Review: Along Came a Spider

Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I eyed Kate SeRine's work since forever and actually had "Red", the first book in the series in my Kindle but never had a chance to read it. So when I saw this book on NetGalley, it was a good incentive. I like the blurb and decide to request it.

I was not sure if this is the good idea because I had some issues related to the fact that this was the third book in the series. There are some fact or incident that happened in the first two books that mentioned in this book and I felt like I missed something important. However, this book is still an enjoyable read with interesting concept.

The world concept of this series was the best element. What would happened when the characters in fairy tales, literature, nursery rhythms transplanted into the real world. Do they continue their own storyline that we knew and loved? or they became someone else began a new life.

So in this story we saw Snow White as a madam in a brothel, Prince Charming as a crooked businessman, and the three little pigs became hitmen. It was fun and expand your imagination a lot about some certain characters.

However, our hero and heroine came from the nursery rhythms, which I admitted due to English was not my first language, I had no idea about them so I need to do some research in order to understand the aspect of their psyche. It did not mean that it was necessary but it would enriched the story.

Trish Muffet, the girl who encountered the spider in nursery rhythms now was working for the organization that looked after the characters from Tales who transplanted to the real world. She investigated the murder of Tales character, which linked to Dracula. But something went wrong, she was attacked but finally rescued by Nicky Blue, another Tales character who actually came to the real world the same time as she.

For all those time since she arrived to the real world, Trish felt something to Nicky but after he asked her to leave with him that first day (when arrived in the real world) and she said no, they went separate way. During that time Nicky became her best friend's lover, got married, lost his wife to the attack in the first book. Now Nicky came back for revenge to Dracula by becoming a vigilant named "the Spider".

I felt a lot of portion in the story were in the first two books, which I was told but not experience myself in this book. It more liked I went to the theater half way of the showing. I got all the fact of what happened but not the feeling. And that was what I felt about the relationship between Trish and Nicky. I could tell that there were something between those two. But when they actually said the L word especially when Nicky said after everything that happened to him (which happened in the first two books) he was in love with Trish, I really did not get the intimacy. I think the love was real but I did not feel it in the story.

Same thing happened with the characters. Since both Trish and Nick were the continuing characters from the first two books, a lot of their back story maybe told in those two books, which unfortunately I did not read. So I did not really know them well especially Nicky. The story was told in first person POV and that was Trish. Nicky became quite a distant character. I knew he pushed himself from just a nursery rhyme to the mafia boss (?? not quite sure). I wanted to know more about that but it was only mentioned in passing. A lot of interesting feathers of both Trish and Nick were in passing assuming the reader already knew from the first two books. And what is the obsession about Red (the heroine from the first book)? The story spent too much time on her.

I loved the suspense element. I admitted I was a fool for not seeing through the plot. Good for the author.

It might be my fault not to begin this series from the beginning. My opinion might change in case of the romance between Trish and Nicky if I read through their interaction in the first two books.

In summary, great concept (enough to make me read the rest of the story), good suspense and characters but not deep enough to make me fell in love with them.



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