#Review - Lost Siren: The Enchanting Fae by Katerina Martinez #Fantasy

Series: The Enchanting Fae # 1
Format: Kindle, 214 pages
Release Date: June 14th 2022
Publisher: Supernal Publishing
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy

In Arcadia, summer has no chill.

I'm a mermaid, at least I am in my spare time. I actually spend most of my days giving water aerobics classes on the cruise ship I work on. It's not glamorous, or exciting, and I'm not really a mermaid, but it's safe - until the Fae show up.

It's my birthday. I'm supposed to be eating lemon cakes and watching crappy TV. Instead, I'm running for my life from the Fae who want me to go with them, but won't tell me why. All I can do is try to escape, but somehow, I end up in Arcadia; a land of perpetual summer and monsters.

But it gets better.

It isn't long before I'm found by the Fae, only not the ones that crashed my birthday party. Captain Mordred and his band of Fae pirates scoop me up from the island I'd marooned myself on, and before long, I'm a prisoner on his ship. He wants something from me; something I don't have and can't give him.

My survival hinges on whether this pirate captain can get what he wants from me. He's dangerous, and powerful, and charming, and he makes me question everything about myself, but I need to keep my wits about me and escape.

If only it was that easy.

Lost Siren, by author Katerina Martinez, is the first installment in the authors The Enchanting Fae series which will be four books according to the author. This is actually the third series that takes place in Arcadia. You don't need to have read the first two in order to read this series. 24-year-old Kara Shaw works for a cruise ship called Pearl of the Sea. She wears a mermaid outfit, and teaches people how to swim. But on the day of her birthday, pirates board her ship in search of Kara for some reason, and seems as though they are here for Kara.

Kara, who has a water pixie named Bubbles as her best friend, also seems to be hearing voices. Voices that tell her that she's the one they've been waiting for whether she knows it or not. Kara also seems to be running from bad memories surrounding a hospital. The truth always catches up with you sooner than later, and suddenly Kara finds her self in Arcadia, where the Spring Fae are devious, the Winter Fae are Cold as Ice, and the Summer Fae are enchanting. 

Fae Pirate Captain Mordred, likely a vampire, is searching for something called Leviathan's Trident which he believes Kara can retrieve for him. Kara agrees to an accord with Blackstone and finds that the Trident responds to the person it wants to wield it and that person is Kara. After Mordred tries to drown Kara to try to push her into finding the Trident, she finds out a truth about herself. If you've read the first two series, you know that humans living in Arcadia have a tendency to be twisted into monstrous creatures. 

So, if you've read the title of the book, it's not a shocker or surprise to find out that Kara is not who she thought she was. A truth that will definitely be explored over the next 3 books. There is also the Fae Pirate Captain Daman Blackstone who plays a part in this book when Kara first meets Fae pirates, to the ending when Kara meets Summer Fae Royalty Prince Aenon and Princess Aerin. Where he goes next is unknown since Kara is set to play an new role going forward.

There's little romance in this book, unlike the previous series, which really didn't take away the enjoyment of the story itself. There likely will be in future installments. There's a whole lot of banter, and sarcasm, and Bubbles is a laugh a minute. Of course I'll check out the rest of the series!

Amazon 

#Review - Cold Fear by Brandon Webb, John David Mann #Thrillers #Suspense

Series: Finn Thrillers # 2
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Publisher: Bantam
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense

Finn’s search for his memory of one fateful night leads him to Iceland—only to be followed by an unhinged assassin intent on stopping him—in the riveting follow-up to Steel Fear, from the New York Times bestselling writing team Webb & Mann, combat decorated Navy SEAL Brandon Webb and award-winning author John David Mann.

Disgraced Navy SEAL Finn is on the run. A wanted man since he jumped ship from the USS Abraham Lincoln, he’s sought for questioning in connection to war crimes committed in Yemen by a rogue element in his SEAL team. But his memory of that night—as well as the true fate of his mentor and only friend, Lieutenant Kennedy—is a gaping hole.
 
Finn learns that three members of his team have been quietly redeployed to Iceland, which is a puzzle in itself; the tiny island nation is famous for being one of the most peaceful, crime-free places on the planet.
 
His mission is simple: track down the three corrupt SEALs and find out what really happened that night in Yemen. But two problems stand in his way. On his first night in town a young woman mysteriously drowns—and a local detective suspects his involvement. What’s worse, a SEAL-turned-contract-killer with skills equal to his own has been hired to make sure he never gets the answers he’s looking for. And he’s followed Finn all the way to the icy north.

Cold Fear, by authors Brandon Webb, John David Mann, is the second installment in the authors Finn Thrillers series. Navy SEAL sniper Finn searches for the truth after he can loses his memory of what happened during a mission gone horribly wrong in Yemen. Finn, whose memories of an atrocity that was committed by his own Black Squadron team, has gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) and is now a fugitive. He escaped certain death in San Diego, and made his way to Iceland where he hopes he can find answers.

 

Four months after the night in Yemen, Finn is still trying to remember what happened and whether he is guilty of the crime. Someone thinks he is which is. He seeks answers from three members of his former team who have been deployed to Iceland. Finn's memories are so clouded in mystery, that he has no clue what the truth is, and what may be a figment of his own imagination. His mission is simple: track down the three corrupt SEALs and find out what really happened that night in Yemen. 

 

But two problems stand in his way. On his first night in town, a young woman nicknamed Little Mermaid mysteriously drowns and a local detective suspects his involvement. What’s worse, a SEAL-turned-contract-killer with skills equal to his own has been hired to make sure he never gets the answers he’s looking for. And he’s followed Finn all the way to the icy north. Finn figures that he has 3 days to map, locate and track members of his team before his hunter tracks him down. When Finn wants to, he remembers every single detail which makes him a superb sniper. 

 

Finn needs to know what really happened. He needs to know if he was responsible in anyway. He needs to know why his Commanding officer Lieutenant Kennedy was killed after promising to find answers. Finn knows that he is quarry now and that there are people in high places who have tried to silence him from asking too many questions and will likely try again. Which brings us to Senior Detective Krista Kritjansdoffier who is in the search for answers to why a young woman called little mermaid was stripped naked with writing on her stomach. 

 

The young woman was allegedly training to be an au pair in places like New York City before she was found in a lake. Krista crosses paths with Finn after it seems as though he may have the answers she needs to solve a slew of crimes. Krista believes Finn knows more than he is saying, and when more bodies start piling up, Krista would love nothing more to arrest Finn, and lock him away for life. When brutal murders began to occur in the peaceful and basically crime-free city, the police force went on high alert, with the lead detective mostly flying solo, determined to find answers to the death of the young girl, as well as the other killings.

 

Which brings me to Boone. Boone is a psychopath who is also hunting Finn's team in order to shut them up from telling what happened in Yemen and who was to blame. But his biggest target is Finn who he missed when the Lincoln made port in San Diego. Thanks to Finn getting a warning from a colleague that trouble was waiting for him, he was able to sneak away. Boone does some things in this book that may be troubling for certain readers, but he's probably the most worthy villain that Finn will face in the near future.

 

Readers need to get past the fact that Finn's memory is faulty thus an unreliable narrator at times. Several traumatic events have caused his mind to block out happenings from his youth and from the day atrocities were committed in Yemen. Although a whole lot of questions have been answered, the authors fail to reveal to the readers who was actually responsible for the order that led to a massacre in Yemen and Finn being blamed. 

 

You don't have to read Steal Fear to enjoy this one since the author does a good job of reminding you of past events. I do believe that you will want to read the next installment to see if the authors will lay the actual truth out of what really happened.

Prologue

A deserted city street. The distant ruckus of drunken revelers, laughter, Christmas carol fragments. Under the faint glow of streetlights a flurry of snowflakes drifts to the frigid cobblestone surface, then swirls aside as a girl sprints past.

Bare feet. No coat. Mid-twenties.

She darts through an intersection. Then another. Street names she can’t pronounce. On a wild guess she takes a left at the next corner and runs another block before stopping, bent over, hands on knees, breathing like a trapped animal.

There’s nothing but the silence of the snow and her own rapid panting. She looks around, frantic.

Has she gone too far?

Takes off running again. Squinting at the street signs, pleading for them to make sense. Fighting back the urge to stop and scan the darkness behind her.

The sound of her feet slapping the slick street surface drums against her ears . . . images explode through her mind—the mines . . . the Englishman . . . the lake house—

She pushes them away. Her feet are bleeding, but she has to keep going. She has to—

Wait.

Was that a glimpse of someone passing on the far side of the street?

She slows long enough to peer back through the murk. No one there.

She spat out the last pill, but the drugs are still too strong. She can’t tell what is hallucination and what is real.

Keep going.

Her feet slapping the cobblestones . . . the mines . . . the Englishman . . .

She won’t make it. It was a crazy idea. Should have known it was pointless to try. She reaches the next corner—

And there it is. Spread out before her like a banquet.

She stops again, hands on knees, gasping, the Arctic air searing her lungs. Squints into the dark and feels a rush of bitter relief. Not a hallucination. Really there.

A patch of open water.

The driver told her about this the day she arrived. In December the pond is covered in ice, he said, ice so thick they hold hockey matches on it. Except right here, at this spot. The city keeps this northeast corner heated year-round. “For the ducks!” he chortled.

And sure enough, through the gloom she can see their little bodies, tucked into themselves for warmth, still and silent. Living, breathing ducks, asleep on the water.

How do they survive the winters here?

How does anyone survive the winters here?

She whips her head around, suddenly alert, eyes and ears straining in the dark. There’s no one behind her. The only sounds she hears are her own hard breath and the faint splish-splash as she steps into the shallow.

From her pocket she pulls a stick of lipstick, blood-red.

Stares at it, her heart pounding.

She isn’t supposed to know.

Isn’t supposed to know about any of it.

But she does.

Hands trembling from the cold, she twists the lipstick open, pulls up her shirt with one hand and with the other scrawls a single word upside-down across her abdomen.

Then lets the lipstick fall from her fingers.

She strips out of her clothes, tossing each item behind her. Stark naked, she takes a few more steps into the water. Another flurry of snowflakes falls around her, the air a blast freezer on her skin. Teeth chattering, she kneels. Places her palms down against the shallow pond floor. Slides down onto her stomach and pushes herself away from the edge with her feet, propelling with her arms, each stroke drawing her further toward the pond’s center. After a moment her outstretched fingers find the lip of the ice sheet.

She slips underneath the ice, then twists around so that her back is to the pond floor, her face to the ice above. Stretches out her arms as wide as she can.

And pushes farther in.

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

#Review - City of Hooks and Scars by Estelle Laure #YA #Fantasy

Series: City of Villains # 2
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Dark Fantasy

In this sequel to City of Villains by critically acclaimed author, Estelle Laure, teen detective Mary Elizabeth continues to unravel a dark conspiracy that has turned her best friend and boyfriend into villainous monsters—all while battling her own inner demons.

Picking up where City of Villains left off, this sequel finds Mary Elizabeth reeling from the battle at Miracle Lake in which she watched, horrified, as her boyfriend James and best friend Ursula turned into full-fledged, villainous monsters. Now James, Ursula, and Maleficent have gone underground—and are plotting their revenge. Mary Elizabeth is determined to find them and bring the truth to light, digging deeper into the dark underbelly of Monarch City and the history of magic, and uncovering a conspiracy theory that reaches farther than she could have imagined. But a city divided by politics and ideologies, a new love interest, and her own inner demons might just stand in her way.

What are the Villains planning in secret? And is she the next villain to rise?  

City of Hooks and Scars is the second installment in author Estelle Laure's City of Villains series. This dark and edgy YA series explores the reimagined origins of Maleficent, Ursula, Captain Hook, and other infamous Disney Villains like you’ve never seen before. In this sequel to City of Villains, teen detective Mary Elizabeth Heart continues to unravel a dark conspiracy that has turned her best friend and boyfriend into villainous monsters—all while battling her own inner demons.

Picking up where City of Villains left off, this sequel finds Mary is reeling from the battle at Miracle Lake in which she watched, horrified, as her boyfriend James and best friend Ursula turned into full-fledged, villainous monsters, and she was forced to make a stunning move to save his life. Now James (aka Captain Hook), Ursula (aka Sea Witch), and Mally Saint (aka Maleficent), have gone underground and are plotting their revenge.  

She's been terminated from her job, along with her former partner Belle, who is now investigating several powerful key characters like Kyle Attenborough. Meanwhile kids from all over the Scar are disappearing and her villainous friends are being blamed for it all. Mary is being held up as both a hero and a villain for what she did during the battle for Miracle Lake. She's basically an outcast at her High School since none of her friends are there to watch her back. 

Now, alone, except for her Aunt Gia, she begins to question her choices even though it might mean giving into the dark side. After visiting a villain named Caleb Rothco (aka Mad Hatter), breaks out of prison after her visit, Mary begins to hearing voices telling her to make a decision on who she wants to be, and starts seeing a character called Queen of Hearts. Readers are also introduced to a new character named Jasmine, which, I think, we all know who she is based on. 

Mary's paranoia is real in that there's a new group called Watchers who seem to be everywhere she goes. Mary isn’t a stranger to loss, having lost her parents and sister, and with the introduction of magic back into the Scar, she knows that she has to peel back the layers of the conspiracy. The majority of the book focuses on Mary’s investigation plus how she deals with her trauma and what she did to James in order to free him from the cruel lab where Mary was injected with magic that seems to have altered her in ways she will soon have to decide to accept, or refuse. 

City of Hooks and Scars pretty much goes in way you expect. After all, this is a series about villains, not heroes, ergo, you will be seeing a whole new cast of villains coming soon.

 

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

#Review - On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass #Thrillers #Psychological #Suspense

Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Publisher: Graydon House
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Psychological / Suspense

The perfect neighborhood can be the perfect place to hide…

Who wouldn’t want to live in Brighton Hills? This exclusive community on the Oregon coast is the perfect mix of luxury and natural beauty. Stunning houses nestle beneath mighty Douglas firs, and lush backyards roll down to the lakefront. It’s the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another. Sometimes a little too closely…

Cora thinks her husband, Finn, is cheating—she just needs to catch him in the act. That’s where Paige comes in. Paige lost her son to a hit-and-run last year, and she’s drowning in the kind of grief that makes people do reckless things like spying on the locals, searching for proof that her son’s death was no accident…and agreeing to Cora’s plan to reveal what kind of man Finn really is. All the while, their reclusive new neighbor, Georgia, is acting more strangely every day. But what could such a lovely young mother possibly be hiding?

 

"Nothing ever happens in Brighton Hills. Well, nothing you can see, anyway. It all happens in whispers, and behind closed doors: it swirls around in rumors and sideways glances, even though the surface is glossy and calm. Underneath though, it's filled with desperate women who turn their heads from their husbands affairs so they can keep their Gucci and Birkin, and dads buying recreational coke from a high-school kid to get through through soul-stealing jobs they hate." 

In a tranquil, well-to-do gated community on the Oregon coast, two neighboring housewives make a deal. What seems like a simple--if devious--arrangement sets off a chain of events that reveal the neighborhood's dark underbelly, particularly concerning their mysterious and reclusive new neighbor, in this juicy suspense novel that is perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Last House Guest. This is a story that revolves around three women: Paige Moretti, Georgia Finney, and Cora Holmon.

Paige’s son Caleb was killed last year in what was determined to be a hit and run. She's unable to cope with the loss or put her life back together. She lives secluded life, cutting off all of her social life, leaving their family restaurant as her husband moves to a new apartment. She doesn't give a damn if she breaks into a neighbors home, or gets in the faces of the police who she believes are corrupt, she just wants answers. Paige finally feels herself coming back to life when she agrees to help Cora prove Finn is a cheater. But at what cost?

Cora is a housewife with a daughter Mia, who will soon turn 18, and is involved in a variety of charity work. To make matters worse, Cora believes her husband Flynn has been cheating on her for years, and yet she can't seem to find the proof necessary. Thanks to a prenup agreement, Cora can't just divorce Flynn without losing a whole lot of money. So, she asks Paige to help her find the evidence she needs to put Flynn out on the streets. Nobody could see what is to come next?

Georgia hardly ventures out of the house and is seen mostly in her home taking care of baby Avery. Her husband Lucas, who is a judge, tells people she has agoraphobia, but that’s not why she never comes outside. Or socializes. Georgia, not her real name, has been tormented throughout their short marriage and he does unspeakable things to her. Every time she’s tried to leave before, he finds her and makes it seem as though she is mentally unstable. Georgia's one hope of escape is asking Cora and Paige to help her escape so she can gain her freedom and return home.

Three women’s dysfunctional marriage relationships collided each other with surprising twists, shocking infidelity moments. As the story progresses we get to know more about their lives, their relationships and their struggles and secrets. These women have all the gall, wealth, and privilege that allows them to do what they want with sometimes ludicrous results. Paige is more than a mother who lost her son and nearly lost herself to darkness. Cora is more than just a housewife who loves doing charity work and hoping to keep her daughter from doing the wrong things. And, Georgia is more than someone who once lived in Europe and found romance with a man who ended up being a monster. 

It might sound like all kinds of crazy, but it’s incredibly controlled chaos, but if you stick to the ending, you will find a whole lot of answers to all three women's questions. 

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

#Review - The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray #Mystery #Historical

Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: May 3, 2022
Publisher: Vintage
Source: Library
Genre: Mystery/ Adaptations / Historical / Regency

A summer house party turns into a thrilling whodunit when Jane Austen's Mr. Wickham—one of literature’s most notorious villains—meets a sudden and suspicious end in this brilliantly imagined mystery featuring Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a party at their country estate, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcy's eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In this tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang. 

Claudia Gray's The Murder of Mr. Wickham, set in the year 1820, features a lovable and intelligent pair of amateur sleuths, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, a grand estate, a stormy night, and a murder after a tense dinner. The ending perfectly sets up Jonathan and Juliet's next adventure, which will introduce them to more beloved Austen characters—and even more delightful shenanigans. In The Murder of Mr. Wickham, we finally see Austen’s leading literary couples all in one place, interacting with one another and inhabiting the same universe. It’s the perfect crossover event.

The happily married Mr. George Knightley and Emma are throwing a party at their country estate Donwell Abbey, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans: Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), Edmund and Fanny Bertram (Mansfield Park), Colonel Christopher and Lady Marianne Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), Captain Frederick Wentworth and Lady Wentworth (Persuasion).

As well as Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcy's eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. Definitely not invited is Mr. George Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. 

Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst. An investigation by Juliet and Jonathan follow, but the biggest problem is that just about everyone has reason to want him dead. This investigation also reveals some interesting aspects of each of the couple's lives which is very revealing.

17-year-old Juliet Tilney arrives fresh-faced and eager for her first adventure away from home. Egged on by a novel-writing mother who experienced her own first time traveling at Juliet’s age and a cautious practical-minded father, she is determined to make the most of the adventure while not disappointing her parents. Jonathan Darcy, would likely be placed, in modern times, on the Autistic spectrum. He has endured through a disability that wasn’t known to exist in that time, but he is a fabulous fellow and after a poor first impression. 

The Regency era's most frustrating strict code of manners and what is considered “proper”, is featuring prominently with the interaction between Juliet and Jonathan. Gray smartly uses the younger generation to try to discern the difference between manners and morality. Gray’s plot gives almost everyone a motive. Jonathan and Juliet are the only two without a motive or opportunity and that makes them the perfect duo to investigate what happened, even if it means exposing his parents. There are multiple points of views to tantalize fans of Austen’s revered couples which gives Austen readers a chance to catch up with their favorites.

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

#Review - Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez #YA #Fantasy #Historical

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Historical

An ancient city plagued by dragons. A flamenco dancer determined to save her ancestral home. A dragon hunter refusing to teach her his ways. They don't want each other, but they need each other, and without him her world will burn.

Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see him fight in their arena, which will one day be hers.

But disaster strikes during their five hundredth anniversary show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s father is horribly injured. Facing punishment from the Dragon Guild, Zarela must keep the arena—her ancestral home and inheritance —safe from their greedy hands. She has no choice but to take her father’s place as the next Dragonador. When the infuriatingly handsome dragon hunter, Arturo Díaz de Montserrat, withholds his help, she refuses to take no for an answer.

But even if he agrees, there’s someone out to ruin the Zalvidar family, and Zarela will have to do whatever it takes in order to prevent the Dragon Guild from taking away her birthright. 

Isabel Ibañez 's Together We Burn is a lush, enchanting standalone fantasy inspired by medieval Spain, filled with romance, action, and adventure. The story is set in the year 1820, in a land called Santivilla. 18-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is the daughter of Hispalia's most famous Dragonador, Santiago Zalvidar, basically a matador but for dragons, and a famous flamenco dancer, Eulelia Zalvidar, who she takes after. Her mother was killed a year earlier during a celebration of the capture of a dangerous dragon. 

Zarela is just as talented as a flamenco dancer as her own mother, but people are still obsessed with watching her perform Eulelia's best dances. Disaster strikes during their 500th anniversary show, when in the carnage, Zarela’s father is horribly injured, several of their dragons escape, and their tamers are killed. Zarela notices that things aren't what they seem. In fact, it seems as though someone has intentionally caused the family financial ruin if they can't fix the issues.

Now they face punishment from the Dragon Guild and could potentially lose their ancestral home, as well as their livelihood. Zarela must keep the arena—her ancestral home and inheritance —safe from their greedy hands. She has no choice but to take her father’s place as the next Dragonador. Dragons are used in dragon fights similar to bull fighting, and are mercilessly killed by the Dragonadores. In order to save her home and keep bringing in paying spectators, she has to learn to fight dragons herself, which means employing the help of a grumpy, sullen, mysterious, and Dragonador trainer Arturo Díaz de Montserrat. 

They team up together to save the arena, inheritance and ancestral home of Zalvidar family, but somebody out there is too bloodthirsty to destroy family’s reputation and everything they’ve worked for centuries. With her families future on the line, she refuses to take no for an answer. Zarela refuses to give up the dragon-fighting ring that has been in her family for centuries, no matter what she must sacrifice, including the only life she has ever known. But will Arturo's own secrets ruin everything they built together? Who has reason to execute a dragon trainer and ruin their family name? A rival ring owner? One of the political groups protesting the killing of dragons in the ring?

Together We Burn may not appeal to those who are triggered by the sudden and brutal death of a parent, but it is a worthwhile read for those who are looking for something different.

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble

#Review - The Favor by Nora Murphy #Thriller #Suspense #Domestic

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense / Domestic

Staying is dangerous. Leaving could be worse.

Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.

They don’t—ever—find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t—ever—discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t—ever—acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.

Because Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, she sees what she knows only too well herself from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. She decides to keep an eye out for McKenna, until one night, she intervenes.

Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.

The Favor, by author Nora Murphy, is her debut novel. The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands. The two protagonists, Leah Dawson and McKenna Hawkins, are in marriages that look idyllic from the outside, but their wealthy homes and classy cars are only the facades their husbands have constructed. When Leah notices McKenna reacting to her husband, Zack, Leah believes that McKenna is just like her. 

“I AM SOMEONE LIKE YOU”

Leah's husband, Liam, is a successful divorce attorney, and created a situation where Leah would be fired, so she could stay home and be a perfect wife. Zack forced McKenna to quit her job as a doctor so she could concentrate on becoming pregnant. These men control every aspect of the lives of their wives, to the point where it is debilitating. Then one night, everything changes when Leah intervenes and sets a series of events into motion. Now, McKenna and Leah are inextricably connected. The question is: will McKenna help Leah with her own domestic situation?

There is a third party involved in this story. After losing his partner to a domestic violence call gone wrong, Detective Jordan Harrison finds himself searching for clues as to what happened to Zachary Hawkins and whether is wife was responsible. After Liam is murdered, Harrison finds himself digging into the lives of both women. Did McKenna kill her husband? Did Leah kill hers? Leah and McKenna are educated, professional, intelligent and sophisticated women who seem to have been abused, coerced, and isolated by their spouses. The more Harrison digs into the cases, the more he realizes there's more than meets the eyes but can he prove what actually happened?  

As our understanding of abuse, coercive control and the partners trapped in these dark marriages deepens as a society, fans of the genre are increasingly drawn toward understanding these women and unraveling the lies that their abusers hide behind. The Favor hits at the sweet spot of all of the most popular suspense themes and plots—The Girl on the Train, Strangers on a Train, The Woman in the Window, Big Little Lies and Behind Closed Doors. 

But rather than these narrators being unreliable, they tell us their truths all the way through, in all its shocking and compelling honesty, making it a wholly new reading experience rooted in territory that readers are consistently ready for. Murphy brings her professional experience depth and compassion to this novel—as a family attorney specializing in domestic abuse and coercive control, sensitive to the important issues it raises and explores so expertly and thoughtfully through the lens of a compulsive thriller.

Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Kobo