Reviews for Shakespeare's Counselor (Lily Bard Series#5)

The average rating for Shakespeare's Counselor (Lily Bard Series#5) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-04-22 00:00:00 Peter Raab This is the fifth and final book in the series although I'm not sure when the author wrote this book if she did so with the intention of ending the series here or if it was a decision made by the publisher. Either way, you do feel a reasonable sense of closure by the time you finish the book. I do think while the series started off strong, it has run its course and it's probably for the best this was the final book. There have been some changes in Lily's life since the last book. She doesn't clean houses as much anymore for a living as she now is working for Jack. She also has begun attending group therapy sessions for survivors of horrific crimes. It wouldn't be a Charlaine Harris mystery if someone didn't get murdered, and in this one the murder victim is found by Lily at the same location as her group therapy meetings. Gee, I sure hope Lily will be able to figure out what happened by the end of the book. I loved the idea of Lily meeting with other survivors and opening up about what happened to her but I wish it had been more of a side plot and not part of the actual murder mystery. It just made me feel uncomfortable that there are all these women sharing with one another the traumatic events in their lives and then you have them stumble upon a murder victim? I just wish the author would have come up with a different storyline for the murder so these poor women could attend their therapy sessions in what should be a safe environment. The mystery itself is pretty weak but I did enjoy the parts that featured Lily's personal life. Overall, an okay conclusion to the series.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-05-16 00:00:00 Hiroyuki Ota I'm giving this book 5 stars. The others in the series only got 4 stars, but this one has something extra. Charlaine Harris writes the best final books for a series I've ever seen. Her characters grow and you can see them moving on from where they were in the first book. Whatever the threads were that moved from one book to the other, get tied up, while making it obvious that life did go one even if we didn't get to see it do that. As with the Harper Connelly series, there could easily be more books although it is unlikely that there will be. Jack and Lily have gotten married, but they haven't told anyone about it. So many of Lily's cleaning customers have died that she is having problems finding homes to clean, so she has begun to help Jack in his PI business, doing the required apprenticeship under his license. And Lily has finally realized that she needs to get some therapy for her kidnapping and rape issues so she can move on. Lily finds herself in a group of women, all of whom have been raped. The group includes the minister's wife, and both white women and women of color, and a therapist who has issues of her own. On the very first night of therapy, Lily hears the therapist getting a harassing phone call, and it all goes downhill from there. The individual mystery was interesting. Seeing Lily doing stuff that has nothing to do with cleaning was interesting. Watching the group of rape survivors come together, even though most of them wouldn't normally have even known one another touched my heart. But most of all, seeing the end of Lily's old situation, and how much she has grown, made this book and the whole series a keeper.