Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

Most of the book was more info dumping then storytelling for me which is why I found it really boring and why I hadn't connected to the characters . It picked up near the end but by then everything felt rushed.

Music and Malice in Hurricane Town follows trumpet player Jude, who is possessed by the spirit of the murdered witch queen, Ivory. Ivory wants to find out who was responsible for her murder and, if Jude wants her life back to normal, she has to play along.

PROS:
+ worldbuilding. I really liked the magic of this world. The god system, the legba which are like gods of specific parts of day to day life (i.e. death, chaos, thievery). It made for an interesting backdrop that honestly I want to read more in.
+ Pacing is good and fast, supporting the urgency of the story.
+ Alex Bell's writing is quite nice. Easy to read. Descriptive when it needs to be.

CONS:
- a story of conveniences. A lot of what happens is very convenient. Jude just happens to walk passed at the right time to get possessed. Ivory just happens to mention this thing that is relevant in that chapter. This character just so happens to have a backstory that is connected to Jude's.
- the romance - if you can call it that. I thought the love interest was an old man and had to reshift my thoughts on him about halfway through. They didn't really have any chemistry romantically and while there is no insta love, I still don't understand it.
- plot twist was both obvious and not. Getting into SPOILERS HERE so don't read on if you don't want to know, but of course Ivory was the bad guy, of course she was manipulating Jude, but who in all heck is Enid and why wasn't she built up far earlier than 90% into the book?????

OVERALL:
An enjoyable read. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the concept of the story. I am interested in where the story will go from here. However, I do feel like it was poorly executed in terms of plot placement within the text (plot conviences that could have been really good setup and payoff).

I received a copy from Netgalley.

This book was a lot of fun. I’ve read a few books by this author before and I’ve enjoyed them - this was something a little different. In a fantasy inspired New Orleans with a host of supernatural creatures, voodoo and magic being the norm, centred around a the mystery of a murdered voodoo queen.

Main character Jude is a musician with a brass band who finds herself possessed by the dead queen who needs her help solving the mystery. Coming in to contact with a whole host of different characters from intriguing to creepy. Jude was a very likeable main character who discovered lots of things about herself as the plot progressed. Family and friendship played an important part.

There were some rather disturbing bits towards the end. That being said it worked well with the plot and to be fair I didn’t guess or see it coming. Posed the questions for some interesting morality grey ares.

There was some fantastic world building in mixing the familiarity of New Orleans with the Baton Noir fantasy version. The different types of magic and voodoo were explained very well - you don’t have to know hardly anything about the subject to work out what was going on. Quite a few interesting twists as well.

The plot was fast paced with plenty of action and little to no romance. A possibility hinted at with one sub plot which I personally would have loved to see explored. Left at an interesting ending - concluded the story but open for the possibility of more. I would definitely love to see more from this world.

All in all enjoyable and fun.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Tiger Group for approving my request to view the title.

3.5 stars

Jude Lomax lives in Baton Noir, a place full of magic, witches and vampires.
Jude hates cajou magic and uses her talent for playing the trumpet to earn money, but she struggles to provide for herself and her father.
When Jude's band is asked to play at the cajou queen's funeral, Jude is possessed by the queen's spirit.
Ivory Monette, the dead cajou queen, wants to work out who murdered her. Jude finds herself agreeing to help, and becomes entangled with magic, secrets, and the dark side of Baton Noir.
Who killed Ivory?

Going into Music and Malice in Hurricane Town, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it, but I'm happy to say that I did end up really liking it.
Jude was a good protagonist. She was likeable, relatable, and had been through a lot. I thought she handled the situations she was put in very well.
The Phantom of Moonfleet was one of my favourite characters. He was intriguing and I would love to find out more about him. I also liked Sharkey and his grandma, who I would have liked to have seen more of. Etienne the vampire was another character that I would like to find out more about.
The setting was interesting, with the swamp, legba, cajou magic, and segregation in Baton Noir.
The plot was good and held my attention. It did take me a while to get into, but towards the end I found myself reading faster to find out what would happen next as I got caught up in the tension and storyline. I did guess a couple of the plot twists, but not all of them.
The writing was atmospheric and easy to follow. I definitely want to read more by the author, and would absolutely read more books set in Baton Noir.
If you like magic, secrets and a New Orleans-style setting, then this book is for you.

Overall this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend.

Enjoyable teen supernatural thriller set in a fantasy version of New Orleans. I liked the 'voodoo' type magic system and characters and would have preferred a little more world building detail and secondary character page time. I was quite surprised by how cute I found Beau the albino 'spirit' snake considering I have a bit of a snake phobia! I'd definitely read a sequel.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

4 stars!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

Music and Malice in hurricane town weaves a tale of cajou magic in New Orleans. After a slow start Bells novel picks up with full force and by the end I couldn’t put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Jude and rooted for her throughout the book. I’m excited to watch her flourish and grow in the next book. The rest of the cast of characters were interesting, particularly Ivory, despite not trusting her it was great to see her and Jude work together.

The different Legba spirits were some of my favourite parts of the book, Krag and Ollin vying for control of New Orleans, Sheba Legba of nightmare and many more. They helped to flesh out the world and the rich magic system.

I’d definitely recommend Music and Malice to anyone looking for a novel that’s a little different from your usual YA fantasy and I’m absolutely looking forward to picking up the next novel and following more from these characters.

I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down. I really enjoyed learning about the old cajou magic and the way the city is run, and the various factions within it. The story is filled with music, love, loss and power. I can't wait to see if there's a sequel!

Music and Malice in Hurricane Town is a fantastical blend of folklore, magic, and mystery. It took a couple chapters for me to get drawn in, but once I did I lost two nights of sleep telling myself “Just one more chapter...”

The world building in this was breathtakingly atmospheric. From the Gothic streets of Baton Noir to the cursed and eerie bayous, I was thoroughly drawn into the world of Jude Lomax. The characters within this enchanting setting were varied, rich and compelling. I truly wanted to know what would happen to them next. Especially since as soon as I thought I knew what was coming, I quickly found out I was completely wrong. The mysteries cleverly intertwined within Music & Malice were as twisty as the Cajou Queen's magical snakes.

And can we talk about the title and that cover? I try not to judge a book by its title or its cover, but with this one it's really hard not to. Honestly, you don't even need to read any blurbs about the book. Just look at that amazing cover and that's all you need to know before diving in.

The only reason this isn't rated 5 stars is because the book felt really white. With so much incorporation of the culture and religious practices of predominantly black peoples, there was a glaring lack of melanin in Baton Noir. This is just not what you would expect in a book so deeply entrenched with New Orleans and Afro-Caribbean culture.

When I finished Music & Malice, all I could think was, "Wait...that can't be the end. Please tell me there will be more!" I’m really hoping there will be a sequel, otherwise I am going to have to take some lessons in magic to conjure one up.

I was kindly gifted this from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review and I'm so pleased I requested it. I was drawn in initially by the cover and then I read the synopsis and knew I had to read it. I loved the reading experience of this one, it's not perfect, but something about it really drew me in and I ended up reading it in 2 sittings.

The first thing about this book that really captured my attention was the setting and the premise. I'm a bit of a sucker for anything set in the Deep South, throw in some supernatural elements and I'm sold and that's just what was on offer in this book. The writing was really compelling, I just wanted to keep going and find out what was going to happen next. There were several twists and turns that I didn't see coming although, I did find the ending to be a bit predictable. Like I said it's not a perfect book, although I enjoyed the writing and found it very quick to read, it was a bit info dumpy at times. I don't necessarily think this bothered me a whole lot though because I was really invested in the world and wanted to know everything about it.

I really liked Jude as a main character too. She was fierce, determined and independent. She was in charge of her family and, although the relationship with her father wasn't always positive, she was still determined to look out for him and make sure hes cared for. I enjoyed the side characters too, I thought Sharkey was really fun and brightened up the story a bit and I was really interested in Sophia and what she could do. I really would of liked for them to have a bit more page time. I was also really invested in The Phantoms story, I enjoyed finding out all about his family and his background. Queen Ivory was quite an interesting character too but I would of liked a bit more evilness. One thing I will say I wasn't a fan of was the relationships in this book. Jude's first relationship was very toxic and then I'm not sure what was going on between her and The Phantom but the whole age thing was a bit off putting for me, I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil anything.

Overall like I said before this book isn't perfect and I can definitely pick out the flaws however, it was so compelling and I was so engrossed in the story I can't help but give it 5 stars. I loved the premise and the setting. It was dark and thrilling, full of twists, turns and supernatural elements that had me wanting more. The ending was intriguing too and I really hope there's going to be a sequel.

Setting is crackling with detail & atmosphere but it does descend quickly into some familiar supernatural tropes & the ending is a little flat, although set for a sequel? Enjoyable & imaginative read though

Music and Mayhem in Hurricane Town… Picture this:
New Orleans. The vibe is, well, vibrant. There’s jazz and parades and magic and paranormal undertones.

Jude, a young woman, is working hard to earn some cash to pay the rent. In addition to playing in the Done and Dusted Brass Band, she accepts a job playing her trumpet in the Moonfleet Manor which is owned by the Phantom. The estate of Moonfleet Manor and the owner Phantom are each as shady as the other and with a background and past that is only spoken of with horror. It seems like every where Jude goes, or anything she does, is potentially dangerous for her. A human. Classed as ‘scrap’ by the paranormal society.

Jude has a sad past herself and due to tragic accident in the past she is now the main caretaker of her father. A father who cannot survive without Jude’s assistance, but is also a proud man and thus does not make Jude’s task any easier.

Jude- I really started to like this girl. She does NOT have it easy but she’s a great example of how to act when things are already tough… Know the saying ‘when you’re already deep in shit, keep your chin up‘? Yeah, Jude just keeps trucking on. In a way, in certain scenes I felt like she had simply submitted to her fate but even if this resonated through, she still acted. She didn’t complain, whine or throw a tantrum and instead she constantly oozes strength to deal with the situation she finds herself in.

And the Phantom! Man, oh man alive! Did I try to be suspicious of him at the start? Hell yes! Did I succeed? Hell no. I knew that even if he turned out to be bad to the bone, he had already, in some measures earned my admiration. So, I bet you’re wondering- did I have to accept defeat and admit that even though an intriguing character he was not worth the admiration? Weeelll… One for you to find out and decide for yourself.

So, yeah, totally loved the characters in this story. The legbas, the vampire presence (not sparkly ones, by the way!^^ I know that stuff is still important piece of information when reading books that have vamps), the witches, the humans. There was so much interesting detail to each and every one of them without making me glaze over at the infodump. Bravo!

The core of this story is a murder mystery- murder of the cajou queen. The death of the very dangerous and vindictive queen would be cause for celebration for many. Alas, her death is where this story truly begins. Pffffft, I really want to say more but that would just be me telling too bloody much. Please, believe me, this story is worth the read. Actually, If I was to pull a comparison, then think in the vibes of The Vampire Diaries or The Originals (the TV show) except with a lot less direct angst in regards to love.

The pace of the story was bang on perfect- I started the book, I finished it in record time and I enjoyed it so much I immediately wished there was a sequel.. hells, I might even reread this one again because that’s how much I liked it. There are scenes in this book that are wonderfully paranormal- there are legbas and trippy nightmare thingies in the swamp and witchy magic and trickery. The story mesmerised me with the whole of its essence which was dark and thrilling at once.

Anyway, whatever compelled me to request this book on the Netgalley, it must have been fate because please dear swamp-devils, let there be a sequel! Please? *goes off to DM the author*

Thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: I am a fan of this author. I loved Frozen Charlotte as it was set close to where I grew up and I think the author does creepy REALLY well.

This novel takes places in Baton Noir, which is essentially like an alternate universe New Orleans. New Orleans is somewhere I've always been utterly fascinated by, and the author has included some of the aspects of the real life New Orleans to flesh out the bones of this fictional riff on the real life city. There are familiar features including Jazz Music, Riverboats, the surrounding Bayou, Voodoo heritage and beliefs and lots of other familiar motifs. The city of Baton Noir is vibrant and bursting with unique character and in the initial chapters it was at times almost TOO much to take in. The young 'uns would say it was 'extra'.

The story follows Jude, a young trumpet player in a Jazz band who is responsible for the care of her father after a family tragedy left him disabled. Upon playing at the funeral of the recently deceased 'cajou' queen Ivory Monette, Jude becomes host to Ivory's vengeful spirit. Ivory is determined to find out who murdered her and enlists Jude to assist her, in exchange for alleviating Jude's father's physical pain.

Bell's real strength as an author is that she's not afraid to go all in when it comes to the creep factor. There were multiple moments in reading this book that I found myself wincing at some of the descriptions (the part with the Nightmares...enough said) and she's also drawn upon some real life history too. The Majstos family history in particular is heavily inspired by the real life accounts of Delphine LaLaurie (right down to the brain stirring). There are some genuinely dark moments in this novel so be aware of that if you're not of the ghoulish persuasion.

I really liked the characters although there were some I wish we'd seen more of such as Etienne and Sofia. I know the romance element didn't work for some, but I kinda liked it even if I did see it coming from a million miles away.

Inevitably there were some small niggles. The world building was a bit of a whirlwind and I felt it could have taken some more time to unfold as it felt a little rushed. I also felt a big opportunity was missed in making Ivory white, given that Voodoo (Cajou in this novel) is derived from African belief systems and has inseperable links to African American heritage in the real New Orleans. Ivory's voice also felt a bit discordant to me, it just didn't seem to quite fit that of an elderly woman from the upper echelons of elite society. Faint alarm bells were also ringing for me when there was reference to segregation between the supernatural and human populations of the city. I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be related to real life history of racial segregation?

If it was purely down to my own enjoyment, I'd give this 5 stars because I really, really enjoyed reading it. Given that there were a few small issues, I'd say on balance that it's a solid 4 star book for me.

I wanted to enjoy this it sounded so good but sadly just wasn’t my kind of book, there was a lack of world building in my opinion which was greatly needed. I couldn’t connect with the characters and didn’t relate to any of them. The writing doesn’t feel right and it’s all over the place, things feel forced and the plot wasn’t good at all. Sadly not very good for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Jude is a musician who’s trying to earn enough money to take care of herself and her father. They live in Baton Noir, a city divided into magical Royalty, Subjects and ordinary Citizens (or Scraps, as the slur goes). If you visit Baton Noir you’re likely to cross paths with Pearls, descendants, witches and vampires, and you may even come across some fairies.

When Ivory Monette, the cajou queen, is murdered, she’s determined to find her killer. Ivory can’t investigate her murder alone (on account of her body being interred in her family crypt at St Clémence Cemetery) so she enlists Jude’s help. Not that Jude consented, or was even consulted, before Ivory’s spirit possessed her.

As she looks deeper into this corrupt world of dark magic, superstitions and curses, where charms can make you beautiful, where swamps are home to alligators and nightmares that bite, and jazz music accompanies you wherever you go, Jude finds herself caught up in a whirlwind (hurricane? 😜) of secrets, lies and ghosts of the past.

I connected with Jude, who is an interesting mix of angry, insecure and resilient. I liked Jude’s best friend, Sharkey, and his grandmother, Mops; I wish they had more page time and hope to get to know them better in the sequel. I empathised with Jude’s self destructive father but also wanted to steer clear of him and I searched the pages for an appropriate curse for Jude’s abusive ex-boyfriend, Leeroy.

While I liked Ivory I didn’t feel she reached her villainous potential and instead found myself drawn to the Phantom’s tragic backstory. André, the Phantom of Moonfleet, became my favourite character. I’m always intrigued by a story’s ‘monster’. I love underdogs and want to do a deep dive into their psychology, history, motivations and personality. While I enjoyed getting to know the man behind the mask, I need more; I’d happily curl up with a book that focused solely on his family’s disturbing history.

Characters are trying to cope with a lot of pain in this book as a result of so many difficult experiences including loss, abuse, poverty, mental health, torture and murder. One of my favourite quotes, which I found both difficult to read and oddly beautiful, was “She found herself sinking down under the weight of an old familiar gloom - that big black octopus of despair, pushing its oily tentacles into her heart, mind and soul, looking for weaknesses to be exploited, cracks it might shatter apart and fears to be dwelt on and agonized over.”

I could feel the music echoing off the pages from the first song but the music seemed to fade into the background as Jude became more entrenched in Ivory’s mission. The atmosphere was almost tangible in this book and I’m a sucker for mythology so soaked up every snippet of information I found about the various legba and the magical snakes that allow the cajou queen to interact with them. I’m hoping to read a review written by someone from New Orleans, who can comment on its culture and atmosphere with some credibility; that person is not me.

I adored ‘Charlotte Says’ so would have picked up this book anyway but the amazing cover drew me to it before I knew who wrote it or what it was about. I loved the inclusion of some charms in the design and the snakes were a great choice, especially considering their importance to the story. It would have been perfect if the colours of the snakes matched the pythons in the book; Betty is black and Beau is albino.

I found some of the language used in this book problematic and at times downright cringeworthy. Characters’ skin tones were likened to food items, including “chocolate-coloured”, “creamy”, and “peach”. There was also some antiquated mental health terminology, like “madhouse”, “madness”, “lunatic”, and “madmen”.

Even though I found some of the bigger reveals in the book predictable and the potential romance icky (I’m never a fan of age gaps that exceed half a century) I am definitely interested in reading the sequel. Readers who aren’t a fan of info dumps may find some sections tedious; personally, I came away from this book wanting more history, more mythology, more Phantom!

Thank you to NetGalley and Stripes Publishing, an imprint of Little Tiger Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

I don't know what to think of this book. At first it felt okay, nothing special honestly, just okay. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that there's a lot missing from the world-building, to the setting, to the characters. It felt like it's lacking in these parts and the ending and romance was forced and rushed. I was enjoying parts of it but there's also a lot that didn't make sense to me. And the romance was definitely forced and rushed. I didn't see it happening or rather, I couldn't see how it happened.

Unfortunately, I have made the decision to DNF this title at around 25%. While I have loved a lot of the moves Stripes publishing has made towards intersectionality I'm not sure this book fits in with this. While it is entirely plausible that this book improves later on I don't really have the desire to keep reading to find out.
I will start by saying that I loved the concept of this book and the idea of a book with this setting is absolutely still something I would love to read, I love books that have music in them and I also thought it was clear that this author loves New Orleans - that passion certainly comes through on the page.
However, I'm not sure that this book addresses the huge amounts of poverty and racism in New Orleans, instead feeding into the idealistic, tourist viewpoint of the city. New Orleans is more complex than that and I'm not sure that a book sensationalising those aspects of the city, particularly from someone who I believe is not a woman of colour herself. It just didn't sit right with me.
The point at which I decided to DNF was when it was revealed that naturally beautiful people are known as 'pearls' and the first such 'pearl' we meet is described as having 'skin the colour of cream'. In 2019 can we not see that such narratives praising pale skin and comparing beauty to something traditionally thought of as pale and white (yes you can get coloured pearls - no I don't think that's the point here). This narrative is damaging and it's also outdated. There are ways you can address both racism and colourism but I don't think this book does - again I did not read to the end to discover if it does indeed do this.
I don't believe the author or publisher intended to be racist and/or ignorant on this issue, but I do think there are some things that ought to be addressed within this book and I am unwilling to endorse it at this time.

Honestly at first I wasn’t sure I’d like this book. It was quite hard to get into but I am glad I kept going.
After the first few chapters I became hooked on the storyline. It was something so new and different to what I read before and it was intriguing to go deep into dark magic like that.
I also find myself having a soft soft for the Phantom and I hope there will be another book written because that ending just left me wanting more.

Thank you Netgalley and Stripes Publishing for the e-arc.

I requested this from netgalley because of the gorgeous cover and elements of the premise that checked off so many of my bookish buzz words:

• Jazz music/neon streets- the New Orleans inspired setting
• Possessed by an evil spirit
• Vampire Jazz clubs

All of that was so promising, but failed to deliver, which was so disappointing. I was hoping for great things.

I will state I read an arc, and any on this may change in the final copy, but I'll outline why this novel failed for me at this stage.


Writing Style/Dialogue

The writing, from my perspective, was amateur. As a writer myself, I'm honed into certain writing tips and craft. One big topic is words that can be cut to make the story flow better, and to encourage a writer to show over tell. This novel is bloated with these extraneous words, with at least one showing up on 99% of pages (on my small kindle). These words include filter words (especially "knew" and "saw" showed up), reached, started/began, ect. It was so distracting.

This contributed to the fact that this novel told over showed the whole way through. It made the novel a slog to read through, the writing wasn't immersive in the slightest. The storytelling seriously lacked.

I wondered if this was because it was an arc, and would be fixed in later revisions, but when I flicked through the authors previous novels in the bookstore, the writing was just the same (easy to spot by the use of filter words and other such extraneous words).

While some of the characters, setting and elements of this novel had potential, it was ruined by the way the story was told, including the dialogue. Which was stiff and unnatural. The characters all read as devises to info dump, to progress the story with cliche lines and awkward movement between topics to advance the scene.


Characters

Jude (the main character) had some potential to to begin with, but was overshadowed by the writing style that stripped personality from all the characters. Then, her motivation and character arch (with her father) was weak.

Etienne was the most interesting character (as the only vampire in the plot), and I wanted to learn more about him, but in the end he's barely in the novel and plays little to no role.

The romance (not with Etienne) came completely out of left field. While I like what the author was trying to do there, the execution failed to deliver. I felt no romantic tension between the two characters, and then it was treated like a schoolyard crush.

Jude had some friends, but they're barely in the novel past the beginning and serve no function in the plot (other than giving Jude access to magical items). They were only there to show she wasn't friendless and had a life before the plot, but they weren't engaging characters.

The evil queen possessing Jude was 2 dimensional, her personality just an info dump and device for moving the story forward over having any real personality other than "evil".


World-Building and Racism

The world had so much potential. It was the best thing about this book, but was overshadowed by the amount of info-dumping throughout. The learning curve never ended, with the author throwing more and more details at you, even when they weren't relevant. The introduction to the ideas of the novel were always clunky and never subtle.

The magic in this novel is literally called "black magic" with one of the few black characters in this novel (as far as I remember) preforming it. It made me aware of how close the magic in this novel was to the "black magic" stereotype. When this novel is written by a white author, it isn't a good look, and something that should be revised out of the novel before publication, or at the very least, read over by a black reviewer who is more knowledgeable about this than I am.


Plot

The plot was awkward. The characters motivation and persuasion weak. The characters moving awkwardly from scene to scene to play out the outline the author had in her head over any natural progression.

There's a mystery element to this book, but it wasn't engaging at all, especially when I knew who the culprit was from the beginning (and guessed right, to no surprise).

The novel tried to twist our expectations at the end, and while I didn't expect it, I had stopped caring by then and it didn't impact me at all.

Overall

This book is not a standalone. It should have been a standalone, but the author has made a weak attempt at the end to lead to a plot for a new book. It looks like the novel could lead to a love triangle in the next book (nooo) and the plot being set up isn't compelling, and didn't feel natural. The author forcing characters in weird directions despite logic. If a second book is ever published, I personally won't be picking it up.

I apologize for the harsh review, as this book hasn't been released yet. The only reason I finished this novel is because I received it for review, and felt an obligation to finish it the whole way through. I wanted to be honest. I'm only glad I'm not the only person to have rated and reviewed this so far.