AnneGirl256

Eh, nothing much happens

Reviewed: 07-17-24

The narrator is one of my favorites. I *usually* like this author’s novels, but this one just kinda fell flat. You keep thinking something is going to happen, but it doesn’t. There was potential, but the supernatural elements aren’t there like you think they’re going to be and it’s very disappointing. Overall, it felt like the book was just made up of “starts” of stories and then a bland ending without a traditional buildup to a climax. The protagonist is kind of like, “My grandma died and something weird is happening.” Then there are more weird things happening. Then, at the end, the protagonist is like, “Oh, I just need to do this one mundane thing and then the weird things will stop happening.” That’s it. As other reviewers have mentioned, the author has said they used a “different method” for writing this novel. Ugh, it shows.

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Spooky Summer

Reviewed: 07-06-24

St. James is my favorite author for spooky summer reads! This one has plenty of 90’s nostalgia as well as compelling minor characters in a quirky lil town with plenty of secrets. I especially appreciated that the two protagonists had significant secrets of their own.

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Great start!

Reviewed: 06-24-24

This is the first book in a trilogy, so expect for things to be built but carried on in the next installments. I liked the characters in the coven and Eleanora’s backstory brought to light little by little. Excited to see what happens next!

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Enthralled by the series, but…

Reviewed: 10-30-23

Love this series as a creepy continuation of Tradd Street. Sarah’s character being part of the mystery crew in this installment was a treat! As always Jolene is a favorite character.

However, I do agree with some of the other reviewers who mention that the storyline was not the best. A few chapters in, I was sick of the whole Sunny thing and had the gist of it figured out, and I was trying very hard NOT to ruin it for myself. Also, there were just too many generations of too many characters and lies and fakes and whatnot. Had to listen to the ending a few times to even understand what the reveal was meant to reveal and even googled it to see if anyone else knew.

Overall, the focus was less on the haunted house situation, which is what made this novel seem less focused than any of the others in the Tradd Street And Beyond world. The ghosts were barely part of this novel. Hoping the next installments of Nola’s adventures move away from the burnt out Sunny storyline and return to solving mysteries inside spooky haunted houses!

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Did make me chuckle!

Reviewed: 08-04-23

I did enjoy the “town characters” and the protagonist often made me laugh with some of the outrageous happenings in her storyline. However, I didn’t give it 5 starts because there were plenty of places that story just had someone explain in several paragraphs the action that should have been narrated by the plot. All of a sudden, a character would tell a story that Explained Everything and suddenly everything could move foreword. As the this is a mystery series, that feels false and kind of hack. There was no artfulness or suspense building when there could have been.

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Love this series!

Reviewed: 07-08-23

The mysteries have some slight peril, lots of humour, and solid friendships. Excited to finish the series!

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1 person found this helpful

Thoughtful story!

Reviewed: 05-30-23

I loved this thoughtful story that got me interested in its characters and their fates. It’s less about witchcraft and more about feminine power and bad men who seek to crush women. I do wish there had been content warnings about violence, rape, and animal deaths. Still worth the listen, though!

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Dull, disappointing

Reviewed: 05-08-23

This third book in the series was rather dull. The college girl boarders were hardly mentioned and had no connection to plot events. Sometimes the protagonist would literally wonder out loud, “I wonder what’s going on with the girls?” I wondered the same thing.

There was also almost no tension/peril with romantic interest’s security guard work or his past undercover work. The character would get nervous about his past being discovered every once in a while and then…nothing.

The worst part was the mystery plot line. There was no real investigation by Dani. Towards the end, she suddenly shares who she thinks did it with a numbered list. Um…okay? Then she watches from a hiding place while the murderer confesses to someone else in a sting…and the murderer KNOWS they are being recorded yet still confesses. What?!

Loved the first two novels in this series, but this one seems underdeveloped in all areas of the story. It has a long epilogue in which characters talk several of the plot lines forward because they didn’t happen in within the actual plot and things need to be set up for future installments. So disappointing for what started out as a fun series.

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Mystery, ghosts, some laughs!

Reviewed: 05-06-23

Saved this book for a special treat for myself, and it did not disappoint. I loved the Tradd Street series and so have been anticipating this continuation of that storyworld. I especially love the supporting characters, for example, Jolene and Jackson. I also like that Nola, like Melanie, is NOT an annoyingly perfect protagonist. Instead, she has flaws and failings that make her much more relatable. I have the teensiest feeling that this novel should have been scarier. Am hoping for more spooky scares in the next installments.

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Disappointing Young Adult Novel

Reviewed: 02-19-23

I didn’t realize this was young adult fiction. If I had, I might not have been as disappointed.

The narrator is good. Cassandra Campbell is one of my favorite readers!! She just didn’t have much quality material to work with here.

I chose this book because I grew up in the area of Illinois that is the novel’s setting and was curious. However, the depiction of the local area was preposterous. I can say with certainty that the small farm town the novel depicts would definitely NOT be okay with witches openly practicing witchcraft. It’s practically the Bible Belt; feminists aren’t even accepted out in the open, let alone practicing witches who draw pentagrams on their apple butter jam jars and literally recruit their non-witch friends to form a coven for otherworldly spells.

The prologue was intriguing…but then the twin protagonists are introduced, and everything tanks. The graphic teenage sex scene had me roaring with laughter—so cliché in that the girl has never seen a man’s genitalia before and yet is the absolute best b*** j** performer ever! The most confusing plot point is that the girls’ mother is burned alive in the beginning and everyone freaks out because one of the twins is “too sad” 48 hrs after her mother’s death. What?

Overall, there are things about the novel that COULD be good—the cat, the Stranger Things feel of the plot, the generations of witches—but these aspects are not developed properly and are crowded out by boring teenage tropes.

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