Eileen Merriman

This appears to be the author's first adult crime fiction novel.

Set in Dunedin where Ashleigh and Xander are university students living in different flats. Xander is a medical student and Ashleigh a law student. They have been together for seven years but Ashleigh is dominating while her parents have been financially generous to Xander and his family. Xander's eye has been recently caught by Ronnie, a psychology student with a room in Ashleigh's house.

And then one night Ashleigh dies, jumping from a third floor window. It is just a week since she and Xander broke up.

The structure of book centres around Ashleigh's death. The main voices are Xander and Ronnie and the chapters are Before and After. The puzzle is what caused Ashleigh to jump. Is anyone or anything to blame?

Very engrossing.… (meer)

Representation: Implied Asian character
Trigger warnings: PTSD, death and borderline personality disorder mentioned, pregnancy, physical injury, hospitalisation
Score: Seven points out of ten.
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One year ago, I read the first instalment in the Black Spiral Trilogy, Violet Black, but it ultimately disappointed me. One year later, it was time to read the second part, Black Wolf. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, I couldn't precisely time it. I enjoyed Black Wolf and the author improved her writing, which I appreciated.

It starts (more like continues) with the characters who need no introduction, Violet and Phoenix who returned from their unsuccessful mission in Germany with the former being traumatised from that. The opening pages are slow but that's where Violet starts a relationship with another person, Johnno, all while being on the run from The Foundation who wants her back. Violet is part of a genetic experiment called VORTEX, giving her and others abilities like telepathy (which they call think speak.) There's more action in Black Wolf than Violet Black and the characters grew on me as the author rewrote them to be more likeable and like someone I can root for. The conclusion finishes on a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, no one has Black Spiral so the final events remain undisclosed.… (meer)

Trigger warnings: Pandemic

6/10, I picked this interesting New Zealand sci-fi YA book hoping that it would be better than the last book I read and I tried to enjoy this but I simply didn't mainly due to the issues I found within this and I would pick this one up again, where do I even begin. It starts off with the main characters Violet Black and Ethan Wright, hence the title, and they just woke up from stasis in some sort of lab and I was initially confused but the book would explain more things later on. It turns out that there was a virus called M-fever that affected the entire world and killed so many people but the fact that the virus was an act of terrorism was unexpected. Soon enough they and some other characters are hired to join some secret organisation to stop the virus but it didn't really go to plan. The references to the other terrorist attacks like the one that happened 90 or 100 years ago from the time this book was set weren't needed. Also, Violet was quite aggressive in the book and for no reason she just accused some random people of lying but I don't know why. The last part and the ending of the book was underwhelming but I'm excited to read the next two books in the series.… (meer)