About this book:
“After a harrowing experience with an obsessed patient, oncology nurse practitioner Leigh Weston needed a change. She thought she'd left her troubles behind when she moved home to Carrington, North Carolina, and took a job in the emergency department of the local hospital. But when someone tampers with her brakes, she fears the past has chased her into the present. She reaches out to her high school friend turned homicide investigator, Ryan Parker, for help.
Ryan finds satisfaction in his career, but his favorite way to use his skills is as a volunteer underwater investigator with the Carrington County Sheriff's Office dive team. When the body of a wealthy businessman is discovered in Lake Porter, the investigation uncovers a possible serial killer--one with a terrifying connection to Leigh Weston and deadly implications for them all.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Dive Team Investigations” series.
Spiritual Content- Psalm 19:14 at the beginning in the author’s acknowledgments; A few Scriptures are mentioned, remembered, & mentioned; Prayers, Thanking God, & Blessings over food; Talks about God, trusting Him, & having faith; ’H’s are not capital when referring to God; Leigh feels like God has stopped answering her prayers or that maybe she had gotten too busy to talk to Him, but tries to pray again despite being mad at Him and thinking God has “beef” with her; Leigh doesn’t understand why God would allow bad things to happen when He could have stopped it all from happening & feels abandoned by Him (*Spoilers* After having all of these thoughts, she realizes that God was protecting her because she’s still alive despite multiple attempts on her life *End of Spoilers*); Leigh and Ryan have a conversation about God, praying, & sin causing deaths; Mentions of God, Jesus, Him being faithful, & trusting Him; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, services, sermons, & worship/hymns; A few mentions of a chaplain; A couple mentions of blessings; A mention of someone in the Bible; A mention of a Bible; A mention of the mission field;
*Note: The phrase ‘thank heaven’ is said once; Leigh’s sister-in-law converted from Islam to Christianity & it caused a major split in her family (ranging from disowning her to Leigh’s brother being concerned that they might try to kidnap her to recant); Mentions of evil (relating to a killer/serial killers); Mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of Leigh handling her demons (from her past); A mention of a haunted house.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘wimp’, two ‘shut up’s, four forms of ‘idiot’, and four ‘stupid’s; Some eye rolling & sarcasm; A few mentions of curses/implied bad language (not written); A car crash (due to cut breaks), Being trapped in a car (with air bags deployed), an Explosion, a Fire, Gunshots, Being strangled, Being drugged, Being abducted and tied-up, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Passing out, & Being knocked unconscious (up to semi-detailed); Bodies are found that are missing their heads, hands, and feet (it unnerves those who find it, but the actual condition of the bodies are not described besides a chainsaw was used; barely-above-not-detailed); Another body of someone who committed suicide is found (by poison, barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing someone who was drugged & others violently vomiting (semi-detailed); Leigh had a stalker previously (who was mentally unstable due to his health condition & came to her house at night and held her at gunpoint once); *Major Spoilers about the killer* At the end, Leigh is abducted by the serial killer who has killed over a dozen people; The serial killer says she is an “avenging angel” because she takes care of men who were like her father and leave their families for another woman while their original family struggles; The serial killer is killed by law enforcement at the end of the book when fleeing (barely-above-not-detailed) *End of Spoilers*; All about & many mentions of murders, murdered bodies, their conditions of being dismembered, how they were found, killers/serial killers, missing people, & stalkers (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of car wrecks/accidents, deaths, injuries, emergency surgeries, pain, possibly bleeding to death, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of deaths (cancer, heart attack) & grief (including for parents & a man for his daughter); Mentions of autopsies & decomposing bodies (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of abductions & kidnappers; Mentions of being strangled, vocal damage, & major bruises; Mentions of bombs/explosions & fires; Mentions of crimes, criminals, jails, & arrests; Mentions of money laundering; Mentions of poisons, being poisoned/drugged, & someone in critical condition after being drugged; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & bars; Mentions of drugs, being drugged, being high, addicts, selling drugs, & drug rings; Mentions of throwing up & vomit; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of a suicide; A few mentions of gangs; A few mentions of divorces; A couple mentions of domestic violence; A couple mentions of blackmail; A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of hatred; A couple mentions of eavesdropping; A mention of (not) being suicidal; A mention of tattoos; A mention of a severe allergic reaction (to an antibiotic);
*Note: Leigh was adopted from China when she was young and while she doesn’t remember the orphanage, she remembers being terrified growing up that her parents would leave her or send her back (as an adult, she learned about her issues with abandonment; Her father made it a point to teach her many Scriptures about the safety and security that were hers as a child of God to help combat the fear and anxiety she had); Leigh has previously gone to therapy and remembers some of her therapist’s advice and calming techniques; Ryan’s nephew has autism and doesn’t talk often; Leigh usually goes to yoga classes and does her “favorite yoga routine” in the book; Mentions of psychopaths (when referring to serial killers); Mentions of therapists, therapy, & needing therapy after traumatic events; Mentions of plastic surgery (such as “butt implants”, eye lifts, and tummy tucks); Mentions of brand names (Coke, LEGO, Trouble, & Special K cereal); A few mentions of Leigh doing yoga; A few mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of panic attacks; A mention of a place (Six Flags); A mention of Comic-Con; A mention of horror movies.
Sexual Content- Three hair/forehead kisses, a cheek kiss, an almost kiss (semi-detailed), two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, six semi-detailed kisses, and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kiss; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss (up to semi-detailed); Staring at lips (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Butterflies/Flutters, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes, Winks, & Flirting; Noticing & Staring (barely-above-not-detailed); Ryan stays the night at Leigh’s house (implied multiple times, sometimes with another male officer) to protect her (they all sleep in separate rooms with her on a different floor); Ryan’s former brother-in-law left Ryan’s sister and their kids for another woman (Ryan wishes to punch the man and tries to avoid him); a ‘baby’ and a ‘hussy’; Mentions of affairs, cheating, a man leaving his family for another woman, a woman being called a “home wrecker”, & men having multiple mistresses/wives/families (including with a large age difference); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, dating, & exes; Mentions of flirting; Mentions of crushes; A couple mentions of a married woman acting in a “seductive way” towards another man; Love, being/falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A few mentions of a couple unable to have biological children & the heartbreak of it (they later adopted); A mention of a dress hugging a woman’s curves.
-Leigh Weston, age 30
-Ryan Parker, age 33
P.O.V. switches between them
349 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
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My personal Rating-
The main couple already knew each other in this book at the beginning, which was a nice chance of pace from most romantic suspense books I’ve read, but it did take me a bit to keep tract with all the names and information shared right at the beginning. This book had the brother’s best friend/best friend’s little sister trope which made their feelings towards each other feel a lot more natural than a rushed “we’ve only known each other for two weeks and someone was shooting at us the entire time” kind of plot-line that is common in this genre. The romance was decently balanced as well with the suspense parts, which helped my enjoyment as well because it wasn’t too romance-y for my tastes and didn’t have the usual poorly timed romance parts (like the couple having a dramatic kiss while a dead body is in the room).
I will note that there were quite a few parts and comments about other characters’ families and pasts that had me checking to verify (and reverify) that this was book 1 in the series as it felt like I was missing some details like I had jumped into the middle of a series.
I really liked the faith content in this book because even though the main characters had their moments of being mad at God and their situations—believing that He should have stopped any bad things from happening—but have to realize that God is still protecting them through the sinful and evil choices that others have may that unfortunately affect them and many other people. It felt realistic and they had to pray for God to help them to trust Him.
The pacing of this book kept me on my toes when reading. I had some theories about who the killer could have been, but wasn’t sure. While I don’t like knowing a ton about a serial killer’s mindset, I do wish there could have been more explained at the end as far as the motive because it felt like there should have been more shared.
The bodies that were found were missing some major pieces, so while it wasn’t detailed, it still wasn’t the most comforting to read about at night. 😅 Gabe (who will get his own book in the series later) added a lot of humor to the plot, though, which helped lighten the book up a bit despite the more gruesome murders being mentioned.
Would I recommend this book to older teens? Hm, not really because the serial killer parts and founded murdered bodies were missing parts. Even as someone who usually enjoys suspense books, there was a darkness to this book because of how the people were murdered. If someone age 17+ was interested in going into law enforcement, perhaps this could be an option, but it’s still not one I’m going to broadly recommend.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
