The Season by Sarah MacLeanAlexandra Stafford and her best friends, Vivi and Ella, are seventeen, beautiful, and experiencing their first Season in Regency London. They are also willful and independent and have absolutely no interest in being on the marriage mart. They have no patience for men who think women should be seen and not heard, and Alex takes great pleasure at shocking men with her entirely unladylike opinions on politics (much to her mother’s dismay.)
When the Earl of Blackmoor dies in a mysterious accident, Alex finds herself helping his son, the handsome Gavin, in investigating his death. Alex has known Gavin for years, and he has always been like another brother to her. But as the plot thickens, so does their relationship—until Alex can hardly be sure what she wants. But there is more at stake than the danger to Alex’s reputation. Someone has murdered the Earl of Blackmoor to protect deadly secrets—and he is willing to kill again.
I was totally on board with this book from the description. It reminded me of a less magical
Sorcery and Cecilia or
Maerlon the Magician, and I was excited. Fiesty heroines who have no patience for fancy dresses, and who have minds of their own? Sign me up!
Unfortunately, Alex and her friends are independent-minded only in the author’s imagination. Though the narrative describes them as independent thinkers with “personalities,” we never actually see them exhibit any of those traits. Aside from the fact that Alex is the protagonist, all three of them could be completely interchangeable.
Alex claims to be an independent woman who has no interest in being married off, who is looking for depth and a relationship, but that lasts exactly as long as it takes her to get to her first ball and see Gavin looking all spiffy in his formalwear, and suddenly she realizes new feelings for him she never knew she had. They fight a little, and just like that, bam! they're in love. Gavin claims that no other woman can measure up to Alex, and her humor and beauty and spunk and etc etc etc make Alex such a delicate and special flower. But the second she says something he disagrees with, or does something he doesn’t like, he completely shuts her out and treats her like a child.
And guess what Alex does? She flounces off to sulk. Like a child. And then throws herself at him again a few pages later.
The mystery is entirely predictable—from the first time we meet the murderer, it’s quite obvious that it’s him—but it’s not that the writer meant for it to be obvious. It just
is.
I almost put this book down and didn’t finish it, but then I decided to give it another try to see if it improved.
It didn’t.
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The Angel of Death by Alane FergusonCameryn Mahoney has an unusual side job--she's assistant to the county coroner--who happens to be her father. But she didn't get the job through nepotism--Cammie is good at death.
But this time, the case may be too gruesome for even Cammie to handle. When her teacher is found dead in his bed, discovered by Kyle O'Neil, one of his Eagle Scouts, Cammie is horrified to discover that his eyes are burned out--indeed, Mr. Oaks has been cooked from the inside out.
The case is mysterious, and the trail is full of dead ends. It deserves her full attention, but Cammie is distracted--by the secret she's keeping about her estranged mother, and by a budding relationship with the ultrapopular Kyle. She may be too distracted to pick up on the clues to the identity of the killer before it's too late.
I didn't like the first book featuring Cammie,
The Christopher Killer at all, so I'm not really sure why I read this one. I don't think the writing was strong at all. Cammie is not a compelling, interesting or likeable character in the least. She is a classic Mary-Sue--and the fact that Ferguson needs to keep reminding us that Cammie's best friend Lyric is both fat and weird is very off-putting.
If all that weren't enough, I knew who the killer was from reading the cover copy--and if I hadn't figured it out then, I would have picked it up the first time we met him. From the way the book was written, it was somewhat clear why Cammie et al didn't pick up on it--but that's still sloppy writing. If the reader knows whodunit light years before the crack girl
detective forensic pathologist, it makes for an utterly boring read.