I ended up listening to the audible version of this instead of reading it.  This is definitely a psychological thriller.  Sarah Baker (Olivia) is the sole survivor of the Watt Lake Killer and although you don't witness what happened to her, you certainly see the aftermath.  It's not pretty. 

The premise is that Sarah changed her name and is kind of in hiding having started her life over again after the killer died in prison.  Except pretty early on, you discover maybe the killer isn't really dead.  There are also a number of twists in turns that make you wonder if it's a copy cat, is the killer really still alive and you're trying to figure out the motive for stalking Sarah.

I will say that there is a scene late in the story that was reminiscent of the time I watched "The Shining" and the scene where Jack and his wife are on the stairs and she hits him with a bat.  I was screaming "Hit Him Again Damn It HIT HIM AGAIN."  It was pretty satisfying to be riding my bike yelling "Stab Him Again."

This was the book I chose for June's Kindle First Choice.

This, first and foremost, is a novel about survival. Survival against all odds, and how we sometimes have to shut away parts of ourselves in order to keep going.

It's also a novel about healing and hope.

The novel centers around Sarah Baker, the only survivor of a serial killer/sexual sadist who kept his victims for months at a time before turning them loose to hunt them. She escaped, her captor was caught and then later died in jail.

Sarah manages to find some modicum of peace by changing her name to Olivia West, and taking a job at the Broken Bar Ranch. With the ranch's elderly owner, Myron, dying from cancer, Olivia calls his estranged son, Cole (who is suffering from trauma of his own), hoping the two can make some sort of peace for Myron's sake.

Around the same time, Gage Burton and his daughter, Tori, arrive at the ranch. Burton was a cop on the case at the time of Sarah's (Olivia's) abduction, and he never believed the cops had the right guy, despite the overwhelming evidence that proved otherwise.

As all this is happening, someone starts leaving Olivia little reminders of the trauma she suffered in the past.

With a snowstorm moving in, events start to unfold that put all of these characters on a collision course.

This was a very taut, very suspenseful, fast paced thriller, and I enjoyed it very much.

The bulk of the book takes place on the ranch, and with the impending snowstorm, there was very much a trapped feeling, and it just really helped set the tone of the book. And the tension slowly builds so much so that after a certain point, I was unable to put the book down.

The mystery itself--who was stalking Olivia--I actually figured out early on, but it in no way hampered my enjoyment of the book.

I thought Olivia's trauma and her reactions to her burgeoning feelings for Cole (including sexual desire) were handled well. And I was rooting so hard for these two who had both suffered so much to finally find some peace and love with one another. I should note, while the romance--or the potential for a romance--between the two is one of the focuses of the book, I'm not sure I'd classify this as a romance. More a suspense/thriller with some romantic elements.

The characters all had depth, and I will admit to tearing up a time or two.

I will definitely look into more books by this author.

Oh...and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't state that this book does deal with rape and torture and its after effects. It is not glossed over and is talked about in the text. Just wanted to put that out there for anyone who might find that triggering.

To have this many on-going books at one time. I just can't seem to get into anything lately, and it's driving me crazy. I used to be able to knock out three or four books in a week easily, but now...I'm in a hell of a slump.

Ok, to be fair, I just started A Dark Lure earlier today, and that one seems to be going well. That was my first Kindle First choice, btw.

And I listen to the Armitage audiobook (Robin Hood) during my brief morning drive to work, and High-Rise when I play Flow Free on my kindle, so that's why those are taking a bit of time.

The Night Manager may eventually have to be DNF'd, though, and I have never in my life done that, and I'm just over 60% done, so I hate to give up now. (Pardon that horrendous run-on sentence.)

I think part of the issue may be that my eyes have decided to age on me in a big fickin' hurry. I'm having trouble seeing small print now...it's blurry as hell. I have an appointment for the 1st of July to get an eye exam, and in the meantime have been mostly relying on my kindle (yay for being able to enlarge the font), audiobooks, a couple large print books I'd bought from Better World Books (didn't realize they were large print when I purchased them), and a pair of non-prescription reading glasses I bought at walmart.

I'm hoping once I get some proper glasses my urge to read will return full force. My urge to buy books has never left me, btw. Heh.

Overall I liked this romantic suspense with an interesting plot and some exciting action but there were too many crime suspects and I don't like it when someone keeps secrets.  There were a lot of unsolved aspects of this story even for part of a series.  Nurse Mia finds Jagger in the woods with a head wound but he ends up with amnesia.