This is the fourth book in Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series, so to completely appreciate, the characters, plot and the town of Rockton, you need to read the previous three books: City of the Lost, A Darkness Absolute and This Fallen Prey. 

Kelley Armstrong is back with another Rockton book and this time is seems like Rockton's secret may be out:

The town of Rockton is supposed to be a secret, but there are things that need to be done to protect the residence. This means Casey approaching her own estranged sister to help one of their residences that was injured badly in a gun fight, but bringing her there has to be a secret, as that is how Rockton survives. However, word seems to have gotten out about Rockton, when a US Marshal shows up demanding one of the residences. Casey and Dalton have to figure out no only who he is after, stop him from taking them but how the Hell did he find out where Rockton was located. Nothing is ever boring in a town full of not only victims but criminals too, many of whom will stop at nothing to make sure the US Marshal isn't after them.

I always have high hopes for this series and have enjoyed every book so far, but I will say that this is my least favourite book in the series. I found that the beginning was very exciting with the Marshal sniffing around town, and trying to figure out who he is there to take back south, but then the middle really slowed things down and then bang the ending was faced paced again. I guess for me I think that the middle just felt like a lot of filler and no substance. I wish a certain event had not taken place so quickly and there was more of a cat and mouse game to be played. When I have read other books in this series, I never wanted to put the book down. It was always I'll just read one more chapter one more page to see what happened next, where this book I was okay with putting it down.

I really liked the Marshal aspect within this book, I think it was really clever and why wouldn't some of the residence within Rockton have people coming to look for them. Some of them have committed horrible crimes. It was really interesting to see how the residence of Rockton reacted to the knowledge that there was a Marshal hunting one of them down. I know there are the main players within Rockton that we have readers have gotten to know from the previous book but you really don't know everyone, so it was nice to see some new residences show their faces. 

I will say that the addition of April, Casey's estranged sister, to the town and story was just brilliant by Armstrong. I'm so happy that she found a way to bring her to Rockton and to have her and Casey interact with each other, and man is there some comic relief in there. It also shines more of light on how Casey was brought up which does round her out more as a character.

So we're four books in and this is my least favourite of the bunch, however, does that mean this is a bad book? No, I just don't think it lived up to the previous three. I still love this series and characters and totally recommend this series to people, all the time. So I'm totally looking forward to book number 5.

Enjoy!!!!

   

Can the Watchers win through?
Even though Dystopian Fantasy is not usually my genre of choice, they can make a good change if well done, and not too far for my belief to stretch. This one was definitely an enjoyable listen and such a relief after a bunch of poor books lately. The narration was excellent, some of the best narrators I've come across recently, and this helped to push a 4* up to a 5*.

The adventure takes place after World War 3 and only two known cities remain. Humans are struggling to survive against Bots (large robots) and Carbons (copies of humans but with super-powers, including rapid recovery from injury).

The main character is Sawyer, who lost her parents at the age of eight and has been training to become a Watcher for the ten years since then. She is extremely fit, super strong and a sharp shot. She is ready to give her life to save humanity.
The other main character, who we meet a little way into the book, is Kenzie. His narrative is in third person, which was a bit strange in the audio version because he is read by a separate male narrator, yet not in first person.

For the first half of this book I was totally blown away. I'm less of a fan of the adventure bits, shooting and running and narrowly escaping, so I lost interest slightly in the second half, but that's just me.
The dog was an interesting feature, I realise I don't come across so many pets in novels.
All in all this was a great read and I hope I will get the change to listen to the next few books in the series.

(Just a note: I would have preferred not to have a good half hour of the next book at the end of this audio. I would have skipped this if I'd been reading, but it's hard to be sure what it is on audio. I heard the word Prologue, but part of me assumed I was still in Watcher. I never see the point of the beginning of a book you can't continue...)

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

This was really good. I have really enjoyed all of the previous books in this series so I was really eager to dive into this newest installment. This is the fourth book in the Rockton series which is a series that I think works best when read in order. This was an exciting story that I found hard to put down. I had a fantastic time with this story.

I love the basis of this series. A super secret city filled with criminals and other individuals in hiding definitely has its own unique set of problems and challenges. Over the course of the series, I feel like I have got to know some of the more colorful residents of this odd little community. Casey and Eric are a vital part of this community. Eric is the sheriff and has a lot of authority over all of the day to day decisions within the town. Casey was a detective before coming to Rockton and fills that role within the town. 

I really like all of the dynamics between the characters in this series. Everyone has their roles to fill and I love how Casey is very aware of needing to let Eric take the lead on some things. The psychology behind the behavior of some of the residents is really quite interesting. I love how there is just a touch of romance with Casey and Eric's relationship but it doesn't overtake the story, only adds to it.

This was a rather exciting installment. A US Marshall shows up in Rockton intent on getting his hands on one of the residents which is a giant problem for both Eric and Casey. At the same time, they are worried about how someone found the town even though they just snuck in someone themselves. There were several mysteries happening at the same time and I was never quite sure how things would work out. 

I do highly recommend this series to others. This is a series that I could really see myself picking up again just so I could watch everything play out a second time. I cannot wait to see what will happen next in the town of Rockton!

I received a digital review copy of this book from St. Martin's Press - Minotaur Books via NetGalley.

Initial Thoughts
This was good. A lot of things that happened in earlier books from the series came into play in this installment. This time around Casey and Eric must deal with an outsider determined to get to one of their residents. There are several different mysteries going on and a lot of excitement to go with it. I can't wait to see what will happen in Rockton next!

 Rockton #4, First off it is wise to read this series in order, this book picks up almost right after the end of the last book and that ended in a way that was teasing about what would happen next. Rockton is a quiet little town in the middle of the frozen Yukon where people go to disappear, if they have enough money. It's a town straight out of the wild frontier days no T.V., no phones, no internet, and regulated electricity. Where there is no money people work on a credit basis, if you help out and do work duty you get credit to buy splurges, and if you don't work you don't eat. Because of the location there are plenty of rules to follow that are in place to keep you alive, break them at your own peril.

Casey and Eric make a quick trip to Vancouver to ask for her sister's help. One of the residents was shot in the back and the placement of the bullet is to close to the spin for either their medic or butcher to attempt. April is a neurosurgeon but she's genius and a brilliant surgeon. Reluctantly April agrees. On the homebound journey though they are followed and before they know it April isn't the only stranger in Rockton. U.S. Marshal Garcia claims he's there for a certain person who is probably more dangerous than they think. But the dickwad doesn't tell them anything and ends up getting shot before Casey and Eric find out who he is there for.

With just about everyone in town having a reason for being there and more than half of them lying about why, Casey has a hard time tracking down the truth and in the process she learns more about supposed friends and their newest resident. Armstrong once again left threads dangling parts of the story that weren't concluded in this book and left it open for the next.

Overall, another outstanding Rockton book. I love Casey and Eric they are so real to me. The whole book just weaves it's magic and transports you there it keeps you on the edge of your seat and if I had my way I would have ignored the world until the book was finished. Told in first person through Casey's perspective which help adds to the mystery of the story.