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CSI Ally Dymond’s commitment to justice has cost her a place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast.
Then the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe, and Ally’s expert skills are suddenly back in demand.
But when the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory, nobody wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison.
Time is running out to catch a killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike.

Thank you to HQ for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t often read crime, but I have been trying a bit more and this one honestly drew me in from the very first page. We follow Ally Diamond (what a name!), who is a CSI on the North Devon coastline. Early on in this story, she uncovers corruption in the ranks, and is stuck solving petty crimes below her skill level. It also follows the killer from very early on in the book, which became very dark at times but was so enthralling to read about.

I love the setting on the coast of North Devon, with places I recognised (although slightly changed for the story). It felt dark and atmospheric, a beautiful juxtaposition to the sinister storyline. I listened to the audiobook of this one and honestly, I couldn’t stop listening. I just know that if I’d read the physical version of this one, I would have struggled to put it down.

Although sometimes it can be difficult to be in the mind of the killer for obvious reasons, I found it fascinating. Obviously there is a loss of tension and mystery lost because we find out who the murderer is at the start of the book, but there is still a decent amount of mystery surrounding his motives.

My major problem with this book is it felt like everything fell into place too easily at times, but I still enjoyed being along for the ride. It was very entertaining to read and felt tense until the end, but could be a bit predictable and convenient at times.

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Years have passed since the love between Sephy – a Cross – and Callum – a Nought – destroyed their world and changed their families and society forever.
Society appears to be very different now. For the first time ever, a Nought Prime Minister – Tobey Durbridge – is in power. Race and class don’t divide people anymore. But things are never really that easy.
Because Tobey’s just been framed for murder, and the only way to free himself is to turn to his oldest friend – Callie-Rose.
Their families divisions run deep, and when two young people are kidnapped, their lives and everything they’ve fought for are put in the firing line.
And when you’re playing a game as dangerous as this one, it won’t be long before someone gets caught in the crossfire…

It’s been a while since I read the first 4 books in this series, and I was definitely a little hesitant to go into this one. I have mixed feelings about the earlier books in the series, and I’ve definitely had some that I’ve loved and some that I’ve enjoyed a lot less. However, this one definitely ended up on the higher end of the scale.

I started reading this on Monday morning and ended up reading 350 pages and most of the book in one day. I honestly found this book hard to put down and that was definitely helped by the short chapters. Much like other books earlier in the series, I found this one so easy to get through and so entertaining.

You wanna know the difference between a mosquito and a lawyer?

The plot of this book was definitely my favourite element, and was so quick. This one changes perspectives between chapters and covers quite a few different characters. I’ve found with the earlier books that I definitely preferred some of the perspectives and then found myself bored when the point of view changed, but that was definitely different with Crossfire. I actually found that I liked all of the perspectives pretty equally with this one, and I was invested in the different plots evenly.

I didn’t love the characters, but it was definitely interesting to see them much later on in their lives in comparison to the earlier books. As with the entire series, there were some very important and relevant discussions about race, and I definitely felt like this one reflected some real world aspects in such a clever way.

One is a blood-sucking parasite and the other is an insect.

I’m glad I’ve finally picked this one up and carried on with the series, and I’ll definitely be picking up Endgame very soon!

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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The summer of freshman year of high school. A boy named Hodaka runs away from his island home and goes to Tokyo, where he spends every day in loneness. Then, in a corner of the bustling city he meets a girl named Hina. But he soon finds out that she possesses a mysterious power.
Up-and-coming artist and Afternoon Four Seasons Award winner Wataru Kubota is set to illustrate the complete manga version of the latest film by Director Makoto Shinkai, who received international acclaim for “Your Name”!! 

I’ve finally managed to pick up the last book in this manga series and I’m so glad I’ve finished the story. If you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Makoto Shinkai and I love both the Your Name and Weathering With You films so much. Over the years, I’ve picked up the Your Name manga and the light novels for both, and I can’t help but loving them all. It’s a difficult one to judge because I’ve never read the story before watching the films, but it does mean reading this manga was like wrapping myself in a warm and familiar blanket.

There is something about this last volume I absolute adore, because we see all of the morals of the story coming together. This story discusses sacrifice and our abilities to influence and change the world for it to be more aligned with what we want. I love some of the very small conversations that happen in this final instalment and I was so glad to see these being brought in from the film.

I also love the art style and I feel like the illustrator did a great job with this whole series. I’m glad I’ve finished it off and I would like to read more by Makoto Shinkai and watch a couple of films that I haven’t seen yet!

★★★★★
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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