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Embers was an interesting YA mystery by a first time author. I enjoyed learning about the Sami culture and how reindeer herding was a tradition. Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

New author, Josephine Greenland's, EMBERS is an excellent YA thriller premiere!

Ellen and Simon are siblings whose parents have been arguing much more since their father's return from a family funeral. They don't know their father's family too well and had been promised a vacation to the Blind family hometown for some time. Now, their parents are making Ellen and Simon take the trip by themselves; a trip that Ellen really has no desire to undertake.

Arriving in the small reindeer-herding town, they find nothing to do except ride bicycles and go exploring. Bored and wishing to return to the hostel, Ellen gives in to Simon's request to ride through the forested areas. Boredom quickly turns to horrific fear and wide-eyed fascination when they stumble upon a grisly sight in an open glen.

Simon's Aspberger's compels him to make this his mystery/detective mission. Ellen realizes that Simon will not rest until he figures out the what, how and why of it all. Suddenly, this vacation is no longer a vacation.
Small towns can hide big secrets and the woods can have eyes at any time. How can two teenage strangers possibly discover what may be the biggest town secret of them all?

Ms. Greenland keeps a great pace throughout her story. She also knows the behaviors of persons on the autism spectrum and how their minds and attitudes come across to others. ( I have a son on the spectrum.) As a thriller it does a masterful job and, as a peek into the world of Aspberger's syndrome, she does an excellent characterization. I would say that his is a excellent read for the YA and parents, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Embers is about two siblings who stumble upon a horrifying crime scene that brings them into a generations-long conflict between the townspeople and the native Sami in northern Sweden.

I decided to give this book a go as I was captivated by the synopsis and the fact that the story focuses on a mystery in the Sami community, which set it apart from other YA mysteries and thrillers I’ve read before. Unfortunately, the execution was not as gripping as the synopsis, and so I was unable to push past the halfway mark.

What I enjoyed:

I found the descriptions of the Sami community and the way they were woven into the story very interesting. I particularly enjoyed learning about the traditional practices of the Sami. I also enjoyed the story’s unique setting. This is what attracted me to the book to begin with, and so I was disappointed when the plot and the characters themselves didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

What I did not enjoy:

The book began on a promising note, with the mystery being introduced right at the beginning, capturing the reader's attention from the get-go. Unfortunately, it went downhill from here. The pacing only seemed to slow and drag as it went on, meaning I began to lose interest in the mystery aspect as there was no tension to build up. A lot of characters were also being introduced in a short space and I found myself getting confused when names were being thrown around, which distracted from the plot. I also felt disconnected from the main characters and found the fact that they had been sent on holiday unsupervised unrealistic.

Overall, this was a good debut with a strong and unique setting with the potential to be a good read. Unfortunately, though, it did not quite hit the mark for me.

Sadly I didnt connect with this book at all as it had the potential to be a really good read.

Im sure there is an audience for this one but sadly, it is not me

This was an awesome story. It was not what I expected. It is classified as a YA mystery. I figured it would be a light read. I was so wrong. It was pretty dark and gritty.

🏞👫 Good start but bogged down😕

While there were elements in this story I really liked and I felt the plot started out strong, I was not overly impressed or satisfied with the whole.

Best points include:
- A good effort at portraying a teen with Asperger's autism. Simon is averse to being touched, a trove of facts and figures, can't be secretive or untruthful and can't be distracted away when he grabs on to a project (in this case the investigation of an odd mass murder of a reindeer herd);

- A glimpse of Sami life in contemporary northern Sweden; and

- A pair of resourceful sibling teen investigators who don't take no for an answer in their search for truth.

But I felt the story bogged down and got confusing in the latter half. There were anonymous flashbacks just abruptly inserted into the story, seemingly with no relevance. Eventually the who and the why are explained but this technique did not work for me. And, because I had to take breaks and come back to continue, the cast of characters was a bit too large to keep straight easily. It didn't help that Greenland often used their names instead of the relationship when writing about the children's mom, dad, and other close relatives.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial/Unbound Digital and NetGalley for providing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

(Thank you Netgalley and Unbound for a eARC in exchange for a honest review)

One of the best parts of this book, for me, was how it started straight into the action. In lots of mysteries I've read, it takes a couple chapters for the actual 'mystery' to happen. Whereas, in Embers, it starts straight away with Ellen and Simon discovering the dead reindeer and jumping right into starting to investigate which i appreciated. I loved how the Sami culture and traditions were woven through and found it really interesting to read about as well as learning about the traditional ways of reindeer herding.

I don't have much criticism for Embers except from how it was a bit slow in the middle (but only a little) and how it was a little unrealistic for kids their age to be sent on holiday unsupervised. Overall though, I thought this was a really good YA mystery

I just completed Embers by Josephine Greenland. Wow! This was an awesome story. It was not what I expected. It is classified as a YA mystery. I figured it would be a light read. I was sooo wrong. It was pretty dark and gritty. The main characters are a brother and sister duo. They happen upon a terrible crime scene and decide they must investigate. Their investigation leads to finding out about cultural and family secrets. One Thing I loved about this novel was the touch of paranormal aspects. I also loved learning a little about the Sami and reindeer herding. This also reminded me of the first season of True Detective on HBO in that Matthew McConaughey’s character Rustin Cohle was so much like the brother Simon in this story. And that is a good thing! I gave this 4 stars.

'Embers is a chilling and haunting who-dunnit with a Scandi-Noir twist, set against the backdrop of the deep, Swedish forests and the mysticism of Sami folklore.'

I was desperate to like this book because it sounded exciting and mildly magical. Who doesn't love a good whodunnit? and the setting sounded magnificent. Unfortunately, I only managed to push through to the halfway mark before giving up on this story (I'm sorry!). There were a few reasons for this.

The biggest reason was simply the pacing. I don't know how long the book actually is, but it really *felt* long. Interesting things do happen, but much of the book felt far longer than it need to be, and felt padded out with a lot of aimless wandering on the children's parts.

I also struggled with believability. I can't remember how old the children were supposed to be, but they read as too young for their parents to send them across the country on their own on holiday without an adult to keep an eye on them. The brother, Simon, is supposed to be autistic. I know that autism is a spectrum and that it's different for everyone, but he didn't read as autistic, he read as what someone who hadn't done much research thinks someone with autism should be. Sure, he has an obsession with murder mystery books, and he's not the best at communicating, but if it weren't that his sister keeps making remarks about how of course he would behave in a certain way, he's autistic, then you wouldn't actually know he wasn't an average, awkward kid.

When it came to the plot itself,I felt cheated that I'd soldiered on halfway through this story only for a couple of characters to pull up some publicly accessible facebook posts that incriminated two characters we already knew were involved. And then we suddenly meet granny's ghost kicking about the place, dropping cryptic clues for the girl - at that point, I couldn't keep going.

With a bit more focus and some cutting down, this book has the potential to be a great mystery, set in a fascinating location, but as it stands, it's not entirely clear what genre it's going for, and the pacing drags too much to maintain any tension. Like I said, I *did* really want to like this story, but I just couldn't force myself through the second half.

For her first book it was good. I have to admit for me it was a little slow. I am use to mysteries of Mary Higgins Clark and this was on the same speed. It is a very good YA mystery.

Embers is a YA crime novel set in a fictional mining town in northern Sweden and the village of the midnight sun. Seventeen-year-old Ellen Blind and her brother Simon, a fourteen-year-old with Aspergers, are on holiday. At home, their parents sort out marital problems. With the hope the siblings will bond, the two youths explore the birthplace of their late grandfather, Lars-Erik, and discover their Sami roots. The holiday fun ends when the pair find reindeer heads ceremonially arranged in the forest. Simon insists the reindeer have been poisoned and suspects the townspeople. The police show an alarming lack of interest, and Simon is determined to investigate the case himself, dragging Ellen into the matter. The more the siblings learn, the more Ellen suspects that the reindeer killing connects to their grandfather. Embers by Josephine Greenland is intriguing. Although the animals' killing lends a gruesome element to the tale, the characters are well written and the story interesting. The discovery of past indiscretions and the description of the Sami community held my interest until the end.