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rileyrlee's review
4.0
Actual rating: 4.25 stars
”Such a horrible thing to find yourself wishing for something every child deserved no matter who they were or where they came from or what color their skin was.
An unharmed life.”
Yet another masterfully executed, dark, and twisty ride, in which Mrs. Frasier literally dropped bombs on me left, right, and center basically until the very end (and hey, I’m not complaining). The last few chapters quite literally had me fanning myself because I felt like I was sweating because of how intense, dangerous, and uncertain the developments were. I’m not even kidding. Additionally, this third installment was much more emotional for me because it dealt with children as victims of some horrific crimes, so my heart broke more than once as a result of what they went through. BUT my heart also warmed and melted a bunch of other times while reading the scenes with interactions between Jude and the little boy.
I loved how the author created connections spanning all three of the books, weaving them into a single, larger picture by the end, and yet each of the books still managed to have their own distinctive voice and focused on different mysteries that kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, there was one thing lacking that kept me from giving this whole series a 5-star rating. Even though I absolutely loved and rooted for the characters of Jude and Uriah, I wished to feel more emotionally connected to them than I eventually did. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get to see as much of their emotions and inner thoughts? Maybe it’s because I didn’t get to see them establish connections with others and see how they interacted? I know that they both experienced and survived some horrific and traumatizing ordeals (Jude most of all), and so the lingering physical and especially psychological effects of those events made establishing interpersonal connections with others difficult, since their individual intrapersonal recovery was more important. And also, there was A LOT of focus on solving the crimes and murders after all, so obviously that also took away from the exploration of the characters.
Fortunately, by the end we got to see more of Jude and Uriah’s relationship that was both tentative and steadfast in its own way, and it made me really happy because I just wanted some freaking peace for those two. Also, seeing Jude establish a bond with the little boy just... warmed my heart to no end. It was so sweet and it was a highlight of this book for me.
”Such a horrible thing to find yourself wishing for something every child deserved no matter who they were or where they came from or what color their skin was.
An unharmed life.”
Yet another masterfully executed, dark, and twisty ride, in which Mrs. Frasier literally dropped bombs on me left, right, and center basically until the very end (and hey, I’m not complaining). The last few chapters quite literally had me fanning myself because I felt like I was sweating because of how intense, dangerous, and uncertain the developments were. I’m not even kidding. Additionally, this third installment was much more emotional for me because it dealt with children as victims of some horrific crimes, so my heart broke more than once as a result of what they went through. BUT my heart also warmed and melted a bunch of other times while reading the scenes with interactions between Jude and the little boy.
I loved how the author created connections spanning all three of the books, weaving them into a single, larger picture by the end, and yet each of the books still managed to have their own distinctive voice and focused on different mysteries that kept me on the edge of my seat.
However, there was one thing lacking that kept me from giving this whole series a 5-star rating. Even though I absolutely loved and rooted for the characters of Jude and Uriah, I wished to feel more emotionally connected to them than I eventually did. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get to see as much of their emotions and inner thoughts? Maybe it’s because I didn’t get to see them establish connections with others and see how they interacted? I know that they both experienced and survived some horrific and traumatizing ordeals (Jude most of all), and so the lingering physical and especially psychological effects of those events made establishing interpersonal connections with others difficult, since their individual intrapersonal recovery was more important. And also, there was A LOT of focus on solving the crimes and murders after all, so obviously that also took away from the exploration of the characters.
Fortunately, by the end we got to see more of Jude and Uriah’s relationship that was both tentative and steadfast in its own way, and it made me really happy because I just wanted some freaking peace for those two. Also, seeing Jude establish a bond with the little boy just... warmed my heart to no end. It was so sweet and it was a highlight of this book for me.
najackson's review
4.0
I love this series and the characters. I enjoyed this one a little less that the first two, but still enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait for the next in the series.
hazelbright's review
4.0
The plot is a really serious stretch, but the masterful writing more than makes up for the plot's far-fetchedness. The protagonist does very little body reading in this installment, which is disappointing.
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