[Chinese BG novel] 女配在线挖坑[快穿] by 月下清泠 / Supporting character digs pits for the mains

Abhorent. I haven't ranted like this in a while.

Summary: Yin Xi is chosen as a supporting role and must divide the main couple (or at least dig some pits).

Most basic idea like many others. But here are some details. System does not take part in stories and doesn't help at all. Which was a red flag for me in one of the situations (I'll explain which one in spoilers). In her original world Yin Xi imulsively broke her boyfriends leg who cheated on her and she compensated him with all her saving, when she was devastated of what to do system bound her (almost without her consent) and sent her to experience life and honestly... the aim was to dig pits, but also for her to get experience. I think just for that few worlds would be enough, but author conjured a whopping 10 worlds. Mind you, each arc reads like "forever" because she is so long-winged, liked to include so many references and "examples" that the text grows from standard 3k characters per chapters to 6-10k, which I think for this type of story is a lot.

And it's not even that interesting. The novel was first published in 2020 which isn't the groundbreaking era of transmigration novels. So by this time a lot of tropes were formed and cliches were born. And it doesn't do any nice twist or take on it.

I have no idea why this has such high ranking on JJ, I think placing in the first 1k on JJ is already an accomplishment, considering how many online novels exist there. But the number of people who rated it (highly too) is miseraby small, feels fishy.

I haven't stopped reading it and finished 5 worlds out of principle, but I had enough of it.

What I can shortly say about it, it takes some of the most basic stuff to build the story on, takes itself seriously, authors cares about plotlines and loose ends, but honestly their writing style is plain, bad and boring, stories are not interesting, the narration is just another level of unsophisticated. If it was a trashy novel I would forgive it, but this one takes itself too seriously, having sometimes this patronizing tone. It was as if I'm reading someone analysis and judgement of their own characters instead of making them alive.

But my main problem and why from 3 stars this landed on 1 star has something to do with FMC's phrase she said in World 5.

I think author did not realize what she did there and others did not care much, which is.. a pity honestly.

Problems with this writing style:

Girl, you're writing a book not a thesis.

Too long-winged, takes time to get to the point, likes to make references a lot and mentioning historical figures in an explanatory way instead of intergrating and showing it in the novels itself.

(Often used phrases "for example, this is like what this person did")

A lot of repetition and conveying of the same information over and over again.

Characters feel like they're just cutouts, especially main female characters. Some secondary characters get more development than her. Sometimes it feels like she's just there.

Oh and a weird mention of peeing.. like do we need this info?

I'm not pro at histry, but she uses a lot of historical figures as she please, but later includes in notes - historically inaccurate so don't judge.

I can rant about this style a lot and it still won't be enough.

What sent me off was the narrative surrounding 2 situations involvine r***.

I'll spoil it all-together.

In second world she is kidnapped and brought in to be the new concubine of deposed Emperor, because she was drugged and accupunture was used on her she could not escape or resist, so she could be potentially r*. She calls for the system who, in my opinion, described it in such a way as if "it's ust another experience, you'll get over it". Later she is saved, but this part stuck like a sore thumb.

In world five there is a scene of a man who is drugged and some of items (from system shop like "love at first sight" etc.) were used on him, so he wasn't himself when he went to the hotel and had a wild night, he waked up with the memories of his two prior lifetimes and has a deep psychological reaction realizing he was r*, Men r* is as valid right? In his second life the one who used system items on him ade him succumb and he remembers how he was not himself, but existed for this woman who used him, his wealth and still cheated on him with everyone of significance, but he still begged on his knees crying not to leave him, since he was not himself but was bound by those system items. FMC knew about the r* in the hotel, but she did not have any compassion at the time. That's.. something. But later they became closer as friends, he fell in love in her and she refused him multiple times, he was not obsessive or insisting. But then they had a scene where they talked and he started with "What if the girl was wronged, but she later found a person she loved who unfortunately left her when found about her past, how should we help her? In her response FMC was indignant listing a lot of things. But then he asked her if girst was replaced by a man. Leading to himself, because that's what happened to him. This stunned her (because honestly he was right), like what's the difference, he has trauma. But then she patted him and says smth like "It's all in the past, she can't get to you, people should look to teh future"

Girl, are you serious right now? To me it sounds like "get over it". It's easy to say so.

I am not denying the fact that it changed her perspective, but honestly I was sitting like - what? girl, you lived for more than 20k years, you should be so high and above and wise and know things, but this is something else.

I have no idea why author decided to include this into her story, but it doesn't look good to me.

Now the ARCS, God help me to remember at least something from that forgettable slop:

Arc 1. Very old-school story how FMC is believed by a scumbag to be a rich heiress in disguise, seduces her, but her life is ruined when he realizes she is just a regular person. Heroine of this book did not leave OG host alone for the half her life, persecuted her as a mistress and when she married a wealthy man he used his influence, because they guy was like under a spell he indulge her lawless behavior. Basically FMC exposes her true nature of wanting to climb high and so on.

One thing that repeats itself, someone from the main cast remembers his past life, here the pampering wealthy man was the one.

Also Yin Xi is not against relationships, she finds love with a successful man and she becomes an accomplished elite herself. She had a good relationship with the pampering welathy man, who acted normal after getting rid of the connection.

Arc 2. Boring historical setting. FMC is against her cousine of sorts. She is a daughter and sister to a Duke now. But because her brother serves at the border she resides with maternal relatives where the heroine is. She is a "beautiful beyond belief" but actually a promiscuous, slef-indulgent ransmigrator who fakes her greatness, only thing she has is beauty.

This story has two lifetimes, but FMC knows nothing about the first where she should be in a more prominent position and second is the repeat of bad fate one.

She distanced herself from this family so they won't use her conenction to her brother as a stepping stone for this cousin to get to prominece. As per usual they also evetually overthrew the current imperial family since they planned t annex her Yin family first.

Of course Yin Xi implemented a lot of new things that benefitted this world.

But honestly her target is separating the main CP, but her cousin went through a lot of stuff and couldn't be sent to the prince, with her actions she was later poisoned. Prince also was against FMC's brother and lost, so he offed himself. So her goal was over long ago, but author thinks she makes things interesting when she describes this world as if cross-referencing different eras and where this comes and from what period, as if we care.

Arc 3. She is og wife of a scumbag who worked for his company before she got sick (actually he poisoned her, she was so oblivious to this idea), he did this to not give her anything through divorce settlement because he as successful ma found young and thin wife.

FMC divorced him before he became successful and his company went downhill while she was a successful woman. He also united with young and thin early on, so it didn't have the same flavor.

Basicllay all the worlds explain time again that if one chioce is wrong then everything can change.

Arc 4. Historical + Cultivation. Boredome, it was the longest and most pointless. 

She had to divide a fox spirit and white lotus who used her as a stepping stone in his career. Instead she became a cultivator and later to slowly cut off worldy ties involved with her family who surved current dynasty (which is Tang, she also emntioned all the historical figures and future female Empress).

Sounds vague but what happened. Nine-tailed fox stole an artifact, was chased and wounded, she was saved by "white lotus scholar" he knew she was a demon (inner thoughts) and could bring him money and service, they married and had a son, she cultivated with stolen artifact but was caught one day and said for her husband to go and finish imperial exam, he met another female who helped him with his child, this woman saved OG host, but because of reputation she had to marry this white lotus and as respect brough his child and another woman as his concubine. Backyard grew as time went by, her own son had nothing, though her is a house of Prime Minister, but all resources were tilted towards white lotus man, later she was labeled as jealous woman and sent off to nunnery, even her own son deflected. White lotus man when saw his first wife / fox again she actually was the one who said he can get as many wives as he ants, the guy lived a happy life and she helped him become immortal.

FMC's chance was to undermine it.

But the story involved almost like three storyline. First is her main goal. Second is cultivation (she later mainly cultivated to be with the guy she fell for). And third her helping this dynasty to get better before her ties with mortal world are cut. A lot of historical references mentioning, but honestly in not an educative way for me, I am a foreigner who knows little about their history, but if you just mention names it will mean nothing to me. But the patronizing tone prevailed, I wonder how Chinese readers felt for it. The style is often explanatory and she started to mix in everything Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. So it was a lot of philosophy to me.

What I didn't like is as if FMC is the only one smart n the room.

He achieved her goal midway again, but later we had to sit for the political part to end. Cultivation was really bleak. Many characters were present but they mostly had the same revelations and enlightment moments.

Too much to mention but I said what I wanted to say.

BUT I want to give an example of author using too many peeing mentioning. Here two princes visit her, spent entire day, drank tea, went to relieve themselves several times and left. No kidding, it was shortly described along those lines.

Arc 5. Entertainment industry one. Suddenly right. But actually such a standard for transmigration novels.

Also has two timelines.

First OG host is a heroine, she married a fellow actor but was mistreated by his family due to her background, especially his siter who always called her green tea bitch and that she wants to climb social ladder. This ended in divorce, she met a wealthy man when she achieved commercial succes better than her ex, ended her relationship with same notion, later found love with a soldire.

Second timeline actor's sister is exchanged by transmigrator who used system items to achieve her goal, she indeed runed OG's life and turned everyone into admirer. Anyway it was supposed to be a pet story, author likes everything to sound horrible as if she's first ever to do it.

Now we're in the repeat of second timeline where sister = transmigrator. This sister is trully inadequate and basically in her view she is the one innocent and rich and deserves the success, but all those who climbed from the bottom are hypocrites who want to climb and use others (while she does it better than others actually).

Author even compares her mental thinking to a serial killer which is a stretch tbh. But she is indeed mental. But basically she was indulged since childhood and became a selfish brat.

Nothing to talk about her. FMC separated from this actor and his family before they got anywhere (also destroyed sister's space necklace, while her system for the first time helped suppressing sister's system, since it's a huge cheat).

FMC slowly became successful, sometimes having setbacks when someone came out to make troubles. But it's my first time when author just starts mentioning titles of her works with no details to show she had many projects. 

While her ex and his sister slowly sttheir way, not to mention this sister couldn't let go of the fact that she is not some hot cake others so want to eat, she is no better than others, but acts as if everything and everyone should cater to her, getting in so much trouble and dragging her brother down too.

The only good part was actually the changes and flashing out of the secondary character, a wealthy business man who was with OG in the first life, was used by transmigrator in the second and how he felt now. He was more of a main character than FMC herself tbh. The rest is just a boring mass.

Starting arc 4 I skipped a lot when met with countless passages that meant nothing.

/edit

Arc 6. Oh god, her love interest in this world expressed his feelings and she only started high school. Author... are you okay?

I haven't mentioned that in the second world, the beauty among beauties was actually a teen girl, even if in those times girls were married quite early, but honestly just reading about it was sickening, author could have skipped it, but readers forget that before us is not some beauty but a teen girl who attracts all men around her (also according to them she "emits a cerain smell" like aphrodisiac)...

how?! is this so high on the ranking list is beyond me.

After this I'm dropping this.

RATE: 0,5/5. Even if I DNF, but this deserves this rating and won't change my mind.

[NOVEL] Murder by Moonrise by Patrcie McDonough

Third and last book in Dr. Julia Lewis series that concludes the story of her, Inspector Richard Tennant and a bigger plot at hand.

1867: For commoners and nobility alike, the Isle of Wight is an ideal holiday destination. Queen Victoria and her family frequently spend time at Osborne House, their stunning coastal residence. For the next few days the island will also be home to Dr. Julia Lewis, who is traveling with her grandfather and her great-aunt. But despite the pleasant surroundings, Julia is beset by worries.

Julia and Inspector Richard Tennant grew close during their last investigation, but he abruptly left England on a dangerous chase. She has heard nothing from him in weeks; meanwhile her maid, Kate, is nervous about rising anti-Irish sentiment. Editorials call for harsh retaliation against those determined to rid Ireland of British rule.

When Julia is called to perform an autopsy on drowning victim Lizzie Dowling, a young, Irish-born servant at Osborne House and a favorite of Princess Louise, she discovers that the girl was pregnant. Was her death a suicide? The distraught princess is eager for answers, and as Julia digs deeper, a second tragedy points to murder and perhaps a political scandal. There are rumors of smugglers funneling weapons to Ireland—and assassins who would target the Queen herself.

Motives abound but time is in short supply—and every day brings deeper urgency and threats that neither riches nor royalty may withstand . . .

Dr. Julia Lewis. Bok 3

Whe other books may be more about protagonists, I find that books about Julia are more people's books, like a group portrait. It has an abundance of characters who may not appear for long, but leave the ever-lasting impression.

Thanks to her extensive research and knowledge McDonough blends the truth and fiction together. You can read more about the true (or more acknoqledged / researched facts) and fictional parts in Acknowledgement.

The book picks up and treads carefully when it comes to the Irish-British conflict (and several incidents that indeed happened in 1867 when the novel takes place). It does not portray either side in black and white. It comes as more of a factual story where you are left to come to your own conclusions.

Just giving an example, one of the earliest incidents is the Clerkenwell that took 12 lives and left 120 wounded, this is a real incident. Not to mention that among the victims were fellow Irish, but the incident also sparked the anti-Irish sentiment. Like the novel described a stabbed Irish man who was just a simple and honest worker, but he died due to the unrest. The victim may be fictional but it doesn't mean such incidents didn't happen.

We also have the story of our two sisters who were the first murder victims that triggered the whole investigation. Like Sergeant O'Malley said their story is like something told ten thousand times about a family that was evicted and misplaced, who had to move for a better place.

Same goes for the royal family that makes an appearance, although we mostly see some fictional supporting characters and some of their thoughts on the royal family (the most frivolous I think is a comment about Victoria that she looks like a "pile of coal" when seated in her dress). But I'd say author does not impose any concrete thoughts on them. By that I mean the royal family don't express any opinion about the overall situation.

So you can witness more or less two sides of the coin, the actions and consequences, you can see the reasoning and motives.

It's just my impression that it was treated with care.

As for the plot, I found it interesting to evolve a murder and connect it to something bigger, well, all previous books picked up a part of the puzzle that eventually fell into place.

Here it is the same, Lizzie Dowling, an Irish maid is found dead in a well. Her death had no concrete conclusion if it was an accident or suicide, before her sister turns up and has something to say.

The death of Brigid Dowling rules out the accident of Lizzie Dowling, but now we have a killer on the loose and we have a short list of people who were present to hear about Brigid plans to visit London. They are our prime suspects.

Will there be surprises for you? I don't know, but two points made me think - oh, it might be this man. And eventually it turned out I was correct to suspect those two points of information.

As mentioned it's more of a group portrait rather than Julia galloping around London and investigating, her role in this is not big, she's a doctor and serves as a forensic for the police. There are many characters with their own little stories for you to see in this book. I often felt quite sentimental when reading even the small bits.

Another interesting side of these novels is that - lots of investigative work is done. Wrong to compare but in most of amateur sleuth mysteries a lot of time is spent on random stuff sometimes. But here I found that the progress was methodical, step by step process. It takes time, nothing is done in a day, it's meticulous. 

I pretty much described everything in general terms, but because I want people just to experience these books themselves.

For the last part, the romance between Richard and Julia. Some may not like how slow this burn was. But I think it was treated pretty well.

They did not have the best start before they became accustomed to each other. You can't call it a spark, but the interest was there. Eventually they grew closer before the second book made them separate when Richard was off to catch a criminal on the loose. This period made the string between them too taut. They had to find the way to each other again after the reunion, while also being constantly distracted by life that did not give them a chance for a proper conversation. But with time both realize they are lonely without the other person, something they haven't felt before and something only the other person can change.

For once we have a main female character who can calmly analyze the downside of marriage for women during her time, but she is not against a matrymony. I know their feelings are more subtle among all the fiery passion we're used to. But their feelings also were tested by time before they realized - oh, this is the person I love and I am ready to make the next step. Which I found particularly great.

RATE: 5/5.

[SHORT REVIEWS] #27

NOVELS
CHN

(*QIDIAN)

快穿：女配又在疯狂打脸 by 蓁蓁妖妖

(mtl: Quick transmigration: female supporting role slaps faces again)

Very basic, very shallow transmigration story. I think I added this at times when I was in "I want some trash stories" era.

You An travels world to avenge poor souls.

The plots are very common ones with all the tropes you've seen many times. But also poor quality if I'm being honest. SInce a lot of it is just pure revenge with no sense of scale. You've wronged the person, now you will end up being hunted down for the rest of your life.

In later half it becomes repetitive (I skipped only two apocalyptic worlds, don't care for those) with a lot of similar scenarios and You An's actions. Lol, even the character have similar names.

Oh yeah there is one homophobic arc with the rare but still present storyline of a wife being cheated by her gay husband into marrying and giving birth and later making her into a live-in nanny. Also making her spend her entire life for her family but afterwards being thrown away.. The melodrama of such stories is leaking and seeping through.

Not recommended at all of course. I even find my own reaction weird, because I sometimes crave trash, but this is the copy-paste type that came from somewhere and I'd call it kiddy writing which is very shallow, better quit any logic, stale diologues and just have nothing good to say.

暗恋情敌 by 二月竹

(mtl: Unrequited love rival)

(*JJ)

I'm not sure about this title. I'm not really going to read this one though, even if it's the same author as Backtracking and Infernal which I loved, this one is a calmer type of story that describes Chu Ziyu who falls for Shen Huaiyu, but his feelings are not returned, this happens during their school days. But the two meet again 11 years later and now it's Huaiyu's turn to pursue Ziyu who became his only light.

I'm not a fan of such stories, despite loving this author, but if anyone gets attracted to such plots you can give it a try. At the moment of me posting this it is still in publishing stage.

漂亮替身玩转豪门修罗场 by 惗肆

(mtl: Beautiful substitute navigates cutthroat world of the wealthy)

(*JJ)

This comes from the author of many novels I've reviwed, they have a different range and recently they switched to more profound ones in emotional sense. But the preview of this one sounds like some of their previous ones with MC being a literal queen but who plays with people since he is now trapped in a body of a substitute after transmigrating into a melodramatic BL novel.

It's another on-going one, but I'll be waiting for it, because it sounds like fun. Le Yin will be playing those who used him as substitute, the only person who will find his true face is of course ML. You know how it goes~

KOR

That’s How I Became a Villainess / 그렇게 악녀가 되었다

I read spoilers for this one. I somehow found it interesting sounding, but was not in the mood for reading when I found it ahaha lol

But actually it sounded pretty interesting. The only thing that also stopped me from reading is I found this on a TL site that is more like MTL so it's really hard to read.

It tells a story of FMC who is reborn. Her husband cheated on her and after returning brings back his mistress. FMC does not go into hysterics but instead greets her "friend" who betrayed her with open arms and does everything to accomodate her. her husband was not her choice of a partner in the first place, she married only to help her family, which never treated her fairly and she had to syphon them money from time to time. Her husband was ambitious and married her for her title and had mistress for nothing but pleasure and child.

Now FMC navigates this situation to make both of cheaters look bad, but this is only the beginning. Her main target is the current ruler who was her past love, who thinks she betrayed him (which she didn't), but this story has supernatural element and FMC has purifying power which haunts the cursed ruler/king. So this is a bit of melodramatic love where she feels she does not deserve his forgiveness for what she did but still tries to save him despite everything, very dedicated love. While he will of course eventually uncover the truth.

The story also involves some political intrigue since the king is cursed and other waits for his slow demise to take his place etc. So it involves several families.

Having the enemy's baby / 원수의 아기를 가졌다

THIS IS INSANE HOW DIFFERENT MANHWA IS FROM THE BOOK

I started reading the manhwa version and then chapters were over but I was interested - is MMC really so unhinged?

And the answer is, the manhwa portrays him as someone different, when things are not like that in a book and the problem is in small details that happen.

Basically all the events are similar, but what people say and think is different and this is why manhwa makes you think he is some sort of psycho, although the book does him more justice, despite him still being quite cruel.

I think I was mostly so impressed by the change of perception due to details, so this is the one time when I say pick the book, instead of my usual pick any media you want, book or comics.

The story is about FMC who is sent by her biological uncle (who is not her adoptive father officially) to the enemy's family, this family and their had a feud lasting for more than a century, to the point where two territories hate each other, including people.

So her fate was predictably to be tough.

I hated that manhwa opened from an event that will happen much later in the story as if we need this misleading preview. I wished manhwa did a better job at portrayal.

She is also very ill with a sickness called Herzol which have not appeared for over a century and no one knows the cure (of course she will get one).

MMC of course is not happy with this marriage and does not treat her well, and even if he understand some mistakes he may have made, but he is stopped by his pride as a ruler of his territory and also because she is still his ebeny's daughter and he has no idea if she has any agenda or not.

I'd say the book took quite long to get to the point where she tries to open up to him, then he also started to have feelings for her, they try to work it out, but of course author had to do some crazy spin so she will leave him, staging her death and he will search for her anyway.

This was an okay story in general. I can't say for sure how I liked it because the translation was more like MTL and it was hard to judge style and such. But at some parts it was obvious the author had some misses when it came to the creation of this story.

But it has BEST MAID EVER. Who is also FMC's friend, she is truly the best, since FMC herself is quite weak-willed due to many past traumas of losing her parents and later being treated like an empty spot and being compared to her cousin all the time, so she lost any confidence or happiness in her life.

US

Murder by Moonrise by Patrice McDonough

IT'S FINALLY HERE~ I'm so reading this when I finish what I'm reading now. can't believe it's already March..

The third and final book in the story of Dr. Julia Lewis.

The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner

I want to give a cozy mystery with a more mature main character another chance. This sounded interesting. You know how it goes, a person wants to find a cozy quiet place, but it doesn't end up so quietly after all.

Galvanism and Ghouls by Tilly Wallace

Because I liked the first book, I will happily continue with the series. The second promises the Frankenstein type of creature to appear.

Because I found such interesting type of story, it was also recommended to try Soulless by Gail Carriger, it should have the same vibe as this series.

I decided not to pack what I want to read next, though who am I kidding, it's always packed to the brim whenever I see my bookmarks.

MANHWA

I'm lazy to put out covers.

• Peony: Dreaming of a dangerous duke. Pretty short and nice. I really liked that it's short and doesn't dwell like many others. Story of a transmigrated girl who tried to fix her own fate, but was killed. She fell in love with her husband in arranged marriage. But after death she travels to the future and becomes a princess who is married to the same duke. She can't tell him that she is his deceased wife, but eventually the restriction is lifted. With time ppl recognize her and her husband falls in love with her for the second time, not because she is who she is.
• My husband was stolen twice. Pretty unsatisfying melodramatic plot. In modern times the girl is shocked how her friend stole her husband. They travel to a plot where she does the same thing, but what is different is their status. FMC starts a business and also meets a man who helps her several times. But instead of a confident personality we again have this mopey FMC who has no idea if the man likes her or not and she is not confident etc. Such cliche garbage.
• I became a level 999 Demon Queen. I thought it's going to be fun, but it's such a kiddy writing, honestly, I thought I was reading a story written by a kid. It's shallow, not interesting, FMC is boring, everything bored me to no end.

DONGHUA

Heaven Official's Blessing / Tian Guan Ci Fu / 天官赐福

I'm actually finaly watching it. Took me a while. But honestly I can't blame myself since the same with the Grandmaster I've read the novel and saw the manhua and usually I don't watch the same story so many times even if it's a different media.

Though let's admit, the manhua for TGCF is cunty, it's so gorgeous that it overwhelms you with how good it is.

Donghua is also looking really good and I'm loving it so far. It's interesting to revisit the story when time passes instead of chasing it.

The Lord of Mysteries / Guimi Zhi Zhu / 诡秘之主

OMG THIS IS GORGEOUS

I have no idea what they did for animation to be like that, but it feels like they use a lot of computer graphic, yet it feels more like an in-game feel instead of what we're used to.

The story is intriguing, lots of gore, blood and also steampunk vibe? heck yeah.

Some say the stry is all over the place, others say it's for those who dont like to be led and the plot to be fed to them. We'll see. But the animation is great.

DRAMA

SWEETPEA (2024)

And this is one I completed. 

Could be beter, could be worse. I think it's underwhelming in a way. I hope they don't produce a second season, the girl should be caught. She should not get her happy ending.

It's slow and the theme of overlooked invisible person is so exaggerated.

The FMC was bullied at school to the point where she developed a habit of ripping her hair out because of nerves. This haunted her to her adult life where she still continues to be invisible to others and she is overlooked. The only person she cared for dies and even her dog gets into accident because she was distracted to see her former bully on the billboard, having a great career.

She tries to sloppily navigate her own case to be promoted at her workplace.

Kinda reminded me of that movie with Jake Gyllenhaal where he was a reporter.. I'm getting distracted.

Anyway, she murders the first victim and any feeling of guilt was wiped out when she found out he was a bully. Second person was responsible for taking attention of medical personnel when her dad needed attention. Of course another prick and asshole who acts as if he deserves what is about to get him.

These two were more like a spur of a moment crimes.

While she planned for the third and wanted to off her school bully. But it didn't go as planned.

Eventually we find out that her former bully is now in a very toxic relationship and she was physically hurt many times and can't get away from him.

All med are bad if you didn't get it so far.

To the point where they plan to dump all the guilt on this guy.

I liked only one character, her former bully, not because of her sloppy story that she had a hard time, this is why she did what she did, but because she took off in time after the release. 

While FMC was caught in her own lies more and more and it came crashing down.

Because of her brilliant plan to shift blame she had to give away the knife she used, but forgot others saw her with the same knife as well.

There is another dumb moment when she lies about her time at the club where had her first victim. She could have told the truth, no one saw her anyway. But she chose to lie, which was suspicious af.

Sloppy person, sloppy writing. just nah. Good thing it was short, but it felt long tbh.

Honestly, at the end I felt sorry for wasting my time. I could have watched some dorama instead.

That's it. So far.

Happy Women's Day to everyone.

Read good books, watch good shows and be happy.

[Chinese BL novel] 无间 by 二月竹 / Infernal

Finally, I got to this novel. It's the same author of "Backtracking" that I could not shut up about in several "short reviews" posts, especially when it started to be published.

All I can say that it was worth the wait. Maybe I'm not as smitten as with the Backtracking, but it's still a very worthy read in the scope of self-publishing of JJ

Unfortunately, this story has no better cover and always used this default type.

Summary: Deputy captain of the criminal investigation Lu Yan has been looking into several murders that occured in their city. He has no lead except a blurry video of a hired driver, wearing a dark baseball cap and exposing his pale and sharp jaw. And one day he meets a man and something clicks that motivates to find out who this man is, there is no connection, but his intuition told him that this man is the one from the video.

The man's name is Shen Qiao, he is a pretty well-known doctor, said to be a genius who is currently pursued by three prominent figures, sons of wealthy families, who are good brothers and were once classmates and whose fate is connected to a suicide of young boy from 18 years ago.

#TW: sui*ide, SA, violence 

Again, like Backtracing this is a revenge type of story, while this one relies heavily on revenge of the emotional nature. But the type of revenge that is served slowly and meticuously.

Before I will dive into it, I must say that I read through MTL and I can't say anything about the quality or style of the writing, I think the story was quite simple without much embellishment and not everything was spoon-fed to you, so you can have your own theories.

The structure of the story is pretty simple, these three "sons of wealthy families" were all involved with MC's brother in one way or another, I don't want to spoiler it too much before the spoilers section and now MC is back to feed back what they deserve.

I mainly described everything in the summary and here. Now the most precious SPOILERS section.

/!-SPOILERS-!/

Even if I will tell the main spoilers, but I will leave out a lot, since this story needs to be appreciated.

Although the MC of Backtracking served justice, but he still did so for himself and there was no such an emotional drama or the idea of involving three perpetrators emotionally. 

Shen Qiao's way of revenge was quite simple, he studied the three people for years, all their behavior patterns, most-likely choices and what would attract them before approaching all three. But he did so in a different way, even if the one thing was a common trait - he acted indifferently with all three.

I find that his beauty trap.. though it's too lowly to call it that, basically it works because of few reasons, one is that Shen Qiao is extremely beautiful (in this case I support the character's mention of beauty, since it works as a mean to something) and also he is accomplished for his age. He is really detached and aloof, a person of great mystery for people who saw everything in their life, esspecially too many servile types.

And the choice of being emotionally entangled is chosen for the sake of paying back for what his brother went through, complete emotional breakdown of being toyed around, abused, violated and manipulated. Pan Xingyou, abused Shen Qiao's brother for several years in school physically, Meng Ji assaulted Wen Nianqian (brother) many times and Xie Yue appeared in the image of a friend who was the last light in Wen Nianqian's life before disclosing that he knows two of his perpetrators and they're close friends.

Although I say emotionally entangled, the basic thing was to make all three people fall for him, even though he himself stayed indifferent, there is no emotional drama, no physical contact etc. He was and stayed the indifferent self until the very end.

All three are called "friends" but actually by their actions later you can see they can easily turn on each other. Deep inside they're absolutely selfish people.

Where they stood when the story only starts.

Pan Xingyou is an unruly young master of his family, he was in love with Xie Yue all his life but couldn't get him since they're both tops, yet he slept with anyone Xie Yue slept with, known fact in their circle. Messy, I know.

Xie Yue considers himself very high above everyone else, he likes to play a role and doesn't disclose anything about himself even his parents are in the scope of people he despises. He loves to manipulate and play a role. People make him nauseous and he also has the conditon where instead of red he sees green.

Meng Ji, the true psycho of the three. He is sex addict and has violent tendencies. Very deceptive and many don't think he is much of anything, like in school no one might have known that he had such a relationship with his classmate. I'd say because of his means he was the last one standing and could have succeeded in many ways if Shen Qiao wasn't as collected and intelligent.

List of early victims. Like previously Shen Qiao also doesn't use his own hands to act. Even with the three main targets he uses the feelings of these three people for himself so they can elliminate each other (which basically they did). But early on we find that several people die:

- Wen Nanqian's classmate who took part in violence;

- Another classmate;

- Homeroom teacher, who took bribes and fabricated story about Wen Nanqian' who thought he finally left the hell of junior high;

- Adoptive father of Wen Nanqian, failed businessman who turned into a gambler and alcoholic, he gave keys to their house to Meng Ji;

- A reporter who covered the suicide of Wen Nanqian and used false claims that were not true.

How Shen Qiao approached all three.

Shen Qiao was an attending doctor of Pan Xingyou's grandfather, which allowed him to approach him in a natural way. they met during a party where he saved a young actor not for the good heart but to catch Xingyous attention.

As for Meng Ji, he used his love for extreme sports by befriending him and sent him to a mountain where Meng Ji got an infection and was blinded, his father knowing Shen Qiao treated Pan's patriarch invited him to treat his son, which SQ eventually did, attracting the attention of Meng Ji by his aloofness and disregard etc.

He also became a neighbor of Xie Yue and attracted his attention at first by making a worker always using machinery at home (though no repairs happened) and later gave hints that he was a fan without outwardly saying it. Basically 'I give you hints and I manipulatively give you hints so you can pay attention'. Which worked. Xie Yue believed they're same type of people, in a sense he was right. SQ was open to emotional manipulation with all three of them and that was his tactic.

Why all three had no idea they fell for the same man.

As mention all three are deeply selfish people, when they realized their feelings for SQ their first thought was to hide him away, especially from those who can potentially become love rivals, so they had no idea all three were acquainted with same person until much later.

I agree not everything was treated well and the plot has a type of "oh, this is a story" feeling. 

Especially for the sake of story, although SQ is a genus doctor, he wasn't.. doctoring much. Though udnerstandable, some "experts" are said to be unavailable, especially if your clientell are wealthy people.

From another point, in the story he left for States and became famous there before returning solely for revenge.

And he spent a lot of time from the moment he happened to witness his brother's suicide to this day when the gears of revenge were set in action on studying all three people.

Shen Qiao's story is actually very tragic.

He could have had a steady and lovely family, he had loving parents, but a tragic accident took his father away, his mother got infected by donating blood and to not be a burden for her family, Shen Qiao's health was a matter of concern for years, she committed suicide by drowning in a river, Shen Qiao witnessed that. To lessen the burden his brother Wen Nanqian was adopted by relatives, but we know what happened from there, the couple had few good years before the wife got sick and passed away and the adoptive father lost his business.

Shen Qiao's maternal grandma is the only relative that stayed, but she suffered from Alzheimer when Shen Qiao was pretty young. If he was less mature or collected he might have broke down long ago. Especially when he witnessed the body of his brother (it was the day they promised to meet).

he stayed in the country for some time before leaving and developing abroad. And he returned I presume only after his grandma passed away.

He even had a connection to Lu Yan early on. Thing is Lu Yan's mother was investigative journalist and she was killed for one of her reports. It was obvious there is someone manipulating things behind it, but no connection was found. The prepetrator was one of those whow as reported by her.

SQ and her met in the morgue where she said she doesn;t believe it's that simple, he found diaries of his brother that supported the claim, but when he wanted to give them to her she was gone right before his eyes.

You can guess that despite the way SQ acts aloof and not bothered he actually has few instances of PTSD filled with hallucination.

He witnessed too much, so it's understandable why he decided to do what he did.

For the three perpetrators Wen Nanqian's life wasn't a life worth mentioning, none of them were even feeling truly remorseful by the end of it, but for Shen Qiao he was a loving brother who wanted so much to reconnect with his younger brother, even despite feeling like dirt and mess he looked forward to the future when he could finally live, but he was still haunted by his past and was not given the chance.

How it ended.

When the three men found out that they fell for the same men of course some things started to float. Especially when Shen Qiao suddenly started mentioning the suicide of his brother. But of course none of them affirmed their role in this. While Shen Qiao played along with their claims he slowly fed to the animosity between the three people.

The most unhinged, in a bad way, is still Meng Ji, he used underhanded means to set up two others together, filming the process too. Later he tried to fram Lu Yan for the death of his father, but who is Lu Yan, he got evidence to free himself of charges, but at that point Meng Ji smartly disappeared, leaving all the riches behind. Eventually Shen Qiao to get rid of him acted as a lure, which worked, during confrontation, which was like a movie tbh, both SQ and Meng Ji fell from the roof, while SQ was saved by Lu Yan and his small parachute, Meng Ji did not survive of course.

Pan Xingyou feeling mortified by what happened planned to get back for it. During the final conference when Xie Yue announced his retirement he caused fire and in a scuffle hurt Xie Yue, making him a eunuch. He was arrested for it and awaited his trial, not admitting that he was r* by Xie Yue. And that was his motive.

Xie Yue when he was hurt might have lost his manly function but outwardly he was the least touched by events, yeat who is Meng Ji, he will not let anyone have a safe life, so he released the video he took, which overturned the previous impression of Xie Yue, who committed suicide by jumping from the same building Wen Nanqian did. He also called SQ to witness it, called SQ a devil and that he will see him in hell.

All three actually reallized at one point that they were targetted, but not one of them acted against SQ by harming him or doing something extreme, because by that time they were too far gone, so crazily in love they couldn' do anything and felt powerless in their conflicting feelings. Loving in their own twisted way.

It's interesting that you cann call this story having 4 love lines. While 3 are crokked but the one with Lu Yan is the one that was true.

Even the obsession over Shen Qiao, Lu Yan might have been smitten, but you know it felt rather similar and different from feelings of those three people.

To Shen Qiao Lu Yan at first was chasing him, because he was feeling the connection, but the more he found out about Shen Qiao the farther he distanced from his initial goal. You could say both of them were mixed with a bit of darkness. But eventually Lu Yan became that leading saving light, who gave love, unconditional trust and comfort.

It's interesting how they never actually talked about anything, but they both understood that they know what they know, they just never brought it up. As if "I know what you did and I acquise but never say a word and I know that you know what I know but we both don't say a word" complicated like that.

/-/

Overall, I was satisfied and couldn't put it down before I finished, it was very engaging.

When it comes to stories like that I'm not mad that every emotion is not described in micro detail, we have a bag that we can judge and this is how things are.

RATE: 4,75/5.

[NOVEL] Lady Darling Inquires After a Killer by Colleen Gleason

Leave Sherlock Holmes alone ahaha

The widowed marchioness of Darling has successfully married off all of her children, and her son’s wife is the new marchioness—making her the dowager, and giving her absolutely no responsibilities. As a woman who was not born into the peerage, but, against the mores of Victorian London society wed Lord Darling in a love match thirty years ago, Lady Darling chafes at the restrictions of the gentility and is looking forward to her “retirement” to the country—at least until the grandchildren come along.

Unfortunately, fate has other plans for her. When an old friend implores her to sponsor her daughter into society, Lady Darling agrees. Not long after she commences with this project, Lady Darling and her charge, Miss Bedwith, attend a dinner party where a man is found dead.

Lady Darling, an aficionado of Sherlock Holmes (and friend of Arthur Conan Doyle) and Wilkie Collins’s work, dives into the investigation simply because she can.

During her investigation, she employs the assistance of her housekeeper and butler—the Josephs, who are also her close friends (another impropriety! being friends with servants!)—as well as her favorite modiste, Monsieur Claude—to help her track down clues to the killer. When the investigation takes her into the dingy streets of Seven Dials, she encounters a mysterious and dangerous man who seems to know an awful lot about her. Maybe too much. Still, even at her so-called advanced age of fifty, Lady Darling finds him interesting and titillating. But can she trust him?

Lady Darling Mysteries. Book 1

I would have edited some parts for sure.

Well, I really wish Arthur Conan Doyle would be left alone, but this author just stuck with the idea of making Lady Darlking into Sherlock Holmes wannabe where she often mentions his name. I could understand the sentiment, I really do, for example in times of something "trending" like the peak of fashion you can see the splurge in popularity of certain things, it's the same as trendy fashion nowadays. I have a basic example, when a manga about basketball like Slam Dunk became popular, there was a rise of basketball being the most popular among Japanese teens as a result (same with other popular manga and sports).

For example, when a certain book became popular it dictated a popular trend when it comes to genre, so you can see more dystopia, romantasy, books about vampires for the next few years.

I mean people could have copied a limp, because someone from a royalty had it and it was considered trendy.

But there is still a limit to how many times you can mention Sherlock in your story. Not to mention one thing is to just mention the fictional character, but the whole fantasy about our FMC being acquainted with ACD, not to mention the hint of Irene being a prototype of one of the characters i beyond the limit for me.

I don't like the use of real people in books. Of course it's harder to create an author for your own universe for reader to care, but others did it splendidly, I have no idea why Gleason decided otherwise.  And this is why I shaved off stars for that. 

I know historical fiction is possible without involving real people to this extent, as I previously reviewed Patrice McDonough who used some real events to her advantage, but did not impose too much on it.

Otherwise Lady Darling was an interesting woman of certain age. With her own perks of course.

She is 50 and her aching hip won't let you forget the fact.

She also fairs quite well for her age, but being of certain age I can relate to some of the things she says.

Though some of it does sound quite modern-thinking.

I'm not sure if author wanted us to remember how Lady Darling was once a travelling girl who crossed the seas and is so daring and saw/experienced a lot or we should see her version that also switches back to marchioness, although eccentric but quite haughty if you ask me, who knows her status and uses it to her advantage, even if it sounds snobbish of her.

By this I mean the fact that she decided to investigate the case, because she wants to and because she can (as if it's a common thing to do). I know some people might be upset because her approach and others act as if it's not something gruesome that happened. But actually not everyone mops around all day, especially people who were not close. This happens a lot more than you think. The only thing that is off-putting for real is how she calls herself intelligent and smart etc. Truly smart people don't do it. But the thing is she has no prior experience of solving cases, it's good this one was rather simple for her. Even if she absolutely excluded the work of Scotland Yard as inadequate (in attempts for it to sound like Sherlock Holmes) and after it was over considered her own work done brilliantly.

Another part is how she had no qualms in basically facing off everyone she suspects of doing it. It's like she interrogates people in public and asks all the questions and waits for the reaction. "Did you do it?" As a person with experience of reading people she might have done it, but again, she has no experience in solving cases. It'd be silly to wait and see whose facade will crack from unexpected questioning. In the end it was the conclusion of both murders that had a natural exclusion to help her solve the case, if it was just a singular case, who knows how long she'd waste on it.

I honestly liked the lively beginning and her eccentric personality, but then Conan Doyle appeared in a picture and she couldn't stop bringing him up. Not to mention she had some not appealing thoughts about other people around her. Even her ward - Priscilla Bedwith. Pris actually was also a bit annoying at the beginning, but then I realized it's a bit like a caricature and not a character with how she was scared of the feelings of her childhood friend and decided she will strive for a man with the highest title, this included her delulu as if she's going to be a sensation. As if she's supposed to be this young delulu girl. She also served as a constant reminder at first how different and shocking Lady Darling is.

The consequent haughtiness and the feeling of superiority and constant reminder "I'm brillian, I'm the smartest" also toned the excitement down. Which otherwise would have been a nice character.

The mystery itself was not that impressive. Maybe because it got lost at the constant mention of Holmes. If you isolate it, it might sound not that bad, but again it was overshadowed by everything else.

RATE: 2,75/5.

[NOVEL] Murder at the Mayfair Hotel by C.J. Archer

Why a character can't just be smart when sleuthing?

December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest on Christmas Eve throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos.Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager. With the New Year’s Eve ball approaching fast and the hotel’s reputation hanging by a thread, Cleo must find the killer before the ball, and the hotel itself, are ruined. But catching a murderer proves just as difficult as navigating the hotel’s hierarchy and the peculiarities of her family.Can Cleo find the killer before the new century begins? Or will someone get away with murder?

A Cleopatra Fox Mystery. Book 1

Fell flat. And I have a lot to say.

The plot is too obvious and also too convenient. A lot of forced parts. There is a biggest plothole in there. The establishment of characters is flat. And the main character despite impressive name did not impress me. Although a lot of things happened it left me with the feeling like I don't care.

Also the story is told from 1st person POV, which I dislike.

Let's dissect.

Part 1. Arrival. Character introduction. 

Cleopatra Fox is a "poor relation" of her uncle and aunt Ronald and Lillian Bainbridge. Here she finds out that uncle sponsored her for all these years and she had no idea (why establish this fact, who knows). Her two cousine Florence and Floyd are people who are the most basic youth among the wealthy, quite carefree and positive.

Cleopatra meets several main figures of the hotel that will play a role in the consequent development. The manager Mr Hobart, his nephew Mr Harry Armitage (whose father is a detective inspector of Scotland Yard). She also witnesses how Mrs Kethering, a housekeeper reprimands a maid Edith who wasn't supposed to go to 5th floor. I have no idea how more obvious you should be to establish that one of the characters has illicit relationship with one of the guests. 

I hope I didn't butcher their names, because this is how some of the characters are forgetful.

because Cleo is now part of the family she is given room to occupy on the 4th floor with the rest of the family. Her maid is called Harmony.

Part 2. Murder.

The one murdered is called Mrs. Warrick. We have to rewind back to introduction of this character. I had no idea how old she is actually, they say she is old enough. Cleo first met Mrs Warrick in passing in front of the lift, where Mrs Warrick turned back and commented to herself that "this person shouldn't be here". Meaning she recognized someone, but who for some reason couldn't be here in the hotel in her opinion. This is what I call convenent, it works for the story, but if we were in the universe that comment might mean nothing at all and can't be used as a solid lead, but will be used as such.

The other convenience that happens is that there are only 3 men that she could have talked about - Mr Armitage, Mr Hookly and Mr Duffiled.

This happened on Christmas Eve and the next morning Mrs Warrick is found dead, poisoned in her own room.

Honestly, if Poirot was here he'd crack this case in a nanosecond if I'm being honest, but what followed is what got on my nerves the most - the false lead. While to readers I think it becomes apparent who is at fault.

The circumstances of Mrs Warrick death: The door locked, found by maid Edith around 7 AM, all signs of poisoning, she did not dine the previous evening and only consumed hot chocolate (which was taken for testing). For a reader it becomes obvious that the two points of her recognition of someone and her death are connected. Which leaves three suspects, which can be reduced to one because of the two following scenes.

Part 3. Investigation.

It is known that police interviewed the staff and especially one footman who brought the chocolate. Now they need to establish what contained poison, time of death etc. All under the wing of Armitage's father who is brother to Manager Mr Hobard.

For some unknown reason, the above-mentioned maid Harmony asks Cleo to investigate. Absolutely no clue why, because Cleo just arrived, she had no prior cases to solve etc. Just because she is a relation and also does not believe the footman did it, or at least wants to prove the innocent.

What baffled me is how she discussed the details with all the staff, while being naively sure that none of them could have done it. Amateur mistake.

Now about the two scenes and why Mr Armitage couldn't have been the culprit but Cleo still took this false lead anyway.

Firstly, I was under the impression that Mrs Warrick stayed in the hotel not once. Proof: they talked about her "routines" about the time when she drinks her hot chocolate or tea, which means she stayed at this hotel several times and because Mr Armitage is a visible figure she should have noticed him on her prior visits if he was at fault. And Cleo followed this false lead for half a book, digging the past of Harry and actually exposing it to her uncle, which eventually led to his dismissal and she regretted it horribly, but honestly.. She felt so stupid at that time. Her leads were so flimsy, she thought that everyone would cover up for him (because of his relationship with his father). Anyway, her imagination got the best of her.

Edit:  I cam back to the book and found this quote, which proves why I was under the impression Mrs. Warrick was a regular:

"I was delivering her tea at seve this morning, as I have done ever since she arrived. She has a regular order, you see; tea delivered at seven by a maid, not a footman. She doesn't want men seeing her in her nightgown." Explained by Edith about Mrs. Warrick's usual order.

It felt forced because now Harry can do what he wanted to do, he found himself attracted to being a private detective type. Because the reason he was shifty and Cleo suspected him is that he was also trying to find who was steling the silver from the hotel. Honestly so forced just to make your two character do the investigative work later on.

Other two suspects:

Scene 1. Mr Duffield who dined with Cleo because she needed to ask him questions or at least hear his story of what and why. She finds he is dressed in worn clothes despite telling her he had an estate. Later we find out tha 1) he indeed lied about his estate; 2) he was a neighbor to Mrs Warrick; 3) he sold gossip to paper for a reward. None of which are a solid motive.

Scene 2. Smoking room with Mr Hookly. Again Cleo was just talking and hears a story from Mr Hookly that he just returned from Africa after selling his mine. She noticed he has no tan and was rather pale but thought he wore a hat *facepalm*. Later on she learns from the post that Mr Hookly receives a lot of parcels from different places. Very early on she also found that he orders from different places in bulks, without paying the bill, the only thing he has is a letter from some noble or smth.

It becomes obvious that he is a fraud. And they find out later that he is a fraud because real Mr Hookly died months ago. At least this is suspicious. I don't say the characters should have connected him to murder right away, would have been too much, but at least thought that guy is a fraud. Could have been connected to murder later. But no.

I don't deny that some of the suggestions by Cleo were solid. Because no poison was found in chocolate or in her items, meaning she somehow digested it. She found who ordered a portion enough for two. Even if it led to nothing, but it connected her and Mr Hookly who is not Mr Hookly. It also meant that someone from the staff was indeed responsible and the first to raise questions is of course - Edith, who found the body. Because the spare keys that could have been taken from senior staff were all locked and there was no sign of breaking, which means only maids could have done it. One who was also present when they discussed theories and what police found etc. Conveniently only later Cleo remembered the first meeting with Edith and Mrs Kethering. Connected it to the fact that fake Mr Hookly was living on the 5th floor where Edith was found. And when they all came to these conclusions Edith was nowhere to be seen.

If you put it together and put the pieces apart it's not a bad idea, but I just felt like the order to reveal things was odd.

Part 4. Conclusion.

Fake Mr Hookly was apprehended and his identity was out. He was a footman of real Mr Hookly and his idea was to get all the things and money and leave.

Edith was a woman madly in love (though honestly we don't care because it suddenly is revealed at the very end) and believed all those sweet nothings how they're going to be together. The reasoning of this fake Mr Hookly to involve Edith is a story that Mrs Warrick was his past lover who threatens his life and hers too, so she believed it's kills or be killed. We absolutely don't care as readers and it sounds ridiculous. Because Edith was a nobody among other staff so far.

Characters.

Honestly, I wish Cleo would give me more. She is quite basic to me. She is said to be intelligent, but one thing is to say rather than show. Same as when she mentions her parents and suddenly has tears in her eyes. Honestly, I couldn't care, there were no bits and pieces to showcase at least something that would make her emotions more vivid, like even if it's a jealousy of the warmth others have while she lost it and it'ss till raw as she says. Sometimes these moments were a miss, sometimes they hit.

She said she wanted to prove herself, well, she got ahead of herself too.

Mr Armitage who will be the main lead later is also not that interesting, sure described as handsome, but basically they have little interactions with Cleo and it's always different in her impression from good to bad. We had no idea he was investigating something just to make him suspicious. How do they manage to make a character present and so background at the same time.

The only thing that was nice to me is how united the staff were in the face of this incident, they wanted to solve it, they felt close, they were rather interesting.

Cleo's family is okay, instead of her worst nightmares they're pretty close to her, though I agree it feels weird that they were not present in her life for all these years, but now they're close and it might have been to do with her grandparents, but who knows, not explained, left for later..maybe.

Well, yeah, I don't regret just spoiling the whole thing, could have been better, but it is what it is.

I really need a smart female lead, but not someone who is too boastful.

RATE: 3/5.

[NOVEL] Manners and Monsters by Tilly Wallace

I was surprised to find it was such a fun read.

A lady never reveals the true extent of her decay...

Hannah Miles lives a quiet existence, helping her parents conduct research into a most terrible affliction - until a gruesome murder during her best friend's engagement party pulls her from the shadows. With her specialist's knowledge and demure disposition, Hannah is requested to aid the investigation.

Except Hannah discovers her role is to apologise in the wake of the rude and disgraced man tasked with finding the murderer. The obnoxious Viscount Wycliff thinks to employ Hannah purely as a front to satisfy Whitehall, but she'll have none of that.

The two must work together to find the murderer before the season is ruined. But the viscount is about to meet his greatest challenge, and it's not a member of the ton with a hankering for brains.

Manners and Monsters. Book 1

Alternative history where magic is present. Imagine timeline past 1812, war between England and France, Napoleon is defeated, but it all sprinkled with supernatural.

As a plan for England's demise from within a batch of snuff and facial powder was stopped from the spread among the ton, but part of it still foound its way to the vanities of aristocratic ladies, this is how few hundred people were cursed to die, but not be dead.

It took me a moment to realize that I'm reading about zombies while they're not called such in the book. Despite the cover being obvious haha It's just the angle this book takes on living dead is really interesting.

Back to the story. Since few years back all cursed were called Afflicted. New rules were made for them (like they can't legally marry since they can't produce a heir, they can't inherit etc. because they're practically dead), so there was a substantial shift in lives of many ladies who found themselves victims of such a vile curse. These are same women (and men) but their hearts don't beat, they live among others and some are obviously Afflicted, but others can be masked among others, it all depends on how well they're "fed". The point is, there is no full list of people who are Afflicted, the information can be acquired partially only through the supplier of "pickled cauliflower".

It's just to express few points in short, while the book to me was much more.

So Hannah's mother is one of the first Afflicted, since she is a mage (former, since her death), she partially siffered from the effects of this curse (decay), but her family works tirelessly to find how to reverse the process.

Hannah is the type of wallflower, her family is now nothing much, her mother is now in the past for others and her father stopped being a famous surgeon and concentrated on Afflicted and how to cure his wife. An exception among many men who either discarded their spouces or broke off engagements with loved ones who became Afflicted.

Then at the beginning of the book a murder happens and the victim was found with their brain missing, something only a deprived and very hungry Afflicted would do.

Viscount Wycliff is appointed to solve the case and also he was present at the scene. Hannah found herself tagging along because 1 - this topic concerns Afflicted and 2 - someone dared to spoil the engagement ball of her friend (honestly this is the worst part that was mentioned, because at the beginning it was said that they're great friends etc. although some of the details rubbed me the wrong way, but throughout the whole book no sign of her friend was present). Hannah found herself a mediator between those who were baffled by Wycliff's rudeness.

Having a list of people present at the ball the list of suspects is narrowed down. Some seem suspicious, but some feel as if they have no reason to commit anything.

You can read the Afflicted as an allegory to something else too. Because partially it does not directly comment on Afflicted, but while the two of our protagonists interview people we meet different women and listen to their different situation, like Mrs Albright, very much walking and talking but tossed aside by her husband for younger wife (I reeeaaally have a strong feeling that he might have found about the powder and used it to get rid of his wife, I have no proof, but the things he said). Like Lady Emma whose fiance ditched her, but her parents do everything for their child. Or mean Lady Gabriella whose outlook completely changed after losing the shackled of being preceived as a woman.

Although it felt like their stories won't mean much, but they still paint a full picture and an interesting take on how society treats those who may be walking and talking, but are partially cast aside.

It's not just a zombie apocalypse where zombies run the streets like mindless menace.

I found that the story is well-paced and well-balanced, it's not an info dump, we get to know about the curse and Afflicted step by step, our characters are not some all-powerful minds that got it all solved, because the study of Afflicted continues. A lot is laced through.

As for the relationship between the two main characters, I do not agree with peopel commenting that someone out of the two is in love with the other, totally don't agree. For the first half they almost loathed each other and later just found the company of each other agreeable enough, they have a long way to go. She finds him so because he may be the one to stir her mind. He is still broody like a heavy cloud, the fact that he finds more sides about her that are better among other women is a common trope. I would cut some of his parts to let him simmer a bit more and so they could develop more in later books, others did this too and  found it quite successful.

Overall was pleasantly surprised.

RATE: 5/5.