Black-Eyed Susan's

By Julia Heaberlin

I know this is another review and I promised other content on Sunday's but they're all still a work in progress. This week's just been kinda hectic and I find reviews easier to whip up than the others which tend to need a tiny bit of planning. 

Sorry!

[I am the star of screaming tabloid headlines and campfire ghost stories. I am one of the four Black-Eyed Susan's. The lucky one. 

Left with three other girls in a grave shrouded by black-eyed Susan's, Tessa alone survived, her testimony helping to put a killer behind bars. 

Now, sixteen years later, he is about to be executed. But Tessa feels no relief. Because someone is planting black-eyed Susan's outside her window. Someone is sending her daughter sinister messages. And there's a lawyer telling her the man about to be put to death is innocent. 

Which can mean only one thing: the wrong man has been sentenced, the real killer is still out there and Tessa might not be the last Black-Eyed Susan...]

I was recommended this book by a colleague at work as I was looking for something that wasn't my usual YA or fantasy fiction and a murder mystery was definitely something I needed.

It kept me hooked all the way through. At one point, I thought it would even be one of those books where you didn't find out who the real killer was, which would have been really frustrating- that's how close to the end they left the reveal!

But, the main thing, the thing I am really happy about is that I actually guessed who the murderer was, a few chapters before the end too, and I was right! I'm never right, I always get so absorbed in the story that I never like to jump to conclusions about who it might be (in films anyway), but for some reason in this, I just knew.

Dramatic. Beautiful imagery. Great characters with lots of flaws and depth to them. Told very well, flipping back and forth between past and present (got a little confusing at times), but it really came into its own at the end, letting us - and Tessa - find out who the murderer was simultaneously, but through different methods.

Brilliant.

The only thing is, it never really explained how the serial killer came to pick Tessa or why he did it. The bits afterwards make sense with them hiding in plain sight and the whole deal with Lydia, but it never really covered the whole before bit which left a few questions pinging in my head that are never going to be answered.

Oh well, I guess you can't win them all! Still a great read.



✌

Is Romance Dead?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking specifics here, I'm not complaining about my own relationship because, as far as that goes, it's great. I honestly couldn't feel any happier at the moment.

I'm talking general romance.

Over the years, I've heard a lot about how our generation aren't very romantic, especially compared to the likes of those brought up decades ago.

Like, what is it that made them so romantic? What is romance exactly?

Is it that they did actual dates, that guys literally came to pick a girl up for one, courted them, bought them a bouquet of flowers unexpectedly, treated her with respect? I mean, what does any of that even mean anymore?

We may blame guys for not sticking their necks out trying to be romantic because, let's face it, liking someone's picture on social media is much easier than engaging in a proper conversation ey? Guys these days are too worried about what other guys will think if they actually make effort for a girl, worried if it'll damage their reputability or their masculinity.

But girls aren't exactly all prim and proper either. We're as bad as the guys, revealing a little too much (whether that be skin or about ourselves to strangers), drinking too much and just not being, well, very classy.

I honestly think technology - although it's great - has ruined romance. What do you reach for first thing in the morning, your phone or your partner? Or out for a meal, who actually talks anymore? Everyone is constantly glued to their phones.

We idolise these ridiculous relationships on TV, we are obsessed with how we look and how we are perceived by others, we are ego-ridden.

Okay, there are still some old romantics at heart out there, but they are vastly outnumbered.

I always believed I was born in the wrong era. I idolise the 1920's to 1960's and yet I was born in the era for ass-slapping and drunken one night stands instead.

I saw a picture the other week about how we're coming up to 2020 soon and how we should bring back the 1920's approach. I couldn't agree more.

What do you think of romance today - do you prefer it over what used to be?

❤