Book Review: Embers by Josephine Greenland

Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my stop on the book tour for Embers by Josephine Greenland. Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Tours for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review!

Embers Plot:

This book immersed me in the history and culture of the Sami people which prior to this book I had never heard about before. I found the plot intriguing and I really liked how the tension increased as each incident seemed to get more dangerous. This book focuses on the relationship between two siblings and although it is slightly unrealistic – my parents would never have let my sister and I go on holiday on our own to a place we had never been before. Mainly because we would have caused all sorts of trouble. I enjoyed how this mystery played out, the investigation was developed well and kept me curious about what happened.

Embers Characters:

I enjoyed that this book had two young siblings as the main characters because that is something I personally don’t usually read, so this book was out of my comfort zone. I also liked that this book contained disability representation because one of the main characters, the brother, has Asperger’s in this book. I’m not sure how correctly portrayed it is because I’m not as knowledgeable as I’d like to be on the subject.

Embers Writing and Dialogue:

There’s not much for me to say here. The writing style flowed very well and helped to keep me involved in the story. For me I felt that I needed something a little more from the writing although I couldn’t tell you what that would be, it was just a feeling that something was missing. Of course this is only my personal opinion.

Embers Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because it was an enjoyable and well thought out mystery novel that had me learning about new places and cultures and helped to push me a bit out of my comfort zone.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Two siblings, one crime. One long-buried secret.
17-year-old Ellen never wanted a holiday. What is there to do in a mining town
in the northernmost corner of the country, with no one but her brother Simon –
a boy with Asperger’s and obsessed with detective stories – for company?
Nothing, until they stumble upon a horrifying crime scene that brings them into
a generations-long conflict between the townspeople and the native Sami.
When the police dismiss Simon’s findings, he decides to track down the
perpetrator himself. Ellen reluctantly helps, drawn in by a link between the
crime and the siblings’ own past. What started off as a tedious holiday soon
escalates into a dangerous journey through hatred, lies and self-discovery that
makes Ellen question not only the relationship to her parents, but also her own
identity.

AUTHOR DETAILS
Josephine Greenland is a Swedish–English writer from Eskilstuna, Sweden. She
has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham and a BA in
English from the University of Exeter. She is the winner of the 2019 Bumble Bee
Flash Fiction Competition by Pulp Literature, the 2017 Fantastic Female Fables
Competition by Fantastic Books Publishing, and also the runner-up in the 2018
Summer Solstice Competition by Wild Words. Her fiction and poetry have
appeared in Dream Catcher, Literary Yard, Soft Cartel Mag, Plum Tree Tavern,
Porridge Magazine, Litro and AHF Magazine. She has also been highly
commended in competitions by TSS Publishing and Cinnamon Press. In 2017, she
was awarded the Young Writer’s Bursary by Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival.
In August 2019, Josephine began a PGDE course at the University of Edinburgh
to become a Secondary English teacher. When not writing or teaching, she
enjoys playing the violin, running and hiking. Embers is her first novel and was
written during her MA course. It is based on her own travels in northern
Sweden two years ago with her brother.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you enjoyed it!