Reviews

A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffanie Holmes

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jabirch's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

redhairedashreads's review against another edition

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2.5

2.5 stars

When Mina’s world comes crashing down, she finds herself returning home to the English village where she grew up and taking a job at the bookshop that was her childhood sanctuary. But Mina soon realizes that the bookshop isn’t what it seems and the people who live there are actual fictional characters from literature. Together they race to solve a murder and clear Mina’s name.

This was a fascinating concept for a story and I mostly enjoyed it but I did struggle with the characters and storyline a little. While this story has a pretty fast timeline, nothing really seems to be happening for most of the investigation. We see a lot of them talking about investigating and it happening off page, which was disappointing. On top of this, I struggled with the characters and didn’t really love any of them except Quoth.

Mina was a fashion designer in NY but her dreams were ruined when she was told she is going blind. Mina comes across as a bit snobby most of the time and looks down on others, like her mother and one of the people she went to school with. I also thought her refusal to wear glasses to help with her failing eyesight was stupid. I just struggled to like her as a character, even though I liked her in Fangs for Nothing but that takes place after this series.

The men were all pretty one dimensional. Heathcliff is a grumpy and angry man, Moriarty is smart and a playboy, and Quoth is a raven shifter with little memories about his story or personality outside of being quiet and sweet. None of them really had any personality outside of what they originally were introduced with and it made me struggle to like or connect with their characters.

The mystery was fine, but like I said, nothing really seems to be happening during their investigation until the end. Overall, this story was just fine. The more I think about it the more I am disappointed. I know this whole series involves Mina and the boys but I don’t think I want to continue reading to see if they develop more as characters.

TW: lots of alcohol use; drug use mentioned; death of a friend; grief; fatphobia;

Content Warnings