I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Lies on the Serpent's Tongue by Kate Pearsall Series: Bittersweet in the Hollow #2
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on 2025 January 07
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 230
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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A beautifully dark YA set in Appalachia tinged with magic, mystery, murder, and romance.For fans of House of Hollow and Wilder Girls!As Caball Hollow slowly recovers after a tumultuous summer, the James family must also come to terms with their own newly revealed secrets. 18-year-old Rowan James has spent her whole life harboring unpleasant truths—that’s what happens when you can smell people’s lies—and building walls around herself to block them out. Like her younger sister, Linden, who can taste the feelings of others, Rowan has long resented her gift, which has taught her that everyone lies and no one is who they seem to be. So when her old nemesis, Hadrian Fitch, the biggest liar of them all, shows up on her front porch—bloodied, broken, and asking for help only she can give—her first instinct is distrust. But something new is stalking the Forest that surrounds Caball Hollow. Now things are disappearing. At first, it’s small stuff—like letters, photos, and keys. But then, Rowan notices people around her are losing their memories. And when the body of a neighbor is found in the middle of town, Rowan knows there’s a link between this death and all the events disturbing the Hollow. Can she find what—or who—the link is before it takes another life?
Thank the heavens because Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue did not suffer from the dreaded ‘middle book syndrome’ wherein the whole series starts to fall apart due to eye-rolling fillers. Though I have not yet posted my review for the first book, Bittersweet in the Hollow, a simple Goodreads search would show that I gave it a 3-star rating due to issues that I just couldn’t let go. But that’s another story in a separate post. Let’s focus on the Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue.
Well, not so much time has passed ever since the events in Book 1; everything in Caball Hollow was going back to normal. Or is it? It started off as something that can just be swept under the rugs, but the residents of the small town are not only losing things but also losing their memories associated with the said things. For our inquisitive heroine, Rowan (one of Linden’s sisters), this felt like an omen for more bad things to come. And the bad things did come. First, fauna not only endemic but haven’t been seen and documented to inhabit the Appalachian Mountains are roaming the area. Second, there was her mortal enemy (and prolly greatest crush of all time), Hadrian Fitch, arriving at her doorstep bloodied and almost dying. For a supernatural being, who could have attacked and wounded him? Third, an unknown and dying person was discovered in one of the areas of the Appalachian Forest.
Just like her sister Linden, Rowan was not one to sit around while mysterious things are happening around her. While I admire the girl’s tenacity, I cannot help my frustration from surfacing at how competent the James girls are at solving mysterious murders putting the Sheriff Department to shame. There’s just an incongruence between the skills of Sheriff’s force vs. the James girls’. Come to think of it, Rowan and her sisters are surely bestowed with different powers but most of their lives were spent going to school, helping with the day-to-day chores in the Harvest Moon diner, gardening, foraging for herbs and stuff, and mixing tinctures, etc. They just don’t have the skills for investigating murders so I cannot wrap my mind around the idea that the Sheriff Dept. members are just a bunch of louts mooching off money from the government while less competent girls are doing their work. This is actually my biggest in Book 1 and now, in this sequel, too. Like how many times can the persons of authority be incompetent? Don’t they have any skills development training from Books 1 to Books 2?
Had the author resolved the issue I’ve mentioned above, I would have given this book a 5 star rating. The mythos and the lore were beautifully elaborated by the author. Some of my unanswered questions from Book 1 were finally closed out. The twists were intricately positioned in the whole story for maximum shock factor. My hats off to Kate Pearsall for mentally straining me as I made a lot of guesses about who’s the culprit until the end. I was flabbergasted and at the same time, awed at how it all came together. And how can I forget about the giddying romance between Rowan and our resident liar, Hadrian Fitch? If there’s one thing I can say, I have shipped them since Book 1 and it’s gratifying to witness how they overcome their differences and made things work.
To sum it all up, Lies on Serpent’s Tongue had just redeemed the whole series for me. Kate Pearsall really upped her game with this book as she masterfully crafted a story that is eerie and poignant at the same time.