There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I did appreciate the trans main character though – it's a good thing to read about. I'd read more from this author in the future.

This unfortunately just wasn't too my taste. I think there are a lot of crime and thriller readers who could find lots to love but it was a story I couldn't get into.

I have loved the opportunity to spend time researching novels to re-stockl our senior bookshelves in the school library that plays a central role in the life of the school. When I first took over the library was filled with dusty tomes that were never borrowed and languished there totally unloved.
Books like this, play a central role in ensuring that the library is stocked with fresh relevant fiction that appeals to the readers. It has a strong voice and a compelling plot that ensures that you speed through its pages, enjoying both its characterisation and dialogue whilst wanting to find out how all of its strands will be resolved by the end.
I have no hesitation in adding this to the 'must buy' list so that the senior students and staff of the school can enjoy it as much as I did. This is a gripping read that will be sure to grip its readers whether they are fans of this genre or coming to it for the first time through our now-thriving school library recommendation system. Thanks so much for allowing me to review it!

I DNF this one at 13%. I don’t usually DNF books because it happened so many times that I changed my opinion on something when I reached the middle or the end of it. I feel really bad about it. I wanted to like this book so badly and I wanted to seriously give it a chance but I couldn’t bring myself to read anything more.
I expected something centered about LGBT+. I found a book that takes LGBT+ only to the background. I read very few pages, but I couldn’t help but feel that the LGBT+ elements weren’t used at all to contribute to the story and they were just… there. So yeah, most of the problem wasn’t even the story itself, but the fact that it wasn’t what I expected it to be. But the main point is that even though the story was different from what I imagined, it didn’t manage to make me care about what was happening at all. I simply didn’t care. I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t care about what was happening and what would happen next. And of course it’s in English, which required an amount of concentration and effort from me that I wasn’t willing to give.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. 

Until this, I had yet to read a book that took place with a transgender person as the narrator. I feel like anyone who questions the transgender experience, doesn't understand how someone could feel transgender or decide to commit to sexual reassignment surgery should absolutely read this book. Because not only is it about ALL of those things, not only are you inside this wonderful person's head and get to see what it's like to be transgender whilst also getting to benefit from reading about their past, their struggles, and how they came to live their truth, you also get to read about a murder. 

Bobby Logan is so personable and you cannot help but be entranced by her as a person and really feel for her and her experiences. She's been through a lot, not just the sexual reassignment surgery, but also a marriage to a woman in her previous life, and is now owns her own business in Chicago as the proprietor of a hair salon.. 

I'm not spoiling the mystery and the murder, but needless to say this book captivated me and left me so happy at the ending.

*I do not identify as Trans* but I was extremely uncomfortable with the blatant transphobia from the main antagonist and the subtle transphobia and negative attitudes from the protagonists supposed best friends and support system. I understand there is nasty transphobia in the real world and this probably reflects a good part of it, but I do not like how it was written and do not feel comfortable finishing this book and writing a public review about it. Just like I know there is racism and sexism and other kinds of -isms, I prefer my fiction to be optimistic and have an adequate support system full of love and compassion to fight it, with the emphasis on the good rather than the bad, but I felt like this was not that.

This book was not for me , however I know someone who will love it so its an easy recommendation

This is my first book with a transgender person as the main character. It definitely had me hooked from the first few pages. We meet Bobbi Logan, a salon owner who is under a lot of stress, one of which is her new identity, the other from her ex-wife. The mystery is on-point, I really enjoyed it. The writing was well done and immersing (a big problem in LGBTQIA currently, in my opinion). This book is part two in a series and I have no read the second one. It causes minor confusion in some areas but I was still able to follow along and enjoy it. This is not a knock to the book, I suppose I should be diligent about reading a series in order, especially one in the mystery genre.

The book staggers a little near the middle but manages to right itself for the finish line. 

As a side-note, I have a particularly hard time with depictions of rape which this book did contain. I was able to get through it because I felt it was poignant and important to the story. It was very real which, while difficult for me, made me appreciate the effort of the author in not shying away from scenes like this.


All in all a solid 4 out 5 stars, very well done.

I just love love LOVE genre books (scifi/fantasy, horror, mystery) that just casually feature LGBT protagonists like this one. Bobbi is a GREAT protagonist, and I really felt the love and effort the author put into him.

However, I found the pacing of the plot all over the place - too slow focusing on mundane life scenes, or too fast, not giving some plot elements the build up they needed. Maybe because I went in with the expectation that it would be a straight up mystery novel - really, it's still got a lot of exploration of Bobbi's life.

I wanted to like this book but I couldn't get to grips with the story. I will give it another try at some point but I found it quite slow and ploddy.

I wanted to read and like this. It has a wonderful cover and the story sounds very interesting. But I just couldn't force myself to read the queerphobic comments. The comments are not made by the main character, but reading them was so hard. 

I'm uneasy that the transphobic character is a black man that oversteps every kind of boundary that he should have as an officer. 

I'm not saying is a bad or terrible book, not at all. But it's not for me, I wasn't enjoying reading and I really don't want to feel awful in this moment.

I don’t know, I just couldn’t get behind this book. Certainly all the elements were there— plot, setting, characters, etc. The writing style annoyed me. The characters were fun but they felt one-dimensional. This could have been an engaging read with a few tweaks.

Also, it’s the second in a series. Again. Is. NetGalley only for second books? Am I missing something?

A transgender crime mystery book.

Robert Logan was a successful 40-something  businessman, married without children. He transitioned into Bobbi Logan , a woman who has become a hairstylist running a successful salon. Bobbi's life is anything but simple- her ex wife and daughter are now living with her. The hairdressing business Bobbi runs is suffering due to the recession, and to top it all she's being investigated by Detective Sergeant Wilkins who has reopened a 5-year-old murder case of a man called John Strand, he is convinced that Bobbi is the killer.

A Kind of Justice is a unique written mystery, it is also an emotional roller-coaster ride that leaves you to fall in love with the characters. This book will give you an insight into the transgender world, and make you think about life. 

Thanks to NetGalley and everyone involved for letting me read this.

I don't usually enjoy mystery type novels, but the main character really pulled me forward all through the book. I really loved the narration and found myself enjoying this one a lot.

After I got used to the narrating style of the book I really started to love it. It has so many beautiful messages about how people can change their mind towards each other and about acceptance. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitively recommend it.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and  I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

DNF
I used to love reading crime novels in my teens. For some reason I can't get back into them though. 
A lot of the time the writing felt like the author was trying to make word count in an essay, I think that most of all threw me off and I couldn't get into it enough to get any further than the first few chapters. I think it is mostly a 'It's not you, it's me' scenario.

Great book. Very intriguing.  Definitely a subject for this time and age. Highly recommend

I’m having a complicated reaction to this book. To start with, I didn’t know it was a sequel until I went to Goodreads to review it, after finishing it. So, now I wonder what I missed, having not read book one. One the upside, the fact that I never felt I was missing anything until I knew there was a previous book means it stands alone just fine.

Secondly, I liked Bobbi. I loved her relationship to her ex-wife. I thought it was one of the sweetest things I’ve read in a while. It wasn’t perfect, they had some issues to work through. But work through them they did and made a family of sorts and I LOVED that. I liked that Bobbi had close platonic friends and that generational differences within communities was addressed. Not to mention that she was a tad older than the average heroine.

I disliked the detective, but appreciate the transformative journey he went through. I liked the possible love interest and that the book doesn’t end with an unrealistic perfect Happily Ever After. It might get there, but wasn’t at the end of this novel.

I liked that this book isn’t just a murder mystery with a transgendered main character. In a very real way, it’s about being a transgendered woman around whom there is a mystery. It’s why I picked the book up in fact.

Having said that (and here is my complication because I don’t want to sound like I’m saying, ‘the trans book was just too trans’), I felt bludgeoned by Bobbi’s transgenderism. Trans/transsexual/transgender/transwoman/transwomen/tranny is used 197 times in the 320 page book, not counting that the charity is called TransRising and any time it’s talked about but not named. Now, my issue isn’t with the individual words or subject that I felt bludgeoned by, but that I felt bludgeoned at all.

I don’t want to take away from the importance of Bobbi’s real world experiences. They are important. I rather just mean the writing was heavy-handed at times and the constant emphasis on one aspect of the character, even an important one that would be expected to effect every area of her life, blotted out some others that in a mystery novel needed more page-time to develop.

Other than the occasionally heavy-handed writing and the fact that I thought the book was slow at times, I mostly really enjoyed it (even having not read the first book). I’d be more than happy to read another story by James.