Book Review 46 - Killing Adonis by JM Donnellan

Pages: 448 Pages

Publication Date: October 1st, 2014

Publisher: Pantera Press

Summary:

LIGHT DUTIES
LARGE PAY
NO QUESTIONS ASKED ... OR ANSWERED
After seeing a curious flyer, Freya takes a job caring for Elijah, the comatose son of the eccentric Vincetti family. She soon discovers that the Vincetti’s labyrinthine mansion hides a wealth of secrets, their corporate rivals have a nasty habit of being extravagantly executed, and Elijah is not the saint they portray him to be.
As well, Marilyn Monroe keeps showing up, unaware she’s very much deceased. And there’s something very strange about the story that Elijah’s brother Jack is writing …

Get A copy of the book: This book is not really widely available outside of Australia yet, but you can access it on NetGalley! If you search for Pantera Press in the publisher section, you can get immediate access to the novel!

As well for any Australian people you can purchase a physical copy on the publisher website at this page: https://www.panterapress.com.au/shop/product/621/killing-adonis

My Thoughts:

*I was provided this book by the publisher Pantera Press but all the thoughts in this review are my own. I really enjoyed this book! I had some minor issues, but they didn't impact my reading experience! To start, this book deserves props because this was one of the only books with a mystery aspect I've ever read that I didn't guess the ending. I mean I guessed SOME of it, but not all of it. To start, this book follows a girl, Freya, who gets a job working for a very wealthy family as the live in nurse for their son in a coma. She ends up finding out a lot of dark secrets about their family. They are a very powerful family and the things she learns has the potential to change many things about her world. I really liked the concept of this book. I liked the family dynamic, the mystery, the plot, the setting and the characters. It was really well done. I enjoyed how it was told and the pacing that the author set for all the various reveals in the book. Where I found this book a little bit lacking was that it seemed confused at times in some of the specific details. For example, I personally did not understand the inclusion of Marilyn Monroe/that entire storyline. As well, Freya has a medical anomaly that was also something I was confused about. I understood the medical anomaly storyline a bit because it helped her connect to Jack, but otherwise it was a little bit confusing to me as to the reasoning for the inclusion. It by no means took away from the story though as they were minor points in the plot. I liked the characters honestly which surprised me since I didn't at first. Freya was a weird eccentric type who I just ending up loving. I liked Jack and all his angst and brooding. I just liked how each of them were developed. My one issue with the characters, particularly Freya, was that Freya at times did not act like she was in the mid 20s. I often times had to remind myself that she wasn't 17. She was just more immature than I thought she would be. I also had this issue with Jack but less so. The romance was also a bit weird to me. Don't get me wrong, I liked them definitely, but I didn't feel the chemistry, and I don't feel like they had any progression to their relationship as we only saw a few scenes. But again, I do think this was almost intentional. I initially was quite bittersweet on the ending. It made me sad a little bit but I understood it. But now that I've had more time to think about what happened, I think it was a really fitting and well decided ending. It really made the novel come full circle. As well, The reveal for everything made sense, I felt like there were no plot holes and the mystery part was by far the best aspect of this book for me. I kept reading and tearing through this book trying to figure out what was going on (but again I managed not to figure it out which still surprises me). Overall, a good entertaining read! I would recommend it to people who want a light easy mystery!