I finished Find You in the Dark with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it does have the creepy vibe I'd expect from a thriller, but that gripping need to turn one more page is missing. Despite Martin's 'hobby,' the pacing is very slow for most of the book. Parts of the story are repetitive and Martin's inner monologue was drawn out and much of time, not all that interesting. It reached a point that I found myself enjoying the scenes with Martin's too smart for her own good, teenage daughter more than the disturbing parts of the story. Her sense of humor and sass did add some levity to an otherwise dark and sometimes tedious tale. I think part of my disappointment lay in the way things played out in the book. We know from the blurb that Martin draws the attention of a serial killer, and I expected there to be something of a cat and mouse game between them. That I didn't get that is on me and my own preconceptions, but considering the length of the book, I just expected more. In the end, the story did have a lot of potential and I enjoyed some parts of it, but other parts came up lacking for me, leaving me with a bit of a 'meh' feeling.

Martin is a family guy who has what some may consider a very creepy hobby. No, he doesn’t collect Living Dead Dolls or horror movies like the rest of weirdos, he digs up the corpses of people murdered by serial killers and taunts the police with his ghastly finds. His wife and daughter have no idea what he’s doing on the side even though he comes home dirty and smelly after a long day of playing with old bones. The police also haven’t a clue.

Find You In The Dark has a twisted and unique to me story. On his last dig, something goes awry that may expose Martin’s strange little hobby to the world and put he and his family in danger. Martin will do anything to keep his family safe (even though one member doesn’t deserve his loyalty, if you ask me) and that is all I am going to say about the plot.

I love being in the head of messed up people rather than being stuck reading a story from the lead investigators POV the entire time. Martin, a serial killer and the police officer who gets involved in the case all share page space and I enjoyed that. I see a lot of people taking issue with the female officer but she didn’t bug me at all. The person I didn’t like was Martin’s wife. She was spoiled and selfish and every conversation with her was insufferable and I kept hoping bad things would happen to her. If my spouse took off for a few days and came home smelling of anything foreign, never mind death (frigging death, people!), you can bet he’d be answering questions until his lips fell off. This woman? All she cared about was helicoptering her teenager and getting her boutique ready for opening day. Not a nosy bone in that one’s body. How is she even a wife?!

This wasn’t a fast paced book and it took me longer to finish than I had hoped. Something about the pace was just a wee bit off but I liked the strange turns the story took. There aren’t fifty shocking twists but it walks down some dark and unexpected paths. If you don’t mind a slower pace and like to spend a little time with deviants this one is for you!

Thank you Atria Mystery Bus for surprising me with a copy of the ARC!

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Martin Reese digs up murder victims from cold case files he buys from the police.  He calls in his findings anonymously to the police but Detective Sandra Whittal is suspicious of her caller and his motives.  As she moves in on discovering who her 'Finder' is, Martin is being hunted by someone who is not happy with his discoveries.  With his family's safety on the line, Martin must go even deeper into the dark realm of murder.  

Hailed as a cross between Dexter and The Talented Mr. Ripley, I thought this book was going to be a mesmerizing study in character development.  Well...some comparisons just shouldn't be made.  I got completely lost in the story, and I don't mean that in a good way, I literally mean that I couldn't flesh out the actual story from the messy plot.  I really had to push myself to finish and this was because I didn't connect with the characters—they weren't believable.  Nathan Ripley's Martin Reese lacks the depth and likability factor of Dexter Morgan, or the creepy brilliance of Highsmith's Tom Ripley. 

Martin Reese is a family man, but he has a dark secret - he's obsessed with murder and has been for years. He's been illegally buying police files on serial killers. He studies these files in depth and uses them as guides to find the missing bodies. He never takes anything except pictures that he stores on an old laptop. He calls the police and tells them where to look and he does it anonymously. When a crooked cop goes missing Detective Sandra Whittal zeroes in on the mysterious caller. She doesn't see the caller as helpful. She knows he isn't the killer, but she believes he'll start killing sooner rather than later. While on his latest dig, Martin digs himself into a hole that he may not be able to get himself out of.

I love the cover. This book gripped me from the very first page and didn't let go until the very end. The concept is interesting - a husband and father leaves home for a bit every now and then to dig up bodies of missing women that the cops never found. Isn't that dangerous? How does he not get caught? Why is he doing it? This whole story was crazy but it also felt very real. Martin believed he was doing a good thing and he just got in way too deep. I was worried about him more than once. This was so well-written and such an intense page-turner that I felt like I was a part of it and not just sitting on the couch reading a book. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC.

Well, here we are at the beginning of May, frankly with all that was going on with me the previous month, I can't believe it's over and the huge project I've been consumed by is soon to be done. Not yet, but soon enough. I worked a lot more hours and had less time to be be at home with my dogs, less time to read naturally, less time to be me and do staff I enjoy or just relax. Hope this month will bring more "light weight" staff for me. 

So I didn't really have time to read (at least not in the beginning of the month when I was tired all the time and couldn't keep my eyes open to read when I got home) but actually most of what I read in the beginning of the month have also been a disappointment so why read when I obviously need the sleeping hours and the books aren't worth the sluggish morning after half a night of reading ;)

I'm still re-listening to all the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward. While last month I listened to 5 books, this month I only managed three. I'm almost at the end, I have about a third of the 10th one and then I only have the 11th till I get to read "The King". But I did manage to read the Insider's guide which I had but didn't read before.

Lover Avenged (BDB #7)

Lover Mine (BDB #8)

Lover Unleashed (BDB #9)

The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide

I got to read a small mini series (all the novellas together amount to about 300 pages) that wasn't planned in my April Goals which was "Curio Vignettes" By Cara McKenna (aka Meg Maguire). Highly recommend it! :)

Curio (Curio Vignettes #1)

Coercion (Curio Vignettes #2)

Craving (Curio Vignettes #3)

Confession (Curio Vignettes #4)

Reversal (Curio Vignettes #5)

Exposure(Curio Vignettes #6)

Without further ado here is my April Recap :)

Author of the Month: (Wicked Nights + Beauty Awakened
Angels of the Dark #1, #2) Gena Showalter

I've read Lords of the Underworld a few months ago. It's one of quite few Paranormal Romance I've read which ISN'T about vampires. It's about demons, warriors and immortals. But nevertheless a great read! Gena built an amazing world that feels real (or could be real), interesting characters and now a spin off which started with Zacharel (whom we met in the LotU series) and continues with the rest of the Amy of Disgrace. I loved Zacharel when reading of him and the LotU series and LOVED his personal story. I also really enjoyed the second one in the series of Koldo (a new character). Gena brings into this world interesting and divine motives I really like. I like that the characters are versatile and even though supposed to be utterly good (angels hello!) they are damaged in their way leaving them having to struggle with their past but also present (so they'll actually have a future ..). I planned on reading the last one when it was published (on the 29th of April) but since I was all over Curio I postponed it to the beginning of May (will start reading it today :)).

Favorite Book of the Month: The Country Mouse Collection By 
(Country Mouse + City Mouse) By Amy Lane & Aleksandr Voinov

I started with putting this one in the "fun break" but then moved it to this spot since even though it WAS a total easy going and funny read it was also a great story and my ABSOLUTE favorite of the month. We have two short novellas that together brings us a whole story (I think together they are about 200 pages). The first one deals with the forming of the relationship between the Country Mouse - Owen the easy going from the US coming to a visit in London and the City Mouse - Malcolm the uptight workaholic living in London. The first part had a lot of sex (some of it naughty :P) but it did have a sweet story as well. Owen is an amazing influence on Malcolm and he can read him like an open book, giving him what he needs even if he doesn't know that's what he actually needs! The second one is about them trying to get along as a couple when they have different views towards a lot of things. Mostly about work.. Owen wants a work with meaning, Malcolm wants a job with a status and naturally pays well. Both of them wants that for the other which is what's sweet about it. I wish we could have had another short novella to this one but I guess I'll have to settle with what we got :) 

I should mention that the read was very fluent even though it's written by two authors. This is the first read for my of Amy Lane but Aleksandr Voinov I knew from a preious read - "Unhinge the Universe" (Also Highly recommended!) 

Disappointment of the Month: Find Yon in the Dark by A. Meredith Walters

I don't like writing bad reviews but sometimes I feel like "I have to" first because I want to document what I read for myself and second because I would like to have an honest review when I look for a book to read so for me it also means to deliver it myself with my reviews. One other thing, I really try to finish a book even if I don't really like it or have my misgiving about it but this one, I left after almost 50% for me that means the book have REALLY disappointed me (or angered me which will mostly be the case). I think this book had a lot of potential dealing with a rough subject - a teenager suffering from both Mood (Affective) Disorder and a Personality Disorder. I guess it was suppose to show us how the MC struggle with the disorders both with one another and with the world around them (family, friends, kids they go to school with etc) but it was a total miss because the girl - Maggie was A CHILD. I think she behaved like a 12 years old.. (not 16...) there is NO love expressed only an obsession we all read about / witnessed / once had when we were young when it was all about the crush and nothing to do with the person towards it's expressed. Also it's all about forgetting who she is to be HIS girl. I felt that the Maggie couldn't deal with what was going on with her boyfriend since she can't even understand what a real relationship is about. I really wish I'd love it. I do.

I find these kinds of subjects close to heart since I studied Behavioral Science for my B.A. and I worked with different kinds of Disorders for years (granted not with what Clay has, not that it matters..). So yeah, it was a total miss on that account but the most strange thing about this book was that even though it brings such a refreshing and different story all the other details of the book felt like a total and absolute cliche / unoriginal. So as I wrote above, haven't finished this one and cancelled my planned reading for the rest of the series.. 

Discovery of the Month: Curio Vignettes by Cara McKenna
(See links to all reviews above)

I read almost all books published by Meg Maguire (and will finish them all till the end of the year) but this is the first I've read in her other pen name - Cara McKenna. She writes Contemporary Romance under Meg and Erotica under Cara. I don't read a lot of Erotica basically because I'm more into the story than the sex.. ;) But this one gave both the sex AND the story. I loved that we had a story of about 5 months long which means we could feel how the relationship was building (each novella had a short few weeks gap from the previous one) making it more realistic. I loved that we had a man whore (and not the obvious other way around) I loved that what Didier was dealing with wasn't so obvious or I should say stereotypical to prostitutes it had more to do with HOW he lived his life and not about his occupation specifically. I loved that I could relate to both of them even though my life story has NOTHING to do with theirs. For me that's something a great writer can do (and a good one does occasionally or not at all).  Both of them felt real to me, relateable. I also appreciate an author who can write a good novella. That's not an easy thing! But I should say that all of them had their happy ending but it wasn't an absolute and total closure to the story it was mostly having something to look forward to. I would have been totally OK with reading just the first one but naturally was happy to get all 6 of them.    

Fun Break of the Month: One Hot Night (Old Port Nights #1) by Samantha Hunter

This is a short novella that's going to become a series though I'm not sure if it'll be like Curio containing short novellas or a "regular" series with full novels. Anyhow it was a fun read, and was exactly what I needed after all the "misses" I had this month (I mentioned above one I didn't finish but there were two others). I really enjoy reading Samantha, every novella I stumble upon (OK, except for one) is a great an fun read. I really want to get to read her full novels but as you know the "to read" list is always unrealistic..  I won't write another review of the novella here you can click on the name and go to my full review.  

That's it for this month recap! May Goals coming up in a bit!