So Bookalicious!: Review: Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets #2) by Karen Ann Hopkins

Title: Whispers from the Dead
Author: Karen Ann Hopkins
Series: Serenity's Plain Secrets
Genre: Mystery, Adult
Publication date: January 6th 2015
Pages: 277 (ebook)
Source: received from author
Get a Copy: Amazon | B&N
Previous book: Lamb to the Slaughter Add it to your shelf on Goodreads Facebook, get a copy on Amazon | B&N

Some Amish communities aren't so cozy.

Whispers From The Dead is the powerful and thrilling sequel to Lamb of the Slaughter in the Amish mystery series, Serenity's Plain Secrets. Sheriff Serenity Adams and Daniel Bachman are once again partnered up in a criminal investigation, when they travel to a northern Amish settlement that has been riddled by arsons for the past two decades. Serenity quickly discovers that there is a lot more going on than just barns being set on fire in the touristy community of Poplar Springs. And this group of Amish has their own secrets to hide. Serenity begins to unravel an extensive criminal underworld that threatens to destroy everything that the simple people of Poplar Springs hold dear, and once again puts her own life in jeopardy. And even though Serenity tries desperately to avoid it, things begin heating up between her and Daniel, making her wonder if true love and happiness are really withing her grasp.

*Some language and romantic sexual content.

Goodreads

Karen Ann Hopkins is one of those authors that are on my auto-buy list. So far I’ve loved every book that she has written. She literary can write everything from YA contemporary romance to YA paranormal books. And as it turns out she’s also very good at writing adult mystery books. It’s really saying something that I liked this book. Because it doesn’t happen often that I like a mystery book, most of the time I avoid them. But I’m so glad that I took a chance with this book. I didn’t regret reading it for a single second.

I really like the setting of this book, an Amish community, since I still don’t know a lot about their culture. And I always like it when I can learn something when reading a book. As far as I know the book represented the culture of the Amish well. Most of the time they keep to themselves and don’t really interact with the English. This this made it of course even harder for Serenity to solve the case of who was burning down the barns and find out who the death body was in one of the burned barns. But the Amish community of Poplar Springs was very friendly, they didn’t tell her everything they knew about it all as they should have but they were definitely friendly people.

It was great to try figure out along with serenity what exactly was going on in the Amish community and how it all connected with each other. I could hear my head crack from all the theories I came up with. Some things didn’t take me long to figure out but there were certain things that still surprised me. Hopkins certainly made me sit at the edge of my seat through the entire book. Whispers from the Dead, was packed with mystery and action so there wasn’t a good moment to put the book down for even a minute.

Serenity is an amazing character. She’s such a badass; I wouldn’t like to go up against her. She’s very determined to do something good in the world and in her case it is taking down the bad guys. And she will do everything to accomplish it, even thinking out of the box. But at the same time she also got this sweet side. You clearly saw it when she was around the younger Amish kids and when she was around Daniel. Even though she tried to hide her sweet side when she was with him. It was so clear that Daniel was growing on her, even when she was reluctant to let him get close to her. But at was cheering at the end of the book for the both of them.

I really enjoyed every second of this book. This book is really perfect for everyone, even for people who don’t really like mystery books like me. I’m looking forward to read the next book in this series.

Giveaway

Contest Info: We have a really exciting prize package for this tour, so make sure to follow along for more chances to win every day!

What’s up for grabs:

• 5 e-copies of Lamb to the Slaughter, Book 1 of Serenity’s Plain Secrets

• 5 e-copies of Whispers from the Dead, Book 2 of Serenity’s Plain Secrets

• A traditional Amish style hand stitched wall hanging/lap quilt

Please enter via the Rafflecopter form. Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.

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About the Author

A native of New York State, Karen Ann Hopkins now lives with her family on a farm in the northern Kentucky, where her neighbors in all directions are members of a strict Amish community. Her unique perspective became the inspiration for the story of star-crossed lovers Rose and Noah. When she's not homeschooling her kids, giving riding lessons or tending to a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats, she is dreaming up her next romantic novel.

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