Book Review: "Death At A Highland Wedding" by Kelley Armstrong

 

After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she's developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat's injuries don't match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost. - from Netgalley.com

This eARC was provided by Netgalley.com and I giving an unbiased review.

This is the fourth installment in the Rip in Time series by Armstrong. We are back to modern day detective Mallory, who has slipped through time to a Victorian Era Scotland, and into the body of a housemaid. The original book was interesting to read, though I am not one for historical fiction as much as urban fantasy. Over the course of the MC's story through the books, it seems there will be no need of her returning to her future time line, as she ahs started a relationship, and seems to enjoy detective-type work in this earlier time period. Though restricted by conventions of social placement of women, she is still able to teach more current detective skills to some.

Though the series has been somewhat enjoyable due to the author's writing style, the storyline just is slowly losing my attention. As I stated, I am not into historical fiction, and I feel that these books are somewhat repetitive with the basic story idea: dead body, investigate, lovey lovey, society treatment of women, solve murder, catch bad guy. I do want to point out that this author does do other novels of fiction that I do find more enjoyable.

Book Review: :Bloodlust Curse" by Luanne Bennett

 

I’m Charley Underwood. I run the best bar in Crimson, Georgia… when I’m not kicking demons and vampire thugs out of town.

A local witch has been murdered. Even worse, it looks like the killer stole her magic, draining it away in a bloody ritual.

Who would play with the darkest kind of magic like this? And what are they planning to do with the power they took?

When the killer targets my mentor Candy, and the dangerous trove of enchanted objects in her shop, it’s time to gather Crimson’s witches and prepare for war.

But as we plan our response, I can’t shake the feeling that the others are hiding something from me. Could these attacks be connected to my mother’s magic? And her mysterious death two years ago?

Nothing will stop me from digging up the truth. Because this isn’t just personal. It’s family. - from Netgalley.com

This eARC was provided by Netgalley.com and I giving an unbiased review.

This is the third book in the Charley Underwood series by Bennett, and it still has not lost any of it's charm. Once again Charley is in the mix to stop magic users with bad intent, from doing damage to her town and friends. This time though, it seems there may be more linked to her past and the secrets of her mother that she doesn't know about - and no one seems to want to share.

Like the first two novels, this one was pretty quick read. The story flows wells enough, though our MC Charley just seems to be angry all the time, and really angry when she finds out her friends know more information than they share about the past, mainly in regards to her mother and her death. I've been enjoying the series, and would hazard a guess that there could be a few more books into this series before it get stedious.