Julia's Heart

Imagine waking up in a cave. You don’t know how you got there or what year it is. Your ever restless soul is bound to the past by an engraved pebble from the sea hanging from a chain, a gift from her husband and young son. Julia Lodge was a back woman married to a white man and she has not been seen since August 1986. When a teenager finds her body and reports it to the police we are introduced to a cast of characters that are determined to find her killer. suspicions and accusations fly as this story twists, turns and grab the readers attention with each page.
Loretta Ross has written a captivating novel and a highly recommended read.
Thank you NetGalley and Whippoorwill Hill for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

Okay so first of all i LOVED this book.. Julia, Bella and John were my favourite with no doubt.
Bella made me cry few times as she was an angel with the most kind heart💜
The reason of murder was good but maybe I was expecting a bit more....still it was a very interesting story and I would like to thank the author for writing this🙏 I will definately recommend this book to people who like thriller and mystery.

I enjoyed this book. This was a different type of mystery/ghost story. The ghost/spirit usually knows what happened and tries to help the other characters figure out who is responsible for their death. Here we go through the details with Julia. She has no idea what happened or even why. No one can make her believe her husband had anything to do with her demise. The detective isn't heroic by any means, but he does manage to piece together the details and solve the mystery of what happened to Julia.

I wanted to know what happened, so I finished it quickly. The heart reference in the title is sweet and poignant.. We get to see how her relatives deal with her loss. It's an interesting concept. I enjoyed the differences from other books in this genre. The culprit wasn't obvious to me. I was not sure of the rationale behind the motive, but logic and ghost stories really don't mix. I liked the book overall and would recommend the book to others.

This book kept me reading long after I should have been doing something else like sleeping! I really liked the way the book was set up with the main character, Julia, being part of the solution to the mystery even though she was also the mystery topic. No spoilers here-just read it! Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for letting me read #juliasheart in exchange for an honest review.

This was a paranormal mystery read!

Julia Lodge is a young black woman married to a white man, John, and a young son, Jude. The couple would vacation together, and it is where Jude found a stone that looked like a heart and John had carved three J's and made it into a necklace. Julia never took the necklace off.

One of the trip, Julia had loaded Jude and items up and John was to join her later. The story begins with Julia wakening in a cave and not knowing how she got there. Eventually, she makes her way out, only to find she can't go too far because she gets pulled back to the cave. Animals are aware of her, and she meets one young girl, who can see her.

Julia's remains are found following a young man exploring the cave, and the deputy, Manfred Donaldson, arrives, finds the stone heart necklace realizes that the remains are Julia's, but he also has ties to her past.

Deputy Donaldson takes over the case, along with two others, Donaldson believes that he knows who murdered Julia, but he needs the proof.

I found Donaldson to be one of those types, who believes he's being funny when actually his bias are coming out, and he seems ignorant about it. He may be a good cop, but I did not like him at all. It was difficult to find any redeeming qualities in him.

This story was well written, and I enjoyed it! I was pulled in by Julia waking up in a cave and her trying to adjust to all the new things she encountered since death, but also, her spirit while alive. She would use humor to rudeness and she loved her husband and son fiercely. Love endures, always. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mysteries, thrillers, and paranormal genres.

This book offers a clever balance between paranormal and investigative mystery writing. Like Charlaine Harris. The author normalises the paranormal aspects, streamlining them so efficiently into reality. When reading about the pebble heart, I was expecting a stronger focus on the emotional aspects of the protagonist’s past but the pace did not stop in terms of the mystery. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to people who love strong mysteries with a twist.

An excellent read filled with so many surprises. The MC is Julia, but she's dead. Her spirit tells her story as we watch the people around her stumble through the story. This is the first book I've read by Loretta Ross, but now I'm going to look for her back library. If you've not read anything written by this talented author, I recommend Julia's Heart.....it's well worth your precious reading time.

Julia Lodge is dead. That’s not a spoiler; the very first sentence is “Julia Lodge woke up dead.” At first, she can’t even figure out where she is: heaven? hell? elsewhere? And what year is it? But soon Julia’s attached to the racist, misogynist police detective heading her murder inquiry, following every step of the investigation.

Now, to reveal any more would be to spoil Loretta Ross’ wonderfully inventive murder mystery, one every one of its five stars.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and BooksGoSocial in exchange for an honest review.