The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard (Illumicrate Exclusive)

I'm too much of a scaredycat to be a horror-reader, but I am a Susan Dennard-reader, so I went into this with medium expectations - assuming I'd have a good time, but it might not be my perfect cup of tea. To my delight, I was greeted with something Very Much my cup of tea: the 90s nostalgia, Freddie's personality, the humour, the clues - it broke up the horror into bite-sized (or I guess, sip-sized, if we're keeping the tea metaphor) pieces. As someone who grew up reading Nancy Drew and then became a Buffy TVS fan, it's a little as if Nancy Drew got dropped into Sunnydale to investigate a strange slew of missing persons - but she doesn't believe in the supernatural. I know there's no plans for a sequel, but I'm just saying: if there was, I would be there in an instant. I loved The Executioners Three, it had me laughing and giggling out loud in-between the romance and the spooky scary stuff. For my LGBTQIA+ gang: while the main romance is straight, there is representation among the other characters, and though this does take place in the 90s and fully revels in the good 90s vibes, it has removed the bad vibes. There's no homophobia, there's no weirdness around it, all the characters are treated the same regardless of sexuality. It all just feels part of things in a very natural way - my gay lil soul loved it. One last thing, I just have to give massive praise to this particular edition: it is GORGEOUS. I’m so glad I treated myself to it, you could say the end the entire edition but especially the end pages are Very Pretty Indeed.

This came well packages! The cover and design details are beautiful!

The book is gorgeous!! All of the artwork on the cover and inside is so cool. The story is spooky, atmospheric and romantic all at once. Such a great fall read.