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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
fast-paced
Serial killer thriller mystery
Centered around the disappearance and murder of several girls, one of whom escaped, after giving birth to her captors child. We see flashbacks of her time kidnapped as 8 years later the police are investigating a series of copycat murders. She thinks her captor is dead but the new details of the current investigation leaves her questioning everything. The story was well paced and I liked that we follow the point of view of both the girl who escaped and the police officer investigating the case. At her core Mia Sheridan writes romance so of course the officer (her guardian as she calls him) falls for the girl he’s supposed to protect. I honestly could have done without the love story. It felt too wrong to have the police involved with a victim. The twists and turns of who the killer is kept me intrigued and I think the heart of the book was the search for her missing baby.
Centered around the disappearance and murder of several girls, one of whom escaped, after giving birth to her captors child. We see flashbacks of her time kidnapped as 8 years later the police are investigating a series of copycat murders. She thinks her captor is dead but the new details of the current investigation leaves her questioning everything. The story was well paced and I liked that we follow the point of view of both the girl who escaped and the police officer investigating the case. At her core Mia Sheridan writes romance so of course the officer (her guardian as she calls him) falls for the girl he’s supposed to protect. I honestly could have done without the love story. It felt too wrong to have the police involved with a victim. The twists and turns of who the killer is kept me intrigued and I think the heart of the book was the search for her missing baby.
Holy Cow what a ride!
This is how you write a serial killer thriller. It's dark and scary but still has so much heart and emotion. Josie Stratton is a college student who while sleeping gets abducted and spends 10 months in captivity. She is chained, starved, and is raped repeatedly and even gives birth to a child while captive. It's horrifying.
But Mia Sheridan is a masterful writer and eight years after Josie escapes there is a copycat killer and she again starts to be threatened. While being protected by Zach Copeland, a Cincinnati police detective, a hunt for the killer begins.
This book is paced perfectly, going back and forth to real time and her time in captivity. To read it it's almost like watching a movie. There are actual points you gloss over and it's chapters away you have a WTF moment and have to turn back the pages (or rather press the back button) to re-read some events.
If there was any negative it's the ending...... I'm not saying it's bad but let's just say in life things aren't always tidy and neat. Definitely not going to deter me from giving this one five stars. I have looked at Mia Sheridan's back catalogue and am surprised she doesn't have that many suspense thrillers. I think this is her calling! Let's have some more.......
This is how you write a serial killer thriller. It's dark and scary but still has so much heart and emotion. Josie Stratton is a college student who while sleeping gets abducted and spends 10 months in captivity. She is chained, starved, and is raped repeatedly and even gives birth to a child while captive. It's horrifying.
But Mia Sheridan is a masterful writer and eight years after Josie escapes there is a copycat killer and she again starts to be threatened. While being protected by Zach Copeland, a Cincinnati police detective, a hunt for the killer begins.
This book is paced perfectly, going back and forth to real time and her time in captivity. To read it it's almost like watching a movie. There are actual points you gloss over and it's chapters away you have a WTF moment and have to turn back the pages (or rather press the back button) to re-read some events.
If there was any negative it's the ending...... I'm not saying it's bad but let's just say in life things aren't always tidy and neat. Definitely not going to deter me from giving this one five stars. I have looked at Mia Sheridan's back catalogue and am surprised she doesn't have that many suspense thrillers. I think this is her calling! Let's have some more.......
This was a dark book, with kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder. But the strong heroine, who rose above everything thrown at her, kept it from becoming too depressing.
The book was well-written and suspenseful, with a bit a romance. There's a huge twist. Not everything is tied up neatly at the end, but there's enough resolution to be satisfying, even happy.
The book was well-written and suspenseful, with a bit a romance. There's a huge twist. Not everything is tied up neatly at the end, but there's enough resolution to be satisfying, even happy.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This was my first book from this author and oh my gosh was it a roller coaster that I freaking loved from start to finish. This was such a good suspense romance, because the romance between Josie and Zach didn’t overpower the story of Josie’s survival in the past and the crime investigation happening in the present. I loved this book because we saw, through Josie’s thoughts, how she felt during every part of the story. It brought to light that victims are humans who do good and bad things. You go through so many emotions, including anger for the ex wife, and also pity for the killer because of how he was brought up. It’s so complex, like humanity, and this book made me think but also kept me in a chokehold. I’m officially a fan of this author!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“People always said things like, “Everything will work out,” or, “That won’t happen.” But what about when things didn’t work out? Or when the unthinkable did happen? You had to walk around with the knowledge that life could sweep the rug out from under you at any moment. It could, because it had.”
This book was exactly what I was looking for. Thriller-romances are always exciting, heartbreaking, and overall amazing reads and this one was no different.
Josie. I mean, there are no words to describe what an amazing character she was. She was undoubtedly one of the strongest characters that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about, and following her journey was emotionally taxing but so worth it. I really felt for her. Throughout the book, you’d get the impression that her recounting of the past would be over and then another devastating detail would be told and you’d appreciate how brave she was all over again. Her character was probably the most developed aspect of this book and I wouldn’t change anything about her.
“She thought of the ways in which humans could be filled with both terrible evil and such enduring love. Unspeakable violence and astonishing gentleness. Blame and grace. … Who is to blame? That was the question. And Josie’s heart had found peace in the answer. Put simply: All of us. All of us are to blame. For fighting to move on rather than lashing out, for choosing to stand up over and over again after we collapse, for working to heal the broken parts of ourselves so the shards don’t wound the world.”
And one thing I have to mention about Josie's scenes that I loved is how there was never any victim-blaming or judgements made for what she was thinking. Josie had thoughts and made decisions that were accurate mindsets for victims to have after going through a traumatic experience, and I liked how the author wrote those thoughts and emotions to communicate certain messages in a very realistic way, sans bias. It’s hard to explain in so few words but you get it when you read her story for yourself. Here’s an example:
“What about you, Josie?” he asked. “Tell me about yourself.” She gave him a confused laugh. “What else is there to tell? You know everything about me.” He tilted his head, studying her for a moment. “I know everything about the crime that was committed against you. That’s not all there is to you.” Wasn’t it? She picked at a piece of chipped wood on the railing. She wasn’t sure what to say. She had defined herself by the year she’d spent chained up and alone for so long now. And maybe she shouldn’t . . . maybe there was more to her than just that one traumatic event. The thought made her feel slightly hopeful and vaguely afraid—adrift somehow.
Zach was also a really interesting character, but I just really wish that we got to know more about him. This book started out right when the first of the recent crimes was being committed so we never got the chance to see him without his badge, so to speak. There were so many details about him mentioned in passing such as his adoption for example, but unfortunately, they were never expanded upon.
The job had shown him how often that could be the case. A series of choices—some bad, some good, some seemingly meaningless—could lead you places you’d never set out to go. Because everywhere, all around, other people were making choices too. Paths were crossing, separations were closing, lives were commingling. Sometimes he wondered if there was any order to it at all, or if they were all just helpless victims of happenstance.
I think my biggest wish for this book was that I would have liked it to have been written in first person. (Alternating between Josie and Zach and maybe even the person behind the murders but anonymously of course). Even though this was a deeply personal story, reading from third person made me feel detached from the actual plot and most romance-thrillers that I’ve read made more sense when they were in first person. I think this book would have hit me even harder emotionally if that had been the case for this book. But honestly, I can’t complain because this book was still so potent.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the next book focuses on Reed! I wasn’t expecting such a large time jump (I’m assuming that it’s in the future since he won’t be a kid anymore) and I’m really excited to learn more about him!
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dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Powerful
This book was tragic, poignant, and beautiful. It was romantic suspense at its best. It was heartbreaking to read but at the same time it was so riveting. There is beauty and Grace in the way that this author made me feel for all the characters. There is a pretty powerful message in this book. So powerful, that it adds another dimension to the mystery of this story.
This book was tragic, poignant, and beautiful. It was romantic suspense at its best. It was heartbreaking to read but at the same time it was so riveting. There is beauty and Grace in the way that this author made me feel for all the characters. There is a pretty powerful message in this book. So powerful, that it adds another dimension to the mystery of this story.