*Christian Romantic Suspense*
#1 LIVING LIES
In the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name--but no one knows your secret. At least that's what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead body. Lane must work with Walton's newest deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that truth hits too close to home, she'll have to decide if saving the life of another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.
★★★1/2
Recently widowed Lane Kent, struggling with her depression now more than ever, makes the decision to return to her hometown of Walton, Georgia with her five year old son. She sets herself up as the owner / manager of The Way Station Cafe, which soon becomes a popular hangout for locals, especially veterans. But when her mind demons start to overwhelm her one night, she heads out to the bridge, tempted to end it all. There to stop her, even if by accident, is ex-Marine (military police) Charlie Lynch, who, by chance, passes by the area while on a bike ride and sees Lane leaning on the edge of the structure. Concerned for her safety and emotional well-being, Charlie tries to politely question her, asking if everything is okay. Not wanting to answer, Lane runs off into the nearby woods. Mid-fleeing, she stumbles over what she thinks is a tree root, but soon discovers it is actually the body of a young woman (late teens - early 20s).
That one moment unavoidably pushes Lane into Walton's newest murder case, headed up by fresh-out-of-police-academy Deputy Lynch. Not only will this case reveal ties to the Georgia art scene and the Mexican drug cartel, but it may also come dangerously close to revealing one of Lane's darkest secrets in the process.
Natalie Walters, in this, her debut novel, sets up the small town of Walton as somewhat Mayberry-esque, with everybody knowing everybody.... and everybody's business! Lane's father is a respected, slightly feared, judge currently campaigning for a seat in the Senate. He's trying his hardest to keep Lane's battle with depression, something she's struggled with for most of her life, under wraps. That also means the unfortunate details surrounding the death of Lane's husband. Meanwhile, along the line of family ties, we learn that Charlie is actually the nephew of the local Sheriff, but doesn't want a lot of attention brought to that fact, as he is understandably trying to become a respected cop on his own merits. Even so, the bond between Charlie and the sheriff never quite seems to have the familial ring you might expect. For being related, it often feels more like they barely know each other beyond the most basic employer / employee link... that is, until Charlie starts to develop a non-professional interest in Lane, whom the sheriff tends to see as the daughter he never had.
I was initially invested in the murder mystery end of the plot, but was often distracted by Walters' need to interject commentary on nearly every page to build up this growing romance between Charlie & Lane. It wasn't too bad at first, but got annoyingly heavy-handed in the middle and repeatedly broke my attention from the investigation portions of the story. But Walters does pull back on this towards the end of the book, or at least makes the scenes pretty sweet, allowing for multiple opportunities for Charlie to swoop in as the hero in uniform.
While the romance may not have entirely won me over, I did enjoy the community of Walton in general, and the fair amount of action sequences written in to balance out some of the slower, overly-sappy moments or banter. I also commend Walters on tackling the topic of societal prejudices that can be placed against those battling various forms of PTSD or depression, and the additional pressures to just "snap out of it" and act normal.
#2 DEADLY DECEIT
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.
★★1/2
Vivian DeMarco, the flirty journalist occasionally referenced in the first book of this series, Living Lies, is back now with a center stage story. Having chosen not to publish a news story involving Lane Kent, the star of Living Lies, Vivian ends up losing her big city job at the (Washington) DC Herald. The decision also did some damage to her reputation as a relentless journalist, leaving it near impossible to find any other publication who would hire her. With pretty much no other offers on the table, she accepts a job at the Walton Gazette. Vivian struggles with the tedium of reporting on bland human interest stories in the interim of trying to build a name for herself professionally, but finds some aspects of small town life surprisingly comforting.
While working late at the office one night, she gets a call from her boss, asking her to meet him at his house to discuss "a real marmalade dropper" (aka one seriously juicy story). Reluctant but curious, Vivian arrives to find her boss collapsed in his front room, struggling to breathe. With him having what looks like a dire allergic reaction to something, she grabs an EpiPen, injects, and calls 911. Firefighters arrive but are unable to revive him, his last words being "help Lauren." She has no idea what this means or who this Lauren might be.
Teaming up with Deputy Ryan Frost, the skilled computer hacker introduced in the first book, Vivian DeMarco starts investigating the strange and suspicious circumstances around the death of her boss. While the two briefly crossed paths in the first book, Frost didn't give DeMarco much thought. But now that she's darkened her hair, pulled back on the overt flirtiness, and toned her makeup down to a more natural look, he's seeing the reporter in a completely different light. Suddenly this is a woman he'd definitely like to get to know better! Working together, they eventually discover that a mysterious online persona dubbing themselves The Watcher seems to be targeting several respected, powerful, or just vulnerable people in town with secrets to hide. The Watcher sends out an email with a video attached showing potentially incriminating footage of the person who receives the email, instructing them to pay large sums of money to keep the videos from going viral. When Frost's own sister becomes tangled up in one of The Watcher's blackmailing schemes, Vivian begins to consider if perhaps using a secret of her own might be the one way left to trap this Watcher and beat him at his own game before any more people get hurt.
*** But get ready to be frustrated, because the MO of The Watcher seriously seems all over the place. It just felt like this novel needed to be plotted out better in several areas. ****
Well, I actually chose sweeping over reading this book one day, if that tells you anything. Much like my issue with Book 1, I was enjoying the general plot concept of Deadly Deceit --- as far as the cyber crime element ---but was once again distracted and ultimately annoyed with the overly cutesy dialogue used to build up the romance end of things. The romance developed in this book is a less heavy and serious one. There's more playful flirting and humorous banter, which was perfectly fine and good at first... but over time it just got to be exhaustingly cringey for me and I found myself having to push through to finish this book. But finish I did.
I was disappointed to see that Ryan's fun-loving personality from the first book seemed to be largely squashed in this follow up work. Instead, I'm watching him get bogged down in this relationship with a woman who realistically needs a mountain more of therapy to address daddy / abandonment issues before she goes anywhere near a long-term relationship... but nope, we'll just bring all this and dump it into the lap of the next "nice guy" who comes along and if he has any complaints or concerns, well, he "just doesn't get it" and we'll throw a dramatic "you deserve better (but really, fight for me)" waterworks scene until he relents and everyone call it a case of meant-to-be romance. Apparently.
There were some sweet scenes here and there but nothing that really stuck with me too much. As the reader, I didn't feel like Ryan and Vivian were a natural fit, but thank goodness for side character Pecca, coming in to keep it real and add much needed levity. One of the best characters to come out of this series so far, she definitely needs her own focus story.
#3 SILENT SHADOWS
Pecca Gallegos moved to the tiny town of Walton, Georgia, to protect her son and escape the dangerous lifestyle that once defined her. When a series of strange circumstances evolve into threats, Pecca finds herself confiding in an unlikely ally--her stubborn patient.
Army veteran Colton Crawford is desperate to recover from the undiagnosed disorder that is ruining his life, and his instincts are on high alert when threats against his nurse and her son force him to take action. But Colton's involvement only ramps up the danger when he uncovers a family secret revealing that whoever is after Pecca is closer--and more deadly--than they realized.
With this suspenseful new story, Natalie Walters welcomes you once more to Walton, Georgia, where everyone knows your name--but no one knows your secret.
Army veteran Colton Crawford is desperate to recover from the undiagnosed disorder that is ruining his life, and his instincts are on high alert when threats against his nurse and her son force him to take action. But Colton's involvement only ramps up the danger when he uncovers a family secret revealing that whoever is after Pecca is closer--and more deadly--than they realized.
With this suspenseful new story, Natalie Walters welcomes you once more to Walton, Georgia, where everyone knows your name--but no one knows your secret.
★★★☆☆
Yaay! A focus story on Pecca Gallegos, just like I hoped for. 😊
In Silent Shadows, we learn that Pecca, friend of Vivian from Book 2 in this series, has her own secrets she's been trying to run from, namely her past with gang-related activity and a relationship with a gang leader that resulted in the conception of her son, Maceo. Wanting a safer life for her son, Pecca re-establishes herself in quiet Walton, Georgia, finding work as a rehabilitation nurse at Home For Heroes, a plantation mansion turned hospital (long-term care) for veterans.
No surprise, it's only so long before Pecca's past catches up to her. Her ex is coming up for parole soon and there's hints in the air that he's sending out his people to find her. But is he the one she needs to fear, or is he actually trying to send out a warning call to protect their son? When the threats become all too real --- namely, her being shot at --- she begins to confide in one of her patients, Army veteran Captain Colton Crawford, sharing some of her history and some of her current fears. He's a natural confidant in this matter, as he was with her the night shots were fired in her direction. While he wants to do everything in his power to protect her, he can't ignore the limitations that brought him to Home For Heroes in the first place --- a diagnosis of PMD (Psychogenic Movement Disorder), a condition that physically causes him to have intense, painful tics and spasms across his body, but believed to be largely a matter of the mind.
Silent Shadows revisits the Mexican drug cartel subject touched upon in the earlier books. Giving this plot the unique setting of a veterans' rehab center was refreshing and interesting, the medical environment kept my curiosity engaged, and the group of older veterans that razz Colton so often -- they were such a hoot! But the lengths they went to to help Colton snag Pecca's heart .... I gotta say, I think the romance here was the most well-developed of the series. The smaltzy dialogue, while still there to some degree, was toned down enough to where it wasn't so distracting for me, and the rest of the plot remained sufficiently entertaining with pretty good action sequences, particularly in the closing chapters.
My one gripe with this one --- it was present in the earlier books as well but not quite as strongly --- the author, it seems, has recently familiarized herself with the Marvel and Star Wars universes and now wants all her readers to know it, through persistent references (albeit on the most basic level of fandom) in the dialogue of almost every primary character. It's a personal peeve of mine. I don't mind the occasional mention of fandoms, pop culture, music, etc for background seasoning on certain characters or to bring a great joke home, but it irks me when the reader is beaten over the head with it so an author can establish "quirkiness" or "proud nerdom" with their readers. Every time I see this happen in books, I just hear Amy Poehler from Mean Girls: "I'm not regular mom, I'm cool mom, right?"
FTC DISCLAIMER: Revell Publishing kindly provided me with a complimentary copy of Silent Shadows in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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