Alexandra Ivy

Don't Look
4 Stars

***An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Kir Jansen returns home to Pike, Wisconsin for his father's funeral. Son of the town's former sheriff, Kir always ignored his father's drunken ramblings about a serial killer sending him letters until the body count starts to rise. The local police are out of their depths, so Kir and local vet, Lynne Gale, join forces to unmask a murderer.

An exciting mystery and a solid show more romance although the chemistry between the leads is rather lackluster.

While Kir and Lynne are appealing as individuals, and their reasons for becoming involved in the investigation are believable considering the circumstances, their relationship is lacking. Readers are presented with the facts of their attraction, but the reality of it isn't sufficiently tangible.

The serial killer plot is much more compelling. The details of the victims and their murders are well-written without any unnecessarily gruesome detail, and the letters written from the killer's POV add to the tension. It is possible to follow the clues to sort through the numerous red-herrings, and figuring out the villain's identity and motivation is all part of the fun.

Small towns are quite common settings in this type of book, but Pike is somewhat different. Rather than being quaint with quirky locals, the atmosphere is more sad and depressing,. The residents are trying to cope with the realities of a failing economy and the disappointments in their lives, which contributes to the believability.

Overall, a well-written and entertaining read recommended for lovers of a good romance with their mystery. show less

A little too much posturing in this one, reading about men glaring and huffing and growling and stuff gets old really really fast. Most of the story going on behind all the silly macho crap was a decent story, should've been given more room to breathe.

Three stories linked by one Vicar. Vicar Humbly is about to retire but before he does he decides to revisit three marriages he conducted where he's not sure if they're actually happy so he visits them all and Miss Marple style nudges the couples involved into happier places.
In A Proper Marriage; Adele Morrow is trying to make herself into a perfect wife and it's killing her spirit but her husband can't see it until Humble shines a light into the relationship.

In A Convenient Marriage: show more Beatrice Chaswell finds herself married to a man who she believes only married her for her money and her resentment is getting between the two of them. Humble gets involved and makes them talk to each other.. They also discover some secrets in the house.

A Scandalous Marriage - Victoria Mallory was looking for adventure but adventure found her in the form of a man she didn't expect in her bed in the inn. Marriage followed but she doesn't trust that if she gives her heart to the rake that she will find anything but heartbreak. Once again Humbly breaks down the barriers.

It's an answer to the "why didn't they talk" trope. and it definitely breaks those barriers and goes through the characters finding love in their marriages. I also loved Humbly and how he manipulates people gently.
A show less

Beware the darkness is the 14th book in the series and it's better if it's not read as stand-alone. Characters and events from the previous books appear and have an impact in the story.

In my opinion, when you dedicate almost half of the story to another couple ( Levet and Inga) you should give them a happy ending too or if you don't want to do that, reduce the parts that are from their point of view. They took too much space and their story will be completed probably in the next book. show more Scratch that, the next book is not about them. So, why tease us about their story and feature them so heavily? Yes, they helped our main couple, without knowing it, but did we really need to see so much from Inga's point of view?

I don't feel like I have much to say about the main characters. Their story felt a little too much like wham bam thank you, ma'am. I suppose most of the bonding happened during the years he was a prisoner, but I wanted to see more of them doing what couples in paranormal romance do. I need something more to be convinced that they actually belonged together.

The reason why I am not going with a lower rating is the fact that the story had a good flow and I read it easily. I have gotten a little bit more used to this universe since this is the second book I have read and I was able to follow all the events that were happening. show less