosphere as oppressive and regressive, perhaps partly because their only son, Eliel, actively opposed the self-censorship the Finnish government practiced when it came to the Soviet Union. On the other hand, EZEM Pipes Co.-which became RealEst, Ltd., through a merger and IPO that took place in the spring of 1990-benefited greatly, especially in the 1980s, from bilateral trade between Finland and its eastern neighbor, a development that shaped Eliel's views of the Soviet Union in a significantly more positive way. As long as Finland's neighbor to the east was satisfied, business was good.

Opportunistic traitor.

Eliel knows he is a prime example of how ideology is cast aside in hopes of the fast profits offered by capitalism. Over the years, he has been accused of selling out his principles so many times by so many people that he doesn't let it get to him anymore. Besides, the accusations are true-even if decades have passed since then. But he regrets nothing, not for a second. His decisions made it possible for Anne-Marie and him to live a life of extreme privilege, and for Axel to be raised-unlike Eliel-in a wealthy, luxurious home. Sometimes Eliel wonders if rockier soil would have produced a different sort of son. Is their relationship difficult because their lives started out in such dissimilar circumstances?

Eliel pauses at the large mirror and gazes at the furrowed face hidden behind the white beard. His phone is flashing on top of the console, but Eliel doesn't intend to answer. His phone has been ringing off the hook today. Journalists, well-wishers, professional and amateur politicians, almost-friends, backstabbers. Parasites. It's a big day for Finnish industry and RealEst: at this very moment, the company's middle management is celebrating in a massive tent erected at Hietalahti Square, complete with a program of entertainment. The upper management and board of directors, on the other hand, are gathering for dinner with their spouses in the private dining room at Saslik, the venerable Russian restaurant right around the corner, in honor of the day.

Job killer.

Eliel closes his eyes and tries to forget.

He can still see them, the white placards reflecting the bright sunshine. There are dozens of them, and they are being held by hundreds of hands. Every insult in the world has been scrawled on them in large letters. Thousands of people have amassed outside the factory, and none of them are there to celebrate the company's fifty-year success story. The din raised by the angry throng is earsplitting, and the union man at the front is conducting this racket with a megaphone.

Eliel opens his eyes and feels his heart hammering. The ingrates. Of course it's a radical measure, but it was not taken lightly. If the factory could have been spared, it would have been. The board's decision to shut down the Kouvola unit had nothing to do with saving production costs; plumbing-material operations are being ramped down for the simple reason that they're not profitable. The factory, which employs nearly three thousand people, has been a money pit for a decade now, and the positive results in the other divisions are not sufficient justification to continue keeping it on life support into the hazy future. Presumably a bigger problem than the closing of the factory is that those who lose their jobs will be nearly impossible to place in the company's other divisions. That's how significantly RealEst, Ltd.'s operations have changed over the last ten years. Even if the company pays for costly training, there is no way a fifty-year-old metalworker is going to learn how to produce a single line of code. At least not fast enough.

Get out of Finland, you capitalist pig.

Eliel sighs. He reads the text message he received fifteen minutes ago. It's from Axel.

On my way to the restaurant. Please don't be late.

He considers his son. The boy's fine features and unique voice, which is surprisingly high. It has a tinge of jazzy whisky bass, just like that of Anne-Marie, from whom the boy also inherited his beautiful face and his birdlike build.

The curious heartburn that troubled Eliel throughout the drive has started again. The visit to Kouvola was not, he will admit, particularly pleasant. He knows he will not be serving as chair of the RealEst board for even a year, which is the precise reason he was prepared to take this bullet. The condemnation of the entire nation. His successor will start from a clean slate and perhaps even have the backing of the labor unions. That will make it possible to steer RealEst on to future success.

Eliel considers his reply, then settles for tapping an OK into the text field.

Just then he feels a sharp pain in his chest. For a moment he feels as if he can't breathe. He collapses onto the stool in the entryway.

Damn it.

Eliel is in splendid physical condition for a seventy-four-year-old-he recently ran a half-marathon in the senior division in two hours and fourteen minutes-but the idea of long restaurant dinners with ten-course menus and the accompanying wines wearies him body and soul. He probably ought to have his heart checked again, but Eliel looks askance at doctor visits and avoids them to the last. Damn it all to hell. If it weren't the company's fiftieth anniversary today, he would sink to the couch with a glass of whisky and watch Emmerdale.

Eliel advances slowly down the entry hall and into the living room. The long floor planks, stained brown, creak under his merino wool socks. He touches the light switch and the chandelier hanging from the ceiling comes to life. He undoes his cuff links and lets his sleeves dangle over his hands.

The needle of the record player lowers to the black disc. Johann Sebastian Bach: Siciliano, Concerto in D minor, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis 596. Eliel thinks it the most beautiful piece of music ever composed. Listening to it feels almost masochistic-that's how wistful and melancholy it makes him. The concerto brings him back to Anne-Marie's funeral, when Axel's cousin played it on the piano at the beginning of the memorial service, here in this very room three or so years ago. More than a thousand long days and nights have passed since then, but the apartment still smells of Anne-Marie. In the end, it makes no difference what brand of fabric softener the cleaner buys.

Anne-Marie.

He ought to wear something tonight that reminds him of Anne-Marie.

Eliel walks past the grand piano to the sofa set and pauses in front of the oil painting that hangs there. The depiction of a capercaillie hinges outward to reveal a safe embedded in the wall. Eliel taps in the code, and the safe beeps and opens.

He takes from the top shelf what is perhaps his most prized possession: a Vacheron Constantin Genève with an eighteen-karat gold casing. The watch probably has little monetary worth, but it has all the more sentimental value: Anne-Marie gave it to him as a wedding present in 1969.

Eliel senses the weight of the watch on his wrist; it feels foreign yet familiar. He returns to the grand piano and gazes at the spacious living room: the Persian carpets covering the floor, the furniture fashioned by hand long ago, the large oil paintings ensconced in decorative gilt frames.

Eliel has no interest in attending the party tonight. Not without his wife.

And then he hears something above the music.

He has stopped at the liquor cabinet next to the piano, but the floor is still creaking. As if there were a second-long lag between his footfalls and the sound they produced.

He holds his breath. Suddenly he's sure he's not alone in the apartment. He glances back, but the arch leading into the kitchen is empty. The kitchen is dark; the only glimmer comes from the windows facing the Russian embassy. Eliel shakes his head. It's just the Jugendstil building; old structures live a life of their own.

J. S. Bach is playing in the background as beautifully as it does every night.

My mind is playing tricks on me. It's been a long day.

Eliel opens the bar, reaches for the masculine, broad-shouldered bottle of Macallan Reflexion. If the sensation in his chest grows unbearable, he'll cancel his attendance at tonight's dinner. That's one good thing about growing old: there's always an acceptable excuse for getting out of doing things one would prefer not to do. Age itself. No one can have anything to say about that.

The brown liquor burbles to the bottom of the glass like water from a pure tundra stream.

And the wooden floor is creaking again, this time more distinctly. He tosses back the contents of the glass, and the plummy whisky burns his throat.

"Hello?" Eliel says forcefully, despite knowing there will be no reply. The last time he did so, Anne-Marie was still alive. On a night he came home and wasn't sure if his wife was there or out.

Eliel lowers the tumbler to the liquor cabinet and coughs into his fist.

Of course he's home alone. The alarm was on when he stepped in, and he would have heard the front door open.

"Hello?" he hears himself say again. He knows he wouldn't if he were a hundred percent certain there was no one else in the apartment. The doubt is like a rapier at his breast. "Who's there?"

This time the creak comes from the other side of the wall, from the kitchen. A dragging sound that ends in an abrupt clunk. A kitchen drawer.

Eliel feels a shiver surge up his spine to his neck.

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