would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this quirky book

k9 rescue
and a trainee m.e who has visits from ghosts...
and a murderer who collects eyes
whats not to like...

the k9 aspect of the book drew me to this one and i wasnt disappointed plus the visits of ghosts was an added bonus

the killer collects eyes that he considers are windows to the souls and he is also collecting those...and he has gotten very good at murdering people

vi and kate are drawn to each other but they both come into the murderers sight

not a bad storyline and i hope this is the first in a series as i feel this one could go a bit further

This is a nice thriller with a huge impact of mystery. It's a very interesting read if you're not bothered by a very background romance. If you, however, find romance story to be very important, this is not the book for you. I liked the writing, and the characters development, but I wish the romance plot was a bit more in front than it was.
That being said, if you're in search for a great mystery novel, this is the book for you, and I heartily recommend it.

Attractive native Alaskan Vi Akiak moves to Spokane to start her medical degree and moves in next door to the equally attractive (of course!) Kate Renard who's a K9 search and rescue handler. Vi has a new job with the local medical examiner's office when suspect bodies start turning up and it soon becomes clear a serial killer is responsible. In the meantime Kate and her K9 buddy are called in to conduct searches and thus they are both involved in the web of the serial killer.
This read is a combination of thriller and romance with a touch of the paranormal thrown in. I wasn't totally keen on Vi being able to see the dead but coped with it. As for the romance it  tends to just bubble away in the background,  there was some nice chemistry between Vi and Kate but I think the thriller premise was the hero of this book. A nice read with an interesting storyline and equally interesting characters.

Okay. WOW! A little bit of this and a little bit of that and not much romance. However, there was much flirty self-talk. This mystery/thriller some romance was scary and unsettling as the crimes and reasons for the crimes unfolded. Vi Akiak, medical student, medical examiner assistant, dealing with the death of her mother and grandmother, and her "gift". Kate Renard, K9 search and rescue handler, farmer/rancher. Both women are a little weary of relationships but the draw is there. It is difficult not to like both Vi and Kate. Especially Kate with her willingness to be a good listener and possessing a supportive personality. Although Kate makes some interesting decisions, you have to appreciate that her heart is in the right place. This read has some interesting secondary stories which needed to be flushed out more. For example, Circe and Vi, I needed more information as well as Drs. Kelsey and Durze. The lack of information caused the read to feel a little disjointed.

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book since it was my first time reading an offering from this author and because I only occasionally read books that are thillers. I tend to lean more toward the romance genres. This book was a crime suspense drama with a bit of paranormal thrown into the mix. Overall the story kept me engaged wondering how a person could perpetrate such acts against fellow human beings. But for the usual genres that I read the story lacked romance, although the two main characters of Kat and Vi did have good chemistry when the book focused in that area. The focus on K9 rescue dogs was also interesting and Lucy was an added bonus in the story.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, first I want to say there isn’t anything inherently bad about this book. The writing is decent and the characters are interesting (for the most part), but I personally didn’t enjoy it all that much.

I did finish it, but there was a point where I thought about DNF’ing it. I didn’t connect with the characters, and the plot left me indifferent. I’m an emotional reader, I like when a book can stir some feels whether they’re happy or sad, so this book fell flat.

When I reread the blurb right before starting it and realized this book had a paranormal element to it, my excitement for it grew. The premise gave me Tru Calling/Ghost Whisperer vibes and I was all for it, but I was a bit disappointed that the paranormal twist wasn’t more prominent in the story. Actually, it was barely there at all, and I don’t think it added anything to the book.

As I said, the writing wasn’t bad, but some of the dialogue felt off, and I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit in the beginning. Vi, a medical student from Alaska, moves from Anchorage to Spokane, Washington to attend medical school. She rents Kat’s, a K9 search and rescue handler, little cottage and they become friends. Lucy, Kat’s dog, takes a shine to Vi instantly which really made me happy. But within like, a week of arriving, she learns that she has a long lost sister and that her mother’s killer is now on a killing spree in Spokane? What are the odds of anything like that ever happening in life?

Anyway, this title might not have been for me, but I think if you’re looking for something a little different in the lesfic genre you might want to give it a try.

Many thanks to Bold Strokes Books for providing me with a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a new author for me, and it’s also a sequel to Necromantia, which I didn’t realise. As with most of this month’s books, I wasn’t blown away by it.

This one features MC Vi, who is a native Alaskan (and POC) who has moved to Spokane to start medical school and also work as a Medical Examiner Assistant. She’s also got a secret that I won’t reveal because it’s a spoiler. The other MC is Kat who owns a farm and also works as a K9 handler doing searches for missing people or bodies. Vi is renting Kat’s guest house and this is how they meet.

Now, I’m going to start this review by admitting it’s based only on about 2/3s of the book. I finished the book but didn’t read the whole thing because it features one of my least favourite things in a crime story, it includes the killer’s perspective. I don’t care why the bad guy does it, the cops can tell me that, I don’t need to be in his/her mind, plus what he was doing was gross. So apart from some brief stuff at the beginning and end I skimmed pretty much all of the ‘Seeker’ (also a dumb name) scenes. I will also say that there were too many of them and it killed the momentum of the story.

Kat and Vi are fairly interesting characters and we get both of their POVs which helps with understanding their relationship. They’re each attracted to the other immediately but there’s not much ‘action’ here, in fact, the first kiss is mentioned in passing, and given that I was skipping scenes, I thought I’d missed it, but it is actually just referenced after the event. This whole book takes place over maybe 2 weeks (Vi arrives 3 weeks before she’s supposed to start Med school and hasn’t started by the end, if you don’t count the epilogue). They leads spend a lot of time together, what with living so close and the crime stuff, but this is still insta-love.

There’s not that many secondary characters, but the main two are Circe and Diana (the two MCs from Necromantia). The info about Circe was such that I actually stopped reading and went and had a look to see if she had her own book and was unsurprised to find she did. I may have enjoyed this more if I’d read that first, but too late now! I won’t go into Circe’s storyline here but she pops up quite a bit, so fans of the previous book will probably enjoy that. Diana also features in a few scenes as well.

Vi had other issues outside just moving/starting school and one is family connections, which I won’t spoil but felt like they didn’t (with one obvious exception) get enough attention. Kat also has a stalker who is mentioned a few times but that goes nowhere and I just found it an unnecessary plot line.

There were also way too many coincidences in this book. Between the killer and Vi’s family stuff it was just too much. I loved Lucy and Zelda (dogs are always good). But overall found this ok but not great. Less of the ‘Seeker’ and more of the relationship between the leads (over a longer time frame) and Vi and her family stuff would have made this 100% better. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Cause of Death by Sheri Lewis Wohl is one creepy and well-written murder mystery. It is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in a while.

The story revolves around Bavilla (Vi) Akiak and Kate Renard. Vi is a young woman, originally from Alaska, who is moving to Spokane, Washington to begin medical school to eventually become a pathologist. During her schooling she is also working as an assistant with the Medical Examiner’s Office in Spokane. She rents a small house next door to Kate, a farmer and search and rescue handler, and her dog Lucy. The two women become friends quickly with an attraction that hints there could be more in their future. But Vi has a secret involving the death of her mother. That secret involves a serial killer that the two of them must work together to find before he or she comes after them.
This is a great story premise, and I must say I was kept interested through the entire novel. We get to be in the minds of the two ladies as well as the serial killer in third person POV. The POV covers all three characters in every chapter. I have to confess that I was rather creeped out when I was reading the serial killer’s thoughts. That is a good thing though, since it shows how well the author developed the killer’s persona. The secondary characters are also well written and add depth to the overall story.

I really enjoyed reading this rather chilling murder mystery, and if you are into reading these types of thrillers, I think you will enjoy it as well.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

This one is more crime than romance. In fact there is very little romance. There is crime, some vague paranormal stuff and stumbling-upon-a-sibling-never-knew-the-existence-of with paranormal abilities running in the DNA.

Vi Akiak moves from Alaska to Spokane as an intern medical examiner and to complete her studies. Her new landlady is Kate Renard, a burnt-out computer whiz now managing a farm and also a volunteer K9 handler. On the very first day of Vi’s internship, a murder victim turns up. And then another. And another. All with missing eyes. And one of them has been arranged exactly like Vi’s murdered mother was. A couple of the bodies are found by Kate.

Here is the strange thing. In the scenes between Vi and Kate, there was great chemistry and very well written attraction. Yet, in the overall narrative, the romance track just didn’t flow. And the weirdest thing was that we never see their first kiss. We know it happened when the MCs are thinking back about it. Why?

The crime track was chilling at first, soon repetitive and the big discovery and solution were flat. And yeah, towards the end, Kate and her bumbling PI efforts were terribly irritating.

Overall, this is not something to grab and sink into.

3.5 Stars. I liked this but it wasn’t as great as I was hoping for. This was a crime-suspense book with a light paranormal flare. Parts of it were really good and I was glued to the book, but I also found a few parts to bog down a bit which was odd for a suspense book. If you have read Necromantia, you will recognize the characters of Circe and Diana who are the main secondary characters in this book. You can read this book without reading Necromantia first. I could be wrong but I think the character of Circe also showed up in the The Talebearer. That is another serial killer/slight paranormal book that I liked better than this one. If anything I thought this book was a little too close to that one as I kept getting a sense of deja-vu.

I thought the two mains were interesting and I loved the dog, how could you not. The POV of the book would follow both main characters and also the serial killer. I don’t know what it was but I found the serial killer scenes to be boring. Usually, that kind of thing creeps me out but I found myself almost dreading those parts because I was bored instead. There were a lot of scenes with the killer so I found myself wishing for less time with them and more time spent on the possible romance.

There is a romance but it is very light. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I would have enjoyed it more to just have the characters getting to know each other and a few sparks, instead of trying to push it farther when there was not enough time. Also, which is something that really bothered me, the first kiss happened off screen so to say. I actually flipped back in my Kindle to make sure I didn’t miss it but nope not only do we not get to witness the first kiss but we don’t get to witness the second kiss either. To me this is building a romance 101 that you have to show the first kiss!

While this book had areas that bothered me, I did like the excitement of trying to catch a killer. As I noted above this has a light paranormal tag on it. I do not think you have to be a paranormal fan to enjoy this. The paranormal aspects were so light that I actually thought they were not really needed. I love paranormal anything but Wohl didn’t really dig far enough into the paranormal part to make those scenes really shine.

If you are new to Wohl I think I would suggest The Talebearer over this one. Still this was a pretty good read that had some excitement. If you need a change of pace over all the romances of late, this might be a good choice.

I don't know what it is this month, but I feel like I'm saying this over and over again - This book left me with mixed feelings. Actually, when I first started this, all I could think about was this weird deja vu feeling that I'd already ready this novel before...

The good stuff first - as a novel, the premise of this one was quite good. I really appreciated how Wohl used an indigenous Alaskan MC since there's a huge underrepresentation of non-Caucasians in lesfic overall. It was refreshing to see! Also, Wohl's writing style just works for me. Well... mostly. I really liked her pacing and ideas except for...

The bad. The character of the Seeker (the bad guy) was equal parts wonderful and not so wonderful in my opinion. It almost felt as if by trying to keep his identity secret, the story was held back somewhat. Instead of playing up on the interactions between the MC and the Seeker could have been impactful, terrifying, and they could have seriously created some wonderful tension and foreshadowing. Instead, by keeping his identity a secret, it felt like there were a few lost moments throughout. It wasn't bad by any means, but it could have been GREAT.

MC Kat's character was wonderful for 3/4 of the novel, but felt completely disjointed at the end. It's as if she went through a personality change. I get it, and it is explained in the novel, but it didn't feel anything like the Kat we knew and loved at the beginning and that threw me off for a bit.

I loved the light paranormal aspect thrown into this one, but at the same time, I'm not sure it was fully necessary. I'm going to be intentionally vague and not go into detail and spoil it for anyone, but I'm not so sure that the book would have been any different if it had been removed completely. With that said, I would have liked to see that aspect explored and expanded a bit more. In fact, I could have done without the romance in this novel completely, and would have preferred it if this had been a bit more paranormal, or at least more expanded more on the familial storyline instead of the romance storyline.

I'm honestly not quite sure how I feel about this one overall. I enjoyed the read and at there was no point where I even considered putting it down or skimming, but I'm not sure it lived up to my expectations. I may come back to edit this at a later date, but for now, 3.5 stars.

**Many thanks to Bold Strokes for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.**

Another reviewer has described this book as CSI meets Ghost Whisperer, and that's a spot-on description! Throw in one of the main characters being from Alaska, and I already had high hopes for this story. The cover was eye-catching and crisp, and I appreciate that. The author did not disappoint me, either. The chemistry between the two main characters was well-written and made complete sense to me. Throw in a super smart and super loveable dog and there was no way I was putting the book down without a fight. Unfortunately, sleep won out. Still, I finished this in two sittings.

The pace was brilliantly done, the suspense was just enough, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I had no idea who the serial killer was until almost the end. Something that doesn't happen often. I would be a very happy new fan of Ms. Wohl if a sequel were to emerge in the future.

I enjoyed this one that I'm not only giving it five stars, but it's one I can see reading over and over again.

I think I’ve read enough serial killer thrillers to last me a lifetime. So when I started reading Cause of Death, I was not completely ready to enjoy it. I liked the introduction to the MCs and the MCs themselves from the start. Vi’s backstory intrigued me and I felt the chemistry with Kat immediately. That was enough for me to like what I was reading at first. Then I realized that while I’d been reading the first serial killer scenes distractedly, I was getting more involved in them as I read on. And then I began appreciating them as well, and the way they are woven in with the romance (and more) aspects of the novel.

After her grandmother’s death, Vi leaves Alaska for Spokane, Washington to become an autopsy assistant while she studies to be a forensic pathologist. Kat is her landlady but also a K9 handler (Lucy sounds like the sweetest dog) and a computer genius. Her best friend Circe is married to a cop, Diana, and also has unexpected links to Vi. I really liked these characters, all of them, and wouldn’t say no to a sequel, or more. I'd love to spend more time with them.

This is my first read from this author and honestly I don't think her style of writing works for me. The issue I have with it is it's more tell than do and more monologue than dialogue. It's just not my cup of tea.

Now the premise of the story was actually pretty good. Kinda like Ghost Whisper meets CSI type thing. What really, really didnt work for me was that I felt in trying to keep the Seeker's identity a secret it held the story back. Interactions that could have had a bigger impact were set aside. Also, it seemed everytime the point of view was switched the story had to backtrack like a few hours in time which made it redundant to me. I also felt the romance was unnecessary and just thrown in their for the characters. It could have been left out and the story would have been just fine. I wish there was more focus on the medical part and the murders.

Like I said, maybe this writing style isn't for me...well I know this writing style isn't for me. And while the premise of the story had me wanting to read it, the lack of action and interaction kept me from liking it. I give this one 2.5*

***ARC from Netgalley for an honest review from me :) ***

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.


Vi meets Kate who is a dog handler that does search and rescuse when she rent her house on Kate ranch.

Vi is from Alaska who moves to Spokane to become a forensic pathologist it became her calling when her mother was murder. Vi has a secret she can see the dead and she always believes that the person who killed her mother is still out there and the person in jail isn't the killer and she may be right because her first time at her job at the ME office she finds similar crimes that mirror her mother's.

With the help of Kate her dog Lucy and Kate friend Circe and her dog Zelda and Circe wife Cynthia team up to find the killer and we also find out the surprising connection Vi and Circe share.

This isn't a romance story but do see that Kate and Vi like each other this story deals with spirits and finding justice for the victims and finding the killer. I have to say this is one book I didn't mind seeing different point of views.

That was INTERESTING!! So I really didn’t know what to expect from this book because I’ve never read the author and never cared for this genre before!
So this is a story of spirits, murder and serial killers. It is not a lesbian romance ! Yes the characters are mostly lesbians but there was no romance (just a scene or 2).
Having said that, I actually really liked the storyline! It was very intense, very entertaining and thrilling!
So if you are in the mood to change a little bit, refresh from the “norm”, I highly recommend this! Don’t expect any sex scenes, fluffy stuff or angst! But expect to be blown away with a very exciting crime drama!

“I received an ARC for an honest review.”

Bavilla Akiak "Vi" moves from Alaska to Spokane to be a medical examiner and eventually a doctor of forensic pathology.

Kate "Kat" Renard is her landlord and a rescue dog handler and has rented Vi a home on her ranch just outside Spokane.

Circe Latham, a rescue dog handler and her wife Diana Erni, a Spokane police officer.

Vi travels from Anchorage, Alaska to Spokane to work in the ME's office and attend school there. Vi also has the ability to see spirits, particularly that of her grandmother, and the spirits of the departed.

There have been a series of grisly murders in the Spokane area lately and Vi, Kat, Circe and Diana, along with Lucy and Zelda the two search and rescue dogs, start to put the clues together.

This was a creepy book, but a really good creepy book. This author knows how to keep you guessing and to keep the suspense at DEFCON 1!

I was given an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.