The Stories You Tell by Kristen Lepionka
My rating: 5/5 cats
allow me to tell you a little secret – sometimes i round my starcat-ratings up. if i like an author either IRL or if i have liked their words in the past, even if i’m not feeling the deeplove towards a particular book of theirs, i’ll hoist ‘em a little closer to the light to be a pal. i never lie in my reviews, but starcat ratings (mine and others’) are of little consequence, so an upround here or there is no biggie.
but i have never had to upround kristen lepionka. even though she has been kind enough to send me ARCS of all her books, and inflated my vanity by thanking me in one of them and even allowed me to drag her to an indian restaurant decorated like a visual representation of madness, none of that factored into my genuine enjoyment/appreciation of her books or the resulting starcatmath.
roxane weary is one of my all-time favorite characters. no lie. and these books have the same kind of equal attention given to character and mystery as tana french without her writing being like tana french, which happens to be a quality i value when i’m reading genre — give me the genre-stuff i came for, but don’t give me cardboard characters thinking you can skimp because your puzzle is strong.
roxane is miles away from being cardboard. and even though she’s gone through some serious growth since the first book – a little more self-control, professionalism and even a (*gasp*) softer, more nurturing side peeking out, none of that emotional progress means that lepionka is rewarding her by cutting her any slack in her personal life, or making it in ANY WAY easy for her, and this third book has plenty of OOF in it. i am so glad it also has a lot of roxane-and-andrew time because theirs is my favorite brother-and-sister banter.
as for the mystery, it’s more like many mysteries piled on top of each other – some intersecting, some branching off. the solution(s) is (are) not predictable but they are totally fair, and roxane gets to be her clever and capable badass self but also calls in familiar characters owing favors for some specialist work. she even shares intel with the police because LEARNING!
love this series. will never upround this series. keep ’em coming!
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wow. this is the best one yet. LEPIONKA IS QUEEN!
review TK
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*koff* happy fucking friday night!! *koff*
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ARC is en route to me – oh YEAH!!!!
