A monster killed the mother of two little girls, Jazzie and Janie with Jazzie being witness to who the killer was. Unfortunately, the kid hasn't spoken since that terrible day...Until she meets equine therapist, Taylor Dawson who's come all the way from California to enter the internship at Healing Hearts with Horses at Daphne Montgomery-Carter's stables.

Taylor also has an ulterior motive for being where she is...She wants to know her real father, the man she'd been taught to fear and hate by her mother, Clay Maynard, since her mother had confessed that the fear and hate had been based on a lie on her death bed.

But father and daughter might not get a long reunion, since the killer is now gunning for Taylor in fear of what little Jazzie might have seen...And said.


First of all, the blurb is off. A lot.

Second of all, I wasn't that convinced by this book. Yes, the suspense was good, but unfortunately we knew who the killer was from the start, removing the aspect of anticipation and guessing. And the motive was rather flimsy.

And we got to revisit old friends, from J.D. to Clay, and even Deacon made an appearance (along with the character traits that made him Deacon and were so conspicuously missing in his own book). It was nice seeing them all again, revisit their dynamics, learn some news, and have a really good time in their company. Yet the new addition to the "family" didn't convince me.
Taylor Dawson, Clay's long-lost daughter, left me rather ambiguous. I didn't really like her, and I didn't really not like her. She was an entity, an additional character to the story, a catalyst for the suspense, and features heavily in more weepy scenes (which tugged at the heartstrings and caused some leakage mostly because of the others involved in the scenes), but that was pretty much it.

The fact she was proficient in hand-to-hand and was a good shot felt more like a deus ex machina moment than the result of the big lie her Californian family has been living. And her so-called budding romance between her and Ford (Daphne's son) was more than flimsy. It felt more like getting-back-on-the-horse for Ford and exploring-new-territory for Taylor.
At least they decided to take it slow and see how it goes (after only knowing each other a couple of days) instead of going down the completely unbelievable route of being in love for life.

This is my first Karen Rose novel. I don't read a lot of adult thrillers so I thought I'd branch out. I live in Maryland and especially liked that I recognized a lot of the scenery in Hunt Valley and Baltimore. 

 

It took a while for me to really get into Monster in the Closet. The last 100 or so pages were pretty exciting and fast paced. I wish more of it was the same. There are several characters this follows from the bad guys, to the parents and the children so it almost took too long for me to get into. 

 

I enjoyed it enough to probably read more by this author in the future. The only problem is I don't think I'll remember this one a year from now or even in a few months. 

A murder with an 11 year old witness, an intern at an equine therapy program with a hidden agenda, a dirty lawyer looking to cover up his crime, a slew of cops trying to find the truth, and more! Monster in the Closet has a cast of characters that will probably require you to keep a list-sometimes it was difficult to keep up with them all!

Jazzie witnesses the aftermath of her mother's murder, and knows that her father is responsible. But she is so traumatized from the attack, she hasn't said a word. Taylor is working with Jazzie and her sister, Janie, at the equine therapy program in hopes of helping the girls.

Then you have Taylor who has really come to town to find her father, after years of being hidden away by her mom, who has recently passed away. Ford, the therapy owner's son, has his own harrowing story. He and Taylor start to fall for each other during all this tangled mess.

So, then, in all this, the killer targets Taylor because Jazzie has gotten close to her and is opening up. As the reader, you know who the killer is the entire book, but you don't know how it will all play out which is what keeps you flipping pages.

My biggest issue? So many subplots. Honestly, it got a bit distracting and off track. It made it difficult to stick with the book at times because it felt that each chapter went into a different subplot or new characters. Seriously, there are a LOT of characters. But, the suspense is great, the romance between Taylor and Ford was sweet, and I adored Jazzie and Janie.

While this is book 19 in a series, and book 5 of that subseries, I have not read the other books and was able to keep up and not feel that I missed something; however, the characters from the previous book play important roles in the story. Its not critical to KNOW their backstory, but I would imagine that if you had read the previous books, getting a little check in with old favorites would be delightful. I have always wanted to read Karen Rose's books; she has a series set in Cincinnati that I am super interested in!

 

• POV: 3rd
• Tears: no
• Trope: secrets, mortal peril, domestic abuse
• Triggers: Jazzie witnesses her mother's brutal murder and some scenes of domestic abuse occur
• Series/Standalone: stand alone within a series
• Cliffhanger: no
• HEA: yes with epilogue

Under Fire by Scarlett Cole, The Hunting Ground by Katee Robert, After the Dark by Cynthia Eden...then you will probably like Monster in the Closet!

 
See full review on The Book Disciple

 

 

Author: Karen Rose

Title: The Monster in the Closet

Series: Baltimore

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A mother is dead, and now her killer hunts the child that witnessed the brutal crime...

Private Investigator Clay Maynard locates missing children for clients, but has nearly given up hope of finding his own daughter, cruelly stolen from him by his ex-wife twenty-three years ago.

Equine therapist Taylor Dawson has chosen to intern at Daphne Montgomery-Carter's stables so that she can observe the program's security director - her father, Clay Maynard. Trying to reconcile the wonderful man she's getting to know with the monster her mother always described, Taylor never expects to become the target of a real monster, the man who murdered the mother of the little girls she works with at the stable. Neither does she expect to fall for Ford Elkhart, Daphne's handsome son, who is dealing with his own demons. As family and friends gather for a wedding, Taylor starts to imagine a permanent life in Baltimore.

But not if the real monster gets to her first..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monster in the Closet is a crazy intense book. Rose is amazing, the multiple character story lines and the journey she takes into the mind of Gage and his justification for what he does and who he becomes is seriously disturbing. I have to give Rose mad props for creeping me out the way she did in this book.

Poor Jaz was valiant and amazing and despite being broken by what she witnessed she managed to carry the more delicate emotions of the reader. I really liked getting to see the journey the cops took, the one Gage took and the journey of the victims in this book took.

There is so much going on and it really sucks you in right from the get go. Monster in the Closet is disturbing, its dark, its emotional and very well done. I have to give Rose credit for the places she must have had to go mentally when writing this book more than just a romantic suspense this book is a serious suspense write but it also pens a journey that tells how dark family relations can go when one of them goes scarily wrong. 

If you haven't read these books before I highly suggest it!

 

 

 

 

Until next time book lovers...

 

 

Krissys Bookshelf Reviews received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review from Berkley Publishing. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.

If any of Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews has been helpful please stop by to like my post or leave a comment to let me know what you think. I love hearing from you!

 

 

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We received this book to give an honest review.

So I thought this would be a good read with A as she is 4 years old. This did not go well for her, the monster Yamboo really scared her and she told me not to read it again. Even though we get Cornelius from the Realm of the Fairy Guards to help defeat Yamboo and send him away this was just not good for A. Now I read it to K who is 10 and he though Yamboo looked really cool with his red and black coloring and how he looked like a snake but also like a crocodile so I guess that is a plus for the older kid of mine. 

Kevin is a young boy who has an imagination something all of us has and his imagination comes to life at bedtime, where he thinks that there is a monster in his room. His mother of course doesn't see it but Kevin does.  With the help of Cornelius we see how Kevin defeats his fear of Yamboo and can get to bed peacefully. Do I think this book would be good for preschoolers? This would be something you would have to judge yourself. For me my preschooler though the Yamboo monster was scary but my son did not.  

Overall it was a decent read that if K would like we will read again.