This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.
This book was just okay for me. I didn't love it and I didn't hate it but I am still rather disappointed because I had really expected to love it. After reading Bella Jewel's previous book, 72 Hours, in a single afternoon, I really expected this book to be a similar experience. I felt somewhat detached from the story and was never completely pulled in. I did want to see how everything would work out but it was never a book that was too hard to set aside.
Marlie spends each day living with what happened to her when she was kidnapped. It is really a miracle that she is alive today after her ordeal. She was taken by a serial killer and none of his previous victims survived. She made it out but lives with the ramifications every day. She leads a simple life in a small town and never wants to return to the town where her nightmares happened. When she learns that her sister is missing, she knows that she must do just that.
Marlie hires Kenai, a private investigator, to help her find her sister. They start out on their trip to find her not caring for each other very much. Things change as they work together for a while and they soon become a couple. I have to admit that I was never sold on Marlie and Kenai as a couple. I didn't really feel a lot of chemistry between them and they seemed to go from hate to love before I could blink.
This book was really a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed some parts of the book. My favorite parts were the parts that described her ordeal with the serial killer. Some of those scenes were truly frightening yet entertaining. There were also parts that I didn't care for as much. Some of the action scenes with Kenai and Marlie were a bit too far fetched and didn't seem realistic. I was also really disappointed that I was able to figure out who the bad guy was really early in the book so when the big reveal happened in the book, there was no surprise for me.
I do think that a lot of people will enjoy this story more than I did. It had a lot of good moments for me despite the problems that I had with it. I would definitely read more from Bella Jewel in the future.
I received an advance reader edition of this book from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.
Initial Thoughts
I figured out who the bad guy was in this book very early on so when the big reveal happened it wasn't any kind of surprise for me. I wasn't completely sold on Marlie and Kenai as a couple and I had a few other issues with the book. There were parts of the book that I really did enjoy so my feelings are pretty mixed with this one.