Matriarch by J. M. Davis - NO

Matriarch by J. M. Davis, 280 pages. Wild Rose Press, 2019. $17.

Language: R (132 swears, 18 “f”); Mature Content: R; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Working as a research assistant at the hospital to please her father is not what Layla planned to do with her life; she wanted to be a zookeeper. As a monkey speaking to her telepathically causes Layla to rethink her life choices and help get the monkey and herself permanently out of the animal testing lab, Layla suddenly finds herself with a completely different life in under a week. Whether this is all real or simply her mid-life crisis, Layla can’t help but enjoy her happiness for a moment -- before everything gets complicated.

Layla is a fun, spitfire character, but I only enjoyed about half her story. Davis failed to execute her planned story in a way that felt natural to me as the reader. The second half of the book felt choppier than the first half, and I was especially annoyed about the sudden changes in Layla’s attitude regarding “mates” and “claimed” when those roles were not explained to her or the reader. I also felt that Layla’s powers were ambiguous and inconsistent throughout the book. The book isn’t bad, and it can still be enjoyed, but I felt that it was overall poorly wrapped up. The mature content rating is for attempted rape, nudity, and sex; the violence rating is for animal attacks and suicide.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen