Author: Nora Roberts |Website| Pinterest| Facebook|
Publisher: Berkley Publishers
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Mystery
Series/StandStandalonendalone
Format: Hardcover, Ebook
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Mystery
Series/StandStandalonendalone
Format: Hardcover, Ebook
Cost: $7.99
Pages: 453
How I got it: Borrowed From The Library
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
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Synopsis:
This is told in four parts and part one I read when I was just trying a chapter, once I read it I was hooked and I couldn't put it down. I finished this book in two days. Told mostly from Naomi's point of view we get the tale of a young girl living a nightmare no one should ever have to live much less that of a child. Naomi wakes one night to see a family member heading off into the woods and being a curious child who is only days away from a birthday she hopes they are heading to her present so she follows them, what she finds there is a horror no eleven-year-old should witness.
I absolutely felt terrified when reading this book because before Naomi realized what was happening I knew it based on the description. I just knew it wasn't what she wanted down in that hidden cellar, from the talk of the grunts she heard I just knew she should run and in fact found myself telling her to turn back to run to not go. I was so invested, I felt anxious as the story unfolded and she began her journey deeper into the nightmare.
Nora writes books in a way that you get so invested int he characters lives and want so much for their emotional health and happiness. I loved that this included a happy gay couple who were a great source of normalcy for her and her brother and that even though Naomi had been exposed to such depravity she still managed to have some semblance of a happy home life. The people around her insisted on therapy to aide in this. (which is rarely discussed in these books). I loved that she and her brother became such good successes despite who their parents were.
We see Naomi through the discovery and the aftermath of the discovery of a serial killer in her family. We see the repercussions as they ripple across the family lines, and how it impacts them and the community. We always talk about the victims and how the killers destroyed their lives, we sometimes forget how their actions impact the innocent people they may be related to. We forget that our fascination with minds that broken means that they have other victims as well, not just the ones whose lives they have destroyed but their family and friends as well. And you're left struggling with how did you not know that someone you love, lived with, was friends with is/was a monster. I really liked that Nora brought that up in this book and we see what happens when a woman takes back the narrative and gives her own story instead of allowing the press to make the story for her. This decision has repercussions that span decades and finally come to a head when Naomi settles down in this small town and begins to fall in love with her new home, and the family and connections she is creating in her new town.
As Naomi learns to stop running form the past and embrace and plant roots for the future, she learns more about herself and about who she wants to be despite her relation to a serial killer. I loved watching her bloom with Xander. He was such a surprise to her and to us. I loved that the relationship started slow, and she was reluctant at first because she expected rejection based on her past. I loved that he figured it out and still wanted to date her. He wasn't looking to make a fortune form it, he was just a man who knew he was down to the bone and was happy with his life, but wanted to explore this attraction. Xander was successful in his own right, was well liked in his town, had a bit of the bad boy in him but was mostly a good guy who saw Naomi for more than she saw herself.
I loved how this story developed how the mystery kept unfolding how everything kept coming together and even how the near misses happened. I loved how Naomi bloomed here as her home was renovated and it's almost like the renovation of the house became a parallel for the renovation of her life and her beliefs about happiness. And of course, there is a cute dog.
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:
The riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Liar.
“She stood in the deep, dark woods, breath shallow and cold prickling over her skin despite the hot, heavy air. She took a step back, then two, as the urge to run fell over her.”
Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. No matter how close she gets to happiness, she can’t outrun the sins of Thomas David Bowes.
Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, a rambling old house in need of repair, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the kindly residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up—especially the determined Xander Keaton.
Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she’s always secretly craved. But the sins of her father can become an obsession, and, as she’s learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away
I absolutely felt terrified when reading this book because before Naomi realized what was happening I knew it based on the description. I just knew it wasn't what she wanted down in that hidden cellar, from the talk of the grunts she heard I just knew she should run and in fact found myself telling her to turn back to run to not go. I was so invested, I felt anxious as the story unfolded and she began her journey deeper into the nightmare.
Nora writes books in a way that you get so invested int he characters lives and want so much for their emotional health and happiness. I loved that this included a happy gay couple who were a great source of normalcy for her and her brother and that even though Naomi had been exposed to such depravity she still managed to have some semblance of a happy home life. The people around her insisted on therapy to aide in this. (which is rarely discussed in these books). I loved that she and her brother became such good successes despite who their parents were.
We see Naomi through the discovery and the aftermath of the discovery of a serial killer in her family. We see the repercussions as they ripple across the family lines, and how it impacts them and the community. We always talk about the victims and how the killers destroyed their lives, we sometimes forget how their actions impact the innocent people they may be related to. We forget that our fascination with minds that broken means that they have other victims as well, not just the ones whose lives they have destroyed but their family and friends as well. And you're left struggling with how did you not know that someone you love, lived with, was friends with is/was a monster. I really liked that Nora brought that up in this book and we see what happens when a woman takes back the narrative and gives her own story instead of allowing the press to make the story for her. This decision has repercussions that span decades and finally come to a head when Naomi settles down in this small town and begins to fall in love with her new home, and the family and connections she is creating in her new town.
As Naomi learns to stop running form the past and embrace and plant roots for the future, she learns more about herself and about who she wants to be despite her relation to a serial killer. I loved watching her bloom with Xander. He was such a surprise to her and to us. I loved that the relationship started slow, and she was reluctant at first because she expected rejection based on her past. I loved that he figured it out and still wanted to date her. He wasn't looking to make a fortune form it, he was just a man who knew he was down to the bone and was happy with his life, but wanted to explore this attraction. Xander was successful in his own right, was well liked in his town, had a bit of the bad boy in him but was mostly a good guy who saw Naomi for more than she saw herself.
I loved how this story developed how the mystery kept unfolding how everything kept coming together and even how the near misses happened. I loved how Naomi bloomed here as her home was renovated and it's almost like the renovation of the house became a parallel for the renovation of her life and her beliefs about happiness. And of course, there is a cute dog.
★★★★★
RECOMMENDATIONS
- The Gingerbread Man by Maggie Shayne
- Fast Track by Julie Garwood
- Heather Graham's entire catalog
A perfect mystery with a wonderful romance. I highly recommend my loves, check it out and of course Happy Reading my loves,
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