“Welcome back to Walton, Georgia, where everyone knows your name—but no one knows your secret.
Independent and tenacious journalist Vivian DeMarco is back in Walton, Georgia, for one reason -- to do her job and get out. When her boss suddenly dies under suspicious circumstances, Vivian's only hope for finding the truth -- and the next big story -- is small-town law enforcement's lanky poster boy, Deputy Ryan Frost. But the deeper they dig, the more twisted the truth becomes. False leads, incriminating emails, and someone called the Watcher force Vivian to fight for answers -- and her life.”
Series: Book #2 in the “Harbored Secrets” trilogy. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- The villain of this novel uses a Scripture in one of his blackmail messages; A few prayers & a blessing over food; Talks about God, trusting Him, being love by Him, & forgiveness; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; At the beginning, Vivian cuts her mom off when she tries to talk about God & forgiveness; Vivian feels like God disappeared from her life about the same time her father did and that all of her prayers when she was little went unanswered (she thinks that whatever she did to push her dad away must of pushed God away too); Ryan cuts himself off from thinking that he hasn’t been blessed due to how his life has turned out (this makes him pause and think about if he’s only looking at the complications in his life and missing the blessings); Vivian thinks more about God, forgiveness, and not putting the sins of her earthly father on God towards the end; A side-character feels like God had somehow forgiven him for cheating on tests and was being blessed due to receiving good news; A pastor’s daughter feels guilt and sinful due to her actions (see Sexual Content section) and doesn’t want to go to church because she’ll have to pretend that she’s the same virtuous pastor’s daughter and hear her father preaching about the destruction of sin “when he couldn’t even keep his own daughter from it”; Mentions of God & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers, praying, & a blessing over food; Mentions of churches, church going, services, a pastor, & sermons; A few mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A few mentions of the Pope sprinkling people & baptism; A few mentions of sins & sinners; A mention of a Bible study; A mention of a devotional; A mention of a Sunday school class; A mention of a mission trip; A mention of an angel;
*Note: A couple mentions of Norse mythology; A mention of Ryan feeling uncomfortable after hearing a sermon about the Song of Solomon and unable to stop thinking about Vivian; A mention of Vivian thinking of Ryan’s transformation as “Samson-like”; A mention of a young man saying a bully made his life hell.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blah blah blah’, a ‘dang’, a ‘darn’, a ‘drat’, a ‘gah’, a ‘sheesh’, a ‘screwd up’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘what in tarnation’, three ‘dumb’s, four ‘idiot’s, and nine forms of ‘stupid’; Vivian fights not to curse in a phone call with her mother (it’s added that “She wasn’t prone to cursing, but sometimes thinking those horrible, awful words made her feel better, at least temporarily.”); Mentions of curses (said, not written); Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Seeing someone have an allergic reaction & their death (up to semi-detailed); A fire, smoke, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Being held at knife-point, being held at gun-point, being kidnapped, & Threatened (up to semi-detailed); Screams, Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Knocking others out, Gunshots, & Seeing someone shot (up to semi-detailed): Hitting someone (up to semi-detailed): A boat chase, nearly drowning, doing CPR, & pain (semi-detailed); Throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); Some lying & half-lies (most due to being undercover or trying to find out information); A side-character wants to get drunk to try to erase the guilt he feels & another side-character grabs a beer after work; All about many mentions of blackmail, an extortion ring, threats, hacking, parties, drugs, snorting drugs, drinking (including underaged drinking), getting drunk, & drunks (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of allergic reactions, deaths, & someone who killed another with what they’re allergic to (peanuts, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of Book #1’s murder; Mentions of a drunk husband beating his wife to death; Mentions of wars, veterans, & those who come back different (mentally and physically); Mentions of gunshots; Mentions of a fire, smoke, & arsonist; Mentions of a boat chase & someone possibly being tossed overboard (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of break-ins, thugs/burglars, crime scenes, criminals, stealing, & stolen items; Mentions of jails/prisons; Mentions of pain, injuries, blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of cheating on tests; Mentions of grief (a close friend); Mentions of nightmares (including ones of someone’s death, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, underage drinking, getting drunk, & a father who drank a lot (including champagne at a charity event & the bar); Mentions of tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, & smoking; A few mentions of throwing up; A mention of some journalists being insulted, assaulted and sometimes killed for pursuing a story; A mention of drunk drivers; A mention of the mafia; A mention of bullies; A mention of graffiti; A mention of the lottery; A mention of burping & fart jokes from young boys; A mention of animal droppings; A mention of a sister being on husband number four;
*Note: After Ryan’s father walked out on their family, Ryan has been the man of the house since he was twelve and struggles at the beginning of this book when he learns his mom is dating; Vivian feels betrayed by her biological father & resents him; Both Ryan & Vivian feel like they did something to cause their fathers to leave & Vivian particularly feels like she’s not enough; Many mentions of movies, TV shows, actors/actresses, superheroes (Marvel & DC), Star Wars characters, & other fictional characters; Mentions of cancer & someone fighting it; Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names & items (Aqua Net hairspray, a Lilly Pulitzer dress, Tiffany’s, Cartier, iPhone, Diet Coke, Keurig coffee maker, Axe body spray/cologne, Harley motorcycles, and Kool-Aid); A handful of mentions of newspaper companies (Times, Atlanta Tribune, People, National Enqurier); A few mentions of Prince Harry; A couple mentions of Boy Scouts; A couple mentions of social media (Facebook & Snapchat); A couple mentions of Hallmark movies & The Weather Channel; A mention of Mark Twain; A mention of a hacker motel from an Alfred Hitchcock movie; A mention of the Oscars; A mention of Costco.
Sexual Content- Four hand/finger kisses, a cheek kiss, a jaw kiss, five head/forehead kisses, two not-detailed kisses, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, three borderline barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, and two border-line semi-detailed // detailed kisses; Wanting to kiss (up to semi-detailed); Staring at someone’s lips & mentions of it happening; Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Butterflies, Electricity, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace; Blushes & Winks; Noticing (including Vivian noticing his muscles and chest, up to semi-detailed); Vivian’s parents weren’t married when she was born (said to be an affair that went on for more than a decade; *Spoiler* Her father is a famous actor and after gaining popularity (after Vivian was born), his publicist said his personal life needed to be like the characters he played, so he got married to another woman and had children *End of Spoiler*); An underaged teen girl is blackmailed with a video of her seducing guys at a party (the only details given are that the video shows a guy took off her clothing and the act only lasted a few minutes before the next guy came into the hotel room) and her being forced to engage in “moral depravity” by the blackmailer (being sent to motel rooms to be a “companion” to men who have paid to be with her); Vivian is grabbed by a man (who is high) and he wants he to come with him for a “good time”; Vivian gets a creepy vibe from a man and doesn’t want to be left alone with him; a ‘hot’, a ‘hunky’, a ‘sexy’; Many mentions of affairs (including one that was a “slip” when a married man was drinking and he says it was a one-time thing), a video of a man and woman getting very close, & a child born out of wedlock from an affair; Mentions of kisses, kissing, & making out; Mentions of dating, dates, boyfriends/girlfriends, & break-ups; Mentions of cute guys & a couple teen girls being boy-crazy and having “hot dates”; Mentions of flirting; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of blushes, winks, & whistles; A few mentions of a man becoming obsessed with his ex-girlfriend & harassing her; A couple mentions of young girls being taken advantage of at parties & not wanting to report anything due to their shame and feeling responsible; A couple mentions of a man being caught with an underage girlfriend & the media calling him a rapist and ending his career; A couple mentions of couples kissing; A mention of a man saying that his girlfriend slept around and made him look like a fool; A mention of Vivian being hit on by guys at a bar who want a “sleepover where sleep wasn’t the main goal”; A mention of women lusting over an actor; A mention of a teen girl saying that she liked guys with “sexy abs”; A mention of Ryan suffering from many black eyes as he caught guys saying inappropriate things about his younger sister; A mention of a teen having “super strict” parents and not being allowed to date; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: When watching the blackmail videos, Ryan thinks that he feels like a peeping tom and wants to scrub his eye balls clean; Vivian recalls when she used to strive for approving glances from men by taking very good care of her appearance, but now the idea of using her looks to manipulate makes her feel cold; Ryan says that another woman (who he went to school with) has “nothing special about her” (she’s been trying to get his attention all of a sudden after he become attractive); A few mentions of a woman saying she’s never been “able to resist a man in uniform” & puts her hands on Ryan’s vest (she then giggles and apologizes); A mention of a teen girl’s parents being in an open-door policy, meaning that “if the door was open, trouble was less likely to happen”; A mention of Ryan’s teenage sister’s cropped t-shirt revealing more skin that he is comfortable with her showing; A mention of a thought of a guy ripping off his shirt like Hulk to protect the one he loves; A mention of a woman saying she makes all the first moves with her husband; A mention that it would have been disturbing if a set of siblings had said “I love you” in the Star Wars franchise; A mention of college-aged boys looking at Vivian differently after hearing she’s not a teacher; A mention of a college student having his hair in a bun.
-Vivian DeMarco
-Ryan Frost
P.O.V. switches between them, The Watcher (x3), Preston (x1), Blasie (x1), Bethany (x1)
322 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
After reading the first book in this trilogy, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this sequel. I’m definitely not a fan of how heavy the instant attraction was between Ryan & Vivian, though, I thought it was…interesting (not the word I’m looking for, but we’ll go with it) how it was more of her noticing his muscles and such than him noticing her physical attributes. The first book had a lot of that couple’s physically noticing and I was quickly over it. I was over the insta-love in this book pretty quick as well, but there were other parts that took over my attention that I enjoyed.
There’s a few different things/parts that I did enjoy, so let’s discuss those for a minute.
I wasn’t expecting the humor this book had at all and I actually laughed out loud quite a few times. The banter between Ryan & Vivian and then them with their friends were so unexpected, but I really liked those parts.
I liked the small-town vibes, which were much more apparent in this story than the first book (perhaps due to Vivian not being from there but learning to appreciate the charm of small-town living).
Something that might be an odd thing to note, but I also liked how unique the villain was. No spoilers here, but that person wasn’t the typical Christian Fiction Suspense villain I’m used to seeing (i.e. religious motivation which is very common in CF) and it was a unique feature of this book among a few other suspense elements that I haven’t seen before or rarely see.
And speaking of the villain, the parts I wasn’t thrilled with understandably includes that person due all the blackmail that affects the villain’s victims’ lives. This included a high school girl being blackmailed into being a “companion” to men for money after a video is captured of her sleeping with other guys, and while the words prostitute or human trafficking is never used, it’s very obviously known what’s happening.
On a lighter note that still affected my ratings, Vivian and Ryan were super-duper insta-attracted to each other. I already said that, I know, but it needs to be mentioned again. Sure, they were pretty cute together. However, it was a bit much in my opinion of how quick they were interested in and fell for each other. Because of both of their pasts and their fathers not being great men, it’s affected how they let others get close to them and that’s totally understandable, but I wished they had communicated more and didn’t let a misunderstanding happen for so long.
All of those many thoughts said, I do plan on continuing the trilogy by reading the third book. We’re introduced to Pecca and she was a hoot, so I’m looking forward to learning her story.
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.
