Friday Reads: The Forgetting & Stalking Jack The Ripper!!!

Hello there guys!

Friday is here and with it a pair of more mini reviews for Friday Reads of some of my highly awaited ARCs that I got from BEA, and that will totally count towards my ARC August Challenge pile!!

The Forgetting was a book that I was pretty excited about because it sounded fantastic, I had read Sharon Cameron's books and really enjoyed all of them, and that coverrr! And after I read Alyssa's review, I knew I had to grab it and read it ASAP, so it ended up being my Alyssa Recommends book for August!


The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Forgetting is one of those books that starts a bit slow, with very few details and knowledge at first but not in frustrating way, given how forgetting and not knowing anything beyond the most recent 12 years before another Forgetting is the way people live in this world Sharon Cameron has created.

The writing was amazing and by going with Nadia's POV we both know what goes outside and inside of her head, because she's quite a silent one but there's so much going on in her head all the time! I loved how her bright self started poking out from the shell all through the book and she has a really fantastic character development!

She was so ready to fight for her family and to give them the best chance of being together and save in the next Forgetting and that plan changes and evolves as she finds out more about what's really going on on her partnetship with Gray.

Gray was also a very interesting character, one that at first is coloured by Nadia's memories and that seems to have two faces, depending on what memories Nadia focuses on. He really grew on me and I was glad that Nadia continued to keep him as an ally even when some revelations came up.

The world building was simply fantastic, starting with so little and making it grow and grow with little hints here and there and then finally more explanations and revelations, but they really did not shape the book so much as the choices the mains characters and the secondary ones had to make.

The biggest strenght of this book is not the amazing world building, the fantastic writing or the brilliant character development but the way all of it came together and shined when the hard questions were asked and how the book simply gives us so much to think on the choices made and what might have changed and which one would really be the right choice and if there's such a thing for everyone.

Science fiction with dystopian feelings, this brilliant standalone book will keep you guessing all through the pages and will leave you with plenty of food for thought for days after you've read it! 4.5 to 5 stars!!


Stalking Jack The Ripper is a story that I discovered through my dear friend Cassi from My Thoughts Literary and I was beyond pumped to get me a signed ARC copy at BEA and to meet the absolutely lovely and wonderful Kerri Maniscalco!


 Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Brilliantly done!! The pacing, the atmosphere, the setting, the characters and the mystery, so well done!! I fell for the main red herring just has my dear Audrey Rose did, but I managed to guess the identity of Jack the Ripper before her, so I'm feeling quite happy with myself!! What an absolutely wonderful debut!!

I absolutely adored that Audrey Rose was struggling with keeping with what she loved and wanted to do, societal conventions be damned, but at the same time was trying not to worry her brother was trying to keep appearances to a point, but it all changes once things get really dire and when she starts suspecting her own blood of being involved in the cases she's dealing with.

I've always been fascinated by Jack The Ripper and all the theories about his identity and the mystery of who he could have been and what his motivations were? And in this book Kerri Maniscalco does a great job of presenting us a theory that works so great with the characters she's created and although it tweaks the actual events a lil, it could really have worked well in the time and place!

I loved how Audrey Rose was both intellectual and proving that she was not a fainting delicate rose but at the same time didn't need to lose her love for dresses or fashion, even if she was not keen on sticking with the strict society rules when it came to women.

Kerri's writing was very atmospheric and rich in details that really immersed you in the narrative and did not bog down the plot progress or the character development. She really made me hungry with all the talk about desi food and now thinking about it I'm once again having serious cravings!

The relationship between Audrey and Thomas was both intriguing, maddening and a lot of fun! They challenge each other in many ways and Thomas is both an intellectual in a rather Sherlockian way but at the same time, he's a bit of a rake and a flirt, so quite fun to read about!

With a rather emotional ending that I managed to guess a lil before it was revealed and still getting enough resolution to not leave us twitching, I'm so very looking forward to more installments into this companion series in which we'll follow Audrey and Thomas in more murder-solving adventures!