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Book Review: The Woman In The Wood by M K Hill

September 4, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Saturday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a great start to your weekend. Today is my stop on the book tour for The Woman In The Wood by M K Hill. Thank you to Anne cater and Head of Zeus 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.

The Woman in the Wood Plot:

I will start by saying I did enjoy the mystery element of this story. There were many tiny clues subtly mentioned throughout the novel that thinking back would have helped me identify the killer much quicker and I liked that there were sort of two different mysteries happening alongside each other. However, I did not really enjoy the reality TV show side of it, I felt that it took away from the tense atmosphere of the novel. I also didn’t like that I figured out who the killer was as early on as I did.

The Woman in the Wood Characters:

In this novel we follow the Detective Sasha Dawson and I did like her character and how she was represented throughout, she was a very grounded character who had struggles in her public and professional lives. What I didn’t like about most of the characters was that there were a lot of things they did that never had any consequences. They kept saying they would talk about it later and similar phrases but it left me feeling quite annoyed. The situations didn’t feel real enough.

The Woman in the Wood Writing and Dialogue:

I liked that throughout this novel we got to see different character perspectives because it added details to the story that as a reader we needed and we wouldn’t have gotten any other way. I did find M K Hill’s writing to be well-written and clear throughout which made it a nice read for me.

The Woman in the Wood Overall:

I gave this book three stars overall because although I enjoyed parts of it, there were other parts I enjoyed a lot less.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Three years ago, Danny ‘Abs’ Cruikshank, star of reality show Laid in Essex!, was living the dream – but on the night of the party, everything changed. It was supposed to be an intimate weekend gathering, just a few close friends in a remote cottage in Wales. But after a night of heavy drinking in the village pub, a local girl was reported missing – and never seen again. Abs and his friends had been the last to see her alive.

No-one was ever charged, but the controversy destroyed Abs’s career. So now, three years later, the celebrity who once captured the heart of millions is opening Basildon’s new branch of Quidstore.

But then one of Abs’s mates is murdered.

Does someone know what really happened that night in Wales? DI Sasha Dawson and her team must race against the clock to find the killer before they strike again – but first she must discover what happened to Rhiannon Jenkins on the night she vanished.

Will the truth set Abs free? Or bury him?

A reality TV star becomes a suspect in an Essex murder case in the sharp, exciting and moving new thriller from the brilliant new star of crime-writing M.K. Hill.

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

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

September 3, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my spot on the book tour for Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain. This book is a very dark mystery/thriller story that I was extremely excited to start reading. Thank you to TBRandBeyond Tours, Ginny Myers Sain, Netgalley and Razorbill 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.

Here is a link to the tour schedule: https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2021/07/24/tour-schedule-dark-and-shallow-lies-by-ginny-myers-sain/

Dark and Shallow Lies Plot:

There are a lot of elements to this novel that I loved. First, the eerie sense that people aren’t telling the truth hangs over the story as you’re reading it and creates an intense situation for the characters which I liked. I also really liked how so many characters seemed to have these psychic gifts yet nobody could tell you what happened to the missing girl, again that’s causing a lovely piece of tension right from the first chapter. As well as causing tension it is also a very unique concept, I’ve read some books, mostly fantasy, that have one or two characters that have spiritual gifts but not everyone in the town.

Dark and Shallow Lies Characters:

In this book, although each of the characters were different and had their own personalities that came through, I didn’t feel connected to any of them. It might be that there were too many characters introduced for me to focus on them enough but I wasn’t recruited to their motivations and this meant that I didn’t care what happened to them as much as I should have.

Dark and Shallow Lies Writing and Dialogue:

What I liked about the writing style in this novel is how well it suited the plot. It matched the tone of the story as it changed and I really enjoyed how effortless the writing seemed to be.

Dark and Shallow Lies Overall:

I can only give this book three stars because although I enjoyed the plot and the writing the characters weren’t enough for me and personally, I did find it a bit too dark for my tastes.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World–and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychicsknows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something –her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou –a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history –Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent–and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.

Title: Dark and Shallow Lies

Author: Ginny Myers Sain

Publisher: Razorbill

Release Date: September 7th, 2021

Page Length: 432 Pages

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller

Age Range: YA

About The Author

Ginny Myers Sainis the author of DARK AND SHALLOW LIES, her debut YA novel available 8-31-21 from Razorbill/Penguin. Although she comes from a long line of writers, her first love has always been the theatre. She has a degree in theatre and has spent most of her career teaching acting and directing plays and musicals. Ginny currently live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her teenage son and a very cowardly doberman named Shipley. When she is not working in the theatre or writing, you’re likely to find her listening to true crime podcasts, taking pictures of alligators, eating tacos, or planning a trip to Walt Disney World.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Facebook

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: Get A Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

August 30, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you a book review for Get A Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. This is a very popular romance book that I read as part of the Thousand Doors readathon which was hosted by TeaBooksandTamzyn, Drinkingbymyshelf and MegwithBooks on YouTube.

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.

Get A Life Chloe Brown Plot:

As anyone who looks on my blog often will know, I am not the biggest fan of romance books. However, I did enjoy reading Get A Life Chloe Brown. The whole make a list of things to help me get a life that Chloe Brown made was something that gave the plot the substance I was looking for. It created a great situation for Chloe and the love interest to engage with each other, it wasn’t forced like I expected it to be. The thing that I loved the most about this book was the humour, there’s a lot of witty conversations in this book and that is the main thing that kept my interest. Also, I think this book counts as enemies to lovers and that’s one of my favourite tropes.

Get A Life Chloe Brown Characters:

The main character, Chloe, is a very interesting character to follow, she’s stubborn and fiery and is a great example of disabled representation. Red is a good love interest, he didn’t quite keep my interest – not as much as chloe, and I did feel that some moments he acts out of character or he overreacts to create the tension in the book when he doesn’t need to and that did stop me loving the book. I also love that we see a few scenes with Chloe’s sisters and that gives the book something extra because it’s not all focused on the romance.

Get A Life Chloe Brown Writing and Dialogue:

As I said, there’s a lot of humour in this book and I will say that if the writing style had been different and less humour I would not have finished this book.

Get A Life Chloe Brown Overall:

I gave this book four stars because it was a romance book that I actually slightly enjoyed reading.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?

• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And… do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

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

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: Edie In Between by Laura Sibson

August 25, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Wednesday bookish people! Today is my stop on the book tour for Edie In Between by Laura Sibson. Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours for sending me an e-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.

Edie In Between Plot:

One of the things I really liked about this book was the way it handled grief. I think grief is experienced by many people so it is a relatable theme but everyone experiences it differently and I liked how it was represented within this book. It was interwoven with the other themes of magic and love which was done really well. Personally, I feel this book was good but I wanted a little more from the story. I also really liked the scavenger hunt aspect of the book, this is something that is unusual in books but created an interesting story.

Edie In Between Characters:

In this book the main character is Edie, she was a very likeable character to follow. I especially liked the characters of Rhia and GG, Edie’s Grandmother because they both were well written characters who captured my interest. GG’s personality created a great opening to the book.

Edie In Between Writing and Dialogue:

I enjoyed that this book has duel perspectives, one following Edie and one following Edie’s Mother when she was young and by doing this you can see how learning more about her Mother affects Edie, I don’t think that this story would work as well without the dual perspective.

Edie In Between Overall:

I gave this book three stars overall because I liked the themes of grief, magic and finding love but for me the story needed something more for me to love it.

Edie In Between Favourite Quotes:

I also wanted to share with you three of my favourite quotes from the book:
1. “I hear my Grandmother in the houseboat’s kitchen, chatting with our ancestors”
2. “I don’t love seeing ghosts, but the fact of their presence makes haunted houses, well, just houses. With ghosts in them.”
3. “It’s raining again” – this one is because of the context of the scene.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A modern-day Practical Magic about love, loss, and embracing the mystical.

It’s been one year since Edie’s mother died. But her ghost has never left.

According to her GG, it’s tradition that the dead of the Mitchell family linger with the living. It’s just as much a part of a Mitchell’s life as brewing cordials or talking to plants. But Edie, whose pain over losing her mother is still fresh, has no interest in her family’s legacy as local “witches.”

When her mother’s teenage journal tumbles into her life, her family’s mystical inheritance becomes once and for all too hard to ignore. It takes Edie on a scavenger hunt to find objects that once belonged to her mother, each one imbued with a different memory. Every time she touches one of these talismans, it whisks her to another entry inside the journal—where she watches her teenage mom mourn, love, and hope just as Edie herself is now doing. Maybe, just maybe, Edie hopes, if she finds every one of these objects, she can finally make peace with her loss and put the past to rest for good. But this journey to stake her independence from her family may actually show Edie who she truly is…and the beautiful gifts that come with being just a little different.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edie-Between-Laura-Sibson/dp/0451481143
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/edie-in-between-laura-sibson/1138485772

Here’s a link to the full tour schedule: https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/2021/07/07/tour-schedule-edie-in-between-by-laura-sibson/

About the author:

After a career in Undergraduate counselling, Laura Sibson pursued an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing in a local coffee shop, you can find her running the neighborhood streets or hiking with her dog. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. Laura is available for school visits, book clubs, workshops and conferences. She can speak on the process of writing and publishing to audiences from middle school into adulthood. With her background in one-on-one counseling, giving presentations and facilitating both panels and writing groups, Laura brings both warmth and professionalism to all her endeavors.

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

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Book Review: The Appeal by Janice Hallett

August 23, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! It’s Monday again which means it’s time for more book reviews. This weekend I was taking part in the 1000 doors readathon where I intended to read nine books, I did not manage this I actually only managed five before I got too tired.

The first of these books was The Appeal by Janice Hallett.

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.

The Appeal Plot:

I loved how unique this plot was, you as the reader get to see the case exactly how the detectives are seeing it as they try to solve the murder. I was shocked by the end of this book because although part of it was exactly what I thought it would be but I didn’t predict it all which I loved. Discovering the story through the ‘evidence’ found after the murder made this a very unique mystery and I enjoyed trying to figure it out.

The Appeal Characters:

Because of how this book was laid out each of the characters felt like they had their own personal voice and I liked that because it felt more intimate than some mystery books do, I felt like I got a lot more background into the characters for me to base my opinion on.

The Appeal Writing and Dialogue:

I loved the uniqueness of the writing in this book. It was laid out in emails and text messages and not only did this make it easier for me to understand the characters and their motivations but also splitting it up into chunks made the complex plot manageable.

The Appeal Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall. I liked the uniqueness of the writing and the complex details of the plot but I do think some of the aspects could have been slightly less predictable.

Blurb/SYnopsis:

IN A TOWN FULL OF SECRETS
SOMEONE WAS MURDERED.
SOMEONE WENT TO PRISON.
AND EVERYONE’S A SUSPECT.
CAN YOU UNCOVER THE TRUTH?

Dear Reader,

Enclosed are documents relating to the events surrounding the Fairway Players’ staging of All My Sons, and the tragic death of one of its members. Another member is currently in prison for the crime. We have reason to suspect that they are innocent, and that there were far darker secrets that have yet to be revealed.

We believe that the killer has given themselves away. It’s there in writing, hidden in the emails, texts, and letters. In the events surrounding the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick, and the question of whether that money was truly being used to fund her life-saving cancer treatment. Will you accept the challenge? Can you uncover the truth? Do you dare?

The standout debut thriller of 2021 that delivers multiple brilliant twists, and will change the way you think about the modern crime novel.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Crescent City by Sarah J Maas

August 16, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! It’s Monday which means it’s time for another book review post.

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.

Crescent City Plot:

To begin with I was undecided if I was going to buy this book or not because I owned the whole Throne of Glass series and the whole A Court of Thorns and Roses series but I hadn’t read any of them yet – plus this book is huge! It actually didn’t take me as long to get around to this book as I thought it would. I wanted some good fantasy and that is exactly what I got. One of the things that I loved about this book was how information and secrets was weaved throughout the book. The mystery it self had so many parts to it, and there was a lot of things that were a cause and effect. The tension in this book was so good, I didn’t know which characters were lying and telling the truth.

Crescent City Characters:

I loved the main characters in this book. Bryce is a very fiery female lead, I loved her wit and personality. I loved that she had flaws, and they were explored properly – they had consequences and this isn’t often shown in books. Then there’s Hunt who I think balanced out Bryce’s character well although he also got under her skin.

Crescent City Writing and Dialogue:

This book convinced me to read some of Sarah J Maas’ other books because I enjoyed the writing style. I especially loved the dialogue between Bryce and Hunt, dialogue is one of my favourite parts of books usually.

Crescent City Overall:

I gave this book five stars overall because I loved my reading experience and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Bound by blood.
Tempted by desire.
Unleashed by destiny.

Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke

August 12, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Thursday bookish people! I am very excited that today is my spot on the book tour for Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke. Thank you to Pushkin Vertigo 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.

Girl, 11 Plot:

This novel is full of tension and mystery. The further into it I got the deeper into the world I fell. I was feeling the anticipation, the terror, I felt the moment that the mystery was taking a turn. I couldn’t read this book at night because – one, I was completely gripped by the story and two, because it would have scared me too much for me to be able to sleep – that’s how good the mystery is. I also love the use of podcasts that are in crime fiction novels at the moment.

Girl, 11 Characters:

The main character in this book is Elle, I loved her as a character. She has the determination to keep going with the podcast to get justice and the strength her character needed throughout was something that made this book feel incredibly real. Also, there’s a big twist about her character that I did not see coming but I loved it.

Girl, 11 Writing and Dialogue:

I loved the writing of this novel, the way that the chapters were interspersed with the transcripts for the podcasts was a very clever way of explaining what happened with the murders in the past without putting in too much exposition.

Girl, 11 Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because it hooked me completely and the ending was very satisfactory for me.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Once a social worker specializing in kids who were the victims of violent crime, Elle Castillo is now the host of a popular true crime podcast that tackles cold cases of missing children in her hometown of the Twin Cities. After two seasons of successfully solving cases, Elle decides to tackle her white whale—The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK abruptly stopped after establishing a pattern of taking and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. No one’s ever known why—why he stopped with his eleventh victim, a girl of eleven years old, or why he followed the ritual at all.

When a listener phones in with a tip, Elle sets out to interview him, only to discover his dead body. And within days, a child is abducted following the original TCK MO. Unlike the experts in the media and law enforcement who have always spun theories of a guilty suicide, Elle never believed TCK had died, and her investigation was meant to lay that suspicion to rest. But instead, her podcast seems to be kicking up new victims.

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

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath by Ian Green

August 10, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Tuesday bookish people! I’m very excited that today is my spot on the blog tour for The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath by Ian Green. Thank you to Head of Zeus 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.

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath Plot:

I loved the uniqueness of this book’s plot. I had never read a book like this before. One of the things I most enjoyed about this book was it’s fantastic world-building. I felt completely engrossed in the world that Ian Green created and I read through this book so quickly because I had to know what was going to happen next. I loved that this book opened with an action scene, it hooked me in without me even realizing it.

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath Characters:

There are many characters within this book and they all have a role to play, their personalities are very well created and balance against each other well. The main character that I was drawn to was Flore, there are so many layers to her character and I felt all of her emotions along with her.

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath Writing and Dialogue:

The writing is one of the best I have read, it is clear and smooth and despite complex characters and plot lines I didn’t get confused at all, which with some fantasy books I do sometimes.

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because I enjoyed my reading experience and I thought the world-building was masterful.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Fight the Storm.
Protect your people.
The endless rotstorm rages over the ruins of the Ferron Empire. Floré would never let the slavers of
the Empire rise again. As a warrior of the Stormguard Commandos, she wrought horrors in the
rotstorm to protect her people. She did her duty and left the bloodshed behind.
Fight for your family.
Floré’s peace is shattered when blazing orbs of light cut through the night sky and descend on her
village. Her daughter is abducted and Floré is forced into a chase across a land of twisted monsters
and ancient gods. She must pursue the mysterious orbs, whose presence could herald the return of the
Empire she spent her entire life fighting.
Destroy your enemies.
Now, Floré must take up the role she had sworn to put aside and become the weapon the Stormguard
trained her to be, to save not only her daughter, but her people…

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

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

August 9, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you my book review of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. I read this book this weekend just passed while I was down at my Partner’s Dad’s. My Partner always sleeps in a lot later than I do so I went down to the kitchen, got myself a cup of tea and read this book.

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.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels Plot:

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this book. Although it was set as if in Victorian England and mentioned places such as Bath and Devon, it also included elements of magical realism like houses that could fly with pirate flags on top of them. It felt both serious and witty throughout the novel and I mostly liked this but some times I was hoping it would focus on one at a time. I felt that this book focused more on it’s characters rather than the plot.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels Characters:

In this book there are many characters and for the most part they have distinct personalities but I wish some of them had been more fleshed out, and more useful to the story. The main protagonist, Cecelia, is very adventurous and very determined to prove herself to the society so that she can be moved up from Junior to Senior and I felt that this was her motivation for most of the book (except for the end where I really feel her character was lost because of the decisions she made although I sort of expected them). I also felt Cecelia came across much younger than her age and a little whingy. The male love interest character was Ned, I liked his charm and his wit and the way he and Cecelia conversed. Also, he’s a pirate and I’m a sucker for a good pirate. Oh, and there’s also the only one bed trope for anyone who’s interested in that…

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels Writing and Dialogue:

There’s not much to say here, I think the writing fit the universe very well and I thought the dialogue presented all the characters to the reader – also the dialogue between Cecelia and ned were my favourite parts of this book.

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels Overall:

I gave this book three stars overall because it was an enjoyable read, it had pirates in it but it just wasn’t quite enough for me. I plan on picking up the next book in the series though.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he’s under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her–hopefully proving, once and for all, that she’s as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

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

blog tours, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Turnout by Megan Abbott

August 6, 2021August 5, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Friday bookish people! Today is my spot on the book tour for The Turnout by Megan Abbott. Thank you to Grace Vincent and Virago books for sending me a copy 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.

The Turnout Plot:

I was so excited to get to read this book, I have always liked ballet and this continues with literary ballet plots as well. I loved how this book takes you through the story, the things that you think are important aren’t always and the things you think aren’t important may turn out to be much more important than you think. One of the parts I enjoyed the most was the exploration of the relationship between the sisters, there was a beautiful balance between the ballet, the changing mystery and the character relationships. It all paired together brilliantly.
I especially liked how the psychological mystery escalated with the timeline heading towards the end performance of The Nutcracker, I could feel the tension building with every page.

The Turnout Characters:

There’s four main characters in this book, Dara, Marie, Charlie and Derek – each one has their own personal experiences that they are struggling with and this is threaded through the story intricately. I must admit I didn’t like Dara for most of the book but by the end I understood her and why she was the way she was.

The Turnout Writing and Dialogue:

I didn’t think I was going to get along that well with the style of this writing however, I found myself being completely absorbed in it, and so the story. The writing style was the perfect compliment to the mystery that was unfolding.

The Turnout Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because, although some parts were predictable, I enjoyed the journey that this book took me on.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott’s revelatory, mesmerizing, and game-changing new novel set against the hothouse of a family-run ballet studio, and an interloper who arrives to bring down the carefully crafted Eden-like facade.

Ballet flows through their veins. Dara and Marie Durant were dancers since birth, with their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, homeschooled and trained by their mother. Decades later the Durant School of Dance is theirs. The two sisters, together with Charlie, Dara’s husband and once their mother’s prize student, inherited the school after their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago. Marie, warm and soft, teaches the younger students; Dara, with her precision, trains the older ones; and Charlie, back broken after years of injuries, rules over the back office. Circling around each other, the three have perfected a dance, six days a week, that keeps the studio thriving. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school’s annual performance of The Nutcracker, a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration, an interloper arrives and threatens the delicate balance of everything they’ve worked for.

Taut and unnerving, The Turnout is Megan Abbott at the height of her game. With uncanny insight and hypnotic writing, it is a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity and power, and a tale that is both alarming and irresistible.

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