Review: Lovemurder

Lovemurder by Saul Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Love Murder is the second Valerie Hart book, and much like the first I wasn’t crazy about it. Yes, it was enjoyable; however, it’s not a series where I’ll be going out of my way to pick up the next book.

I picked up The Killing Lessons as a means to entertain myself whilst travelling. Although I started the book whilst travelling, I wasn’t as pulled in as I had hoped to be, resulting in me picking it up and putting it down. It was a decent enough read, but I wasn’t crazy about it. I spent quite a bit of time feeling as though it would only pull a three star rating from me, yet I opted with four stars in the end. I was unsure as to whether I would pick up the second book.

Fast forward to the release of Love Murder and we have a Goodreads giveaway. I decided to enter, indifferent about whether or not I would win. As is always the case when you’re indifferent, I won. It took me a while before I was able to jump into it (I selected the wrong address when entering, resulting in the book being sent to my family rather than me), but when I could I was surprisingly excited. The synopsis had me expecting big things.

I did enjoy this one a lot more than I enjoyed the first book, but my engagement was not all it could have been. Due to my lack of complete enjoyment with the first book, it took me a while to reconnect with the characters. There were details I could not remember, things I didn’t really care about all that much. All the talk of love grew annoying, to the point where I was constantly rolling my eyes. Yet the crime intrigued me. I was curious. I was pulled in. I wanted to know more.

At first, I had some Gretchen Lowell vibes from our villainess. Despite the different types of crime, the beauty and destruction reminded me of the Chelsea Cain books. These vibes were mostly pushed away. The story was completely different to a Gretchen Lowell story, even if there were moment in my mind where the two characters merged somewhat. This was much more complex, giving me a story that pulled me in.

As much as I loved the crime aspect of the story, I still do not care much about the characters. I liked them more in this one, but they continued to annoy me in a number of ways. I simply cannot connect with them, making it hard for me to find myself truly lost in the series.

I probably will pick up a third Valerie Hart book if it comes to be, but I’m not going to go out of my way to read it. There are many other crime fiction series I’m deeply invested in, and this one pales in comparison to those obsessions.

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