Dirt by Susan Shultz

Lila Derosa feels smothered by the limitations on her reporting set by the newspaper she writes for. She is tasked with reporting on the crimes committed by Ainsley/AJ in the first novella of the series The Blacksmith. She is fascinated by the heinous details and curious to learn the motivation behind the bloodshed, but she's frustrated by the limitations her newspaper places on her article because it has to be "acceptable for community publication".

Lila's curiosity drove her to explore Ainsley's old house and the site of her crimes where she discovered her journal buried shallowly in the Blacksmith's grave. Fueled by her new discovery, Lila is determined to uncover the real Ainsley and tell her story.

Shultz does a fantastic job portraying the details of Ainsley's story through Lila's investigative reporter perspective. As I said for the first two novellas in this collection, The Blacksmith and Jessie, this is a great October read. 

    

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Jessie by Susan Shultz

Jessie is the sequel to the novella The Blacksmith. This novella follows true to the format of a perfect short story read for October.

Jessie's story is a sad one that was hinted at by Shultz in The Blacksmith. Jessie was rejected and forgotten by her family only to be taken in by her husband and his heartless mother. This novella takes the idea of an evil mother in law to a whole new level. Each turn of the page leaves you asking could her life get any worse? Unfortunately the answer is yes. 

Despite the fact that this novel is depressing I thoroughly enjoyed Shultz's writing. With every twist and turn of the plot I found myself building empathetic links to Jessie. By the end I even began to cheer Jessie on to get her revenge. This is a great October read, and if you spook easily I recommend you do not read it in the dark.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

The Blacksmith by Susan Shultz

I decided to read this book because I stumbled upon it on my Goodreads feed. A horror novella? Why not? It is October after all. This is a great spooky read told completely through the first person perspective and thoughts of Ainsley.

This short novella could easily be read in an hour and a half. It is extremely intriguing. The premise of a divorced woman who lives by a graveyard and spends the majority of her time tending her "garden". Although this novella is short is length it is dense with material. In fact I think that the story line could be better justified if this was a full length novel. As long as the author adds some more traits to the main character in order to make it easier to the reader to empathize with her.

Rating: 3 / 5

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

Elizabeth loves fairytales. Even her life is a fairytale, she has an evil step mother, self absorbed step sisters, and a dad who doesn't give her much attention. Sound familiar? I was originally drawn to this book not because of the fairytale storyline but because of her after school job at the New York Circulating Material Repository. This isn't any old library, instead of books they have objects that are available for check out.I personally identify as a library junkie and the thought of being able to check out objects intrigued me enough to give this book a try.

After beginning the book I realized that some of these items were not only historically significant (I love history too) but they were also in some cases magical. I was instantly hooked to the idea of this library.

The plot line however is a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong I would love to trade places with main character Elizabeth for a day just to get my hands on some of the items in the library. BUT I think that for such a great concept for a book Schulman just didn't run with it like I wish she would have. Still I recommend you read this just for the concept of a library that lends out objects.

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

After reading this book for the at least the fourth time I can confidently say that Rowling's writing style never gets old. Reading this as a little girl or a 21 year old woman I can still find passages that make me smile and remind me over and over why I love the Harry Potter series so much.

The movies for the HP series have overall done the author and her writing justice. If I were to rank all seven of the films in quality and allegiance to Rowling's writing I would personally put Prisoner of Azkaban at the bottom of the list. 

HOWEVER, before you let the movie cloud your judgement of the novel please, please, PLEASE read the book. Rowling's storyline is fantastic and this book creates storylines and relationships that are crucial to the overall plot of the series. 

Rating: 5/5 

P.S. If you stumble upon my blog please leave a comment with suggestions or critiques! I am just getting started on this blogging journey so any advice is welcomed.