The guild of immortal women reads like the first book in a series or trilogy.

I liked a lot of the characters, Abbey, Matt, Ruth and Boo were some of my favorites.

Robert and The Doctor were interesting characters too, not that I can say I liked them. But they kept me guessing.

The book was not what I'd expected, and that's probably a good thing, because I think the cover lends itself to a very traditional fantasy story, where as this story has loads of modern ties, magical ties and even a small sprinkle of humour.

The humour wasn't as pronounced as the book synopsis makes out, a fair number of the jokes were in poor taste or repeated too frequently to be funny after the first time.

I got distracted by the paragraph breaks and lack of paragraph breaks littered throughout the book. Minor things really, but they do make it harder for the reader to enjoy the story.

The ending felt like it was purposely left open for another book, but there's nothing forecast on Goodreads about another book. It just leaves too much unsaid and unfinished as far as I'm concerned.

**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book in return for an honest review.**

ETA: The author has informed me that this version of the book no longer exists and a new and improved version (with a new title too - Never Too Late) will be released shortly through Penner Publishing.

Edith is the second of Jo Barney's books I've read. While the first, Uprush, was a more polished read, I still enjoyed Edith too.

I tried to explain this genre type to a male friend the other day, I suggested it was like 'Chick Lit' but for the "grey" generation readers, like the recent 'grey nomad lifestyle'. He instantly knew what I meant and thought it was an amusing new sub-genre.

Despite not being in the target audience demographic, I still enjoyed going through Edith's rather tumultuous daily life. Her sense of humour, at times, was right on point and was very amusing. I followed her through unravelling the mystery left to her by her husband, Art. And I also loved watching the relationships build around her.

I felt at about 70% things got a little slow, I struggled to keep reading because so much of what was happening felt like Edith was just being 'woe-is-me' and not actively participating in the events. This feeling did pass fairly quickly when the climax of the story came about.

I also feel a little more closure could bolster the strength of this book.

All in all, I did enjoy reading this story, it's got mystery and emotional or familial themes running through it and would be suitable for most adult readers. I do feel this would have a stronger message for women, and men, in the target demographic more than the younger readers, but I don't think it's appeal is limited to the 'grey readers'.

It does need quite an extensive edit. The things I noticed:
9% - ...wine in the other hand. '" - remove space after fullstop.
20% - ...a tender a (delete a) teat at him.
22% - ...any apron strings still tie tie (delete second tie) me to...
27% - ...found this receipt, and she is (delete is) needs to know...
28% - ...bother me so much (to) find out about them?
29% - He had tried (to) change things.
30% - ...I'm trying to become.. (Delete second fullstop)
37% - I believe change is (a) good thing...
38% - ...holding (a) book on my chest...
- ...turns his back away fro(m) the light...
40% - (sentences both start in the middle) doesn't answer my question.
must have seen my eyebrows...
- ...given much thought to (one)'s skin color;
41% - ...rings, startles (replace with startling) me, I almost ignore it.
- several instances of Ginnie's name missing from the text, leaving "'s".
- spoonsful should be spoonfuls.
42% - " (insert Art or He) gave me his phone...
- ...once or twice with , (insert relevant name) and then...
46% - ...that's enough (to) make my heart beat...
- ...we have made our ways (delete s) to the dog park...
48% - ...middle-of (delete space)-the-night...
58% - ...the l930's (1930's) bungalow...
62% - "I'm (delete I'm add I've) pulled out a black...
63% - ...talked a while back. ? (Delete ?)
66% - ...what we both should do (to) help...
68% - So I asked (Dad/Art) out for a drink...
69% - ...she'd run as (delete s) check of some sort...
81% - (Is) it still unfinished,
89% - " (delete space) I am okay.
91% - ...many secrets do you and (insert missing word) keep, about my son...

**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I got a copy of this in electronic format from the Author, and sadly, I just can't read it.

The formatting and errors in the text are too distracting that I can't enjoy the story.

I got to 10%. Hence the lack of a rating.

Here's what I noticed:

2% - ...a cinderblock wal(l).
4% - ...hobbled into the al(l)ey...
5% - ...into the foothil(l)s of Virginia.
...Burber Hil(l).
The mines and mil(l)s had been...
...bal(l)gowns...
...of The Hil(l)...
6% - ...before final(l)y being left...
7% - ...came cal(l)ing...
2 years should be written out (two)
She was stil(l) exquisite.
...rise and fal(l) of her...
"...Isit is where (speech marks wrong way)
8% - ...weekly col(l)ection until he found...
I'm not commenting on missing 'l's' anymore. There are too many
9% - is the protagonist Mose or Moses? It seems to change...

**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book in return for an honest review**

After trying to slog through Fantastes, and only succeeding to get to 30% because of the heaviness of the old language, switching to Jagannath was a fantastic relief. Especially when I realised that the writing style was light and playful, with loads of action that was to the point and active.

I liked the characters, Kimi and Lily, and I especially liked the importance of the canine friends too. The male cast was lacking in substance as far as I was concerned. There were plenty of them, but they played far smaller roles in the story and this became a problem when it came to characters to kill off.

The plot was engaging and while the characters dragged themselves from crisis to crisis, I found myself cheering them on. The down side to all this turmoil was that there wasn't really enough down time to get to know the characters all that well. When partners and loved ones died, I wasn't really sad because of this. It lacked the emotional connection with the reader.

If fast-paced sci-fi is your thing, then certainly try this one on for size. The tone and light conversation made it easy to read. The age of Lily (one of the main characters) really dictated the tone and voice of the piece, with some sex scenes lightly brushed over, not graphic or detailed.

Some readers have marked this as horror, but in the grand scheme of things, I found it neither horrifying nor thrilling. Perhaps this is due to the adult horror books I've read. I wouldn't consider this horror, though there was some slightly graphic descriptions of death scenes. I didn't find it overly graphic, nor too far past what is depicted in computer games these days. I believe this means it'd be suitable for most teen readers.

I didn't find any typos or errors, which is a big plus, but ultimately I felt the lack of emotional connection with the characters let this book down. It was enjoyable and engaging, but didn't allow enough reader connection.

**Note: I was provided with an electronic copy of this book in return for an honest review**

The After House probably should have been called The After Thought.

It opened strongly enough; The Moby Dick inspired whale hunting with Captain Eli, set in 1840, was quite imaginative and engaging. The reader was dragged upon a rather thrilling sperm whale chase and being introduced to a range of characters that were varied and interesting.

When the timeline changed to present day, is where things got a bit messy.

I’ll start by saying I actually liked Remy and Olivia; I even liked the relationship Remy had with her parents. Where things fell down for me was when Hugh came onto the scene. I get the notion of love at first sight and soul mates, but the whole thing seemed contrived, something used to fuel the plot.

Add to this, the fact that this book has been tagged as horror and thriller, when in reality it’s more on par with Casper the Friendly ghost. It’s far from scary and the way it goes into the whole haunting thing reeks with a condescending stench. Almost as if the reader couldn’t handle a scarier story. The most thrilling scene of the book involved nothing paranormal. This was quite a letdown.

The book also seems to not know what genre it wants to be. It plays within several major ones: romance, paranormal, drama, thriller, and crime/whodunit/mystery. Yet doesn’t truly reside in any, it doesn’t fit in one place, which, to me at least, lets it down. If you have lovers of paranormal romance they’ll likely feel cheesed off because that theme is only lightly touched upon. If you have hard-core horror and thriller fans, they’ll likely feel cheated because it’s too soft.

Where the book will sell, is that weird ‘general topics’ market where you’re unsure what you feel like reading. It appeals to many different genres and will, by process of having so many in there, surely appeal to you with one of them.

So, where I was going with my first line… this book could have been an epic retelling of a historical story. It could have been a vivid, freaky and somewhat disturbing horror/thriller, or it could have been a sweet loving romance. But by adding each of these layers the plot got more complex and the last few chapters were so rushed it felt like the ending was merely an afterthought. The information dumping was so prolific I needed to have a break from reading to process just what happened.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I felt that the characters involved in the last chapters were ripped off, missing out on having their story mean anything to the reader.

There also were a few typos and such I noticed:

11% use of the word 'fire' instead of other words.
12% ...and his family(.) Perhaps...
65% - They (delete y) dark eyes glared back angrily (delete angrily)...
86% - head hopping without appropriate paragraph breaks. From Hugh to Eli and Scott mid scene
94% um... Way to dump that on us...
97% - You've gone to fire (delete fire add the) next level...

**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**