Kat

I have to admit I'm a bit unsure how to feel about this. I really loved the writing style and the characters. The tension was very high until it was revealed what the “antagonist” was… This is a trope I don't really enjoy in movies either and didn't enjoy much more here unfortunately… Which is a shame! Up to this point it had the potential of a five stars. I understand this is a me problem though and I definitely want to check out more by this author!

Things I've learned this year:

1. I am a total sucker for Gothic novels!

2. Make it sapphic and I'll love it even more.

This has both of these things and so much more. Loved the atmosphere and the story.

I would lie if I didn't say I was confused at times. I'm not much of a sci-fi reader, let alone apocalyptic books, something about this just doesn't interest me. I am however a murder mystery girly and the combination of both I enjoyed more than I'd expected.

This was definitely not what I expected!

Went into this completely blind as it was my cover pick for @wickedreading's horror bingo and hard mode includes not knowing the synopsis. So I wasn't expecting reality TV or any of this.

Overall it was a nice read. Nothing out of the ordinary (caught the "twist" pretty much right away) but I liked the humour and wit in it. Was also listening to it as an audiobook and really enjoyed the "full cast" of the transcript parts.

Question is does this count as a haunted house story or not... 🤔

Hmm... Sorry... I don't get the hype... This is not horror. Maybe it's too literary for me. 🤷

Also if I wanted to read a travel report about Italy or a gourmet cook book, I would have. As it is I was expecting to read a horror book. Maybe that's on me but yeah...

I can appreciate that it is well written thus the 2.5 stars (even though it got way too pretentious for me from time to time) but sadly the story was mostly boring to me. And I'm really sorry about that cause I was looking forward so much to this.

Edit: bumping this up to 5 stars cause I have been thinking about this almost every day since finishing it. 🤣

Raced through this. There's something about the writing in this that just kept me reading. I could probably have gone on forever…

My book did include the epilogue “An Encore of Roses” and I was so happy it didn't end with the three of them separated. I need those three together forever!!! I also loved reading from Alexi’s perspective! Our sweet prince! These three give me all the feelings! Better than any romance could ever be for me!

Did not expect this to be this good. But this is definitely one of the best newer murder mysteries I read in quite some time (apart from the Thursday murder club)! I liked the characters and their dynamics very much. No-one felt completely forced out did absolutely outrageous decisions just for the sake of driving the plot along. All in all it was just great to spend time with Annie and Frances!

I didn't expect there to be more but goodreads says there's gonna be a second book so definitly looking forward to that!

This is so wholesome. Not more I can say about it. Nothing surprising happens but everything about it is sweet and lovely and made me all watery.

Wow just wow! I loved this book so much, what a rush!

Even though I thought about the twist about Mrs. Baker maybe being one of the sisters and wondering about which sister was which long before it was revealed the overall story still had me in its grips! The end had me sad and happy and just all the feels!

I wish I'd own this book and not lent it from the library. Even though I doubt it's a book I reread or that it would gain anything from a reread, I feel it's a book I would like to own for myself...

I know it's not for everyone but I still like King's writing style. I enjoyed this immensely! It has exactly the right pace for me. Not too slow and did not in the slightest feel dragged out.

I heard a lot of people complain they didn't like the character of Hodges but for the typical bored, unable to function without his job, retired cop he was very likeable to me.

Also many people complain about King's portrayal of Jerome and Holly and maybe I'm as oldschool as King but I couldn't see it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So yeah liking this a bunch and definitely wanna continue the series!

Hm... don't know... I've never been the graphic novel kinda person but I thought I'd give Manga a try anyway since I saw this at our local library and had heard people rave about this one... So yeah I think I'm not really the Manga reader either. The good (and bad) thing is you're done with a whole volume in about 15 minutes. But yeah it also feels like the story didn't even start when it's ended already. So I think it's hard to rate just one Manga book in a series cause you can't read this as a standalone. Maybe if the library has more volumes I will check out a few more if the story picks up. On the other hand maybe not... 🤷🏻‍♀️

So I finished this book last night and boy... was I disappointed!

I was so sure, I was gonna love this book! Everyone else seemed to do so. But all it did was making me feel terribly disappointed and annoyed.

Maybe I wasn't the target audience, maybe I didn't get it, but this book made me so angry and when it didn't make me angry it was kinda blah. (The gore was okay - I really don't mind me some gore! - but all in all too sparce for it to be really horrifying)

I was expecting a group of female friends kicking ass not a group of female punching bags who are kinda known to each other.

Possible spoilers ahead so be warned!

Firstly I really didn't like Patricia. And it's never good when you don't have some sort of sympathy with the main character (at least so far I often struggled with that) or really any of the other characters for that matter. She was just so annoyingly weak. I really am noone who is looking for confrontation but even I wouldn't let myself being treated that shittyly!

Also the strong female friendship everyone raves about felt more like a bunch of acquaintances to me. All of them were more interested in pleasing their shitty husbands than in helping their so called friends. Were wifes really that obidient in the 90s in the American south? I grew up during that time (I should've been around Korey's age) but my Dad was a stay-at-home Dad which wasn't normal in the German south either and not planned at all but even if my Dad had been the breadwinner of the house I can't imagine him treating my Mum like any of those shitbags did! Maybe we were too poor for that to be the case. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And don't even get me started on the "slaying vampires" part. There only ever was one "vampire" and not even a very vampirey one though that wouldn't have been the problem. And the slaying doesn't start until maybe 20 pages before the end and let's just say it's a mess... (what kind of choice was it to doll up your main character and letting her be passed out during the gand finale?)

I can't say much about the blatant racism I felt in every aspect of the book, being a white European myself. But let's just say that I would have preferred Mrs Greene (we never even learned her first name or did I miss that?) to be our main protagonist. Maybe than I would've been able to care. After all she was the hero in the end in my eyes!

So did I not get the satire or deeper meaning? Maybe. But I would argue about this being satirical in any way.

This was my first Grady Hendrix book and I'm really weary about reading another one now. There were quite a few that seemed worth checking out but out of all of those this one felt like the easiest hit for me... 🙈

I think I have enough of post-war-crime-novels (1st and 2nd WW) for the time being! Might have had a bit of an overload there this year... 😜

I feel so conflicted about this one. I loved the beginning of the book and the ending. Both gave full 5 star vibes for me. The middle part though... hmm... I really don't know... Some parts were so confusing to me. It was like I lost my English knowledge. I knew what all the words meant on their own but they didn't make sense bundled up together. I'm not sure if it was the writing style of Stephen Graham Jones (this being the first book I read by him) or slang of the time or something to do with me... It was most prevalent in the "action" scenes. I just couldn't keep up with what was happening... But all the things I could keep up with, I absolutely loved!

So yeah what to rate this... After half a day of consideration I settled on a good 3.5 stars. Which is really mostly coming down to the ending which totally got me. So everything less than a 3.5 just felt wrong. But with how much I struggled to get through it (never felt like such a slow reader than with this) anything above also felt wrong...

Das Hörbuch ist super, konnte mich aber nicht ganz so in den Bann ziehen, wie es selbst zu lesen. Es war allerdings deutlich schneller (da ich es neben anderen Dingen tun konnte, die ich eh tun musste), als das Buch nochmal zu lesen in Vorbereitung, endlich "Die Tore der Welt" zu lesen. 😅

Allerdings bin ich jetzt natürlich auch nicht ganz so in der Story drin... hm... naja, einen Tod muss man sterben. 😉

4.5 - 4.75 stars.

This was everything I expected it to be. I love everyone from the Thursday murder club so dearly! Their dynamic is just perfect. Just had a very good time reading this.

This had me completely captivated after the first third. I was thinking there was more behind it. Something rather paranormal (had been going in completely blind) but the reality of it all was way more devastating than anything paranormal could have been.

This has knitting and vampires in the title. How could I not be drawn to it??

I really enjoyed this. Wasn't expecting to as the other knitty murder mysteries were quite a let down. I mean the mystery here wasn't the strong part. I had a feeling quite soon on after meeting the person, but I really liked the atmosphere and the hilarity of knitting vampires.

Was listening to this while working, otherwise the rating could have been even higher I think...

Just had a fun time with this!

Felt definitely slower than the first book. All the bickering about the bones. Also the end felt a bit middle-book-like...

Still a fun and easy read but yeah, didn't feel as drawn to it as to the first one.

So much politics and diplomacy... Also didn't help that I had read the first two books 10 years ago! 🙈

So I gave in and finished it but I don't really know why tbh. Like I said we're following to many perspectives and I found myself not caring for any of them. So yeah all in all I'm just really disappointed by this. I really wanted to love this. It had so much rooting for it but for me it just didn't deliver. 😔

I really liked this book. I mean it’s no literary masterpiece, but it’s a fun, easy read. It was exactly what I wanted right now.

I thought I'd never finish this!! I kept falling asleep the second half of book. Not sure if this was because I wasn't able to knit while reading it because it was not as good as the first half. Anyway it felt dragged out and I didn't want to continue reading.

The story was right up my alley after all it included Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

But all in all it didn't bring me joy...

As it has so many good reviews though, it might be a me-problem... 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really don't know what to think of this... I might just be too dumb for it... Or maybe it has something to do with me keeping to fall asleep when I first tried reading it (not the book's fault but my tiredness)

Anyway I really don't know how to rate it. Maybe I have to re-read it for that...

I don't really know how to feel about this book tbh. I like Charlotte Link's writing and it was engaging and suspenseful otherwise I wouldn't have gotten through the 640 pages in that time but the story could've taken half the pages hadn't we had two different books in one. Yeah it was somewhat a reflection of how the case showed itself but less could still have been successful. I don't like long books for the sake of being a long book. It's supposed to fit the story and the story itself wasn't that big if you ask me. I was pretty sure that Neil/Denis didn't have anything to do with the murders quite early on (didn't make any sense to me how he handled it but that doesn't make him the killer) also had the feeling that Jane was involved about 200-150 pages before the end. First didn't want it to be true but then I was quite sure and also had a feeling about the how but it took ages from then on till the story was told. Felt that could've been a much faster read.

But nonetheless I liked reading the book and I still like Charlotte Link's stories but yeah why not speed it up..? 😅