The Painted Moon: September 2021

Thursday 30 September 2021

Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick

Title: Bleed More, Bodymore

Series: Bodymore #1

Author: Ian Kirkpatrick

Expected Publication Date: October 31, 2021

Publisher: Steak house Books

Pages: 302

Goodreads

Introduction

Baltimore smells like rot, like corpses, like death. It always has. But ever since Joey was called to collect her friend's car in Baltimore's infamous body dumping ground and found a corpse in the trunk, and her friend MIA, it's been getting worse. The city feels more grim. Ravens seem to be watching her. And where is Wayland? As she tries to find him, she's also finds out just how sinister Baltimore can be, if you just look close enough.

Writing Style

Something about this writing style missed the mark for me, There was a lot of telling, not showing, and because of that, it was very choppy and made it hard for me to feel immersed in the story.

Joey

I didn't connect to Joey as I hoped I would. Mostly because a lot of her dialogue made me cringe and made her come off younger than she was supposed to be. For example, when she is being questioned by a detective and she asks what they found on her record, the dialogue goes like this:

"What do you think I found?"

I shake my head. "Nah fam, not playing."

The insertion of the words "nah, fam." makes her feel so young to me and it was hard to take her seriously during her scenes like this. Additionally, it was hard to take her and the detective scenes seriously at all because she always acted so nonchalantly. It's like it never actually dawned on her that she could be getting herself in trouble. I understand that she's supposed to be tough and edgy and untouchable but at times it was very unrealistic.

Romance: Joey and Jag

Romance wasn't a central theme in the book by any means, but I wasn't really interested in any of what Joey and Jag had going on. I liked Jag individually, but the scenes where he and Joey were acting physically affectionate felt so out of place to me because there was never any foundation established for any kind of intimate relationship. Occasionally they kiss quickly, the moment passes, and Joey never thinks about it. As a reader you just have to accept that that's something they do without ever having any substance to go with it. This might be because their situation is so casual that Joey has no reason to think about it beyond the moments of the affection, but to me, as a reader, the relationship fell flat. I'm hoping that in the future books, if they continue to be involved in some way, it's developed a little more deeply.

Ending

The ending came together really fast. It felt like it took a little bit of a left turn from the rest of the plot in order to drive itself towards a sequel. That being said, I really liked the way it ended, it's probably my favorite aspect of the book.

Conclusion

This book was an okay introduction. Although I had trouble connecting with Joey the plot was interesting enough to keep me going through the book and I am looking forward to seeing how the plot continues, should I read the sequel.

Tuesday 7 September 2021

Waiting on Wednesday (14): Good Girls Die First by Kathryn Foxfield

Waiting on Wednesday's is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. *It appears that Breaking the Spine hasn't been active since 2016, but I still want to credit them as the creators.

For this week's Waiting on Wednesday I'm spotlighting Good Girls Die First by Kathryn Foxfield.

Expected publication date: December 7, 2021

Publication company: Sourcebooks Fire

Goodreads synopsis

For fans of Karen McManus' One of Us is Lying and films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, comes a gripping thriller about murder, mystery, and deception.

Blackmail lures Ava to the abandoned amusement park on Portgrave Pier. She is one of ten teenagers, all with secrets they intend to protect whatever the cost. When fog and magic swallow the pier, the group find themselves cut off from the real world. As the teenagers turn on each other, Ava will have to face up to the secret that brought her to the pier and decide how far she's willing to go to survive. The teenagers have only their secrets to protect and each other to betray.

Why I can't wait

The reason I can't wait for this one is pretty simple. I am very much in the mood for a thriller, and the synopsis says it would be good for fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I love that movie, so I'm hoping that this novel doesn't disappoint

Monday 6 September 2021

Teaser Tuesday (21) The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can participate in Teaser Tuesdays. Just do the following:• Grab your read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

For this week's Teaser Tuesday, I'm sharing teasers from The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl (The Grimrose Girls #1). I was given an ARC copy for review via Netgalley and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm currently a little bit more than halfway through.

Goodreads synopsis

The Descendants meets Pretty little liars.

Four troubled friends, One murdered girl... and a dark fate that may leave them all doomed.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled it a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events they couldn't have imagined. As the girls retrace their friend's last steps, they uncover dark secrets about themselves and their destinies, discovering they're all cursed to repeat the brutal and gruesome endings to their stories until they can break the cycle.

This contemporary take on classic fairytales reimagines heroines as friends attending the same school. While investigating the murder of their best friend, they uncover connections to their ancient fairytale curses and attempt to forge their own fate before it's too late.

My teasers

“Death pursues all the girls from the Académie,” Mrs. Vãduva said darkly. “I will not take part in it.”

There was a hanging pause in the air as Mrs. Vãduva looked at the picture. Ella followed her gaze. The one other thing the town talked about other than the witch? The witch’s daughter, the one who’d died.

Page 128.

If you're intrigued by the synopsis or my teasers, don't forget to add The Grimrose Girls to your Goodreads TBR and look out for its release, expected November 2, 2021!

Wednesday 1 September 2021

Waiting on Wednesday (13): A Taste For Poison by Neil Bradbury

For this week's Waiting on Wednesday I want to spotlight A Taste For Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them and by Neil Bradbury, Ph.D.

Expected publication date: February 1, 2022

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Goodreads

Goodreads synopsis

A brilliant blend of science and crime, A TASTE FOR POISON reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body--through the murders in which they were used.

As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring—and popular—weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?

In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes—some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved—are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.

Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a riveting tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive—or don’t.

Why I can't wait

I found this book in the true crime section on Netgalley, which is not my usual genre, (to read anyway, I watch a lot of true crime) but I've been trying to expand my horizons passed my usual genres lately and this book just sounds so fascinating. Even though it's release date is in 2022, I already can't wait to get my hands on it.

Hello September

September is here! September always feels just like a doorway to October. It starts cooling down outside, it starts getting darker and spookier with every passing day and I couldn't be happier about it. I can't wait to see what this month brings, because I am wide open for plans. Not so much in my actual life, because I have to work and do other boring responsibilities, but on my blog I am so wide open, I have almost nothing to talk about in terms of up and coming posts this month. If I have time to type them up, I should have a couple Top Ten Tuesdays. I will definitely have one review coming this month, of Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick, and I have one Waiting On Wednesday coming this month (today, actually) But other than that, I have nothing planned. But there is something nice about being wide open. Lots of time for inspiration to come through.

I hope September treats me and all my readers nicely. :)

August Wrap-up

So August has come to an end! It was a very busy month, both in my actual life, and in my blog life. On the blog, I managed to post (including this post) 26 posts. We had some mini reviews, some full length reviews, my second ever Music Monday, some teaser and top ten Tuesdays, some Waiting On Wednesdays, a Chat With Me Thursday, First Line Fridays, and a couple Stacking the Shelves.

Mini-reviews

True Loaf by L. Austen Johnson

Hematite by Victoria Maderna and Frederico Piatti

I Kissed A Girl by Jennet Alexander

Friday the Sixteenth by Peter Coombs

Full reviews

Silent Pretty Things by O.J. Lovaz

Red Magnolia by Lucy Holden

Music Monday

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Teaser Tuesday

Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick