Reader beware: several mentions of suicide, not all sensitively done, and murder and suicide on page. This is a review of a digital ARC provided via NetGalley.
What do you know, I was kidding myself. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether Ms Chase would make Ashmont, drunkard extraordinaire, work for me.
Reader beware: backstory of maternal death in childbirth and paternal neglect (and a bit of a spoiler for A Duke in Shining Armor in the review).
I had originally planned to read Ms Young’s Crime for the Books, the most recent title in this series; however, I realized that I have ARCs for the first two books, and since I have a thing about reading order, here we are.
Once again, I had not realized this series is narrated in first person past tense; I have a feeling a lot of the cozy mysteries in my TBR ARCs are going to be like this, and I should work to make my peace with it.
Reader beware: some graphic gruesomeness; whiteness (maybe one PoC character, though their race is not specified); old drunkard being a creepy lecher; a whole lot of class privilege; whiffs of domestic and/or intimate partner violence.
Generally speaking, it’s very rare for me to enjoy first person narrative, and it’s even more rare when it’s alternating points of view. Despite all of which, Ms Weatherspoon snagged my attention from the first page and never let go.
Content note for violence (the protagonists meet when he has to shoot the people chasing her, who have just murdered her brother off the page), language and graphic descriptions of sex, including almost-but-not-quite exhibitionism in public. 1
“A review is at its heart the expression of the reviewer’s opinion–in this case, my opinion. Regardless of how the book in question ended up in my hands, I will not insult your intelligence by assuming that you will blindly buy any book I like, or that you’ll avoid reading any book I don’t like. Instead, I’ll give you credit for making up your own mind, and buying and/or reading whatever you think you’ll enjoy.”
Please be aware that some of the books I review, talk about, or plain mention in passing, in this blog, have been given to me by the author, or someone else on behalf of the author, with the express purpose that I review them. (Those reviews are tagged ARC or review copy.)
Her Hands, My Hands 