Paper Machete (Emily Ellis Thrillers Book 2) by Amanda Jaeger Review Copy

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Stars

Book Blurb

She's a tool in his deception, sculpting twisted beliefs of life beyond death.

Kidnapped by Volga County’s serial killer, Emily “Mills” Ellis finds herself trapped in a luxury building with everything she needs: art supplies, the time to create, and the support of a budding family. Everything, that is, except for food and rest.

While her best friend Livvy searches to find her hiding place, Mills battles with her beliefs in art and her purpose within a creative universe. Falling deeper into the faith of artists around her, Mills has to choose to either participate in events to move on to the next realm where artists are revered, or fall back to the realm of reality, where she and the world will never be saved.

Paper Machete Book Review 

I received the Review Copy of this book and my thanks to the team of BookSirens, the publisher and the author for the copy.

All views expressed in this review are my own and based on my reading of this book. Some of the initial comments were made as I progressed in this book and I have not tried editing them as it expresses my contiguous thoughts as I proceeded with the story.

This is a follow-up to the previous book Paint by Murders which I read thanks to BookSirens prior to this one.

My rating here is just under 4 stars for this story about 3.5+.

The story or rather the stories are not my in my general zone of reading materials but I had liked Emily's character and had invested myself in the first book and it was worth while to find how the story develops.

The story evolves from the end of the previous part and immediately after the incidents there, we have Emily kidnapped by a cult which wants to extend membership to her mentor and in extension her.

In this adventure the story drives deep into cult territory with a lot of descriptions about that life and we start identifying more shades of characterization.

The book title Paper machete mask itself gave extremely eerie feels similar to the revelations in horrifying movies (House of Wax and Waxworks). It has a desired impact in the story.

I will give full credit to Amanda for her research efforts. It shows in the way the cult is portrayed and their way of life. Yes there are times when this information overwhelms the senses but overall it gives a good feel to this story.

I felt that with the focus on the cult Amanda has sacrificed some elements present in the first book which made it unique and this means that the book moves away from the thriller that the series seems initially aimed at. Although again giving credit to the her the book does not lose any pace or compromise on the premise of interest. So overall I would say this was a good pawn sacrifice for the sake of the story.

The side effect of this story is that it cannot be read as a standalone unlike the first part. A new reader without the first part would flounder while reading this and this I feel limits the appeal of this book although the caveat for this book stated that it cannot be read as a standalone. Although in defense it can be said that the previous book was intriguing enough that a reader would be swayed to follow up on the next one and as I am now hoping to get access to the next story in the trilogy.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Stars

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Goodreads Review here -

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5703794398

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https://www.amazon.in/review/RQ9XI8EIBB3LS

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