Review: The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey

The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, however I've since purchased an ebook copy, as always all opinions are my own.

This was disturbing, and that was probably the author's intent.  This follows Heather a 16 year old girl in smalltown USA in 1977.  She is feeling disconnected from her two best friends as they are hanging out with boys, going to parties, and doing things that she isn't ready for.  Heather's got alot going on at home with taking care of her younger sister and keeping and eye on her mom who rarely gets out of bed while her district attorney dad is at the office.  She tries to connect with her friends by playing games in the tunnels under their town and playing in their all girl band.  When Heather and her friend Brenda see something in the tunnels that they shouldn't things go downhill.  There is already a girl missing in town, and when their friend Maureen turns up missing they don't want to be next.  Heather decides to take things into her own hands to get answers about what is going on in her town when her world is turned upside down and she beings to question who the good guys are and right from wrong.

We also follow Beth, the first girl to go missing in the town.  Her chapters are short, and awful in the sense that what she is going through is terrible.  Beth is also a fighter and we see her fight with all she has against her terrible circumstances.

I had to suspend my disbelief that Heather would do all the things she did and be so naive, but then again humans do strange things in real life.  The author's note mentions that this is supposed to read a bit like a true crime show, with this story being inspired by real events from Saint Cloud, Minnesota where the author grew up.  In that respect, the author achieved her goal, this does give you that experience.  You have crooked men in power doing awful things and covering it up to paint their own narrative.  You have friendly neighbors that don't ask too many questions and pretend bad things don't happen in their town and when they do they ignore them.

Overall, I enjoyed this.   This was a decent thriller, but there was no big reveal.  Everyone was a villain for some reason or another, and the real villain was kind of evident from the beginning.  There were almost too many "bad guys" and bad things happening to and around Heather all at once that took me out of the story.  On the other hand this depicts some very real things that happen in society and they should make your skin crawl, so for that I give the author kudos!  I had to put the book down a couple of times because of the way I was feeling about a scene or chapter.

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Review: Where Shadows Meet: A Novel by Patrice Caldwell

Where Shadows Meet: A Novel by Patrice Caldwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided both an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this.  The audiobook has several narrators, which is helpful as the story is told from Favre, Leyla, and Najja's perspectives.  As many of the characters in this book are female and the POVs are female it really helped having a distinct voice as the POVs switched.  This doesn't alternate between chapters, though it is mainly told in the present from Najja and Leyla's point of views with sprinklings of the past here and there from Favre's perspective.  I also found it helpful to have a copy of the ebook handy as there are lots of characters and new names to keep track of.  The ebook also has a handy family tree to look at and an explanation of the vampire bloodlines which are important.  The audiobook will come with a PDF of supplemental information, the ALC did not so I don't know what all it contains.

This follows Leyla, a vampire,  Crown Princess, and descendant of the original vampire.  She tries to live up to her mother's expectations but always seems to fall short.  When the capital comes under attack by strange monsters and Leyla's best friend is captured, she vows to save her.  Her mother forbids her, but she has chosen to take fate into her own hands this time.  Najja is a yamaja and her people are the messengers of fate, and her fate is tied to Leyla in some way.  They team up to find Leyla's missing friend and possibly prevent the world from ending.  As Leyla and Najja are on their quest, Favre a powerful and old vampire awakens from a long sleep and is determined to awake her true love who has also been asleep for very long time.  Favre has sacrificed much for Thana and will continue to sacrifice to awaken her again, even if it ends in destruction.

We get some great info about Thana and Favre's relationship in the past and how the vampire bloodlines/classes came to be.  We also get some background on the world and how everything works which I appreciated.  Favre is on a mission to awaken her love and will do anything to get her back, but I can see the cracks in the foundation starting to form or atleast I hope I do.  I'm hoping Favre comes to her senses about how much she has sacrificed for Thana, and Thana hasn't done much but manipulate and take from those around her.  As for Leyla and Najja, their relationship is only just beginning to blossom, and I expect it to develop further as the series progresses.  There are some more mature themes, but nothing graphic, gory, or detailed for YA readers who are ready for something on the more mature side of the age range. 

I am really looking forward to where this series goes.  This does end on a cliffhanger but you could see it coming well in advance.  I thought the pacing was good, we got good character development, and I love a good YA fantasy that discusses some bigger topics.  This does have trigger warnings so make sure you read the author's note before picking this up, she addresses them there.

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