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Book Review: Mortal Remains by Mary Ann Fraser

Thank you so much to Sterling Teen for the giveaway win! I won a finished copy of Mortal Remains and found it to be a quick and entertaining YA contemporary / paranormal read.

Quick Facts:

Title: Mortal Remains
Series: N/A
Author: Mary Ann Fraser
Publisher & Release: Sterling Teen, 2/2/20
Length: 360pg
Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟🌟⚡ for Young Adult Readers and fans of YA

Here is the synopsis from GoodReads:

Morticia. Ghoul Girl. Freak. Eighteen-year-old Lily McCrae has heard it all. But despite what the bullies say, she loves her job doing makeup for the dead for her family’s failing funeral home business. Lately, though, Lily’s best friend Mallory is too busy reinventing herself to hang out, her stepbrother Evan is preoccupied with college applications, and her father is pushing her into taking over the family business without even asking her opinion, so she feels lonelier than ever. She finds herself spending all her time in the prep room talking to her “clients.” After all, the dead are the only ones who really listen.

Then the neighboring house is leveled in an explosion, dredging up memories of Adam, the boy who lived there and saved her life the day of the accident that left her scarred and disabled, and of the things she saw there that she just wanted to forget. When she, Mallory, and Evan go exploring and find a mysterious hatch in the rubble, they discover that someone’s been trapped inside. Someone who says his name is Adam. Trouble is, Adam has been missing for four years. And this Adam doesn’t have any memory of her and seems to be keeping a lot of secrets. As she spends more time with him, she can’t help her growing feelings even as his unwillingness to be open leaves her troubled.

Lily is forced to reconcile her feelings for Adam as together they delve into his mysterious past while she also struggles to figure out what she wants out of life and tries to fix her rocky relationships with Mallory and her parents. Will Lily ever decide who she wants to be? And is love enough to overcome truth?

Wow, for once I am actually in the minority of favorable opinions on this one. GoodReads seems split but hey, I enjoyed it.

Lily works in her family’s funeral home. She is extremely talented at the makeup and fixing required to make bodies presentable for open casket funerals, although this profession earns her quite a bit of bullying and teasing from peers. Lily had an accident as a child as well that left her slightly crippled, and now she finds her solace talking to bodies and honoring their lives.

Measure twice, box once

Adam was the neighbor kid that Lily used to hang out with until his father chased her off. Did she see a body one night?? When Adam’s house is blown up and he is found weeks later in an underground laboratory, with none of his old memories, all weirdness breaks loose.

Tread lightly on hallowed ground

I think the relationship arcs in this book are great. Finding Adam starts to slowly bring out the self confidence and self acceptance that Lily needs to find her own path. The father wants her to take over the mortuary business, the step mom is kind of just mean, actually they both are. Lily needed an external source to start seeing her actual worth. Watching her gain the confidence to deal with the bullies AND her family was nice. Both teens have a great character arc.

Each death helps us to become more human

The supernatural part includes Adam and whatever his father was doing down in that underground lab. No spoilers here but the mystery involved kept the story moving as they searched for answers about his life.

Don’t lose yourself in the narrative of death and dying

There was a bit of teen partying too, Lily had one friend that still tried to bring her out into the social world of her peers, with mixed results. There are not so subtle hints at party safety and drunk driving included. These parts were good to round out the lives of the characters and give them that real teenager aspect.

Leather has no place in a mortician’s wardrobe

So yes – a cute budding romance (only to kissing, nothing more), a paranormal mystery, also a murder mystery, mortuary science, a girl overcoming her fears and her bullies, and friends sticking together. No language or sex or anything else that kids really don’t need to be seeing either.

I would happily recommend this one to teens and fans of YA!

Book Tour Stop & Review! The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous

Thank you so much to Berkley Publishing Group for the invite to read and feature The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous! This is a twisty mystery/gothic suspense novel featuring a huge old manor house and I couldn’t put it down!

Quick Facts:

Title: The Perfect Guests
Series: N/A
Author: Emma Rous
Publisher & Release: Berkley 1/12/21
Length: 302 pages
Rate & Recommend: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 yes for fans of the genre!

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

The USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair returns with another delicious, twisty novel—about a grand estate with many secrets, an orphan caught in a web of lies, and a young woman playing a sinister game.

1988. Beth Soames is fourteen years old when her aunt takes her to stay at Raven Hall, a rambling manor in the isolated East Anglian fens. The Averells, the family who lives there, are warm and welcoming, and Beth becomes fast friends with their daughter, Nina. At times, Beth even feels like she’s truly part of the family…until they ask her to help them with a harmless game—and nothing is ever the same.

2019. Sadie Langton is an actress struggling to make ends meet when she lands a well-paying gig to pretend to be a guest at a weekend party. She is sent a suitcase of clothing, a dossier outlining the role she is to play, and instructions. It’s strange, but she needs the money, and when she sees the stunning manor she’ll be staying at, she figures she’s got nothing to lose.

In person, Raven Hall is even grander than she’d imagined—even with damage from a fire decades before—but the walls seem to have eyes. As day turns to night, Sadie starts to feel that there’s something off about the glamorous guests who arrive, and as the party begins, it becomes chillingly apparent their unseen host is playing games with everyone…including her.

Oh yes this book is so twisty. Beth and Sadie alternate chapters, telling the history and present of their time spent at Raven Hall until the timelines eventually converge. One of my favorite plot tools ever is used too, which is the mystery person point of view! I thought this one was a ghost and I am not even going to tell you if I was right or not, but eventually it becomes obvious who it is.

All three plot lines are equally strange and interesting. The gothic atmosphere of Raven Hall permeates the entire story and creates an excellent setting for a mystery. Rous describes the Fens well as part of the book setting, and also in an afterword about her time living in the region.

I read this one in two sittings and have no regrets, it’s one of those addictive mysteries that begs to be solved. I had it all wrong anyway, per usual, and didn’t find it all that predictable either. I mean I thought I did and was wrong…so.

Definitely pick this one up if you like gothic settings, twisty mysteries, games, secrets and lies, and a little bit of arson. The book is wrapped up fairly nicely too so you won’t be puzzling over loose ends

Have you read it yet? Do you like books set in other countries? I had to look up some words but enjoy reading about other regions and cultures!