novellearts's reviews
1652 reviews

This wasn't my favorite plot line that I've ever read but I absolutely adored the characters and the message enough that I think it made up for where I felt the plot was lacking. It was entertaining and gory and it was nice to listen to the audio while reading along. The audiobook helped give a really immersive experience so I would highly recommend checking it out.

I loved the LGBTQ+ representation in the book and how openly this book discussed the struggles within the community itself and how outside communities treat them. There were both internal and external struggles, all very real and applicable to life. I thought it was fantastic.

I feel like I need to reread the first one because now I’m wondering why I rated it so low on my first pass. This was highly entertaining and incredibly macabre. I always love a good exorcism book!

This was my least favorite of the three books. I was hoping that I would’ve enjoyed this more and while I still did, it was just “okay” to me and had a lot of problems. 

Scythe & Sparrow felt like it was lacking the spark that the other two books had. While it did have the same elements as the other two books (to some extent) it just felt more, watered down.

The chemistry between Rose and Fionn didn’t feel as strong to me as with the other two couples and I honestly felt like their characters weren’t as developed as those in the prior two either. The story wasn’t as strong or enticing. A lot of this story revolved around Rose needing to take it easy because of her leg injury so it felt as though there was less murder (sigh) and when there was a murder, Rose seemed so inexperienced and that’s because she was.

Rose states in the book that she only just recently started to take a hands-on approach whereas previously she was playing the role of Giulia Tofana (whom I highly recommend you look up if you didn’t know her history before this).

I can appreciate the fact that maybe the author decided to write a character that had less experience because let’s be honest.. what are the odds that all three brothers turn out to be serial killers with serial killer wives/girlfriends? But I missed the well established signature kills that the other two books had. I wanted more finesse and murder!

I also struggled with how Fionn was constantly saving Rose during her murderous escapades. She felt like a weaker FMC to me because of this. Not only that, but the pacing was crazy fast. Rose meets Fionn and

Fionn is immediately down to harbor a murderer in his house, help cover a murder, and join in?

I suppose it could happen given his history, but it took me out of the moment because it felt unrealistic. Not that these books are striving for realism, but I hope you get what I mean.

I’m also so sad to say that I didn’t really enjoy their sex scenes either. I thought (again) that the other two books had spicier and more exciting sex scenes. 

Their story just ultimately was not my favorite out of the three books. Butcher & Blackbird will forever be my favorite and Leather & Lark was a close second.

What I did <b>love</b> though was the humor, as always. And Barbara! I <b>NEEDED</b> more Barbara in my life. I thought the circus was interesting as well and I honestly wish that we had more detailed scenes involving the circus. It would’ve been awesome to get a scene showcasing Rose in the motorcycle cage or see more of her as a tarot reader. I always get excited too when the previous characters get page-time in the new books. I was so happy to see Sloane and Lark again and I love how all of the women interact together. The crocheting was a surprise that I found I enjoyed as well. I loved the Suture Sisters scene.

I don’t know if the author plans to write more books like this or not, but I would love to see more murderous romances like this. I’ll 100% continue to read this author even if this last book hit the mark for me. Problems aside, I did still really enjoy reading this and almost read it completely in one sitting.

I think this is more like a 3.5/5 star read which is such a bummer because when I first started this book, I really thought that it was going to end up being a 4 or 5 star book for me. I think I’m going to round down though to 3 stars to keep it consistent with my GR rating.

This starts off pretty action-packed and immediately the concept gripped me. If you didn’t pick up on the not-so-subtle hints, this book is a political satire on MAGA and Fox News. I thought this aspect was great, I loved the absurdity of the brainwashing and insanity that overtook these characters. I’m also sure that if the audience that this book is written about reads this, they are going to absolutely hate this book.

The main reason I knocked off points for this book was that it felt incredibly repetitive and almost became tedious in the middle chunk of this story. The first part was fantastic, I was completely zoned into the story, but once I got to the middle, I found my mind wandering because I just didn’t feel as though I was reading anything ground-breaking. The story felt like it stalled for me. The ending did pick back up a bit but it wasn’t as strong as the start.

I did enjoy the humor in this too and there were certainly a good amount of “WTF” moments and gore. I think this is probably a book that a lot of people would want to check the trigger warnings for. For example, there is a family dog in this book. The dog does

not live. And to take it even further, the family eats the dog. It’s not incredibly graphic, it’s more so mentioned instead of described. There is no detailed scene about the killing of the dog or anything like that.

There’s also some pretty graphic scenes about child deaths and school shootings.

I do think this book was worth reading even though it lost some of its appeal to me in the middle.

I accidentally read The Church Beneath the Roots before Stolen Tongues because I didn’t realize the two were related. After now having read both, I think I did enjoy Stolen Tongues a bit more.

Stolen Tongues felt more mysterious to me as we were left without many answers whereas The Church Beneath the Roots gives the readers that explanation that we would be looking for.

As with The Church Beneath the Roots, this book was atmospheric and unsettling. I don’t want to spoil any parts of the story because I think it would ruin the scare factor, but if my partner started doing any of the things that Felix’s wife Faye was doing, I think I would pack up my things and leave! Love you deeply, but maybe not that much haha!

Again, I have such a weakness for spooky books taking place in the secluded woods. Definitely an entertaining and spooky read.

When a stranger brings news of Riccardo's grandmother dying, Riccardo discovers that he is now the inheritor of her Milan villa filled with her collection of butterflies. Riccardo, who is a struggling writer, chooses to go to her villa where he finds his grandmother’s diary.

The more Riccardo reads from the diary, the more questions he ends up with. While hoping for inspiration on his book, he also dives into exploring his grandmother’s death.


This book had the makings of a great story. I loved the premise, the atmosphere, and the setting. I always love books set in Italy. I also appreciated the uniqueness to incorporate these butterflies into the horror. Unfortunately, I felt that the writing and structure fell short for me. I found myself a bit confused in the middle of this story and the writing wasn’t the most advanced. The beginning and end were the strongest parts of the story, but I got a bit lost in the middle and it was hard for me to keep interested in this book at times.

I read somewhere that this is the author’s first book written in English which makes me less concerned with the writing because I know that this is miles ahead of anything that I would be able to write. I think with some more practice, this author can really polish off the bumps in prose. For being his first English novel, I’m actually pretty impressed. I’ll definitely read more books by him in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc. All opinions are my own.

I think this book would be closer to 3.5/5 stars for me.

This book reminded me a bit of The Haunting of Hill House, specifically the tv series adaptation. The two young sisters, Violet and Lily, have these gifts that were really reminiscent of the children of Hill House.

This book featured multiple POVs, switching between the two sisters Violet and Lily and then also Clara. Clara is the closest living relative of Violet and Lily who agrees to take the two girls in after their parents tragically died.

I enjoyed the storyline of Violet and Lily but I honestly was losing interest with Clara’s POV. Something about Clara’s character just didn’t draw me in but I was intrigued by both of the children.

This book was still worth the read, but something about the overall story felt to me like it was missing the piece that would make it great.

This was a fantastic book. I listened to the audiobook but once this releases to the public, I want to pick up a physical copy and do a reread.

I don’t always find myself enjoying books relating to Covid, I’m not really sure why but this one was didn’t fall into that category. I loved this book so much. It started strong, continued strong, and ended strong. I loved the balance between fictional horror and realistic horror. This book contains supernatural elements with ghosts, gore, and also tackles racism, prejudice, and bigotry.

This book very plainly laid out the effects of Covid specifically relating to Chinese people and the racism that openly cropped up because of it. The hate crimes, the cruel names, the mistreatment and stereotypes. Covid gave a lot of people the nerve and (in their minds), the excuse to be unapologetically and openly racist.

Cora is a crime scene cleaner and is no stranger to gore. But seeing her sister murdered at the start of the book by being shoved in front of a train, is much different. Cora starts seeing ghosts while investigating the murder of her sister and other Chinese people in her community.

Even though this book contained a lot of heaviness with very real struggles, it wasn’t too much to read. It was extremely well-done and balanced and I never felt overwhelmed while still being able to grasp the severity. I loved the plot, I loved the message, I loved the characters. The pacing was great. Everything was great. I can’t really say that I have anything to complain about in this book. I would definitely recommend this to everyone and I will be buying a physical copy once it is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are enthusiastically my own.

This is the first book that I've read by this author and so far, I'm decently impressed. Stolen Tongues is going to be one of my next reads as well.

This book was atmospheric, dark, mysterious, and sinister. I thought this book was creepy from start to finish and the creature kept drawing me in. I wanted more and more of it. I went into this book without knowing that this was tied to Stolen Tongues but I'm glad that I read this one first.

I loved the characters and the setting. I thought the pacing was even throughout and I didn't find myself bored by the story. 

There is a dog in this book and the dog does

not survive

for those of you wondering. 

I do think this book had some issues with how the history was presented at times, but overall I enjoyed this and the vibes. I'm excited to read the second book.

Was this book entertaining? Yes.
Did I enjoy it? Not so much.

The FMC in this book is so incredibly dumb, it pained me. That's starting to feel like a trend in Freida's books which I desperately wish she would change. Her books would benefit so much from writing her FMC's in a stronger light.

There were so many moments when the FMC knew that something was wrong, but she instead chose to brush it off and just go with what was happening. I wanted to reach through the book and slap some sense into her!! The rest of the characters were equally as frustrating. There really weren't any likeable characters to me in this book. 

The Crash felt extremely far-fetched to me and it was incredibly repetitive. I wasn't too engaged because of how strongly repetitious this book was, combined with the unlikeable characters. I didn't like the explanation for things at the end, the twist, and the character arcs. I've enjoyed several of Freida's books but the newer ones haven't been worth it to me, unfortunately. This might be my least favorite book of hers, with The Teacher following in a close second place.

I also can't write this review without mentioning how much the constant "little tuna" nickname thoroughly irritated me. It was like the turtle fixation all over again.