Ghosts and Liars by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Series : The Impossible Julian Strande #2
Genre : Villain Romance
Publication Date : June 2nd, 2020
All Alice wanted was a job. As the caretaker of the Strande Mansion, she got far more than she bargained for. Between trying to crack the code of the sinister Julian Strande and her new love affair with Charles, the current owner of the museum, she has a lot to balance.
Alice didn’t believe in ghosts. That was until she met Julian Strande. Unfortunately, it seems the legends of the ghost of the estate are all very real, and he seems to have become obsessed with her.
Charles has promised her that Julian is harmless and just playing pranks. That he enjoys the company after all those years alone. It’s too bad that Charles may not be all he seems…
Available on KU!
What a wild ride!
After reading Illusions of Grandeur, I'd thought that there wouldn't be much left to surprise us with in this book, but some of the events surely pack a punch!
Alice is quite content working at the Strande Mansion now and she's equally consumed by the task of solving Julian's puzzle. But you know what they say about curiosity! The more she finds out, the deeper the rabbit hole goes!
Now that Julian has found out what he wants, he'll stop at nothing to have it. As much as it delights him to see Alice working hard on solving the puzzle, he's an impatient ghost! xD
Now that he's had a taste, he wants the whole thing to himself immediately. So, he ends up making a few choices in order to speed up the inevitable, but this could also end up driving Alice away forever!
The first half of the book was pretty good and I loved seeing Alice become more confident and vibrant, now that she's settled in. Watching her put things together was also fascinating! Everytime Julian scares her a little it's actually kinda funny for me!Lol!
But, as much as I loved this book and the writing, I have to admit that Julian lost a few points in the second half of this one. I loved him in Illusions of Grandeur as he was the perfect anti-hero with equal parts darkness and playfulness. In Ghosts and Liars we get to learn more about his past and the events that led him to his present state, and as much as I appreciate flaws in my characters, I felt like he could have given Alice a little more time to accept things(because surely she'd have done so). I understand that he's been lonely for so long and he's impatient, but I'm not too fond of heroes who keep pushing the heroine till the very end, with very little remorse. I don't know whether it was because I was comparing him to Aon(who was more evil, but his character had a lot of time to be developed over the course of six books), but Julian fell a little short of my expectations. Kinda wanted more groveling on his part before Alice forgave him and made her decision lol. 😂
I think the author loves to push the boundaries of her characters and readers with every book of hers and I'm not going to complain because I love reading each new story that she comes out with! I'm already excited to read her new Dracula book that will come out next!
You can also find my review for book one in the series here :
*I was provided with an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
Kat has always been a storyteller. With ten years in script-writing for performances on both the stage and for tourism, she has always been writing in one form or another. When she isn’t penning down fiction, she works as Creative Director for a company that designs and builds large-scale interactive adventure games. There, she is the lead concept designer, handling everything from game and set design, to audio and lighting, to illustration and script writing. Also on her list of skills are artistic direction, scenic painting and props, special effects, and electronics. A graduate of Boston University with a BFA in Theatre Design, she has a passion for unique, creative, and unconventional experiences. In her spare time, she builds animatronics and takes trapeze classes.
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