Mindy's Book Journey

  Title: The City of Dusk Series: The Dark Gods #1 Author: Tara Sim Genre: Fantasy Published: 3/22/22 by Orbit Books Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy for review.  The City of Dusk has four noble houses each with a different kind of magic. The heirs of each house form an alliance to bring the gods favor back to their kingdom before it is too late.  This is the first book in a dark fantasy trilogy. It delivered big time on the dark magic. This book with filled with necromancy and shadow magic. There were a lot of different characters that were hard to follow at times. However, the plot was deliciously dark with great action sequences and plenty of reveals that made this a very enjoyable read. I will say it was a bit on the long side so I would put aside a significant chunk of time to get through this one. The magic system, religion with the gods, and politics of this world were all great. I would recommend this book for fans of dark fantasy. My Rating: 4 out

  Title: The Echo Man Author: Sam Holland Genre: Thriller Published: April 5, 2022 by Crooked Lane Books Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.  This story follows detectives as they try to catch a copycat serial killer who is recreating scenes from many notorious serial killers. This was a brutal thriller with a high body count. Sections written from the perspective of the serial killer were very hard to read. The story moves along at a quick pace with some surprises.  This novel led me into a dark rabbit hole of serial killer true crime documentaries. The content was right at the edge of what I can handle reading. As you may know some of the serial killer's crimes in the past have been very violent and horrible. So if you can't handle reading graphic violence and sexual assault this book will be one to skip. But there is also some great characters, including a couple survivors, finding solace in each other. This is a very effective debut thr