Note: Dark Harvest is Book 2 in the series and works best if read after Book 1 simply because you get so much character development that carries over from one book to the next.

I really liked that Brooke, who suffered a brutal kidnapping in Book 1, isn’t all sunshine and roses. She is still walking the hard, dark path to recovery. Marissa, her mom, struggles with how best to help her but she’s doing her best. Brooke’s younger sister, Kelley, puts in a few appearances but we see far less of her than in Book 1 and I missed her. Seth continues to be my favorite character. He’s doing his best to navigate these choppy waters with Marissa and her family, along with his work and memories of his dead wife.

Marissa was hard to root for in this book. She’s really self-centered and I think the author intended for us to see that. However, I don’t see Marissa becoming aware of her flaw and then taking action to better herself. She’s really wrapped up on Seth. He wants to give them all a bit of space to allow Brooke the time to heal and Marissa the time and energy to help Brooke. However, Marissa takes this as rejection. Ugh! Why, Marissa? Why? I wanted to give her a little reality check. I can see why she has a long history of failed relationships.

I also have to mention Marissa in one more thing. This is a MINOR SPOILER. Marissa has failed to take her birth control pill religiously and guess what happens? Yep. This really pissed me off about Marissa. She’s a career woman in her 30s who has basically raised her daughters on her own after becoming unexpectedly pregnant at 16. She’s been down this road before and apparently didn’t learn her lesson. The pill doesn’t work 100% of the time but when you negligently forget to take the pill daily, you’re borrowing trouble.

OK, so let’s talk about the mystery because that’s what really kept me in this book. Someone has been targeting pregnant women but no bodies have turned up. Pretty early on we get to know something about the kidnappers so the majority of the book is a cat and mouse game between the cops and the Holt Foundation and the bad guys. The motivations of the kidnappers were layered and deeper than I initially expected. I really liked that about this mystery. Tori, oh Tori! I wanted things to come out better for you even as I knew you had to pay for what you did. Xander Wilcox, I wonder if you were always so arrogant? Definitely interesting ‘bad guys’.

Seth struggles on several levels in this book. Henry, the computer genius at the Holt Foundation, doesn’t mind breaking laws to get data (phone records, arrest records, utility info, etc.). Seth has retained his cop sense of right and wrong and is mightily uncomfortable about Henry’s activities. However Nathan Holt isn’t interested in pushing Henry to follow the letter of the law. After all, the Holt Foundation is about finding victims before it’s too late. Seth is also struggling to both respect the needs of Marissa’s family as a whole and be supportive to Marissa as his girlfriend. Then he realizes that he hasn’t fully dealt with the death of his wife Holly. He’s a complicated guy and I really enjoyed watching him overcome one hurdle after another.

The ending had a few surprises. Henry! Oh, my! I also like that Seth has wrapped up some of the lose threads of his life. I would have liked further character growth for Marissa because she is a twit in this book. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Lisa Stathoplos and Corey Gagne did a really good job with this book. I really like Gagne as Seth and Stathoplos has a perfect voice for Marissa. She also does a great job with the voices for Kelley and Brooke making all 3 ladies distinct but still sound related. I especially liked the aggravated, arrogant voice for Xander. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Chris Patchell. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Dark Harvest is the 2nd book in Chris Patchell's Holt Foundation Stories series. The Holt Foundation is a group helping victims and families of people who have been affected by violent crimes. The foundations founder Elizabeth Holt was a victim of a violent crime in her college. Just before her death she created the foundation. Which all comes to light in "In The Dark" book one of the series. You should really read book 1 to get all the backstory to the developments in this book. This book can be read as a stand alone. There are parts that would make more since in you read book 1 though. In this book Marissa and her daughters are still coming to terms with Brooke's kidnapping and the aftermath. But the Holt Foundation also have a new case. Young pregnant women are disappearing. A mid 40's Doctor with early onset Alzheimer's is doing stem cell experiments to cure himself and also selling off the babies of the pregnant moms to fund himself. He is taking the babies by c section of the young women he kidnaps and letting the mother's die. When young and pregnant Becky Kincaid comes up missing from the local baby store the team takes on the case. When Marissa finds out she is pregnant with Seth's Child she goes to a local Women's Clinic to help decide her options. This Women's Clinic is where the mystery starts to unfold. This is not just a mystery but also a romance with some real life stuff thrown in. Marissa and Seth are still exploring their new relationship, but Seth is still carrying a lot of baggage and is still hung up on his dead wife and her death. He also is trying to decide whether to go back to being a cop or staying at the foundation. Brooke is dealing with the PTSD from her kidnapping and not doing a very good job of it. Marissa is in the middle of Brooke and Seth and their problems, but she discovers she has a problem of her own. A Baby! The audiobook is dual narrated by Lisa Stathoplos, Corey Gagne as was book 1. Both of these narrators do a wonderful job with the book. They bring the story and the emotions from the pages to life extremely well. I like they they each have their own chapters. I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Dark Harvest

by Chris Patchell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY REVIEW

 

Dark Harvest is an appropriate title for this bone chilling thriller. Think about it…

 

As soon as I opened the book, I felt sad for Becky and what’s about to happen to her. I’m not sure exactly what it will be, but I know it won’t be good. And I was right. It was worse than bad.

 

Marissa and Seth hooked up after rescuing Brooke, her daughter from a kidnapper in Book I, Into The Dark. It is not necessary to read Into The Dark first, but if this is your first foray into Chris Patchell’s work, why not?

 

Brooke and Marissa’s story picks up from Book I, but I will leave that for you to discover for yourself.

 

Seth & Brooke are flawed, damaged, carrying sad terrible baggage, doing the best they can as they struggle to bring their lives into some kind of balance. You don’t know what you would do in their situation until you walk a mile in their shoes, so don’t judge them too harshly.

 

Seth and Marissa work at the Holt Foundation, helping victims of crime when the police seem to be unable or unwilling to follow it through to the end.

 

Now, they are teaming up to investigate the disappearance of a very pregnant Becky. Of course, they’ll look at her boyfriend first. He’s got problems and secrets and I aim to learn them too.

 

We have a narcissistic self serving doctor…bury him under the jail.

 

Tory, is so damaged, desperate. I don’t know how to feel about her sometimes. Why do women fall into these love traps?

 

Human trafficking is terrible all by itself, but this goes to another extreme. And harvesting, I can see that escalating in a horrific manner as those with selfish agendas so easily cast others aside for their own agenda.

 

I love these dark and horrible suspense novels that have my emotions raging and running the gamut. Frustration, anger, sadness, empathy…The more I read, the more I can’t wait until the villains are discovered and whatever happens to them can never be enough.

 

On page 214 and…

 

I don’t want to go on, yet I can hardly wait. A race to the finish because nothing is going to stop me from knowing how this will end. I know good, bad, and horrible, terrifying things are coming. How it will play out, I don’t know and it’s the journey, as much as the end, that keeps me going. I am amazed how Chris Patchell, and all the other authors who write such fabulous novels, are able to weave a story together, adding this mystery, that horror, culminating in a tale that grab me from beginning to end.

 

Political and ethical questions come to mind, but that’s the great thing about fiction. It gets you thinking, questioning, pushing the envelope, because all things are possible.

 

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Dark Harvest by Chris Patchell.

4 Stars

 

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Great book for teens who are high school and above it is set in the time of WW2 and is fun because Author Mark A. Copper mixes the reality of historic events with the incredible fiction and a bit of creative licensing with respect to the story line. There is enough truth however to be a mind expanding pleasant read for most teens male or female.

The characters are very well developed know their job within the story and all work in harmony to get that story told which with this detailed of a story line is difficult at best. Cooper pulls it off well and with irreverent sometimes wickedly funny runs on his prose.

I really think he has a great talent for dialoge that brings out the pathos of the characters while allowing us a glimpse at some of the nuances that make them more interesting then passive, perfect people.

The interesting part is that it is marked as Volume 1. I hope to read more of the series, the author left us hanging when a character mentions Fritz gets captured by the Nazi's.

It was nice to be aquatinted with Jason Steed again after a few years gap. I started with the first book; Fledgling Jason Steed when I was at middle school. I read up to book 4 and enjoyed all of them. I did not know they wrote another this being book 5.

Immediately I remember why I used to love the series, Jason Steed is a cool little dude, he is mischievous, cunning and adorable.

Unlike the other teen spys, such as Alex Rider, CHERUB and Young Bond, Jason Steed has his own appeal. He is not really the smartest kid, he has a violent temper that he can't control and has a weakness for all girls his age, but he has a large heart. The emotion pours out of the pages.

Face-Off puts Jason is great danger, at one point you feel he was actually killed, the author is quite clever how he set it up.

If it is possible to love a book character, like brotherly love, boyfriend, son Jason steed will bring that out of you. The author constantly reminds us of Jason's sapphire blue eyes, blond hair with long bangs that fail across his face with a wicked grin.

In Face-Off Jason goes undercover and has to learn Ballet, it has some hilarious moments when his fellow teen agents see him wearing his tight fitting ballet pants.

The teen spy novels were once all the rage with Alex Rider, CHERUB, Jason Steed and Young Bond, its nice to see one series is still going strong. Jason is coming up to his 14th birthday so I hope to read more.