WHISPER THE DEAD by Alyxandra Harvey

Rating: C+
Synopsis:
Cousins Gretchen, Emma, and Penelope are all dealing with what it means to be a Lovegrove. For Gretchen, it means she often feels like her head is going to explode. As a Whisperer, Gretchen constantly hears the whispers of other witches’ spells. And while this does help her to know when one of her own spells is going wrong, the incessant buzzing and pain the whispers cause makes it difficult to use her gift.

But when something evil begins to menace Mayfair, Gretchen must find a way to master her power. Along with her cousins, a madcap named Moira, and the icy yet irresistible Tobias Lawless, Gretchen faces deadly threats and unimaginable loss in the hopes of preventing the terrible Greymalkin Sisters from rising again.

The second book in The Lovegrove Legacy trilogy, Whisper the Dead will leave readers spellbound.

My thoughts on the book:
Whisper the Dead had the potential to be a fantastic follow-up to A Breath of Frost, but it fell short for me. I ended the book feeling extremely annoyed because it's a long read, and there is a lot of information that I don't feel is necessary, but somehow the story still ended on a cliffhanger. The characters are still interesting, but the story jumped around so much, none of the characters get to evolve any. This book left me feeling like I was running in circles for several days for no good reason. 

Gretchen is supposed to be the main focus of this book, I think, but the points of view switch up so much that it's hard to tell. I really liked the parts I saw with her, and I do love her with Tobias. There are just too many point of view switches to become invested in any one character/couple. I also loved that I got to see more of Penelope, but her parts were so limited due to the switching around that I didn't get to know much more about her. Emma and Cormac have a few important segments in the story, but again, nothing substantial. 

The plot itself is a bit convoluted, but it does make sense. The writing is lovely, as usual for Harvey novels. The switching points of view really made it difficult to follow the plot. I felt like I had ADD or something and couldn't focus on one character for more than a couple of paragraphs. If the POVs had switched each chapter instead of dumping a bunch of POVs into a chapter, I think the story would have flowed better. The pacing is super slow because I couldn't get involved with any storyline/character before it changed. The ending is a cliffhanger, and I had no sense of closure. I was just left feeling really annoyed because this book is over 400 pages long, and over half of that probably could have been cut. 

Overall, I'd recommend this book to you if you read A Breath of Frost and fell in love with it. I'm going to wait until the third book comes out before I judge the entire trilogy, but this book isn't half as entertaining and captivating as the first, in my opinion.

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