Alisha Dempsey

June Total: 2
Year-to-date Total: 25

Death at Morning House – Maureen Johnson ★★★★☆
Mauren Johnson continues to be my favourite YA Mystery author. I loved the Truly Devious series, and this stand-alone was the perfect homage to the genre. It recounts a young woman, accused of arson (it was an accident, I swear!), being sent to work on one of the Thousand Islands at the infamous Morning House, providing tours of its grizzly history. This is a dual-timeline story, in which you are unravelling the mystery of the deaths of a group of siblings from 50 years ago with main character Marlowe Wexler, who also happens to be in a bit of bother when her supervisor goes missing.

Alchemised – SenLinYu ★★☆☆☆
I really wish I loved this. I tried. I tried soooo hard. Originally published via AO3 / Wattpad as Manacled, and detailed an AU in which Voldemort succeeded and Hermione was captured by the Death Eaters, SenLinYu found fame in editing out all of the Harry Potter references and publishing it as an original IP. I have so much respect for the love and care that went into this epic novel, having to trawl through 1000 pages and erase any relations to its original text. It was simply far, far too long for my liking, and my struggle with Fantasy / Dark Fantasy continues.

I feel like I’ve really hit a bit of a slump – it’s not often that I only do 2 books a month (but realistically, Alchemised counts as almost 3 for me!). I’m still on-track to meet my target of 50 for the year, but I’ve lost the buffer of being ahead.