Juniper Unraveling

by Julie Belfield and Keri Lake

[stacey_is_sassy]

IT'S ALIVE!!

What does a monster look like?

***4.5 stars***

It’s Friday night and I’m having a glass of wine. I feel like I deserve it after spending the whole day reading Juniper Unravelling. I admit that some of this day has been mired in frustration, disgust and horror but most of the day has been sucked into the vortex of an epic read. This was a journey that left me a little battered and bruised but triumphant in the end.

There’s this little part of me that thought that Keri Lake had got this one wrong. I’m kind of used to unwillingly falling in love with her monsters. Her heroes have been known to be part evil and part self-destructive but somehow, I always end up loving them by the end. In this case, I kept waiting for the monster to appear. See, my hero was an angel that could kill with his bare hands, was immune to evil creatures and kept skulls as mementoes. I think Keri Lake has made me delusional. I'm seeing angels in my monsters.

In her usual fashion, Keri Lake does not hide the ugly side of life. This “life” is not what we currently live but it’s an extreme possibility which is bloody scary. People in power scare the bejeezus out of me. We hand over our faith and trust in exchange for hope. Do the people in charge have our best interests at heart? Are they hiding the truth behind a magical barrier? Are we paying a price now, for something that will ruin our future? I found myself considering these topics and frightened by my conclusions. I am a wee bit lead by blind faith.

The characters in this story are ones you can’t help but become attached to. You see them grow and live through the horrors that they’ve faced. They have lost loved ones, formed bonds that became the new member of their family and risk the heartbreak of losing them. I suppose we all face the day knowing that we might lose someone we love.

OK, I admit, the first half dragged for me a bit. Mind you there was a lot of backstory that needed to be explained to give me the epic second half of the story that I loved. It probably didn’t help that the first half was very “young adult”, and you know how much I love my YA reads (slight sarcasm). There are also the usual Keri Lake cringe-worthy scenes where evil has a face and that face…well, it should not have been evil. It’s that whole trusting what should have been good and find out it wasn’t good at all. On the flipside, what you learn to not trust, ends up being one of the people you love the most by the end.

This story has blood, guts and gore. It wasn’t OTT, and I only cringed slightly with the descriptions. There are sexy times of the good and steamy variety, but there are also times that it’s bad (remember the cringe-worthy I mentioned above). Again, while faced with horrifying situations, it was handled in a way that I could compartmentalise. We don’t see the worst, but we know it’s there.

Keri Lake has again blown my mind. Her ability to make me look at “monsters” and see their good side is surprising. I’m a pretty judgemental chicky, so this is an AMAZING feat. If you’re not tempted by the marvellous cover, just know that this is an epic read. You may have to sit tight for awhile at the beginning but the journey is worth it in the end. Some monsters are worth loving.

I spy with my little eye...Amazon is selling Juniper Unravelling for $0.99

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076TCMBXB/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Stacey is Sassy, received a complimentary copy of this story. The copy provided is not the final copy and may be subject to edits and changes.