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yogicath's review
5.0
This boxset contains the first three books in the Outside the Circle Mystery series, as well as a short story about the late figure of Earl of Ashford, Matthew ‘Robert’ Livingston, who has a bit of a connection to the main character of the series, Grimm descendant and EMT Abbie (Abigail) Grimshaw. At the start of the series, Abbie is a young child, fascinated by the local graveyard at St Michael’s Church, where she talks to each of its residents and makes up stories about all of its inhabitants. She falls over a broken, fallen headstone and can only make out part of the name, so makes up her own story as usual, but this time take more action herself, which has a heavy burden on her family from the current Earl! Full details are only revealed much later in the story. Abbie has been struggling with survivor guilt, after a message from her mother delayed her on her way to work one day in London, and three of her colleagues and friends died in a bomb explosion on a bus she should have been on with them. She is travelling back to her parent’s home in Chipstead, whilst still trying to recover from this incident, when another text comes through form her mother, telling her to hurry home! This riles her a bit and she has to decide whether she should ignore it and make her own decisions as her psychologist has told her to, or listen to her distant mother, who she holds partly responsible for her not dying with her friends, however twisted that might be!
She decides to ignore her mother and seeing she is near St Michael’s church, she pulls in and visits the graveyard, as she used to do before she left home. She thought she was alone, until she suddenly sees the figure of a man nearby who is dressed in very outdated clothing and a top hat! He is standing in front of his daughters’ gravestone, but she died in the 1800’s, making him hundreds of years old and hence a ghost, but he is actually solid, which is a bit of a shock. Suddenly hearing a scream coming from the church, she makes to run in but the ghostly Robert stops her, telling her it is too dangerous. She can’t ignore the scream however, and ends up hitting a shadow of a figure coming towards her, as she entered the church. Going in further, she spots two young children and an obviously dead woman who is possibly their mother. Robert is somehow shielding the children from seeing their mother and is able to connect with her, and the dead mother asks that Abbie promise that she will look after her children. The two children are Nica (6) and Jimi (4), and Abbie goes with them to the local police station, once the police finally turn up. They turn out to be people she went to school with, Judith and Ducky, and it is not a very welcome meeting. Judith used to go out with her brother Bran, until they broke up and that seemed to have ended Abbie’s long friendship with her. Ducky seems to have changed a lot and acts a bit oddly around her. Somehow the ghost of Robert is able to come with her to the police station and young Jimi can see and hear him! Trying to comfort and distract the kids, she talks about them being Standard Bearers (SB’s) and if they will join her, in helping and protecting others. Robert, Jimi and Nica join her, and then Judith, her partner Talin, and what she presumed was the cat faced George Punai, the kid’s uncle (more on that later), suddenly making it seven, as the message she received in the church had told her of three more joining her!
Their uncle George is due to take them to his home, but she needs to try and keep her word to look after the kids, and offers her services as a nanny, while he works and gets something sorted out permanently for the kids. He is keen on that and asks her to arrive at eight the next morning, but before she leaves home that morning, her mother had left out some Grimm gifts for her, having revealed the night before that Abbie is from a long line of Grimm’s on her mother’s side! She had hidden this life from Abbie, wanting her to have a normal life for as long as possible, but clearly her seeing a ghost means her Grimm powers have awoken. Robert told Abbie the figure she hit with her torch was actually a demon and he had managed to hide her and the kids from the demon until the police sirens drove it away. George goes off to work and tells her of what deliveries should occur, but the doorman should announce them anyway, but when someone does knock at the door, it is not a normal knock and they are clearly desperate to get in! Abbie soon finds her Grimm gifts, a fountain pen that attached to her finger as a ring, and even a thin rope that wrapped around her wrist and disappeared under her skin. Definitely not what she had expected. It seems this demon is following her and the kids and clearly wants to get to them. Abbie and her group of Standard Bearers will have to work hard to protect the two kids and figure out who has called a demon to this realm to kill the kids and their mother. What were they after and how can she stop them? Although she finds out she is a Grimm, Abbie is completely human and can be killed. Her upbringing with three older brothers gave her a thorough training in self-defence and fighting and now she must use these Grimm gifts to assist her, as well as the gifts the kids themselves seem to have, as well as the other Standard Bearers.
Abbie is now the official guardian to Nica and Jimi, with the help of Talin’s uncle and boss, DCI Callum Radford, who she could herself in a relationship with but can’t since he helped out with her guardianship of the kids. Bran’s boss at a car dealership has been disappearing for days at a time, leaving him worried. Bran is supposed to pick her up to get the kids from school, and on the way home a yellow car speeds past them and Nica notices it doesn’t have a driver. It looks like Bran’s boss Yousef’s car, he gave to his sister, so they follow it to her home. Jimi can hear the car speaking and it is trying to show Abbie something in the garden. Robert ghosts his way into the house, but finds no one home. The car beeps at Abbie repeatedly, until she heads around the side, suddenly finding Yousef’s sister Layla Kanaan dead, with her upper body completely crushed flat, but no sign of how! It soon leads Abbie and her gang of SB’s investigating a wonder food that supposedly can help people lose weight rapidly, all through the power of soybeans. Unfortunately, these beans have been magically modified and have been made part of a deal with a very dangerous person, who uses a dog to attack those in his way! Abbie soon finds herself a target of one of the most dangerous beings ever, but with a dog called Figg, that is forced to do bad things, that Jimi wants to keep and says is good. The driverless car turns out to be a fae being punished by her queen, with only one way out of her problems, which seems almost impossible. Abbie and the SB’s must find out who else is involved with the modified food and stop anyone else from being hurt.
Abbie has noticed Nica withdrawing and her OCD tendencies getting worse, as she is due to go back to London for a memorial to her three dead colleagues. Her parents are away on a belated honeymoon type holiday and there isn’t really anyone else she would leave them with other than Judith, but she is supposed to be on a course and unavailable. Her only option is to ask Judith if her gran could look after them, as she is a very powerful witch. Surprisingly she agrees and on their way to her house in the country, she sends a magical broom to bring them the last bit of the drive, as normal GPS wouldn’t find it. But Grandma Chan is nowhere to be found when they arrive, but what they do find is yet another dead body. Thankfully this one is in a different police area, so she doesn’t have Ducky after her again and trying to arrest her for things she hasn’t done. Robert lets them into the house while they await the police and they find the remains of a spell on the kitchen table. A quilt placed over the dead body leads Abbie to Grandma Chan’s coven’s quilt shop and some possible people to investigate. Judith cancels her course and hurries down to help look for clues as to what happened to her gran, whilst Talin goes to see a lead about the bombing, whilst attending the memorial in Abbie’s place. It seems someone was trying to lure her away from Grandma Chan’s, using others to distract Grandma Chan and wanting to stop her from looking into her past. Judith and Abbie soon finds themselves taking a magical trip to the past to find her gran, along with a couple of hitchhikers and the magical broom called Comet, her gran had made for Judith but she refused, causing an argument between them. Grandma Chan wanted answers to an important event in her past, but Abbie and her friends are soon going to find themselves mixed up with the foe from the previous storyline.
Lots of interesting magical connections, with Abbie finding herself a Grimm all of a sudden and that the bombing that killed her friends and colleagues was possibly linked to a powerful being and a prophecy about Abbie and her role as a Grimm. Her two young wards have to get used to a whole new life, as well as ghostly Robert and their own powers. Nica can speak to the gods, in particular Kali who comes when she calls, whilst Jimi can hear all of Abbie’s Grimm gifts, as well as see and hear Robert and other supernatural beings when no one else can! Judith is revealed as a witch following the Eastern methods, in opposition to her gran who follows the Western ways, and her colleague Talin is a warlock with the ability to use magic on electronic devices and more. A surprise about the cat face Abbie thought of at the beginning and who is truly the seventh SB, whilst her brother Bran seems to get himself mixed into all the danger as he tries to protect Abbie, the kids and especially Judith, who he still loves. So a nice touch of love and romance, sacrifice, Grimm and witch long seated hatred, an immortal and his enslaved dog, a fae or two, and so much more. A great start to the series and loved finding out more about Robert’s past but still want to know more about the tragedy that saw him end up as a ghost. I would love to see the next books coming out as another boxset, so I can read them straight through without delay. Great characters and wonderful storylines with interesting cases for the Standard Bearers to investigate. I can’t wait to read the remaining books in this series and would recommend them to anyone that loves a supernatural tale or two, with a clean yet dangerous storyline.
I received an ARC copy of this boxset from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the books above.
She decides to ignore her mother and seeing she is near St Michael’s church, she pulls in and visits the graveyard, as she used to do before she left home. She thought she was alone, until she suddenly sees the figure of a man nearby who is dressed in very outdated clothing and a top hat! He is standing in front of his daughters’ gravestone, but she died in the 1800’s, making him hundreds of years old and hence a ghost, but he is actually solid, which is a bit of a shock. Suddenly hearing a scream coming from the church, she makes to run in but the ghostly Robert stops her, telling her it is too dangerous. She can’t ignore the scream however, and ends up hitting a shadow of a figure coming towards her, as she entered the church. Going in further, she spots two young children and an obviously dead woman who is possibly their mother. Robert is somehow shielding the children from seeing their mother and is able to connect with her, and the dead mother asks that Abbie promise that she will look after her children. The two children are Nica (6) and Jimi (4), and Abbie goes with them to the local police station, once the police finally turn up. They turn out to be people she went to school with, Judith and Ducky, and it is not a very welcome meeting. Judith used to go out with her brother Bran, until they broke up and that seemed to have ended Abbie’s long friendship with her. Ducky seems to have changed a lot and acts a bit oddly around her. Somehow the ghost of Robert is able to come with her to the police station and young Jimi can see and hear him! Trying to comfort and distract the kids, she talks about them being Standard Bearers (SB’s) and if they will join her, in helping and protecting others. Robert, Jimi and Nica join her, and then Judith, her partner Talin, and what she presumed was the cat faced George Punai, the kid’s uncle (more on that later), suddenly making it seven, as the message she received in the church had told her of three more joining her!
Their uncle George is due to take them to his home, but she needs to try and keep her word to look after the kids, and offers her services as a nanny, while he works and gets something sorted out permanently for the kids. He is keen on that and asks her to arrive at eight the next morning, but before she leaves home that morning, her mother had left out some Grimm gifts for her, having revealed the night before that Abbie is from a long line of Grimm’s on her mother’s side! She had hidden this life from Abbie, wanting her to have a normal life for as long as possible, but clearly her seeing a ghost means her Grimm powers have awoken. Robert told Abbie the figure she hit with her torch was actually a demon and he had managed to hide her and the kids from the demon until the police sirens drove it away. George goes off to work and tells her of what deliveries should occur, but the doorman should announce them anyway, but when someone does knock at the door, it is not a normal knock and they are clearly desperate to get in! Abbie soon finds her Grimm gifts, a fountain pen that attached to her finger as a ring, and even a thin rope that wrapped around her wrist and disappeared under her skin. Definitely not what she had expected. It seems this demon is following her and the kids and clearly wants to get to them. Abbie and her group of Standard Bearers will have to work hard to protect the two kids and figure out who has called a demon to this realm to kill the kids and their mother. What were they after and how can she stop them? Although she finds out she is a Grimm, Abbie is completely human and can be killed. Her upbringing with three older brothers gave her a thorough training in self-defence and fighting and now she must use these Grimm gifts to assist her, as well as the gifts the kids themselves seem to have, as well as the other Standard Bearers.
Abbie is now the official guardian to Nica and Jimi, with the help of Talin’s uncle and boss, DCI Callum Radford, who she could herself in a relationship with but can’t since he helped out with her guardianship of the kids. Bran’s boss at a car dealership has been disappearing for days at a time, leaving him worried. Bran is supposed to pick her up to get the kids from school, and on the way home a yellow car speeds past them and Nica notices it doesn’t have a driver. It looks like Bran’s boss Yousef’s car, he gave to his sister, so they follow it to her home. Jimi can hear the car speaking and it is trying to show Abbie something in the garden. Robert ghosts his way into the house, but finds no one home. The car beeps at Abbie repeatedly, until she heads around the side, suddenly finding Yousef’s sister Layla Kanaan dead, with her upper body completely crushed flat, but no sign of how! It soon leads Abbie and her gang of SB’s investigating a wonder food that supposedly can help people lose weight rapidly, all through the power of soybeans. Unfortunately, these beans have been magically modified and have been made part of a deal with a very dangerous person, who uses a dog to attack those in his way! Abbie soon finds herself a target of one of the most dangerous beings ever, but with a dog called Figg, that is forced to do bad things, that Jimi wants to keep and says is good. The driverless car turns out to be a fae being punished by her queen, with only one way out of her problems, which seems almost impossible. Abbie and the SB’s must find out who else is involved with the modified food and stop anyone else from being hurt.
Abbie has noticed Nica withdrawing and her OCD tendencies getting worse, as she is due to go back to London for a memorial to her three dead colleagues. Her parents are away on a belated honeymoon type holiday and there isn’t really anyone else she would leave them with other than Judith, but she is supposed to be on a course and unavailable. Her only option is to ask Judith if her gran could look after them, as she is a very powerful witch. Surprisingly she agrees and on their way to her house in the country, she sends a magical broom to bring them the last bit of the drive, as normal GPS wouldn’t find it. But Grandma Chan is nowhere to be found when they arrive, but what they do find is yet another dead body. Thankfully this one is in a different police area, so she doesn’t have Ducky after her again and trying to arrest her for things she hasn’t done. Robert lets them into the house while they await the police and they find the remains of a spell on the kitchen table. A quilt placed over the dead body leads Abbie to Grandma Chan’s coven’s quilt shop and some possible people to investigate. Judith cancels her course and hurries down to help look for clues as to what happened to her gran, whilst Talin goes to see a lead about the bombing, whilst attending the memorial in Abbie’s place. It seems someone was trying to lure her away from Grandma Chan’s, using others to distract Grandma Chan and wanting to stop her from looking into her past. Judith and Abbie soon finds themselves taking a magical trip to the past to find her gran, along with a couple of hitchhikers and the magical broom called Comet, her gran had made for Judith but she refused, causing an argument between them. Grandma Chan wanted answers to an important event in her past, but Abbie and her friends are soon going to find themselves mixed up with the foe from the previous storyline.
Lots of interesting magical connections, with Abbie finding herself a Grimm all of a sudden and that the bombing that killed her friends and colleagues was possibly linked to a powerful being and a prophecy about Abbie and her role as a Grimm. Her two young wards have to get used to a whole new life, as well as ghostly Robert and their own powers. Nica can speak to the gods, in particular Kali who comes when she calls, whilst Jimi can hear all of Abbie’s Grimm gifts, as well as see and hear Robert and other supernatural beings when no one else can! Judith is revealed as a witch following the Eastern methods, in opposition to her gran who follows the Western ways, and her colleague Talin is a warlock with the ability to use magic on electronic devices and more. A surprise about the cat face Abbie thought of at the beginning and who is truly the seventh SB, whilst her brother Bran seems to get himself mixed into all the danger as he tries to protect Abbie, the kids and especially Judith, who he still loves. So a nice touch of love and romance, sacrifice, Grimm and witch long seated hatred, an immortal and his enslaved dog, a fae or two, and so much more. A great start to the series and loved finding out more about Robert’s past but still want to know more about the tragedy that saw him end up as a ghost. I would love to see the next books coming out as another boxset, so I can read them straight through without delay. Great characters and wonderful storylines with interesting cases for the Standard Bearers to investigate. I can’t wait to read the remaining books in this series and would recommend them to anyone that loves a supernatural tale or two, with a clean yet dangerous storyline.
I received an ARC copy of this boxset from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the books above.