BLOG TOUR REVIEW: Three Drops of Blood by Gretchen McNeil

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THREE DROPS OF BLOOD by Gretchen McNeil Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

A Good Girls Guide to Murder meets Hitchcock in this novelfrom celebrated author Gretchen McNeil. A mundane office job takes a dark turn when a girl witnesses a double murder through the window.

Being an actress, Kate is no stranger to drama. And when her chance at a leading role gets cancelled, she is willing to do whatever it takes to get her acting career back on track even if that means getting a boring office job at her best friend's father's law firm so she can prove to her parents she can to support herself rather than go back to high school. Now, rather than living life on the big screen, she is stuck filing mundane contracts and watching the people in the office across from hers live their equally boring lives.

But when Kate sees things heat up between a woman and her assistant, her new source of entertainment take a turn for the worse when she witnesses a double murder. Now, she must get anyone to believe her and find out who this mystery woman is to get answers. But as she learns more and more about the circumstances leading to the gruesome act, she begins to realize there is a bigger mystery under the surface...

In this voyeuristic thriller filled with twists and turns, can Kate get anyone to believe her before she becomes the next victim?

 

Title: THREE DROPS OF BLOOD

Author: Gretchen McNeil

Pub. Date: March 21, 2023

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 336

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/ThreeDropsOfBlood

I received this book from the publisher for participation in the book tour. My review is completely honest and voluntary; I was in no way compensated for this review.

 

As a longtime fan of Gretchen McNeil’s thrillers, I was eager to dive into Three Drops of Blood. A murder mystery with a Hitchcock twist couldn’t get much better in my opinion! I was a little dismayed that it took over half of the book until the actual murder happened, but in the long run, I could see why it did. Things had to be setup to lead into Kate witnessing what she did, and there wasn’t meant to be a whole lot of time to try to solve it.

Kate is a Netflix star overnight for the most part, having starred in a teen drama that was based on the hit book series—sound familiar to anyone? I honestly loved this little touch and it had me grinning nonstop. While Kate loved working on the show, what she did not expect was her costar having fling with the married director causing quite the scandal and the cancellation of the show. Kate isn’t quite ready to give up the limelight of Hollywood and when she tries to break it to her parents that she is not attending senior year, already passing her high school equivalency test and is a “legal” adult of sorts, she wants to pursue a career in acting.

Her parents will not have it, but agree to let her be an adult. They basically force her to get a job and she has to pay them rent and buy her own groceries…she’s basically forced to do all the adult things while trying to go on auditions. But it seems there’s some miscommunication going on with her agent that leads to missed roles. Before she knows it, she has to accept an afterhours filing position at her best friend, Rowan’s father’s law firm. The downside is, Rowan’s older brother also works there during the summer. There’s a complicated history between Kate and Ty, in essence he liked her and she turned him down. So naturally, we get a bit of heated tension between them and you can pretty much guess what the outcome will be.

When Kate happens to witness a murder from her file room across the courtyard the one window overlooks, she’s frightened. She tries to call the police and building security but no one believes her, except for Ty. Now it will be up to the two of them to find evidence of the murder by a fellow building tenant without drawing the murderer’s suspicion. Easier said than done, right?

As I mentioned, the beginning of the novel was a little on the slow side. It read very much like a contemporary read, I assume. There was just mundane everyday life problems and drama. I felt like the story wasn’t really going anywhere. Since I knew a murder was going to happen, I kept at it! The book really did kind of move fast from Kate’s day to day activities. It was just very mundane and a little slow. But once we got that moment, the moment where Kate witnessed the murder happening right before her eyes just across a simply courtyard, things got real interesting, real fast! I was hooked!

It’s been a very long time since I saw the actual Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window, but I knew the gist of the plot and I found McNeil’s take on the story to be very fresh and yet, still paying respectable homage to the original! I also loved the character of Kate! She was a plus side actress of sorts and has to deal with the usual body shaming haters of her career path and I love that she never really lets the haters get her down. She’s a very strong-willed and confident character. I was rooting for her all the way!

There was a bit of a situation at the end of the story that I didn’t quite understand why it happened and it didn’t get explained in the epilogue. So what one character planned to do to another remained unclear. I mean, obviously it was nefarious reasons but I could not figure out what the possible why of the nefarious reasons. I guess that is one mystery that will not be solved in this one. It’s no matter really as it didn’t overly effect Kate and she was the heroine of the story. But it was just a little niggly thing, like why were they doing that to them? Oh well.

All in all, I really did enjoy Three Drops of Blood! I loved how apt the title became in the end of the story too! It’s always fun when you get to actually see the title name being used! True, the mystery itself did take about 2/3 of the book to appear, but it was well worth the wait! McNeil knows how to draw her readers into a good mystery and it was one I fully enjoyed and I cannot wait to read her next thriller! I will pretty much always pick up a Gretchen McNeil title! She’s the queen of YA Thriller/Mysteries and is an author you will not want to miss out on!

 

Overall Rating 4/5 stars

 

Three Drops of Blood releases March 21, 2023

 

About Gretchen McNeil:

Gretchen McNeil is the author of #MurderTrending, #MurderFunding, #NoEscape, I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Possess, 3:59, Relic, and Ten which was adapted as the Lifetime original movie Ten: Murder Island in 2017, as well as Get Even and Get Dirty, adapted as the series "Get Even" which is currently streaming worldwide on BBC iPlayer and Netflix.  You can find her online at www.GretchenMcNeil.com, on Instagram @Gretchen_McNeil, and on Twitter @GretchenMcNeil.

 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of THREE DROPS OF BLOOD, US Only.

Ends April 7^th, midnight EST.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/1/2023	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt/IG Post
3/2/2023	Books and Kats	Excerpt
3/3/2023	YA Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
3/4/2023	The Momma Spot	Excerpt

Week Two:

3/5/2023	Forthenovellovers	Review
3/6/2023	Thrillersandhistoricalfiction	IG Review
3/7/2023	The Litt Librarian	Review/IG Post
3/8/2023	gsreadingspree	IG Review
3/9/2023	@pages.for.sanity	IG Review/TikTok Post
3/10/2023	pluvioreads	Review/IG Post
3/11/2023	onemused	IG Spotlight

Week Three:

3/12/2023	Dreaminginpages	IG Review
3/13/2023	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
3/14/2023	Emily Ashlyn	IG Review/Facebook Post
3/15/2023	A Dream Within A Dream	Review/IG Post
3/16/2023	travelersguidetobooks	IG Review
3/17/2023	@bookishlifeofkels	IG Spotlight
3/18/2023	Lisa Loves Literature	Review/IG Post

Week Four:

3/19/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic
3/20/2023	a GREAT read	Review/IG Post
3/21/2023	Eli to the nth	Review/IG Post
3/22/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
3/23/2023	@just_another_mother_with_books	IG Review
3/24/2023	@enjoyingbooksagain	IG Review
3/25/2023	Just Another Reader	Review/IG Post

Week Five:

3/26/2023	popthebutterfly	Review/IG Post
3/27/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
3/28/2023	@drew_ambitious_reading	IG Review/TikTok Post
3/29/2023	Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer	Review
3/30/2023	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review
3/31/2023	Momfluenster	IG Review/Facebook Post