A review by emintobooks
Grave Secrets by Alice James

Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

I was expecting this to be a mystery as it's #1 in the Lavington Windsor *mystery* series. 70 pages in and It's actually a comedic supernatural romance, which was a disappointment. Where and what is the mystery?  But even as a romance novel it flops because the things I love about romance aren't there. No tension, no development. I figured this one wouldn't be for me when the 1700s history referenced in the first couple of pages was shody at best and Ill informed at worst. But then we see our main character, a necromancer, think about how flat a 17 year old corpse's chest is and I knew I was in for a bumpy ride. The author also constantly reminds us the characters are English but in weirdly hamfisted ways, like having the main character talk about the rounding of another English person's accent (who notices that about the accents of people from where you are from?), or restating the fact that they are English ("still we were both English").  Also her mentions of Lavington taking a brush to her curly hair to tame it, and even her boss bringing it up had me cringing as a curly haired person, but thats a nitpick. There were lots of little things that just felt off about the characters and how they spoke and took me out of the story. On page 6 and again on page 7 two different things are described as mouldering. Honestly it felt like the author was trying to recreate the vibe of something I haven't read or seen. Maybe the Charlain Harris books the blurb compares it to? Also, I could tell this was trying to be humorous in a kooky way, and I like kooky humor as much as the next, but this didn't hit the mark for me.  

(I want to note as well the main character brushes off sexual assault way too easily. The writing glosses over it and tries to make it funny but it isn't.)