Currently Reading: These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

So, I checked out These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly at my local library, and holy crow, it is SO GOOD that I am completely obsessed with it. I don’t want to eat or go to work or really do anything at all except read this book!

I’m not even done yet but I’ve already bought my own copy to keep and the first book in her Waterfire saga YA series Deep Blue to start when I’m done with this.

These Shallow Graves has everything I was looking for: a murder mystery, romance, high stakes, more murder, more romance, mystery mystery mystery, girls doing what they shouldn’t, girls leaping over societal boundaries, forbidden love, more than one cemetery scene, well-researched realistic history, more murder, more romance, amazing secondary and main characters, friends risking it all for each other, coming of age growing pains, hilarious and witty dialogue, more murder, and well, more romance. And like I said, I’M NOT EVEN FLIPPING DONE AND THERE BETTER BE A SEQUEL IN THE WORKS IN THE SAME WORLD OR I WILL DIE.

Ahem.

I’ve made a collage below for inspiration and also a Pinterest board for my reading adventure. Follow it for more fun!

Collage inspired by These Shallow Graves

Here’s a little about These Shallow Graves (isn’t the cover gorgeous, of course it is because this book is perfect, duh).

Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.

Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun.

The more Jo uncovers about her father’s death, the more her suspicions grow. There are too many secrets. And they all seem to be buried in plain sight. Then she meets Eddie—a young, brash, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. Only now it might be too late to stop.

The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and the truth is the dirtiest part of all.

Or if you just want to do yourself a favor, the hardcover of These Shallow Graves is gorgeous and I already bought a copy, and you can do that here (and at the time of writing this, it’s on sale!).

Buy it on Amazon

I don’t know the author and I wasn’t asked to promote this or anything, I just love love love finding great books and this book IS FLIPPING GREAT. That is coming from someone who doesn’t normally read historical fiction. But this is AMAZING. And if they are all like this, then I will read them all forever.

I can’t wait to report back when I’m done and I can nurse my book hangover and be really dramatic about the fact that I’m done and now my life means nothing outside Jo’s (the main character of the book) world in New York.

I hope you all had a nice mother’s day!