Death in the spires kj charles Mystery isn t my go to but that s somewhat because many of my experiences in the genre haven t held this much personality With a diverse list of flawed characters I was engaged from start to solved and I would have enjoyed reading about them even without an alluring murder mystery. Death in the spires kj charles But I m quite glad that the mystery was afoot because it was why I zipped through in one day The setup contained so many Very Good Things coming of age at the end of the 19th century relationship dynamics both platonic and not interpersonal tension so much grey morality ethical considerations and found family just for a start The unfolding wasn t entirely unpredictable but it still revealed some unforeseen curves and I remained captivated despite the elements I saw coming. Death in the spires kj charles In some cases the characterization was a little scant as might be expected with 7 primary characters over about 250 pages I loved the ensemble cast and sometimes wanted a deeper dive with them. Death in the spires kj charles We KJC fans know how she loves to weave a juicy suspense into her romance novels which this isn t in case you haven t seen her disclaimer Maybe this genre shift is what she s been wanting to publish for a while because she nailed it the balance was chef s kiss Definitely falls wholly into historical mystery NOT romance yo but still with the sexiness wit and tight prose that we love from her I m here for it and will snap up any future drops just as quickly as I do her romances. Death in the spires kj charles 25 stars ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review English I could write a long review or I could simply say that as soon as I finished Death in the Spires I got grumpy and the reason I got grumpy was that I could no longer read Death in the Spires for the first time. Death in the spires kj charles J Charles s next page turning historical mystery Show of hands for of brave big hearted Jem Yes I thought so Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC English PinnacleI requested Death in the Spires based on the eerie cover and title suggesting a sinister undertone I m delighted to say that it exceeded expectations and then some Jeremy known as Jem is empathetic as a scholarship student hoping that attending the prestigious Oxford University will increase his future prospects Being disabled and from a small town his future didn t hold much promise otherwise. Death in the spires kj charles Beginning in 1892 Jem attended among the blue stockings and nonchalantly entitled students To his amazement he was swept up in an elite friendship group eventually becoming celebrated as The Seven Wonders both on and off campus Then one of the group is murdered and the killer never caught The storyline alternates between their college days at Oxford and ten years later when Jem attempts to investigate who killed their friend. Death in the spires kj charles A nuanced tenor leaning toward melancholy and multi layered characters generated a singular reading experience apart from a standard who dunnit There was a haunting quality and a morose feel which had me taking breaks here and there to bring some light in I found it emotive rather than the spooky atmosphere I d anticipated. Death in the spires kj charles Being unfamiliar with the author I wasn t aware that she d built a following based on her romance titles so I want to clarify that this isn t a romance but it does contain romance secondary to the murder mystery If you re looking for a sophisticated thriller beyond the run of the mill you may love this as I did Thank you to NetGalley Storm Publishing and KJ Charles for my advance electronic copy due to be released on April 11 2024 English I have to go against the tide of popular opinion and say that I disliked this book and not just a bit but tremendously I found the plot tiresome and repetitive I hate flashbacks and skimmed most of them The pompous Oxford setting with its elitism racism and rivalry did nothing for me All the characters were dull and or unlikeable except maybe Ella although she was rather blas for someone whose brother was murdered Jem s quest to find the murderer consisted of asking everyone if they were the murderer The who done it was obvious the story lacked suspense or a sense of danger. Death in the spires kj charles We get a confession near the end but no real resolution Everyone sort of shrugged like Oh well whatchya gonna do about it It was all so anti climatic cliche and unsatisfying Also I don t know why the side romance was even included Aardvarks are far interesting than Jem and Nicky I spent good money on this book damn it English Hooo boy if this happens when KJ Charles isn t required to write a romance HEA and people being nice to each other I m here for it For the love of god do not go into this with an expectation of a romance novel I dare say you won t be left entirely empty handed or damaged for life but you won t get what you seek The mystery is solid and I really enjoyed trying to guess the whodunnit I didn t guess the murderer I spent the majority of the novel jumping between the suspects like a rabbit on speed but I did guess the biggest asshole for which I m very pleased with myself However the thing I enjoyed even is Charles s work with characters and also how effortlessly she weaves in bigger and topical themes such as female agency and bodily autonomy racism social inequality and privilege This book is at once heavy and angry and vicious and gentle and deeply human It s about friendship guilt and forgiveness and the poison of lies and secrets The whodunnit is important but not for the reasons it normally is in a murder mystery. Death in the spires kj charles I received the ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review Siri remind me to check the Goodreads reviews in a year to see how many dudes are leaving outraged reviews because they picked this murder mystery and found gasp gays in it English The newspapers called us the Seven Wonders We were a group of friends that s all and then Toby died Was killed Murdered 1905 A decade after the grisly murder of Oxford student Toby Feynsham the case remains hauntingly unsolved For Jeremy Kite the crime not only stole his best friend it destroyed his whole life When an anonymous letter lands on his desk accusing him of having killed Toby Jem becomes obsessed with finally uncovering the truth Jem begins to track down the people who were there the night Toby died a close circle of friends once known as the Seven Wonders for their charm and talent only to find them as tormented and broken as himself All of them knew and loved Toby at Oxford Could one of them really be his killer As Jem grows closer to uncovering what happened that night his pursuer grows bolder making increasingly terrifying attempts to silence him for good Will exposing Toby s killer put to rest the shadows that have darkened Jem s life for so long Or will the gruesome truth only put him in danger Some secrets are better left buried From the bestselling acclaimed author of The Magpie Lord and The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen comes a chilling historical mystery with a sting in the tail You won t be able to put this gripping story down Death in the SpiresI would like to thank NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. Death in the spires kj charles Kj Charles is one of the rare authors who NEVER misses for me I think KJC is a master of the craft and this atmospheric dark academia murder mystery was unsurprisingly another win Her skillfully executed silky witty narrative was as always completely enthralling And greedy for every last word of it my eyes stood no chance I devoured this in one sitting and ofc wanted 1000 pages I thought of Babel a lot while reading this for obvious reasons Not at all similar work but just that the location is always a magical place that brings all Spires inspired narrative to the fore especially when it s as alluring and atmospheric as dark academia Flowing black robes flapping around joyous dynamic bodies of 18 year old hearts on fire playful as puppies without a care in the world Their time together blossomed under the rays of their halcyon youth and my smile for these glimpses into Jem s past could not be contained I LIVE FOR THIS VIBE like Dead Poet s Society Maurice meets Sherlock Holmes And YES it was as magnificent to read as this mashup sounds The characterization was chef s kiss Jem as his nic implied was indeed a gem I adored him right away And I very much appreciated that his mettle was astutely woven into the observations of his cohorts because with a lot of these stories scholarship kids are always denigrated for getting an opportunity based on merit which then gets overshadowed by the slurs and shaming made primary as fodder for emotive narrative Here in 1892 Jem flourished as part of the collective of the Seven Wonders and I just loved the way this dexterity of KJC s enriched the entire cast of characters with unforgettable charisma all indulged with the same fully realized brilliance seen through Jem s eyes There was a lot of grace in the way the characters all spoke on the things that mattered to them about the world they lived in and how they watched felt related to each other felt developed through real connection instead of fiction This was marvelous work thoroughly engaging and gripping in ways than one I still think KJC has another level an extra ounce of depth another layer of complexity a power story still untold and one that I am dying to see Death in the Spires shows that Charles has hydra headed talent and is poised on the doorstep of an empire of gay historicals with teeth and fire I WANT THAT And as a fan of all of THIS that next gear is assured and with it KJC s sui generis legacy of unrepentant wit and extraordinary calibre which never fails to leave me wanting for Can t wait for whatever comes next because I m sure it will be top tier AND I AM HERE FOR ALL OF IT English In which I write a murder mystery NOT A ROMANCE Just to be clear on that genre betrayal confusion being a thing This book is my stab at a detective novel and I am terrified and excited It s also whatever the opposite of a love letter to Oxford University might be Possibly hate mail It s your classic Group Of University Friends Reunite With Murder set 1895 1905 enjoy I am thrilled by the cover English That was a foul thought planning to trap his friends into admissions but they weren t his friends any and one of them had murdered Toby Apparently this is being referred to as dark academia by quite a few people but not knowing much about that subgenre although I certainly should add that expression to my book vocabulary I ll stick with a mystery story an amateur 1905 investigation into a decade old murder at Oxford by a man who not only feels that his life has been ruined by that murder but who also knows that the murder had been committed by one of his formerly close knit group of friends Don t she said Don t ask me to remember all the golden times and how wonderful it was It s such a lovely lie and it makes everything worse now Stop dreaming about the spires It was a dreadful place and those were dreadful people and you and I got caught in their games and paid for it And you may not want to remember how much we hurt each other but Toby is rotting in the ground to prove it One of the reasons I like K. Death in the spires kj charles J Charles s books despite overall being quite wary of romance genre was that they have always been mystery first and romance second but this one is a straight historical mystery with romance barely in the background just enriching the story rather than being the story And that s what I like And sex mechanics are off page too and therefore are not distracting a brief It had been tender and gentle and it had felt at once utterly alien after so long of nothing but knees on cold floors and the hard hands of strangers is worth ten pages of play by play sex mechanics that to me are often awkward and unintentionally funny It s a book of young hopes and dreams and the shattered illusions that university opens the doors for everyone to the good life in a class conscious society and the scars our youth can leave on us It s brief and somewhat episodic in its pre murder timeline but despite brevity is still full with the pain of strained friendships and falsehoods and entitlements and resentments even if some of that does get healed eventually It s a sad story above all with no satisfying comeuppance or brilliant conclusions but with promise of healing which is the best to hope for. Death in the spires kj charles Solid 4 stars Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review Also posted on my blog English I completely adored this Oh my god I can t even begin to explain how perfect I found this book I can feel it sitting under my chest still The premise commences simply enough Following on 10 years after the murder of his friend at Oxford in 1905 Jem is still being haunted by the events of that night and after an anonymous letter is delivered to his work leading to the loss of his job Jem sets out to uncover the truth very I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes there at the start Regarding the quality It s KJ Charles and if you know you know I don t need to sell you on how accomplished her skill as a writer and storyteller is KJ Charles prefaced this book by saying that it was a murder mystery and not a romance I think that this was a completely unnecessary disclaimer cause I have rarely read a story that demonstrated so many layered complex genuine and sometimes toxic relationships and demonstrations of love and I am OBSESSED The whole cast of characters was fabulous I feel reluctant to say too much to give anything away but everyone in the group of friends felt well realised as characters with genuine and complex motivations Jem was a delightful main character who was clever and damaged and whose heartache and pain caused me to have actual goosebumps At times this gave me dark academia vibes that triggered off elements of Babel or Saltburn It was a tense emotional engaging and queer historical mystery and will go down as one of my favourites for the year Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC English Re upping 11 April Happy Book Birthday to this banger 4. Death in the spires kj charles 5 A KJ Charles book that is not a genre romance Squeak For those of you low key freaking out let me break this down KJC is not lying when she is using all her platforms to warn fans that this is a murder mystery rather than a romance Expectation setting is important y all The mystery the murder of golden boy Toby in his Oxford digs shortly before final exams is what drives the plot and the resolution Unlike the Society of Gentlemen series or Jackdaw or Magpies or Will Darling or basically any other book KJC has written where the romance is clearly the central narrative but is impelled complicated challenged by some crime or intrigue implicating one or both MCs and where the resolution of the intrigue plot is a means to the end of the HEA rather than a goal in itself this book forefronts the narrator s determination to solve Toby s murder KJC is however adhering very much to the letter rather than the spirit of the law here There is a meaty romantic subplot in both timelines pining galore and while it s not as developed as it would be in a capital r Romance you don t have to squint too hard to see an HEA or at least an HFN hovering off page The ending sees resolution for the mystery which in turn sets the remaining characters all of whom have been living with the shattering consequences of Toby s murder for a decade on a hopeful path finally able to start moving forward Indeed while the Jem Nicky relationship is the most central this is at least as much about the friendships among this group that to outsiders and for most of three years to Jem were the best the brightest the shiniest stars a tangle of love jealousies secrets and betrayals that ended in bloodshed lies and haunted silences. Death in the spires kj charles Jem our narrator is a working class scholarship lad whose three years at Oxford were like something plucked out of a fairy tale Already on his first day in college he is taken under the wing of Toby Feynsham heir apparent to a marquess louche charming spoiled and generous the sun around whom a group of outcasts orbit Jem who is not just poor but also small and waifish with a clubfoot that gives him a pronounced limp Aaron the college s only Black student whose poshness does not does protect him from unrepentant racism Prue mousy and determined the roommate and friend to Toby s twin sister the brilliant Ella Rounding out the Seven Wonders as the group is known is Nicky a friend and schoolmate of Toby s since childhood whose unrequited love for Toby the group politely ignores and Hugo a posh likable fellow whose ambition is the most notable thing about him This is a cleverly done dual timeline story told entirely in Jem s POV We start in 1905 ten years on from the murder Jem is in a pitiful state working a grudge job subsisting just above poverty level never recovered from the psychic blow he received the night of Toby s murder and from his subsequent failure to pass his exams if you re getting Ben from Jackdaw vibes you re not far off A malicious letter to his workplace names him a murderer newly unemployed and fed up with the suspicion and gossip that shadows him he determines once and for all to find out which of them killed Toby We then follow 1905 Jem making contact with his estranged group of friends doggedly uncovering secrets past and present to his own physical and emotional peril while the earlier timeline takes us through Jem s college years at first joyful exuberant and dizzying before imploding in spectacular fashion Throughout Jem is forced to reappraise what he thought he knew about those years he must also reckon with what Toby s death has done to all of them including those whose external circumstances are much less pressed than his Among the latter is Nicky now a fellow at their old college whose short liaison with and betrayal of Jem has shaped Jem s life as irrevocably as Toby s death. Death in the spires kj charles No spoilers here except to say that the resolution is very KJC forcing us to sit with questions of justice forgiveness how we reckon grave sins against each other and who can ultimately make these judgements It is at once hopeful but also deeply sad the story of a man who had everything and in losing it lost himself who decided to take everyone down with him to hurt and destroy rather than accept being outshined In typical KJC fashion it is briskly paced extremely well written and masterfully constructed As a romance reader I can admit that this wasn t as emotionally satisfying as other KJC reads The lack of an on page HEA leaves me wanting than the glimpse we get of brighter days ahead KJC s characteristic dry humor is also thin on the ground replaced instead with a resonant but melancholy oppressiveness it is always foggy rainy and cold Jem is both in constant pain and in severely straightened circumstances none of the characters can really be trusted But if I m reading this on its own terms as a mystery rather than a romance then I can t find much to quibble with Unlike many KJCs I m not sure this is a book I ll go back to But it is an accomplished twisty story with absorbing characters than a hint of romance and a real to life resolution that shows KJC s willingness to step out of her comfort zone and I can t help but reward it For those wondering there are non explicit bedroom scenes references to sex this is fade to black Also pedant s gonna pedant All Souls does not have study programs or students per se so while Nicky could have had a fellowship there he couldn t have gotten his D. Death in the spires kj charles Phil there Sorry Nicky Final parenthetical aside definitely google The Four Just Men which does not seem to have been a work of particular literary merit but has a bonkers backstory I got an ARC from Storm Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review English

Death in the Spires By K.J. Charles

1805082280

9781805082286

English

273

Kindle Edition

KJ is a writer of romance mostly m m historical or fantasy or both She blogs about writing and editing at site_link She lives in London UK with her husband two kids and a cat of absolute night. Death in the spires kj charles comJoin the lively Facebook group at site_link up to the infrequent newsletter at site_link do not message me on Goodreads as I no longer check the inbox due to unwanted messages KJ is a writer of romance mostly m m historical or fantasy or both She blogs about writing and editing at site_link She lives in London UK with her husband two kids and a cat of absolute night. Death in the spires kj charles comJoin the lively Facebook group at site_link up to the infrequent newsletter at site_link do not message me on Goodreads as I no longer check the inbox due to unwanted messages site_link.

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Death in the spires kj charles

I can t remember the last time I devoured a book this quickly. Death in the spires kj charles Twisty plot check Extraordinarily appealing detective with morally complicated love interest check Broody setting check Satisfying and unexpected form of justice check: Death in the spires kj charles I liked it even if I wasn t fully sold on some plot points but ultimately it didn t matter given that quiet and satisfied enjoyment it gave me in the end.4.At the end of the book mention is made of K.Bluesky kj_charleswriter.Bluesky kj_charleswriter