Blood Write: An Urban Fantasy Mystery

Driftwood Mystery #4

by A.L. Tyler

Small town, big secrets... Jette is off to solve a new murder in a small town. The evidence is sending her more mixed messages than her vampire ex-lover, and the murder scene is straight out of a mystery novel.  The Bleak have graciously paired her up with a new vampire bounty hunter. One with a reputation for getting rid of his partners and seeking revenge on Nick Warren. Jette's new partner is out for blood--hers--and that's if the psycho culprit behind the murder doesn't get her first...

305 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2020

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 1 out of 5]

(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I change my mind on a series, so want to change my scoring by more than 0.50 of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)

This series went completely downhill, all because of the love interest. I had rated book 1 at 4.5 star, book 2 at 3.75 star and book 3, a 3.5 star.

I'm only 68 pages in and wondering why I'm continuing to bother with this series. She's gone from one jerk, stalkerish ex, to two.

Dad betrayed her and abandoned her. I don't even see why he went along with it. Did he really think that him 'going to jail' and her loosing everything and ending up on the streets as a kid, was better than his death being faked so he could take the place of a lookalike high placed criminal?! He would know that the Bleaktake everything from traitors (& those in their household), down to their most worthless possession! -- Sure, sure he did it to protect her, because she's got a rare valuable magic and he didn't want her to be taken from him... except he could had had the same outcome, with his death being faked. Without making her life extra hell and being the daughter of a traitor and all that baggage etc. Father's dead, mourn, but can still go on, having inherited everything and placed with a guardian of dad's choosing as part of the deal. But no, its 'we'll brand as a traitor and she'll loose her dad and every thing'.

Nick is a liar when he kept harping on that Jette needs to be honest. Jerk was irritating me before it came out that he was a completely manipulative lying jerk. Now Marge is back on team Jerk and dating one of his allies.

Jette has no one she can now trust, even her supposed best friend is now back to liking Nick the jerk and reporting on MC to him. 'BF' has also been secretly dating Angel for 3 weeks, someone I also don't really like and is good friends and loyal to the jerk. Angel even made a snide comment to Marge re MC "She thinks she lost you in the divorce." So since Marge hid that she's still talking to Nick and now dating Angel and Angel made the snide comment, everyone is well aware of how hurt Jette will be.
They keep calling Jette childish, but how adult is it to sneak around. Also so much for Angel's thing for honesty.
Oh apparently not realising that Marge is bi, is on Jette for not being observant. Of course the wonderful Nick noticed this fact and set her up with Angel. I'm sorry but unless you see someone dating a mix of genders, or they mention a clearly 'other gender' name for an ex, how do you 'spot' it. Marge also could have told Jette, her supposed BF when talking exes, but apparently Jette is the only one who has to share her life and important info.

I had hoped it would pick up after MC sensibly dumped the jerk. At this point I want the MC to arrange to be assigned to another area not just to a new handler. She needs to put her home on the market to be sold with her not present and move with her cat. She needs to dump the lot of them, to protect herself. The magic that can kill her is triggered by strong emotions, so for her own health she needs to move and go no contact with all of them. Jette can get help with controlling the magic from someone actually licenced who is not going to be reporting back to the jerk ex. We all know that for Nick, Angel dropped her 'confidentiality' rule in a previous book, so she's bound to be still reporting to him re Jette.

But that won't happen Jette will turn into a doormat and get back with the jerk and forgive everyone and argh!

Honestly they keep harping on how the magic will kill her if she's not 'leeched', but at this point, all she's got to live for is her cat, so where's the motivation to keep living because so called 'BF' would take in the cat if she died.

I'm also not really seeing any negative about her telling the Bleak that she knows her father is undercover. She should use that threat, to make Nick leave her alone and stop stalking her by using their mutual 'friends' to report back to him.

Typing this out makes me realise that I am done.

I'm not going to keep upsetting myself by reading this book. I read these sorts of books to make me happy. I don't mind some angst, but I don't want a soap opera. This series is at the point when I think the MC would be better off moving and going no contact with everyone who supposedly 'cares' about her.

DNF


First time read the author's work?: No

Will you be reading more?: No

Would you recommend?: No


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How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)

[Kitty J Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, Seventh grade English???

Get Grammar!y. Or have 6th grade kid proof read for you. I liked your story but I can't read any more crappy grammar and spelling.

[Claudia Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t like how this one ended and since this author never wrote another, I give this one only three stars.