Review: The Hidden City by Charles Finch

The Hidden City (Charles Lenox Mysteries, #12)

by Charles Finch

Release Date: September 6, 2025

2025 Minotaur Books

Softcover ARC; 288 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250767165

ASIN: B0B9KW8YQZ

Audiobook: B0BJLBQ68Z

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Historical

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. 

At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life: a surprising tension with his steadfast wife, Lady Jane, over her public support of the early movement for women's suffrage; the arrival of Angela Lenox, a mysterious young cousin from India, with an unexpected companion; and the dizzying ascent of his brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, to one of the highest political posts in the land. 

 

My Thoughts

The Hidden City is one of those book to which I was looking forward because of the events in the previous book and how it ended.  I was curious as to his convalescence as well as the repercussions to the events in the United States. However, while I found the historical details to be captivating and the character development continues to be  top notch, the mystery itself was lacklustre and quite frankly, boring. 

 

What did I like about this book? Everything except for the mystery. Lenox' cousin show up from India and add a complexity to the story that I really enjoyed and highlighted more of the women's issues that were plaguing England during this time period.  This worked well with the secondary story line of Lenox' wife who has taken an interest in the suffrage movement with Lenox unsure how to support her in her cause and unsure of the backlash an earl's daughter could receive with such doings.  There are things going on in Lenox' world that I absolutely loved, but then I am a history nerd and lap up that stuff. Tell me about the food, what everyone is wearing, the disdainful looks when someone does something inappropriate, yes, bring it on.  These things with friends are the highlight of the book and I really enjoyed the interactions with family and friends.  

 

While all of the above were great, the mystery itself was...boring.  And definitely not up to the usual intensity we have seen in previous books.  And that's a shame as I thought the villain was actually worthy of a good mystery.  And yes, I was totally sympathetic towards the villain and their situation, but a little more tension, a little more mystery, a little more investigation would have made this more interesting. I did enjoy the peek into early medicine via apothecaries and how even then they mixed improper things into their medicines because of a lack of ingredients. As well as the peek into making illegal ingredients. But that didn't make up for a meandering mystery that was actually quite slow.

 

Verdict

The Hidden City is a well-written book and I definitely enjoyed the attention to the historical details and the world the author brought to life. The character development is always very good. However, the mystery meandered all over the place and dragged quite a bit and had, I will admit, a bit of an unsatisfactory conclusion.  What does that mean for me in terms of continuing the series? This author is great at making you feel immersed in the time period, and for that, I will definitely read the next book in the series, Midnight in the House of Commons, which I already received as an ARC. 

 

Review: The Shadow Carver by Nadine Matheson

The Shadow Carver (Inspector Anjelica Henley, #4)

by Nadine Matheson

Release Date: March 10, 2026

2026 Hanover Square Press

Ebook ARC; 432 Pages

ISBN: 978-1335000354

ASIN: B0F7XGXGYB

Audiobook: B0FN9VR2B6

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

When a string of grisly murders begins painting the city in terror, DI Henley soon realise a vigilante killer is scalping their victims before leaving them for dead. Henley is thrust into a web of secrets, unravelling connections between the victims while battling demons from her own past. As the killer raises the stakes, the line between predator and prey begins to blur. With time slipping away and her own life in jeopardy, Henley must outwit a psychopath who views murder as an art form. Can she hunt them down before the final stroke of the scalpel closes the case forever?

 

 

My Thoughts

The Shadow Carver is the next book in the Inspector Anjelica Henley series, and I enjoyed the mystery as well as learning more about the characters and their on-going relationships in this book.  The mystery itself was quite complex and because there was a connection to some cases in which the team worked in the past, it affected the current mood and members of the team quite a bit.  I like how this book examines the past and how it can impact future investigations as well.

 

First of all, if you have not yet read the previous books in this series, I do highly recommend it as the author does not really explain the connections and the relationships between the characters assuming you have read the previous books.  While it doesn't necessarily impact the overall enjoyment of the book, it does impact the richness of the character development as someone who starts with this book will not know some of the links between the characters and why they react the way they do.  I think this author does a great job with the characters and develops a lot of richness to their relationships, and while the relationships are often messy and ugly, that is also how the real world works.  In a job where your life can hang in the balance, it can be quite hard to compartmentalize feelings, and again, this is where I think the author does shine.  So, while I do think the characters sometimes behave in a silly manner towards each other, you are able to empathize with the reasons behind them even if you just want to put them all in a time out. I'm not sure I like the addition of the new team member as I feel that was thrown in to add some drama to the relationships that really wasn't needed, but I am curious to see where it will all head in the next book. But holy, DC Copeland drove me nuts.  Personally, not a fan of using this technique to add drama to something just because it is thought to be needed.  

 

This was a book about vigilantism, but it was definitely much more than that, something I definitely appreciated. It's hard to explain more about this without giving important plot points away from the story, but when someone takes it into their hands to do what they are doing, it can be quite frightening.  The people are killed in quite violent ways, and I definitely appreciated the discussions that surrounded their deaths and why the investigating officers struggled with the investigation itself.  It would be hard to investigate people who should be in jail, people you tried to put there yourself after a months-long investigation, but something prevented that. And if that sounds vague, it has to be as I will give too much away. The pacing of the book was quick and despite the in-depth delving into their personal relationships, the action actually quite a few twists and turns, some of which were predictable, some of which were surprising.  I will also mention here there is a secondary plot line woven throughout this book that would only make sense if one has read the previous books in this series, and I am looking forward to when this plot line actually gets off the ground as there should be some explosive stuff coming down the pipeline with what has been revealed so far.   

 

Verdict

The Shadow Carver was a good entry into a series that has so far been fun to read, and I really liked both the plot and the character development, except for one issue with a new character which I thought was just silly.  However, the mystery had a lot of depth to it and I did spend some time reflecting on how I would respond if I was in that situation fully understanding the position in which the police officers found themselves.  It would be so difficult to put your personal hatred aside and just do the job some days.  I am definitely looking forward to the next book in this series as some of the scenario has been set up in this one and it should be explosive.   And considering the author is a criminal defence lawyer, I really enjoyed the insights provided in this book about how the system works. 

 

Review: Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong

Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time, #4)

by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: May 20, 2025

2025 Minotaur Books

Softcover Edition; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250321312

ASIN: B0D89278JQ

Audiobook: B0DG99K68D

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Historical

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat's injuries don't match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.

 

My Thoughts

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth book in the Rip Through Time series and while I had some issues with the third book in the series, I thoroughly enjoyed this latest addition to Mallory's story.  Mallory continues to embrace her role as assistant to Dr. Duncan Gray and is learning a lot more about the time period in which she has now decided will remain her home.  I enjoyed learning more about Hugh McCreadie, his past, and his family, and thought the mystery was quite interesting.  

 

The author continues to explore the lives of the characters in these books and in this one we learn a lot more about Hugh McCreadie, his sister Fiona as well as about his former relationship with his ex-fiancee Violet.  I thought the author did a great job bringing women's roles to the forefront during this time period  as well as the difficulties they faced through both Violet and Fiona, women bound by their status who fought to be more independent but are stifled by societal rules and what is expected of them. We also tend to see this a lot through Isla, but it is definitely more apparent in this book, especially with Violet and I felt so much empathy for this character. Mallory herself is a character that is full of depth and complexity and we see this through her relationship with Duncan as well as with Isla, but with the addition of Fiona and Violet, we got to see how these women can manipulate and use what they have to their advantage as well and I found this aspect to be quite interesting.  The way they voice their opinions is true dialogue gold. 

 

The plot itself was interesting, and there were quite a few twists and turns, some of which caught me off guard.  It certainly went in a darker direction than I thought it would, and this was an area I thought the author could have explored a bit more. While there are certainly hints that Isla's former marriage was abusive, it is just hints and not really discussed, but this book brings out that aspect of her marriage and hints at the much darker side of a woman's plight when things go badly wrong and there is nobody to protect them.  The author's writing style in these books is very fluid, and while the pace doesn't quite move along as quickly as in previous books, there is a reason for that and it works very well.  I was still captivated by the story line as well as the darker themes of this book.  

 

Verdict

Death at a Highland Wedding certainly went in a direction I wasn't expecting, but the overall tension was good and the character development continues to be top notch.  There is certainly a lot to explore in this book with regards to thematic elements, everything from women's roles and rights, sexual abuse, societal expectations, marriage, loyalty, honesty, deceit, betrayal, secrets, and so much more.  I enjoyed the world-building and admire Mallory's ability to keep quiet about the future and what she knows as I don't know if I could. Looking forward to reading the next installment of this series, An Ordinary Sort of Evil, which releases in May.  

 

Review - A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James

A Box Full of Darkness

by Simone St. James

Release Date: January 20, 2026

2026 Berkley

Ebook ARC; 352 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593200414

ASIN: B0F5PKRY8L

Audiobook: B0F67PW6QM

Genre: Fiction / Horror / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

2 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Strange things happen in Fell, New York: A mysterious drowning at the town’s roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For Violet, Vail, and Dodie Esmie the final straw was their little brother's shocking disappearance, which started as a normal game of hide-and-seek.

As their parents grew increasingly distant, the sisters were each haunted by visions and frightening events, leading them to leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people—spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. Now after nearly two decades it’s time for a homecoming—because Ben is back, and he’s ready to lead them to the answers they’ve longed for and long feared.

 

My Thoughts

A Box Full of Darkness is one of those books I thought I would give a chance simply because I really enjoyed this author's earliest works and I always want to give the new ones a chance as the concept always sounds intriguing.  This one had an interesting concept, it returns to Fell, the setting of a previous book, there are ghosts involved, and includes my favorite, a decrepit house with a lot of secrets.  However, the mystery never really grabbed my attention and I wasn't invested in what happened with the siblings.  Basically, the whole thing felt forced and silly.

 

The three siblings were the main characters and their stories were told through their POVs. They hadn't really seen each other in twenty years and personally, I don't think the relationship between them was developed very well as it felt forced and contrived.  The dialogue was stilted and focused mainly on superficial things even though the author tried to force some sentimentality with childhood reminiscences that didn't quite hit the mark.  After twenty years of not being interested in the house, it did seem odd that the three would suddenly leave their jobs in order to investigate the house when 'something' happened, as if they can just drop their lives at the drop of a dime.  

 

I did enjoy the creepy vibe of this book and really liked the crumbling house with the forest behind it that no one went into. Boy, as kids they really didn't explore a lot as I would have been all over those woods.  So, imagine the shock when they discover things in those woods they didn't as kids. Imagine! And even though the book took place in the 80s, you couldn't tell because the author didn't really take advantage of the nostalgia of the time period.  Even the mention of the hotel, the setting of a previous book, didn't seem to fit the tone of the book and was jarring. 

 

The plot is kind of where this book missed the mark for me. Let me just say that I did enjoy the creepy vibe of the house and loved the ghost sightings, but those are things I live for in books.  The story itself didn't make sense though and a lot of questions were left unanswered or you just had to suspend belief and just move on.  Um, no.  Too many questions, no explanations, so the book fell flat.  And all of the questions were centered on Ben, his arrival, and his disappearance as well as Violet's sightings of another evil entity in the house.  The plot holes were so big you could drop this book right in them.

 

Verdict

A Box Full of Darkness is one of those book for which I had high hopes, that it would be the type of book I first read from this author, but it was not to be. While I did enjoy the supernatural element and loved the setting, it wasn't enough to get past a plot that left me frustrated and annoyed due to the many plot holes and unexplained elements as well as poorly developed characters.  This book just didn't make sense. 

 

Review: Make it Out Alive by Allison Brennan

Make it Out Alive (Quinn & Costa, #7)

by Allison Brennan

Release Date: January 27, 2026

2026 Hanover Square Press

Ebook ARC; 392 Pages

ISBN: 978-1335001412

ASIN:  ‎ B0F7XJN4YP

Audiobook: B0FN9DVLKX

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Three newlywed couples have disappeared from an exclusive resort in Florida, only to turn up dead soon after. With the location and the similarities between the female victims as their only leads, it’s up to the FBI Mobile Response Team to catch a serial killer before anyone else ends up dead. And they have the perfect bait—Detective Kara Quinn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the targeted women.

Undercover as newlyweds pretending to enjoy their honeymoon, Kara and FBI Agent Matt Costa set a flawless trap. When their plan works and they arrest the predator, Matt sends the rest of the team home so he and Kara can have the weekend for some much-needed R&R. But on Monday morning, the couple doesn’t show up to work, and the MRT learns they never checked out of their hotel.

 

My Thoughts

Make it Out Alive is the seventh installment in the Quinn & Costa Thriller series, and while it had a decent premise, there was definitely something missing in this one, that something that usually keeps me glued to the pages and flipping quickly because of the high level of tension.  While I really enjoyed the locked-room scenario that played out and forced Quinn and Costa to examine their feelings for each other, the chapters with the killers just made me roll my eyes and I definitely didn't buy into the reasons for why they did what they did.   

 

By the time we hit the seventh book, the character development sort of stalls, and unfortunately, that was the case in this book.  The fact there is still tension between Kara and one of the other team members after all these books drives me wild, and that same profiler is constantly questioning herself because of what happened all those years ago.  I understand the trauma she went through, but she is supposed to be a professional so maybe behave like one?  

 

The plot was a bit disjointed in this one as you were thrown into the end of an investigation and really had no idea what was going on when the book began.  I'm not opposed to being thrown into an investigation this way, but the way it was done was a bit weird and threw me off a bit.  The team thinks it has its killer, sends everyone home, then suddenly Matt and Kara go missing so they realize the profile was off and have to do an emergency regroup to find out what happened to Matt and Kara.  Not implausible, but the way it happened made me realize I was reading a different type of book than the previous ones and had to just go along for the ride.  Unfortunately, you also knew who the culprit was right from the beginning and this didn't help the tension of the story.  And I really disliked the POV chapters of the killer. It really felt like the author was fishing really deep to come up with reasons for why the killer did what they did and I couldn't help but roll my eyes during their chapters.  I don't know what it is with the use of a locked-room type scenario lately, but while I enjoyed it, it just seemed so far=fetched for this series considering the deep investigations the author presented in previous books.  

 

Verdict

Make it Out Alive is definitely not my favourite book of this series due to the disjointedness of the story as well as poor reasons from the killer's viewpoint.  I don't have to like a killer or agree with what they did, but the reasons do need to be somewhat believable and for me, these were sitting on the edge of 'rolling my eyeballs into the back of head' type of reasons. I could even ignore the neediness of a professional profiler who whines whenever anyone questions her report, but I couldn't ignore the lack of tension or suspense nor the fact this required quite a suspension of belief to get through.  Will I continue to read the series? Yes, because I really enjoyed the earlier books in this series and hope the next one will have more relatable characters and more intriguing reasons for doing what they do. 

 

Review: Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War by Michael Livingston

Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War

by Michael Livingston

Release Date: October 21, 2025

2025 Basic Books

Ebook ARC; 592 Pages

ISBN: 978-1541607705

ASIN: B0DVSNML5L

Genre: Non-Fiction / History / Europe

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Henry V at Agincourt. Edward III at Crécy. The Black Prince at Poitiers. Joan of Arc at Orléans. The period we call “the Hundred Years War” was a cascade of violence bursting with some of the most famous figures and fascinating fights in history. The central combatants, England and France, bore witness to uncountable deaths, unbelievable tragedy, and uncompromising glory. But there was much more to this period than a struggle between two nations for dominance.  

Bloody Crowns tells a new story of how medieval Europe was consumed, not by a hundred years’ war, but by two full centuries of war from 1292 to 1492. During those years, blood was spilled far beyond the borders of England and France. The Low Countries became war zones. Italy was swept up. So, too, the Holy Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula, Scotland, and Wales. The conflict drove enormous leaps forward in military technology and organization, political systems and national identities, laying the groundwork for the modern world.

 

My Thoughts

Bloody Crowns did what I didn't think was really possible, bring a confusing mess of a series of skirmishes and battles into something fairly coherent that even someone without a background in history could somewhat understand. Everything else I have read about this time period has been fairly convoluted and while I have a history background and taught it my entire career, let's face it, the political, social, and religious situation of this time period was very different from out modern day sensibilities, so it's sometimes hard to understand why a certain person did this or why they chose to do that. Michael Livingston did a great job trying to show why certain decisions were made and why other options just weren't available for these people at the time. 

  

In this book though, the author goes beyond the actual timeline of the Hundred Years War and argues convincingly that it actually began years before the historical start of the war.  The political events before the events that are typically attributed to the Hundred Years War are vital to understanding how the events spiraled out of control and should be included in the timeline.  Even my own history professors agreed with this concept as events don't typically just start, except for a few exceptions, but are part of a timeline of events that led into the major skirmishes that have far-reaching consequences.  While I don't think the concept is 'radically original' as stated by the author as my own professors thought this way, it certainly does help to understand what led into the major events of the Hundred Years War, what led to Agincourt (for another great read, see Livingston's Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King) and the importance of Jeanne d'Arc (I'm French so I just don't think of her name in English terms.) 

 

This is a very tumultuous time in history and it doesn't help when every third person is named Henry, Charles, or Louis and property boundaries of countries as well as allegiances changed between breakfast and dinnertime.   I thought the author did a great job sorting out who was who, what was what, trying to explain the allegiances in terms of the time period and what that meant, and the importance of what was happening, even the little things, and trying to explain to people who had a familiarity with France where some of these skirmishes would have taken place today.  And this is what I found the most interesting, the attention to the details of things non-battle that nevertheless played such a critical role in what happened during this time period. Something like the development of weapons that changed the course of a skirmish, the wedding between two nobles that may have changed an important allegiance, the death of a child, the birth of a child, the friendship between former foes, the madness of a king, the death of a king, etc... It wasn't always the big battles that had a profound effect on what was happening, but the smaller, but still very significant events that changed the course of history.  England's claim to the throne pushed France into strengthening its central monarchy (leading to the development of the God-kings we will see in the future), asserting control over independent duchies like Brittany, Burgundy, and Gascony to name a few, and developing a centralized army that would be funded by a taxation system (one that would have repercussions in the future we all know about, but that was still three hundred years away), all controlled by the crown.  And what happened to England? The War of the Roses.

 

Verdict 

Bloody Crowns walks the reader through centuries of battles, politics, and people concisely, but manages to do so in a way that is fascinating and interesting, without falling into that dry recitation that some of these books sometimes do.  Personally, I'm not sure how difficult this book would be for someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject as I have a really good background and have no difficulty understanding the players in this drama, but it did seem like the author did a great job explaining who was who and what was what.   I also know that not everything was covered in this book, as the author readily acknowledges, but that was not the point of this book, it was to show how the Hundred Years War started much earlier than historians typically think, a point he made very, very well.  For history buffs though, it does give you a lot to think about and I highly recommend.  

 

Review: It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara

It Should Have Been You

by Andrea Mara

Release Date: January 13, 2026

2026 Pamela Dorman Books

Softcover ARC; 384 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593832097

ASIN:  ‎ B0F4QBTJLN

Audiobook: B0F6PVJPHN

Genre: Fiction / Thriller

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

2 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

You press send and your message disappears. Full of secrets about your neighbors, it’s meant for your sister. But it doesn’t reach her – it goes to the entire local community WhatsApp group instead.

As rumor spreads like wildfire through the picture-perfect neighborhood, you convince yourself that people will move on, that this will quickly be forgotten. But then you receive the first death threat.

The next day, a woman has been murdered. And what’s even more chilling is that she had the same address as you – 26 Oakpark – but in a different part of town. Did the killer get the wrong house? It won’t be long before you find out…

 

My Thoughts

It Should Have Been You actually had an interesting premise. You type a really snarky message on WhatsApp intended only for your sisters to see and realize afterwards that you accidentally sent it to the entire group. By the time you realize, too many people have seen it and the word has spread. Logically, this can and does happen to people. I've even seen it at work when someone hits the 'reply all' button but really should have just hit the reply button to privately message someone.  Luckily, at work, it's just been funny and nothing serious, and you get the nice instructions on how to reply to people properly in your socials, but this one was quite serious.  And for the first hundred pages, I actually enjoyed the mess, the panic, the discussions, and other whatevers happening around the message despite the lack of character development. And the sloppiness of the execution of the story sort of fit along with what was happening in the story.  Then, the tone changed and I found myself starting to roll my eyes and descended into the pit called 'unbelievable' and to mimic some of the references thrown around in the book, came to a 'That's all folks!' ending for me. 

 

The story followed Susan and her family, but it was told mainly from Susan's POV. It didn't really matter whose POV as I didn't really connect with any of them as there was little in the way of character development. And I don't know if switching the POV helped the story or hindered it as the transitions between characters weren't smooth at all. It just made it difficult to emphasize with any of them.  And even if Susan was the MC, she was definitely whiny and annoying as she made mistake after mistake, not thinking anything through, and while I sympathize with the fact she had a baby four months ago, it got old blaming baby brain on every...single...thing...she...did...wrong. And what really rubbed me the wrong way, especially as a retired teacher, where were the consequences from her job? She was a teacher and saying what she did about a student, hell no.  The focus was on the family dynamics and how it exposed the sisters' lives, but it certainly goes much deeper than that.

 

So, this leads us into the execution of the story.  At first, it was interesting and somewhat compelling as I could imagine a scenario like that happening.  And while thrillers do tend to push the improbable, they still have to be believable, and unfortunately, there were too many things that you had to accept as the story went along.  When you start getting into hard-to-believe scenarios, the tension disappears and all you want to do at that point is finish the book, which is exactly what happened to me.  I mean, when you try to throw in too many things in a pot of stew, but don't actually know how to cook the stew, you get a mess. This analogy sums up the plot exactly in this book; too many things thrown in to mix up the plot and you've got a bit of a mess. 

 

Verdict

It Should Have Been You definitely had relevance to today's social media world and the SNAFU that can happen when you do something you shouldn't, but what really bugged me were the lack of consequences for everyone involved, including the 'friendship' that happened in the end. What? While I enjoyed the mess and the confusion and the panic that occurred when the message first went out, the lack of development in both the plot and the characters turned me right off the rest of the book.  I'm glad to see other people enjoyed this book, but I was not one of them.  

 

Review: Grace by A.M. Shine

Grace

by A.M. Shine

Release Date: February 10, 2026

2026 Head of Zeus - an Aries Book

Ebook ARC; 304 Pages

ISBN: 978-1804547984

ASIN: B0FB37BFS5

Audiobook: B0FD43DR87

Genre: Fiction / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Off the west coast of Ireland lies a lonely island, isolated and wilfully forgotten. Some say there hasn't been a child born on the island for thirty years. Others speak of strange deaths there, decades ago. But no one really knows what happened. Locals believe that the dark times are behind them.

They are mistaken.

Grace, adopted at four years old, has never known where she came from. A mysterious phone call leads her back to the island where she was born – and where a terrible evil has been disturbed.

As the evil starts to spread, Grace finds herself dragged back into a living nightmare that threatens to engulf anyone who steps into its path.

 

My Thoughts

Grace had a fantastic setting and the atmosphere was downright eerie, an island off the coast of Ireland called Croaghnakeela Island.  I have since learned that this island is an existing island and the author incorporated the island as well as Irish folklore into the story. I am currently reading a history of the British Isles and understand there are thousands of islands in the area so while the name of the island exists, I am assuming (hoping) the author took liberties with the story and the people who actually live there. 

 

Let me start with the setting as that was the best part of this book.  We have this island where no children exist, houses are falling into disrepair, the only delivery man refuses to step foot on the island, fog shrouds it perpetually, and legends abound as to what is going on on the island.  A priest was transferred there six years ago and the islanders have successfully kept him in the dark as to its secrets and what happened thirty years go, but he senses the malevolence of the island and the spirits focused on the people.  I loved the blend of folklore with what was happening as that was truly interesting and kept me engaged.  I love it when things are eerie, ghostly, and there are big, dark secrets.

 

Unfortunately, the setting wasn't enough to elevate the story as I found it meandering and the characters weren't fully developed.  Yes, the author tried to give a few of the characters a voice by telling their stories as to what happened all those years before, but by doing so, lost the overall tension and fear that was so prominent in the first third of the book. Even though there were some very interesting things that were revealed through these POV, I did wonder if there was a better way for the story to be told. I really enjoyed Father O'Malley's POV and would have preferred the story stay there as he was ignorant of what was happening and as he discovered what was going on, the tension and the fear would have increased substantially as he learned more and more.  As I've previously mentioned, some really interesting things were revealed, but they were lost in the meandering story line, and other things that I found fascinating were glossed over as if they weren't important, things I think the priest would have questioned. As a result, the overall story felt unfinished or incomplete. 

 

Verdict

Grace definitely had a lot of potential and the setting just screamed atmosphere with the fog and the unsettling stories, but the overall story line fell a little short, in my opinion.  Although I loved the folklore and the legends, I would have liked more information on what was happening.  I really enjoyed the first third of the book, but the ending felt a bit rushed and honestly, predictable.  Overall, I do recommend that you read this novel if you love horror just for the atmospheric elements in the book as they were great, but I will acknowledge the execution fell a bit flat for me.  And the twists? Honestly, when you read a lot of horror you don't get surprised by them anymore as you sort of expect them so not being surprised by them didn't affect my overall rating.