Too Long; Didn't Read

I have something morbid to confess: I've been on a bit of a serial killer kick lately. So when I received The Butterfly Garden as a gift, it felt like kismet. What better complement to the serial killer podcasts, shows, and movies I'd been devouring than a book about a man who kidnaps beautiful young women, tattoos wings on their backs, and keeps them in a gorgeous oasis like pet butterflies? I jumped in with both feet and eyes closed, but The Butterfly Garden didn't exactly stick the landing. The Butterfly Garden opens with Maya/Inara (our protagonist whose real name remains unknown) being interviewed by a detective (protagonist #2) following a harrowing escape from the clutches of serial killer. You don't know much at first except there was a fire, she and a number of other captives escaped, and the cops think she's hiding something (the "payoff" of which, by the way, is incredibly disappointing and Soapy). Now, I'm no trauma expert or FBI a...

I’d been really anticipating the release of  One Dark Throne  since I finished the first book in the series,  Three Dark Crowns , last year, and I was not disappointed.  **Obvious Spoilers for Three Dark Crowns Ahead!**  The story jumps back into the three-sisters-competing-for-the-crown-by-trying-to-murder-each-other action immediately, no building back up steam or filler fluff. I liked how Blake was able to slip in reminders about certain plot points of  Crowns  to jog my memory, without it feeling like I was reading a Wiki summary of the book.  We start right back up with Arsinoe, who is exploring her true gift of Poison secretly so she won’t be shunned by the Naturalists and claimed by the Poisoners; Mirabella, who is heartbroken that her sisters do not remember and love her as she does them, and still reeling from Arsinoe attacking her with a bear (a misunderstanding that is fairly quickly cleared up); and Katherine, who crawled out of ...