I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review.

If you know me, you know that I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. So when I came across this on Netgalley, I did not hesitate to request. I knew that I would like this but I didn't expect to have enjoyed this as much as I did.

I love the mystery with a paranormal twist. I think it's quite unique to incorporate paranormal elements to a descendant of Holmes. The mystery element in the book is great; tested my brain and really made me think. When I thought I got it all figured out, BAM, a plot twist would appear. The plot twist at the end especially was absolutely amazing and took me completely by surprise.

The main character, Marisol Holmes, is fairly easy to like. She is a half-blood, half human and half jaguar shifter. Despite being a Holmes, Marisol was often affected by her strong emotions, thus committing mistakes. But no one's perfect, right? I also liked how Marisol has a Sherlock Mode, where she abandons all emotions to focus on facts for solving cases. Aside from that, Marisol also has her inner jaguar and she kind of grew on me.

However, I sometimes get the feeling that I'm reading the second book in a series where I haven't read the first one. I had to check Goodreads just to make sure that this is indeed the first book. I think that the book could have done with maybe a bit more background of what happened in the Big Betrayal, not just a quick explanation about it. I would also like a bit more about Roan. ;)

I really enjoyed reading A Study In Shifters because the author did a great job in combining mystery and paranormal, and creating a great main character. I'm really looking forward to the next in this series!

Marisol is Sherlock Holmes' great great great granddaughter and also a half blood jaguar shifter. Part of a crime-solving institution, the Conclave, she is currently in trouble with them due to the Big Betrayal.

The supernatural element makes the story quirkier but not superficial, with Marisol's caught between 2 worlds feelings, giving it even more depth. The battle of the protagonist's emotions is depicted quite well, in a way that makes you feel for her from the very beginning. I really enjoyed how the jaguar part of her was presented.

The desire to make up for past mistakes is very strong, the foundation of Marisol's persona. Guilt, a driving force for her actions in the case she was given. Her Sherlock mode was quite engaging and if you're a fan like me, you enjoy that she has some of her ancestor's idiosyncrasies. I especially enjoyed her bluntness, but she isn't intentionally mean, on the contrary, just socially awkward.

The investigation is intriguing and leading us down a twisty but logical path. The Big Betrayal is interesting and you thirst to find out what happened, but the part by part reveal, does get a little repetitive in some of its events. Her 'trips down memory lane' are quite informative though, sometimes touching, and seem integral to the present mystery.

The stakes are much higher by the end of the book, making it more exciting the more you read. And just when you think you know how it will end, "boom!" that plot twist that will have you clamoring for the sequel.

A Study In Shifters is a terrific start to a new series that I very much look forward to. Marisol Holmes is a human/jaguar shifter hybrid and she uses both halves to solve crime. Her mind is drawn to puzzles just like her ancestor Sherlock Holmes. She even has her own Moriarity in the form of a wolf shifter named Mannix. This story is a labyrinth of clues and misdirections and an overall great read.

Goodreads Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Marisol Holmes may be the great-great-great granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes, but it’s hard to live up to the family name when only one mistake can spell your downfall. After trusting the wrong guy in a case gone totally wrong, Marisol convinces the Conclave, an underground organization of detectives solving supernatural cases, to give her a last chance to prove her worth, and maybe even heal her broken heart.

After all, as a half-blood jaguar shifter, Marisol is uniquely qualified to solve this murder—and every scrap of evidence points toward the culprit being a fellow jaguar shifter. But is one of her own people involved, or is this all a ploy to kick Marisol’s mother off the shifter throne?

Then Marisol discovers her best friend, Roan, is missing, and maybe the killer’s next target. The stakes just got higher than political intrigue. Just when things couldn’t get worse, Marisol’s ex-boyfriend-turned-nemesis, Mannix, starts leaving sinister clues for her. Marisol fears this case might be far more personal than she could’ve imagined.

It’s time for Marisol to prove her worth, or her people could fall into chaos while her best friend loses his life.

My Review:
Before I say anything about this book, I want to say how much I absolutely loved it and how I can't wait to see what happens in the sequel. It sucked me in from the moment I started it, and I read it almost in two sittings. It was exciting, and completely different than anything else I've read lately.

Now that that's done, lets talk about what it's about. Marisol has been through a lot lately. After the cold blooded murder of her little cousin, her best friend, she's been detached and quiet. She lives in a world of animal shifters, and where the supernatural is hidden from the human population. A descendant of Sherlock Holmes himself, she's trying to get her old job back in the Conclave, a supernatural sort of detective agency that keeps everything hidden. Not many people know about them. It begins with a man she calls Balthy, giving her a thirty minute test to determine if she can return to her job. After all, she doesn't know who she is anymore without the Conclave. Her mother, a cold jaguar shifter, is royalty, and her father was a human so a lot of people think less of her since she's not full blooded shifter. Will she be able to prove herself and get back to normal life, more or less?

The world that Marisol lives in is very established and easy to imagine. After she's completed her test and is forced to do yet another trial run, at a boarding school, I couldn't put the book down. The way it's written is very clear and easy to read, also really informative. I didn't have any problem jumping from the last book I read straight into this one. The characters are so realistic it's scary, especially when there's murder and shifters involved. Usually I'm not big on books about animal shifters, but this is completely an exception. I would definitely like to buy a copy of it just to have on my bookshelf, that's how much I like it. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon, and another link to the Author's Twitter.

https://www.amazon.ca/Study-Shifters-Adventures-Marisol-Holmes-ebook/dp/B077V25K4X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530122096&sr=8-1&keywords=a+study+in+shifters

https://twitter.com/iheartreads?lang=en

Thanks for reading! Check out this review and more at my blog.
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

This is a fun read I would say this is for a middle school reader. Marisol Holmes is a shifter and teen detective. Interesting story that is a lot of fun to read!! Throw in some young love and fantasy setting and it looks to be a nice series!

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC for an unbiased review.

~~~~2.5 - 3.0 Stars ~~~~

*** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ***


This book sounded so intriguing that when NetGalley got back to me and actually said yes to my request to review it I dove in straight away... rocketing it to the tippy top of my TBR pile. You can read the official synopsis to get the gist of the plot so I will spare you the filler and not regurgitate it here. What I will say is that this story was billed as a Paranormal Who Done It featuring a kick butt heroine that is not only a descendent of the one and only master of the Sleuth game, Sherlock Holmes, but a fierce Royal blooded shifter to boot.

YES PLEASE!! Gimme Gimme!

Now, after having finished the book, I won't classify it as a total letdown but it was most decidedly a mixed bag. The pacing was perfect. There were no lagging, skim inducing parts. On the other hand the world building, character development and overall writing were merely okay. There was SO much repetition, especially about her "Sherlock mode", "mind palace" and incessant inner shifter pictionary style commentary, that it felt like a crime against humanity, a felony whereby you were constantly and viciously being mentally accosted...

(((GASP)))

End run on sentence here.

squirrelly digression aside...back to the regularly scheduled review...

The budding relationships were a tease. They could have been SO much more. They felt like they were just starting to getting immersive, good and entangled, tantalizingly enmeshed, when the connection either disintergrated or was severed and left dangling. The carrot was yanked away so violently that the literary Horse (being we the reader) was left unsatisfied and wanting.

However, I was probably not the targeted audience since I found the writing to be a touch sophomoric for my taste. This coupled with the repetition problem and lack of character relationship cohesion made it feel like it was geared towards a much younger YA reader. So if you are a 12-14 year old paranormal, mystery, tame romance enthusiast, this one is definitely for you!

A society of people who can shift into animals...what an amazing concept. And not just one kind of animal either. Big cats, snakes, foxes, skunks, and I think even snails are in this book. Plus Marisol is the great, great, great granddaughter of the famous Sherlock Holmes. Can she live up to her ancestors reputation? You will enjoy finding out!

I was quite excited to read this book: shifters, murders' investigations, Sherlock Holmes' legacy, a YA read, all these themes are just what I like. But alas if I appreciated the story, the narrative's choices and flaws annoyed me so much that I decided to stop at the third of the book. As a matter of principle I always try to read a book so far before giving it up, but I don't force me to finish it if I believe my opinion settled. 

The story is interesting and intriguing and I liked the idea of a mysterious half humans half animals population - shifters - hidden in plain sight, with powerful auto-controled families. And if the half-blood status of the heroine wasn't very original, I liked the edge it gave to her life. Her relation with her mother was interesting and well exposed, credible and touching.

Alas plenty of details grated on me and I couldn't read on. 

The narrator is permanently referring to her inner jaguar, nearly in each sentence, explaining how the invisible animal is reacting to the present situation. This narrative decision bogs down the story, and it got on my nerves till the very beginning.

There are shifters...everywhere in the story. Jaguars, snakes, horses, leopards, spiders, otters. Well theoretically. At the third of the book I still haven't seen anyone in fur or scales, only very basic humans with generic personalities linked to their animal species. A bit boring and repetitive so far - but of course it may have been more riveting afterwards, I wouldn't know.

Marisol is supposed to be as brilliant and socially akwark as her great great great grand-father, Sherlock Holmes. But alas it doesn't show at all, and the repetitive affirmations didn't convince me. For instance she sees or understands some things absolutely evident but that nobody in the story has seen or understood, which is absolutely unbelievable! In a way it likes telling us that someone is a maths genius by explaining that they can solve basic first degree equations in less than five minutes. Hum. Marisol's exposure as a person with poor social skills is very awkward too, lot of telling, unconvincing showing. She seems to be a polite introvert, but never someone with Asperger syndrome (as implied).

All in all it's a shame as the story had potential in my eyes, but in the end it wasn't for me. But I'm now quite demanding with my reads, so I still recommend you this book if the themes intrigue you, and if you aren't such a quibbler as I am!

Esto de pedir cosas a Netgalley por si suena la flauta tiene consecuencias inesperadas. Hacía mucho que no leía nada que tuviera como protagonista a Holmes ni a nadie de su familia (aunque recuerdo que no hace mucho salió un cómic que pasó sin pena ni gloria) pero al ver que lo mezclaba con cambiaformas, todo podía salir o muy bien o ser algo horrendo digno de echarse unas risas. Por suerte para mí, salió bien, de tal forma que nos encontramos con una novela claramente enfocada al público YA al que le gusten los misterios y las resoluciones de tipo serie de detectives con cosas que directamente parecen tomadas la parte visual de series de ese tipo. A eso le añadimos el toque emocional de tener a un animalito mono dentro pero verse separados por la culpa y la incapacidad de aceptarse completamente por culpa de una Gran Traición y todo va sobre ruedas.

La trama se centra en un asesinato, el primero que dejan investigar a Marisol Holmes después de su caída en desgracia. Ella, la heredera del clan del Jaguar, una mestiza con sangre humana por parte de padre, tiene el encargo de ayudar a su supervisora, una serpiente, a encontrar al asesino de una joven. En un instituto lleno de secretos, gente bondadosa y malos bichos, tendrá que emplear sus dotes Holmesianas mientras mantiene a raya a su jaguar interior. Además, por si acaso eso no fuera suficiente, dos hombres de su pasado tienen que ver con el caso. (Sí, no voy a decir que no estuviera deseando que se liara con alguna de las chicas, pero no hubiera estado mal que, al menos, hubiera habido una señal en esa dirección en alguna de las potentes relaciones femeninas de las que se habla en la novela).

Quizá una de las cosas más sorprendentes de la novela es la forma tan clara en que caracteriza a los personajes en apenas dos o tres diálogos, de forma que rápidamente les asignas una posición dentro del misterio. Es cierto que la resolución del mismo no es tan sorprendente como eran los de Holmes y, en este caso, tiende más a ir dando pequeñas pistas en vez de detenerse al final de todo el proceso y explicar cómo lo descubrió todo, pero eso sirve para llevar el ritmo de una manera más actual. Es interesante el uso de mecanismos de la serie Sherlock, como el palacio mental o la escena del crimen recreada de memoria por Holmes. Funciona muy bien, sobre todo si eres un espectador habitual de series de este tipo, porque puedes hacerte la imagen mental perfecta de lo que está ocurriendo gracias a la descripción.

La sociedad de cambiaformas que crea es lo suficientemente sencilla para que resista el análisis superficial que necesita para lanzar a andar la historia y, al mismo tiempo, incomoda un poco que no se hayan puesto al nivel de los tiempos (aunque sí haya referencias durante el texto al momento actual, con Google y otras referencias sencillas de captar). Por otro lado, la construcción de las relaciones de la protagonista y la muestra de que en el mundo en el que se encuentra la magia y los cambiaformas son reales y se mantienen en una mascarada, intentando que nadie sospeche de su existencia, puede dar lugar a situaciones muy interesantes en futuras novelas de la saga.

En definitiva, se trata de una novela entretenida que consigue hacer honor al nombre de Holmes, aunque a veces sea un poco más lenta de lo que esperaríamos la protagonista ya que el lector se encontrará con que, con un poco de astucia, puede descubrir la solución a varios de los misterios antes que ella. Por otro lado, es interesante ver cómo las emociones y la lógica se muestran en un personaje que puede separarlas siguiendo las enseñanzas de su antepasado.

This book was just alright for me. It felt like this was targeted at younger YA readers, closer to 12 or 13.

I liked this 1st book in the new series, Adventures of Marisol Holmes. Marisol is a descendant of Sherlock Holmes and is a half shifter. Her mother is head of the Jaguar clan and part of the Conclave council. Marisol is on probation and is sent with a snake shifter to a school where people are being murdered. This is a great teen read that deals with young love and fantasy. As a shifter fantasy it's well written with many unique beings and an organization to keep them from being discovered by humans. I think this ARC still needs a little editing. I received this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The storyline and setting are fantastic, the characters and writing are a little simplistic. A few too many convenient self-realizations to be terribly convincing and skews towards a younger than YA audience in my opinion.

I received a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.
This was unfortunately just an okay read for me. Don’t get me wrong there were a lot of things I loved about the story but the few things that bothered me just left a considerably bigger impact.
First the things I enjoyed. I really liked the whole idea of the protagonist being the descendant of Sherlock Holmes and being a spectacular investigator herself a well, that fact that all this was combined with her being a half-shifter as well just elevated things. It was an interesting and kind of original premise to the book.
I also enjoyed the strange and angsty romance between Marisol and Roan even if their interactions sometimes came in rather inconvenient times in the storyline.
I found the whole storyline intriguing and full of possibilities and the bad guy was a genius character.
Basically I loved the ideas behind the story.

However, I had a big problem with the execution. First and foremost with the freaking repentance. I
don’t count the times when there are words repeated because my copy being a ARC, alas unedited, there is a chance those get corrected, but when it came to sentences, statements being repeated that’s a bigger problem. Mostly because I feel that the author did it on purpose trying to stress the importance some things but when 1 thing gets repeated more than 10 times only in the first chapter that’s not only too much but also becomes annoying and fast. Pair this with the overly detailed and sometimes inconsequential conversations and you get my problem. Because of this I felt that the core of the storyline gets lost along the way in some occasions and also it was slower and a bit boring at those parts.
My second problem was with the atmosphere of the story. It had that annoying juvenile mentality going for it. You know the one where in the direst situations the main character love life plays a bigger role in her/his train of thought than the killer for example. It’s the reason why I don’t read as much YA anymore, because I just can’t handle these kind of things anymore. But if you love YA or younger then there is a big possibility that you are going to love the book. This is just a pet peeve of mine.
Overall, I loved the idea behind the story but I think the execution need some work still. But as I stated earlier if you love YA this book is for you, there is mystery, action, drama and romance aplenty to go around.