Review: Venom

The night of her friend's funeral, Cassandra goes into the graveyard next to her house. There, she meets a boy, an artist whom she bumped into previously on the streets. He's handsome, but cocky.

She also discovers her friend's body is missing and a corpse of a young courtesan rests in her place. The courtesan has been murdered. Cass wants to uncover the truth about the murder.

Falco manipulates her into investigating with him. Together, they travel to places she, as a lady, shouldn't be going into. As the investigation continues, she lies more and more to her aunt and takes more and more risks. Her life would be ruined if she were caught. Still, she can't help the trill of it all. It's the first time she's felt alive in ages, especially when she's with Falco.

My Thoughts: I wanted to Love this book, instead I'm torn between really liking and just liking it. I had a hard time connecting with Cass. She made so many poor choices that I found myself not respecting her at times. However, I did like that she took her choices into her own hands and refused to let people chose for her. I found her daring, determined, stubborn, and brave. I like how she kept a journal and brought it everywhere with her. I LOVED the descriptions of Venice. I wanted to be there; it was such a magical yet dark setting! As first in the series, it ends with a choice.

Cover Thoughts: Love It!
Source: From Penguin @ BEA
Challenges: YA Historical Fiction 2013 and TRB Pile

Mysterious Saturday Review: The Case of the Gyspy Good-bye

Enola Holmes finds a client in her office - a client that just came from her brother's establishment. Her famous brother Sherlock is out of town at the moment, which gives Enola a head start finding the missing Lady Blanchefleur.

The Lady Blanchefleur helped an elderly ladies down the steps of the subway and disappeared. Enola interviews her two ladies-in-waiting for clues.

She then goes to the subway and discovers an underground society she'd rather not enter. While wondering if the Lady, unhappy with her wealth, took it upon herself to escape from society, she heads for Florence Nightengale's house for inspiration.

There, she meets her brother Sherlock. He's searching for her to hand deliver a package from her mother. Inside the package is a skytale message. Enola will need to find the right cylinder in order to read the message.

As she's chatting with her brother, an idea pops into her head. She leaves him standing on the street as she investigates her hunch. Her hunch proves correct, but know she needs help capturing the suspect. Can she trust Sherlock enough to help her and not force her into a different lifestyle?


My Thoughts: This is the end of the series. While I did love the ending, I'm sad that it ended. I adored this series. I loved all the disguises, the relationship between Enola and her brothers, how she bested Sherlock in her ability to read feminine clues, how she bantered with Sherlock, all the codes, and how she discovered her true self.

The Cover: I love the cover -except for Enola. She seems too strange. I really only liked the first cover.

Source: ILL