~~~~2.5 - 3.0 Stars ~~~~

*** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ***

This book sounded so intriguing that when NetGalley got back to me and actually said yes to my request to review it I dove in straight away... rocketing it to the tippy top of my TBR pile. You can read the official synopsis to get the gist of the plot so I will spare you the filler and not regurgitate it here. What I will say is that this story was billed as a Paranormal Who Done It featuring a kick butt heroine that is not only a descendent of the one and only master of the Sleuth game, Sherlock Holmes, but a fierce Royal blooded shifter to boot.

YES PLEASE!! Gimme Gimme!

Now, after having finished the book, I won't classify it as a total letdown but it was most decidedly a mixed bag. The pacing was perfect. There were no lagging, skim inducing parts. On the other hand the world building, character development and overall writing were merely okay. There was SO much repetition, especially about her "Sherlock mode", "mind palace" and incessant inner shifter pictionary style commentary, that it felt like a crime against humanity, a felony whereby you were constantly and viciously being mentally accosted...

(((GASP)))

End run on sentence here.

Squirrelly digression aside... now back to the regularly scheduled review...

The budding relationships were a tease. They could have been SO much more. They felt like they were just starting to getting immersive, good and entangled, tantalizingly enmeshed, when the connection either disintergrated or was severed and left dangling. The carrot was yanked away so violently that the literary Horse (being we the reader) was left unsatisfied and wanting.

However, I was probably not the targeted audience since I found the writing to be a touch sophomoric for my taste. This coupled with the repetition problem and lack of character relationship cohesion made it feel like it was geared towards a much younger YA reader. So if you are a 12-14 year old paranormal, mystery, tame romance enthusiast, this one is definitely for you!

Meet Marisol Holmes: High School Student, jaguar shifter, and great granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes. She’s solved countless supernatural cases, but her next one’s the hardest yet. Why?

Marisol is about to lose her heart.

Two days ago, terrible events shattered the very foundation of the Conclave. Now, Marisol Holmes swears she’ll stop at nothing to destroy the man she once loved: her arch nemesis, Mannix.

But when a cryptic clue left by Mannix leads Marisol to a secret room that once belonged to her father, she realizes that hunting down Mannix won’t be that easy. If she wants to catch him, she’ll have to retrace the steps of her own past and discovers secrets that might have been best left buried.

When the hunt for Mannix brings Marisol to London, she teams up again with Roan and Wyatt on a quest for the truth that leads her through the dark alleys of London, to shady shifter pubs, to libraries cloaked in magic, and eventually to an abandoned castle in Scotland that once belonged to her family.

But Mannix is as sadistic as he’s smart. At every turn, Marisol and her friends face harsh truths and deadly puzzles, and risk their lives to uncover a past that should stay buried. With the stakes getting higher and Marisol’s attraction to Roan growing, can Marisol deny what she truly wants, even if it puts her new love on a collision course with her villainous ex?

This is a fast paced zombie/ghoul slaying tale that answers the question you never knew you had about the Lizzie Borden case. What if a zombie plague were the reason Lizzie Borden wacked her parents with an ax?

I LOVED this set up and that it jumps right into the grisly murders. And they are grisly. Unfortunately, for me at least, I had a little trouble with the aftermath of it all. The story follows the Borden trial and tries to stay true to events that happened in real life all while a zombie plague is brewing in the town. Lizzie stays mute about the truth and this is where I had trouble shutting off my brain because I felt she should’ve been screaming the truth from the rooftops in order to prove her innocence. That’s what I would’ve done instead of sitting in jail and having the town turn against me and thinking I was a murderess of innocents. I suppose I’m selfish like that. Worse though was that she was covering up for some fickle man and a secret ghoul slaying society and that irritated the heck out of me.

So, because of this, I found the book a little bit of a struggle for me personally. Lizzie’s motivation and strange romances didn’t sit right with me either. With that said, it was certainly gruesome and action-packed and there was a nice ghastly twist at the end that made me cringe and there isn’t much that makes me cringe these days.

*** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ***

This book sounded so intriguing that when NetGalley got back to me and actually said yes to my request to review it I dove in straight away... rocketing it to the tippy top of my TBR pile. You can read the official synopsis to get the gist of the plot so I will spare you the filler and not regurgitate it here. What I will say is that this story was billed as a Paranormal Who Done It featuring a kick butt heroine that is not only a descendent of the one and only master of the Sleuth game, Sherlock Holmes, but a fierce Royal blooded shifter to boot.

YES PLEASE!! Gimme Gimme!

Now, after having finished the book, I won't classify it as a total letdown but it was most decidedly a mixed bag. The pacing was perfect. There were no lagging, skim inducing parts. On the other hand the world building, character development and overall writing were merely okay. There was SO much repetition, especially about her "Sherlock mode", "mind palace" and incessant inner shifter pictionary style commentary, that it felt like a crime against humanity, a felony whereby you were constantly and viciously being mentally accosted...

(((GASP)))

End run on sentence here.

squirrelly digression aside and back to the regularly scheduled review...

The budding relationships were a tease. They could have been SO much more. They felt like they were just starting to getting immersive, good and entangled, tantalizingly enmeshed, when the connection either disintergrated or was severed and left dangling. The carrot was yanked away so violently that the literary Horse (being we the reader) was left unsatisfied and wanting.

However, I was probably not the targeted audience since I found the writing to be a touch sophomoric for my taste. This coupled with the repetition problem and lack of character relationship cohesion made it feel like it was geared towards a much younger YA reader. So if you are a 12-14 year old paranormal, mystery, tame romance enthusiast, this one is definitely for you!