BOOK REVIEW: Here They Lie (The Bloodstone Legacy #1) by D’Ann Burrow

Here They Lie by D’Ann Burrow
(The Bloodstone Legacy #1)
Publication date: October 5th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Southern Gothic
Cover Art by Mae I Design

BLURB

Reese Everett’s aunt picked a bad time to die.  Just weeks after a car accident left Reese’s mother unable to travel, her aunt’s house needs to be emptied and sold, leaving Reese as the only member of the family who can do the job.  She typically wouldn’t balk at the opportunity to sift through her aunt’s collection of antiques, but when she arrives in Devil’s Vale, Georgia, she discovers the family house in a state of disrepair she won’t be able to handle alone.

Colton Waters is back in Devil’s Vale – whether he likes it or not.  After he loses his acceptance to medical school with no explanation, he’s left with a single job offer…one that will return him to the hometown he’d hoped to escape.
When an errand to help his sister ends in a meeting with Reese neither will easily forget, Colton takes a job as her temporary handyman.

The longer Reese stays in town, the more she realizes the condition of her aunt’s house isn’t the only thing she hadn’t expected when she made the trip to Devil’s Vale.  Reese isn’t the only gifted member of the family – her aunt Kate has been practicing the family business…the business Reese has been sworn never to discuss.

After a ghostly visitor arrives one night, Reese and Colton learn Kate wasn’t the only one practicing the darker arts.  They begin to uncover secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Here They Lie won the Young Adult Romance Writer’s 2014 award for New Adult fiction.

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*MY BOOK REVIEW*

DISCLAIMER: The books/eBooks being reviewed were provided free of charge in return for an honest review.

Okay, right off the bat, I couldn’t put this book down. When it comes to the Southern Gothic genre, I just can’t help myself, so I picked up this book based on the genre alone. When I did the cover reveal for it, I was sold already!

I really connected with the main character. Reese is one of those characters that is probably not as likable in real life, but as a character in a book, she is one of my favourite types of main characters. Colton is equally as likable, in fact, probably even more so with his horrible father and bad breaks in life.

As for the small town element of Here They Lie, there was just the right delicious blend of southern hospitality mixed with buried secrets and double crossed characters to keep me engrossed in the setting as well as the story.

There is a wonderful blend of humour mixed with that wonderfully “chattiness” that comes with a decent southern Gothic novel that hooks me every single time. As a result of this, the story grabs you right from the first page and I found myself reading late into the night in order to “turn another page”. However, each page turned made me need to turn another, and another, and… well, you get my drift 😉

There were only two faults I could find with this novel, First was the constant reminders that Reese’s family had a secret. While I know the author needed to build suspense and, to a degree, possible shame, about the family secret, I just found I was getting over being “reminded” there was a secret that the reader was going to be teased with it but not told what it was just yet.

Secondly, the end of this novel just felt a little under done. I think one more read over and polish up by the author would have helped considerably. While it wasn’t so much the copy edit, it was more along the lines of certain areas seemed glossed over or under-explained and found, while reading it, I was fumbling a little.

However, these gripes were minor ones and didn’t overly hinder my enjoyment of the novel. I can’t WAIT to read more by this author.

Overall, I am giving Here They Lie by D’Ann Burrow 5 out of 5 stars!

GIVEAWAY

PRIZES:

• 2 x $15 Amazon Gift Cards (INTL)
• 2 x signed copies of Here They Lie (US only)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D’Ann Burrow once told her preschool teacher she wanted to be a witch when she grew up. That simple comment signaled the start of a life-long fondness of things that go bump in the night. As she grew older, she could most often be found with her nose buried in a book, and she was especially fond of the Nancy Drew series as well as anything by Christopher Pike or Stephen King. Occasionally she’d take a trip to the world of the classics where The Scarlet Pimpernel and A Little Princess reigned among her favorites. She’s lost count of the times she’s read Little Women.

Today, D’Ann enjoys the world of Supernatural, stories about guys with fangs, and she’s seldom met a disaster film she hasn’t liked. When she grows up, she’d like to work at the Haunted Mansion. Until then, watching Ghost Hunters will have to count as research.

D’Ann writes about secrets people keep. Even the bravest heroine or a guy with a heart of gold has a few skeletons in the closet they’d rather not share with the world. When those secrets get out, things get interesting.

A Texas native, she knows making great guacamole is an art form. As a theater mom, she’ll happily chat about Broadway musicals by the hour. Molly and Lizzie, the family furry ones, are frequent stars of her Instagram account.

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