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Saturday, September 6, 2014

Every Breath (Every #1) by Ellie Marney ARC Review


Every Breath by Ellie Marney
eARC, approx. 352 pages (according to Goodreads)
Published by Tundra Books, 
a division of Random House Canada Limited
Expected Publication Date: October, 14, 2014
Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository |
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars


Synopsis: Rachel Watts is an unwilling new arrival to Melbourne from the country. James Mycroft is her neighbour, an intriguingly troubled seventeen-year-old genius with a passion for forensics. Despite her misgivings, Rachel finds herself unable to resist Mycroft when he wants her help investigating a murder. And when Watts and Mycroft follow a trail to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion's den - literally.

A night at the zoo will never have quite the same meaning again...

Thank you Netgalley and Tundra Books for my eARC copy of this book. 

If you like Sherlock Homes, as in the books, movies, TV adaptations, you'll like this book. The story is generally the same idea with the exceptions that it's set in Australia, Sherlock is a teenage boy and his name is Mycroft (because he's the "smarter older brother to Sherlock") and Watson is a teenage girl named Rachel Watts. I hard time getting into this book because the prologue really lost me, and then after that it was harder to pull all the details together. Right away the reader is thrown into Rachel and Mycroft's relationship without a lot of background. She's a new girl in town, and he's her neighbor and basically they spend all their time together. I couldn't get into their dynamic because somehow they know every little thing about each other and yet she's only been around a few months. Eventually I did get sucked into this book around the middle and couldn't put it down afterwards. All in all, it was a decent read.

Strengths/Likes:

1) The details of all the forensics and the bloody details were very well written. At one point I had to put the book down because I felt nauseous reading them.

2) The plot itself is interesting and has a surprise twist at the end. I was never big on murder/crime novels but this book surprised me how much the details of the case pulled me into the story.

Weaknesses/Dislikes:

1) Too many similarities to Sherlock. Although I've never read this books, I've read enough snippets, seen the TV shows, movies, etc to know that Marney's characters were too similar. Watts ends up going for a medical career, if that doesn't and a lot of her other personality doesn't sound like Watson I don't know what. Mycroft is so much like Sherlock, he's a consulting detective even though he's a teenager, and has the same lack of discipline or care of what society and rules expect of him.

2) As I've already mentioned, the Prologue is confusing and throws off the reader. I had to reread it a couple times and I'm still not quite sure I fully understood it.

3) The first half of the novel was written very slow, I was pushing myself through it until I hit about the middle of the book.

4) There were not enough details about the other characters in the book. They were just there to fill in space. At one point there is a huge fight between Rachel and her family and the conversation is not written out, the reader is told, "I don't want to remember all the words that were screamed and spat out. I'm not brave enough." I wanted to know what words were said, and why it affected everyone so much. Maybe in the sequel there will be more details, I guess we'll see.

Favorite Quotes/Moments: 

1) "Right." I roll my eyes. "You need me to be your Watson.'

"That's right."

"Because your genius doesn't work unless it's being lavished with my attention.'

2) "I almost said she was being ridiculous, but I thought better of it."

Mai grins. "So what word did you use?"

"Unreasonable." 

"Ouch." Mai pats my arm. "Family. God."

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