Because I’m still procrastinating, here’s another book series that I already started.
Flashback to 2011. Borders was going out of business and books were cheap, so I picked a random book off the shelf. I believe I was in high school at the time, so this was the first time that I picked a book that wasn’t in the manga section.
The only reason I wanted it was because it’s cover reminded me of Twilight. (I actually have a funny story about how my sister tricked me into reading the entire Twilight series, but that’s for another day).
I didn’t actually get the book that day. I couldn’t even remember the name. My friend found the name by googling a description of the cover, and I guess I bought it at some point.
The first time I tried to read this book, I didn’t care for it. The main problem is that it’s obviously a book in the middle of the series. It’s clear that Deanna Raybourn expects her audience to read the books in order. There is some recap but not enough to help a new reader.
So, I shelved the book for years. Until some time last year, I got a sudden desire to buy the first book in the series. I wanted to see if the would be better if I read the whole series.
For those you don’t know, the Lady Julia Grey novels are a historical murder mystery/ romance series. It’s a first-person pov told by Julia starting with the death of her husband and the introduction of private investigator Nicholas Brisbane.
This review will be on the first three books of the series because I haven’t reread 4 yet.
There is something about the way that these books are written that makes it easy for me to read. I’ve said before that reading has always been hard for me. Well, I breezed through these books like they were nothing. They’re not just easy to read. They’re engaging. Something about how the story is told had me wanting to know what happens next.
Interestingly, I didn’t always find the plot or the characters engaging.
Julia is the blandest character I’ve read since Bella Swan. There is a plot about her finding herself after the death of her oppressive husband, but we never see her while the man was alive, so any growth has to be pointed out by other characters. I just attribute this to people in the Victorian era being so proper that eccentric people like the Grey family seem like normal people to me.
Silent in the Grave was heavy on the mystery and the mystery elements didn’t really hit me till the later chapters. Silent on the Moor was so focused on the romance that there was barely a mystery to solve. Silent in the Sanctuary was the best of both worlds, which is weird because it’s book 2. After I finished these books, I was left with a feeling that they were written as one book that got divided into three.
Despite my problems with the series I will still keep reading it. Like I said something about these books makes them page-turners. The only thing keeping me from reading the next book for is guilt over rereading a book when I have so many unfinished/untouched books waiting. I rank this book a 4.25 out of 5.
I Think Thinks 