A pretty decent story attached to a very well written and edited book.

To begin, I am pretty picky about mystery and suspense as it can take quite a bit for me to suspend my disbelief in a 'real world' setting.

The story, as stated above, is very well written and edited, I do not think I saw any significant errors which is unusual in much of my recent history with books published in the last few years. Through about three-quarters of the book, it was probably deserving of 4 to 4.5 stars with only a few slight issues about believability along the way. Unfortunately, that did change and the last quarter of the book used wilder and wilder plot elements to draw everything to a conclusion.

This was an enjoyable read and, for fans of authors in the romance/suspense genre, this is probably great, but there were too many coincidences and 'everything happening just so' to raise this to the level of great mystery or suspense. The 'bad guy', effectively a serial killer, significantly changed his MO for the attempted killing that was the main thrust of this story and, while his original methodology would not have made a good story (it would have been over quickly), the plot shows a variety of small issues like this that did affect my ability to enjoy the story in places.

Segments of the book also focus rather heavily on God and religion... the way this is woven throughout the book seems a little uneven, there will be whole sections with nothing, and then it will become the focus of a character's conversation or thoughts suddenly for a while... this was sometimes rather jarring to me, but wasn't too big of a deal, overall.

Overall, I would recommend this book for those who are either Christians or, at least, those who do not have an aversion to Christianity and organized religion and who enjoy stories similar perhaps to those written by Janet Evanovich (but cleaner and, in my opinion, better written). I do look forward to seeing what Angela Carlisle writes in the future, she shows significant promise. ( )

Ms. Carlisle’s debut romantic suspense novel kicks off The Secrets of Kincaid series. The fast-paced, action-packed plot pulled me in from the beginning and kept me engaged and guessing all the way to the surprising ending. Suspense runs high in Kincaid, Kentucky, as an unknown, unstable, and seemingly unstoppable assailant’s taunting turns to murder in his quest for revenge. The characters, main and secondary, are engaging and realistic. I love how Corina and Bryce’s second chance love story develops amid all the danger and mayhem. I appreciate the meaningful faith thread woven throughout the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley with no obligation to write a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )