I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review.
This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Cemeteries by Moonlight: by Hunter Frost
Series: States of Love
Release Date:
Pages: 108 • Format: eARC
Published By: Dreamspinner Press
Purchase Links:
Dreamspinner • Amazon • Barnes & Noble
When a serious bout of writer’s block threatens to delay mystery author Drew Daniels’s newest book, his aunt offers her New Orleans apartment in the heart of the French Quarter as a writing retreat. She neglects to mention that it’s occupied by the enigmatic and sexy Finn Murphy, a cemetery tour guide with a penchant for Victorian attire and a Cajun accent.
A body discovered in an open crypt forces reclusive Drew to deal with Finn’s eccentric group of friends and his underlying attraction to the hot Cajun—despite warnings about Finn’s violent past. Drew might write this stuff, but he’s never had to solve a real-life murder. With a deadline looming and a killer on the loose, this retreat is proving to be anything but helpful for Drew’s novel. Drew can only hope he won’t end up a tragic tale for the Ghostly Legends & Lore, Inc. haunted tour.
States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States.
For a book that is only 108 pages it took me close to 4 days to finish it. I like giving new authors to me a try. I’ve never read anything by Hunter Frost and I really loved the cover. I’m usually all for books set in New Orleans. I think books set in this place give the story an extra swagger, and the city has so much history and knowledge involved that I was expecting it to wow me.
It did not move me at all. In fact, it took everything in me to not DNF this book. Besides the copious amounts of details that took away from the story, Drew & Finn were both dull. It didn’t mesh well for me. Everything happened to easy for liking. Come on, they do not know each other and they are going to go off and solve a potential murder together. The whole Drew having Tourette’s syndrome didn’t seem authentic enough for me. I feel like if you are going to give your mc a condition of any kind, then him galvanizing to solve murders without a single tic seems weird. I’m not the know all or be all when it concerns Tourette’s syndrome, but I like my books to kinda feel realistic about it and since it wasn’t a fantasy book then I expected it to be real.
Finn came off sketchy to me. The nice guy routine is what serial killers do to befriend people into trusting the them. He sometimes seemed genuine and others super aloof. I never got a good read on him. I didn’t even bat an eye to him and Drew. Drew blew me with his misguided assumptions. I just never warmed up to the story. I did think the writing was good, and yeah as many damn details that was in it at least some parts of the story I seemed to take to.
This book wasn’t for me. Hopefully in the future Frost and I will work out.
About Hunter Frost
Hunter’s early addiction to the smell of printed books led her to spend most of her childhood in libraries and bookstores. There she fell in love with stories featuring medieval castles, ghosts, and handsome heroes. Though writing has always been a part of her life, after college she went on to explore careers in graphic design, the culinary arts, and dog grooming before returning to graduate school to get her MA in British history. To pay the bills she spends her days working for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but to appease her overactive muse, she writes the kind of fiction that keeps her sane. She adores romance in all forms, but prefers her stories with two heroes that find their happily-ever-after with each other.
Hunter would rather watch Spaceballs (or any Mel Brooks movies really), despite being born in the same year as Star Wars. She loves Monty Python, MST3K, and cheesy rom-coms from the ’80s and ’90s. Her wacky sense of humor is only paralleled by her hopeless romanticism. She’s a goth at heart and a sucker for men with long hair. She adores everything British, but insists tea be drunk without milk. She’s a pescetarian with vegan tendencies and has two fat little cats named after her favorite beverage – Latte and Java. She dreams of coastal living, marshmallows, and Matt Bomer.
Feel free to connect with her through any of her social media accounts, or send her an email. She welcomes messages from readers and/or Brits looking to adopt.