Here Lies a Saint by C.L. Matthews (New Release)

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*An ARC copy was provided to me in exchange for my honest review,

Firstly, this is book 2 in the Here Lies series that Matthews is currently working on. You must read Book 1, Here Lives a Corpse, to understand where things are at when this book starts.

We learned so many things in Book 1, but there are lots of questions that still need answering. Let’s start with the fact that this series includes elements of high school students, secret societies, founding families, cult-like behaviors, reverse harems and just about any layer of depression you can imagine. I throw all that out there at you because this is not a series for everyone. There are intense elements in this story that can cause triggering for those that cannot read those kinds of things.

So now that we’ve laid that foundation, let’s talk about what a mess everything has gotten. I can’t get into too much detail because well, spoilers, but our main characters have really begun to make a dent in revealing some of the bigger elements that are happening behind the scenes and it’s a dirty, messed up world that we hadn’t realized in Book 1.

In Book 1 we meet Colt, our main female and leader of the reverse harem. Her brother has recently died and she’s working as hard as she can to survive the depression that has over run her and the belief she has that everyone close to her knows something about her brothers death that she doesn’t. After investigating and getting close to some answers, a tragedy at the end of Book 1 propels her in a different direction.

Now she’s in the clutches of The Vestige. This is the group of founding families that run the town they live in and they’re ready to train Colt to be the woman she was meant to be. Regardless of her own wishes.

So many things happen in this story that will your heart breaking, you’ll be questioning everyone’s motives and some real big questions start to come into play. What’s in Colt’s past that we don’t know… Like I said, there are some BIG things happening and foundations being laid. It appears that her harem of boys are all there to help her, but there may also be infiltrators in her close network as well.

All I can really summarize this with is that you have to read it to understand it. The first book broke me down and tore me apart, but I felt like this one started to answer enough of the underlying questions that I wasn’t as destroyed by it. I’m hooked, no doubt about it, but I felt like I got something in exchange for my emotional investment. Not only do you get more information on the underlying plot, but you really get to dig in and understand some more of the characters that you may not have connected with in the first book.

This series has started off with two amazing books and I cannot wait for the rest of them to come out through the course of 2021. If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, get your hands on Book 1 and Book 2 NOW!

Book 1: Here Lives a Corpse

Book 2: Here Lies a Saint