Special thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Oh man what a letdown in this series. A new author and it feels like the characters are dumbed down.

Lisbeth shows up in Chapter 13 for example.

Unfortunately I was very letdown and cannot give this book a good recommendation I'm sorry to say.

I'm not sure how to rate this book. I read the original trilogy and while I enjoyed them, I found the writing very black and white and pedantic at times. I had hopes that a female author would not include violence against women, but that was not the case. While it's not as extreme as the other books, it's still present and is only included to make the bad guy extra bad. No thanks.

Despite the violence, the meandering plot and murky ending, the book is very readable. Lizbeth is called to a small northern town to look after her orphaned niece. Blomkvist is conveniently in the area for his estranged daughters wedding. Mikael has recently retired and proves to be fairly useless.

Sigh... I had high hopes for this one, but it fell short. I listened to the audio courtesy of PRH Audio (y'all are amazing! I love being able to listen to my reads these days).

I thought perhaps with a new author, Karin Smirnoff, I would get reinvested in the series, but unfortunately, nothing can match the magic created by the original author.

There was a nice return to Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist but I think perhaps this will be the end of me reading. I have seen many reviews that talk about how much they liked the new twists and turns and I think others will find this an enjoyable and reinvigorating read for the series. It just missed the mark for me.

I have loyally read every book in this series, from the original trilogy to the following three books by David Lagercrantz. I was pleasantly surprised by the Lagercrantz ones; they were well written, continued the characters stories in an interesting way, and took on social topics that made sense for the story.

In this seventh book, the series has a new author and it's just not the same. Whereas Lagercratz elevated the series, this book feels like it's just gratuitous violence and dumbing down of the characters. Lisbeth did not even show up until Chapter 13. I did not care about the social topic and struggled to read this book.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book and it may be the last one I read in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

This was...not good. Gratuitous rape and violence. Unnecessary POVs/plot lines. A Lisbeth mini-me. A non-ending. So disappointing. I was hoping the misogyny would be less having a female author but I swear there was more!!

2.5 stars rounded down
I was hopeful that this latest book in the Millennium series would be better with a woman’s touch. Sadly, it was not. The book had a lot of misogyny and sexual violence that had nothing to do with the plot. I almost DNFed this book, but then Lisbeth popped in at about the 20% mark, so I decided to keep going. The plot revolves around a mob-type group trying to set up a wind farm in Sweden. There is also Svala, Lisbeth’s niece, trying to find her mom, who went missing. This did not feel like the same Lisbeth and Mikhail, and they had very little interaction. Two positives are the short chapters which helped to move the story along, and the new character Svala.

I'm always up for seeing what Lisbeth Salander has been up to. In this latest installment (prefaced by a cast of characters in the series, thank you very much), the setting is in northern Sweden, very rural, very small town. So small town that each character has some kind of connection to some other character, including Lisbeth and, of course, Mikael Blomkvist. And it's touted as the first in the series written by a woman.

The plot has suspense. There are some easter eggs. Women are going missing, there's a land grab scheme going on, there are very very bad men and characters with questionable motives. The misogyny is over the top (this is the Millennium series, after all, but it's the main reason this is 3 stars and not 4), although the women get some payback. The scheming is over the top, one passage I highlighted with "oh brother" had a real Dr. Evil vibe, although I think Smirnoff was going for serious over cartoony.

Salander doesn't show up until about a fifth of the way into the book. She's thrown together with her niece, a safe-cracking whip smart teenager. The odd couple pairing is the highlight of the novel, there's real admiration and affection between them. Salander is growing up.

There were some plot holes, there were questions left unanswered, there were twists that were very convenient. But I'm hooked and will keep reading the series, even without the mind-blowing intricate plot machinations that defined the Larsson books.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC. The Girl in the Eagle's Talons was published in August 2023.

Corruption and greed in Norrland.

Adverse weather compounds the difficult rescue of Lisbeth's niece's mother in northern Sweden. In addition, the criminals have their sights on the grandson of Mikael Blomkvist as they try to manipulate the boy's stepfather, Henry Salo. The plot focuses on the control of wind power and mining rights in Gasskas.

This 7th in the Millennium series has been taken over by a new author, the first female to tackle the complex character that is Lisbeth Salander. I enjoyed reuniting with the old, familiar characters and meeting new ones, especially the niece, Svala. I thought the narrative moved forward at a good pace and enough backstory was included to remind the reader of people and places that might have been forgotten.

Lots of action and great descriptions of the setting made this an excellent continuation of a series that I've always enjoyed. I look forward to more installments as changes come for both Lisbeth and Mikael.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This is a very complicated novel that continues the Lisbeth Salander series. I started reading these novels years after the original movie came out and jumped at the chance to do an early review.

Mikael’s daughter’s wedding is in Gasskas in Swedish Lapland. The husband-to-be is essentially the town mayor and it becomes clear that he is in over his head with a windmill deal. He thinks he is negotiating with one of three companies who will be given some of the land but fails to realize he’s got some scary dudes (and one dudette) who will stop at nothing to take over the entirety of the land.
Then a little boy is kidnapped and all hell breaks lose.

Meanwhile Lisbeth becomes guardian to her niece Svala who she didn’t really know anything about given her father was Lisbeth’s brother who following orders from Lisbeth’s father, tried to kill her. Svala and her mother Marta are involved with some seriously sketchy business and murder and rape are critical parts of their job.

The two plots merge and well, you can probably guess how it ends. Murder, mayhem, and destruction.

Tw: murder, sexual assault, gun violence, drugs.

I was cautiously optimistic when I started this one. Lisbeth and Mikael are beloved characters to me and I wasn't sure if continuing the series without the original author would work. And for me, this one didn't.

I didn't recognize these characters. Sure, they are older and have been through some things, but there were some fundamentals I thought I knew about them that I felt were different in this one. I also felt the unnecessary violence and hate in this one. It could have been shorter but I felt like the plot was bogged down by POV I didn't need and gory violent details about abuse that also could have been left with implied and not detailed out.

I wish I'd liked this one but it was a miss for me.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Enjoyable return to the world of Lisbeth and Mikael. Lots of twists and surprise relationships. Very atmospheric with wonderful descriptions. Took a bit to grasp the author’s style of writing but once in, the story and plot were compelling..

Thanks to NetGalley and Borzoi Books/Alfred A Knopf Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons is the latest installment in the Millennium Series. Karin Smirnoff does a great job with continuity in a series with various authors. Lizbeth Salander is brought into a situation she wants nothing to do with involving guardianship and her niece Svala. Svala's mother disappeared, and Lisbeth begins to help Svala investigate. Mikael Blomkvist also ends up where Lizbeth is for his daughter's wedding. Their paths cross as Mikael's grandson is abducted, and all of the disappearances and trouble are related. I really enjoyed the return to the series and the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

This story just seemed to drag. There were so many people and situations, some that made no sense and didn't help the story at all. I won't be reading any more of these for sure.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The GIrl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a chance to read this one, all opinions expressed are my own. I have been an avid follower of this series since the first book and always read the newest one as soon as I got my hands on it. This latest installment unfortunately left a lot to be desired. This book was so hard for me to get into, and I had a hard time following and connecting with the various characters and points of view. There were too many storylines going on to be able to flush out a select few and really make the story as thrilling and suspenseful as the previous books in the series. I'm not sure if something got lost in translation but this book was my least favorite in the series thus far, not sure if I'd continue on with this series should this become a new triology of books.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to dive into the next installment of this series, but first penned by this author. This was an interesting read, but I expected a bit more page time for our MCs from the rest of the series. Definitely a fresh take if you want to dive back into this world!

Lisbeth Salander returns in another Millennium Series book this time by Author Karin Smirnoff. Lisbeth and Mikael are back to tackle corporate greed and government corruption while dealing with old enemies and new friends. I think Stieg Larson is a lot to live up to and I'm not quite sure Smirnoff did that. The plot itself is slightly confusing, told from different POVs. Very slow in the beginning and once it does pick up, it just didn't have the same drama as we are used to in the Dragon Tattoo series. The writing isn't great, but I couldn't tell if that was just because of the english translation. Lisbeth herself, also seemed like a different character. Missing a lot of the grit from the first 3 books.

Thank You Knopf and NetGalley for the free e-galley.

I'm a huge fan of the Lisbeth Salander series first written by Steig Larsson. After his death, the series continued seamlessly by David Lagercranz continuing to team Salander and Mikael Blomkvist in razor edged battles against the most evil villains in fiction. This seventh book takes a different approach. Introducing new sadist villains, Salander and Blomkvist are almost secondary characters. Missing is the computer hacking and combat skills of Salander, the journalistic drive of Blomkvist, and the page turning excitement of previous books. The plot was convoluted with too many offshoots that never fully developed. The bright spot in this installment is new character, Svala and as most of the book does center around her, I expect we will be seeing more of her in the future.

I have read all the books in the series and I enjoyed this one as well. Knowing the series helps you keep the characters straight and this author has kept Lisbeth’s character true to form. I’m hoping her niece Svala will appear in future books as they make a great team. I would have liked more about Blomkvist I hope they work together again soon. Leaves room for more development of other characters like Pernilla as well. Fast paced and a winner in my book! Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC.

The book continues the acclaimed Millenium series by Stieg Larsson authored by Karin Smirnoff. I loved the first three books of the series written by Larsson and was looking forward to a riveting read. The story was based on an interesting premise of Government corruption in the allocation of natural resources, climate change and corporate manipulation and resistance. It was nice to once again meet all the familiar characters - Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist leading the retinue. However, the book was somewhat lacking in the pace and twisty-turns of the original. I do not know if something was lost in translation. I did manage to read it to the end but it was not a mind-blowing experience. The book is supposedly the first in a series.

Thank you Netgalley and Knopf Publishing Group for the ARC