Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Genre:  YA Fantasy

Six of Crows Series, Book 2

Leigh Bardugo's website

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Note:  This is the second book in a series.  Fair warning...

Description (taken from Leigh Bardugo's website):

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Back in the Grisha world, one of my favorite fantasy worlds.  The heist that Kaz and his crew pulled off in the last story went terribly wrong.  And this story picks up immediately after that happens.  It follows the six people who are determined to get payback and money for their troubles.  Only thing is the whole world is watching this little city because everyone wants a piece of the drug: jurda parem.  Will Kaz and his crew be able to protect themselves and their city or will they sell out?

This book has a lot of action and so many angles that you're dying for more.  My only regret is not reading it closer to the first book and that whole other series.  I feel like there were a lot of things I couldn't remember and was kind of missing the insider knowledge.  Anywho, you pretty much fall in love with the characters.  But you want to know the reason why this isn't a five-pointer for me?  I was not a fan of the ending.  It ticked me off.  Like really ticked me off when I realized it was the last one in the series.  But I can't give it away (those who have read the book could probably understand my anger).

If you're a fan of fantasy, start with the first Grisha series and then pick this one up.  If you couldn't get into the first series, then just dive into this one.  While there is romance in this story, it's not the main plotline like the other series.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

Genre:  YA Historical Fiction
Stalking Jack the Ripper Series, Book 1

Kerri Maniscalco's website

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Description (taken from Kerri Maniscalco's website):

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

Audrey Rose lives in a historical England where she is growing up to be a society girl.  She is doing everything that a wealthy and privileged English girl should do.  Well, except for helping her uncle dissect cadavers.  And helping him with solving deaths and crimes.  So it's no surprise that when Jack the Ripper begins to appear, she becomes intrigued...

So I can't really go into too much detail to this story.  Because most of us are very familiar with the unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper.  And this fictional story tells it from Audrey's point of view.  And as much as I had it pegged from the very beginning, I was still disappointed with the ending.  And one of the things that angered me greatly was how many times Audrey was told she shouldn't be doing something because of her female status.  I just got tired of it a little.

This was a decent detective story to follow from start to finish.  And it does give a nice twist at the end.  I'd suggest checking it out if it peaks your interests still.