A heartfelt exploration of trauma, healing, and second-chance love.
In Bettes’ romantic suspense novel, a woman fleeing an abusive past finds love and redemption with a former U.S. Army Ranger.
Tennessean Ellie Hutchinson barely escapes her violent ex, Randall Rupnik, and seeks refuge in Georgia, where her brother’s military friends offer her support and a fresh start. She takes a job at a pub owned by Wade, a former Army Ranger with his own emotional scars. He’s protective but wary, haunted by past traumas that make him hesitant to get close to anyone. Their slow-burning attraction is built on mutual understanding and respect, although both must confront their fears before fully embracing their feelings. As Wade admits, “I didn’t think I was a good-enough man capable of a relationship, but you make me want to be that man, Ellie.” Bettes effectively builds tension, especially in the novel’s suspenseful elements; in one harrowing scene, for instance, a nightmare for Ellie comes true: “Beth opened the back door for me, and I followed her out….something flashed on my left side just around the door, and something hard hit my head. It hurt so bad, and I felt myself lurch forward, and then everything went black.” Bettes keeps things engaging, and a subsequent mission, led by Wade and his team, is fast-paced and cinematic. The supporting cast, meanwhile, enhances the story with humor and warmth: Tammy, a tough but caring bartender, provides comic relief and sage advice, while Ruthie, a reserved but kind receptionist at Wade’s security firm, offers Ellie a much-needed friendship. These characters add richness to the novel’s setting and make the world feel lived-in. The conclusion is deeply satisfying, as well, delivering a well-earned resolution that highlights the power of resilience.
A heartfelt exploration of trauma, healing, and second-chance love.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9798227661418
Page Count: 306
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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