3.3 stars! ⭐️ (spoiler review)
This story had a strong backbone, but there were just times when the flow felt off. Perhaps it’s because it is the author’s first published novel, because her other books have a stronger flow! (I’m not even sure ‘flow’ is the perfect word, but there was an element here that felt disjointed sometimes).
BUTTT gosh, the setting gets 5 stars! I’ve not seen a contemporary novel that sets atmosphere like this. Typically for books in a gothic setting, we’d have to be around castles and stuff. But right there in the modern city of New Orleans, she was able to draw out gothic elements that transported me to the dark, weird world of goths. Huge props for that.
There were strong twists I didn’t see coming at the end! Like the death of two people: Oliver and Tibbs—Omg TIBBS death caught me completely by surprise!! It was sad! I also did not at all expect the Carteris house would get burned down when the truth came to light, and in such an explosive manner. Carteris was an evil genius. The twist of who the culprit was wasn’t entirely shocking for me because I literally just started suspecting everyone that came on the page, so I could say ‘I knew it!’ in the end 😂. But to be fair, I didn’t see signs early that it was Cateris. Oliver though was very easily a suspect! In fact it was SO glaring he was complicit, that I thought he had to be a *false culprit*. I think the smart thing here was that I thought it was one, or the other, or none. I hadn’t guessed it would be both father and son in on the carnage!
I love that the author didn’t tie a neat knot on the question of whether blood-drinking and the claim of being a vampire truly gives one longer lifespan than mortals. (Yikes this sounds rather dark, huh?) She didn’t refute completely that Carteris had retained his youth by drinking blood, and she also didn’t give complete technical explanations to explain his lack of aging. It’s also frustratingly genius that his house burned down with all the proofs that could’ve given us a clear answer to this. BIG 5 stars here too and I applaud the careful thinking!
I loved the sibling relationship here with Brian and Annabelle. This author is really good at exploring deeper relationships even in her mystery/thrillers. It’s never just surface level issues. They are specific and unusual conflicts, and make the characters feel like real people. I also appreciate that in the end, Trevor was ready to START healing mentally, and not that he was magically sound after a few weeks in New Orleans.
I did feel some annoying decisions were made. Like Annabelle not listening when Trevor insisted she got a restraining order against their father, and then crying when their father took her daughter. Or all the times Rain didn’t pay heed to his warnings, and then regretted it. Trevor seemed to be the only person with a solid head on his shoulders. But these could be easily overlooked.
What their father did to them in the past was horrible; but I don’t think he was portrayed rightly in the present. The author stuck to a stereotype deadbeat father—drunk, sloppy, sleazy, etc. But based on what he did to his family, he was a cruel and crafty person, and I think it’d have held more weight to keep him in that light, physically and mentally, even in the present. The sloppy drunk man didn’t match with the cunning policeman from their childhood.
The relationship was definitely a 3/5 stars for me. As usual with the author, there’s potential and a solid base for great chemistry. But again, all the focus is on the grim with stilted conversations, hence there’s no light moment that could show good rapport. In that case, it can make it seem like the MCs are just trauma-bonding. Rain and Trevor had some snippets of nice banter that showed great potential, but those moments were super brief. Also, the issue with no dialogue tags can mean you won’t even know they are joking together until after the moment has passed. I liked their relationship okay, but I didn’t swoon much over it because the potential wasn’t fully tapped.
Rain’s character suffered from passiveness. I was tired of people treating her house like it was a motel and she was a guest rather than the owner. The policemen were ALWAYS in her *kitchen*, and I wondered if she didn’t worry about someone putting poison in her food or robbing her. She was always too casual about someone being in her kitchen or having the passcode to break into her house. Once, she heard noise downstairs and literally cracked open her bedroom door to PEEK outside, in HER OWN HOUSE. Passive. Her psychology practice was the real joke. She didn’t have one single successful client she’d helped. Her passiveness really played in here. She kept letting Oliver do as he wanted — break into her house, steal her things, mess with her deliveries — without actually sitting him down to get into his mind and help him. She also took over-frequent work leaves and returned to seeing patients randomly; how’s that kind of unreliability accepted for a psychologist? And for someone supposed to treat other people’s mental baggage, she had SO many unaddressed. It’s like she didn’t really believe in what she did for a living, so she never sought counseling for her own issues. It made her career just a tag to help her character seem different, but was clearly not something the author knew much about.
Trevor was a strong character. Very three dimensional. His trauma was handled very well! Especially in the end when his fear of ventilators came back into play, it touched my heart!
McGrath and Tibbs were added likely as comic reliefs, and they did awesomely with the wry humor. But these men were also detectives, and I didn’t see one tangible thing they did to prove that in the case. All they did was bicker and banter over Trevor’s shoulder. Even when RAIN got kidnapped, all McGrath basically say was ‘hey I’m going back to the station to chill, call if you need anything’. Like man, you should be up and turning over the city to find her partner’s girlfriend! LOL.
Lastly, I didn’t understand Rain’s relationship with her mother. Her mother was into some real dark and kinky stuff. How did Rain feel about discovering these? How did it change her view of her mother? These were never explored. Rain learned her mother was a gold digger, that she took racy photos with religious relics, and there was no reaction in her thoughts to them. I mean, even admiration at her mother’s daring, would’ve been good and made her feel more actively in the situation.
All in all, it was a bit hard to get into the story at first, and I considered skipping it. But I’m glad I pushed on. It was a decent, enjoyable read!