(This review may contain spoilers).

(Warnings for potential triggering material).

While I haven’t read the first book in this series, I found it really easy to read this book and understand more or less what was going on… even though I had some very mixed feelings by the end of this book.

I was surprised that so much of the book was in Jardir’s country, since the blurb seemed to imply that the main focus of the book would be on Arlen. I did find Jardir to be a really interesting character… though I felt that a lot of his relationships with the people around him were glossed over. While it was good to see what his society was like in regards to hunting the demons. I did like seeing the politics and how Inevera manipulated situations to place Jardir into power. I didn’t understand everything about the different castes of people, but I could see how her manipulations took effect.

I did feel that rape was used as a plot device in this book. It seemed like a lot of the female characters went through that, to the point that it seemed even the strongest ones had to go through it. I was actually extremely disappointed in how things turned out with Renna… since even though she developed into a strong character by the end, she was only able to do that because she was saved by one of the other male characters.

I liked being able to see different parts of the world… and although some of Jardir’s actions were especially wrong (rape being used by his soldiers as a plot device again, despite adding to the army taking many years even once they got a woman pregnant), I really liked the idea of all men being brothers in the night.

I didn’t really like Leesha as a character… but then again, I also strongly disliked Renna’s sisters. I did feel that Leesha’s character wasn’t really explored and rather than coming across as intelligent, she just came across as childish and someone who clearly didn’t care about the personal feelings about other people.

I found the idea of the Coreling princes interesting and I would have liked to see a bit more of them. While it was interesting to see the differences between the two societies… but there weren’t many sympathetic characters on either side.

Although I was a little surprised to receive this book, I did find it to be a really good idea. I wound up reading it with my nephew, who’s two… although it was less reading and more encouraging him to sound out the words, which he did with great enthusiasm with ‘Wa’.

While it was good to get pictures and names for the characters to begin with, I felt that, even for very young readers, there could have been a lot more detail. It was good to have the visual clues that I could point to for my nephew to look at… but by the time we got to the past couple of pages, he seemed to be getting a bit bored and wanted to read another book.

I think this is a good book for much younger readers, but it could contain a lot more words for younger children to learn, rather than just showing one word per book. It did succeed in getting my nephew to speak along, but I don’t think he was able to make the connection in putting the two sounds together.

Using the child characters to teach the words is good, but I feel it could have been expanded a lot more in length and in storyline… though the illustrations work really well and are very clear and simple.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having been an avid reader of Greek mythology for a really long time, I was quite eager to read this book that was a retelling of one of the stories I know… though not every aspect as well as the others.

It was good to see all of the different characters, but I didn’t feel like they were really expanded upon. I liked being able to see Clytemnestra and getting some hints of her feelings for Aegisthus and his for her… but I lost a lot along the way of the hostility/rage of Clytemnestra apparently had towards her husband. When Aegisthus kept talking about what had happened to his brothers, I had the strong feeling that was just an excuse. There was very little depth to him as a character.

I didn’t feel that the story changing to prose worked very well. I found it very distracting to read the conversations between Apollo and the Furies and Athena and the Furies. The rest of the book wasn’t like that… and it did throw me out of the story as I tried to translate the archaic language of the prose.

While there were elements of Orestes being driven mad by Apollo’s voice in his head, I did think that was the strongest part of the book. I would have liked to see more in the way of showing rather than telling… especially with Orestes’ and his sister’s relationships with their cousin. I couldn’t actually figure out why Orestes and his cousin were lovers, since I knew very little about their personalities.

There were some really dark moments in this book… and I found it really hard to figure out who I was supposed to empathise with. I was really disappointed that Cassandra’s character was completely ignored and not expanded upon. I couldn’t actually care about her fate, because there was nothing more of her character added than what I already knew.

I felt that this book could have been made longer and had more emotion involved to add more to the myth. I don’t think I’ll be reading this book again… and I can’t say I’ll seek out any more by this author in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Having read another book by the same author, I was happy to have another on my Kindle… and I thought this was a really intriguing idea.

It was really creepy to see the point of view from the people who became the mass murderers. I did like Kendall as a character and I found her easy to relate to… although I did think there was too much of an instant connection between her and the police officer.

I did find it difficult not to picture Trip from Agents of SHIELD while I was reading about the police officers… but speaking about Trip, I would have liked to see more of his history. I didn’t get to know him as well as I knew his partner… whose name I don’t actually recall off the top of my head.

I thought there were some really good elements of tension and for a lot of the book, there was quite a lot of mystery. However, with some of the POV changes, I felt that some of the mystery was dropped away. I would have liked to see less perspective from the person responsible for the murders.

I did think that there was a bit too much information dumping in this book. I felt it could have been expanded upon a bit… and I would have liked some more explanation about the reason for the names You23 and Boss17. If there were particular reasons behind them, of course.

There was a lot about this book that was quite scary to read and although I was confused about how everything fit together at first, it did make more sense at the end… even though the explanation did seem to hold some elements of the paranormal.

I would have liked a bit more in the sense of the work being put into the cases by the officers, though I did wonder why there didn’t seem to be much in the way of theories bandied about by the officers.

I did like the opportunity to learn more about Kendall’s history, but I would have liked to see her relationship with her brother.

I did find this book easy to read and I thought it was quite tense to read. I also really liked the bonus story at the end… and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I always find Groundhog Day-style stories quite interesting to read… and I thought it was good to see that the focus was on a mother and her son. While I did get a bit confused with the constant time slips, it didn’t take long for me to become absorbed in the story.

I did think the first scene of the story did a really good job of setting the scene and although it took a while for the story to catch up with the first scene at the beginning, it was a good journey to take and be able to get to know the characters… though I did feel that many of my perceptions of the secondary characters were coloured by how Dawn saw them.

I found Dawn an easy character to empathise with, even though there were problems… but then again, parents aren’t perfect. And I found it interesting to see how Tommy put voice to that.

Although it took quite a long time for the storyline to reach the point where Dawn was reliving the time over and over, I did appreciate the opportunity to get to know the characters… I just felt that the main plot of the book wasn’t given very much time in the actual story.

I was quite confused about how Kylie fit in the whole book, but that did make more sense as the book went on. I did also like the opportunity to see how the slips worked before the main one occurred… and I thought there were some really good scenes in the book, despite the difficulty in staying involved in the storyline when it kept flashing back to Dawn’s childhood.

I think I would have liked to see a bit more of some of the secondary characters, especially Tommy’s father. There were also some really good tense moments in this book, especially when the slips occur.

I did like the ending of the book, although I was still left with a lot of unanswered questions. Some of the things didn’t make much sense, but I was still drawn into the storyline and I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.