New Release Book Review: Blazing Fear by Leisl Leighton

The second book in the CoalCliff Stud series, book #1 Climbing Fear was a great introduction to the CoalCliff Stud and the extended family that live there, I enjoyed returning to CoalCliff Stud and it’s cast of characters along with some new ones including the new doctor in town Prita and her adopted son Carter.

Prita is a tough and capable doctor who is starting a new life in town whilst hiding from some personal issues she doesn’t want to deal with. She is being threatened and she thinks she knows who the culprits are, but when things escalate she has to start taking the threats more seriously.

Flynn from out at CoalCliff Stud lost his wife a few years before in a fire and is determined not to get emotionally entangled again. Unfortunately, his connection with Prita is stronger than his determination to stay away from her. I really liked the connection that was between Prita and Flynn and I liked the fact that when push came to shove they weren’t able to fight it.

As the secrets Prita has been running from catch up with her, they really highlighted the difference in the way people perceive things and how with communication, so many misunderstandings could be avoided. They also showed what a giving person Prita was and the sacrifices she had made for others. I liked that she was realising that it was time to focus on what she needed and wanted.

I really enjoy the friendships and family connections that this series contains and the way everyone is there to help when needed. There is definitely something to be said for small-town communities. There is plenty of suspense in this novel and while I thought I knew who one of the bad guys was, I wasn’t completely sure until the end.

Another great read in this series and I really hope there is more to come in this series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Escape Publishing for a digital copy in return for an honest review.

Book Review: Into the Fog by Sandi Wallace

I loved Dead Again, book 2 in the Georgie Harvey and John Franklin series so I was straight down the library to order book 3, Into the Fog. I think this series just gets better and better and I found myself not wanting to put this novel down despite having to work the following day.

I was totally absorbed in the disappearance of three children whilst on a camp in Mount Dandenong which has been organised by Franklin and his colleagues from the Dalesford Police Department. Looking after the group of children are his colleagues, Sam and Lunny are Georgie, his daughter Kat and Josh a teenager who Franklin has worked with at the boxing centre. They are all in total panic when the kids go missing, the terrible icy weather makes things harder for the people searching and more dangerous for the kids.

Franklin heads straight up to his group after hearing the news, despite it possibly affecting his chance at making detective, these kids are his local kids and Franklin is all about his community. There is a fight for Franklin’s team to stay involved in the hunt for the kids and the possible perpetrators after the local police are called in, a conflict of interest is cited, but there are plenty of allowances made to start with and between them, they do some good working into finding out who is behind the disappearance.

In today’s society, we are constantly reminded to be aware when on social media, especially in regards to our children who are easily influenced and where criminals can pretend to be whoever they want to be in order to lure them in. Sandi Wallace has done a thorough job of showing us how easily this can be done and the terrible outcomes that could occur because of this medium of communication.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, including one of the missing children and the story progresses both fast and slow, but at the same time, it felt like nonstop action in the desperate hunt to find these children.

The chapters are mostly quite short, and this is an easy way to trick me into reading far more than I planned before going to bed, just one more chapter, was I’ll just read one more because they are short, which lead to me turning page after page in the need to know what was going to happen.

I really hope there are more Georgie Harvey and John Franklin novels to come. This series is being rereleased, so preorder this book now ready for June 2020.

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#AWW2020 15/50

Book Review: Dead Again by Sandi Wallace

This is my #AWW2020 book #2 and I’m also joining in the Backlist Book Challenge which Amanda @ Mrs B’s Book Reviews alerted me about, so this is my first book in #20backlistin2020.

I’ve had this book, Dead Again by Sandi Wallace (Rural Crime Files, Franklin and Harvey #2) out of my library for 6 months, which is a ridiculous amount of time to have had it sitting next to my bed. I don’t know why I finally picked it up now, but I’m very glad I did as it was so good, I had trouble putting it down to go to sleep each evening. It was a ‘one more chapter’ book, but because the chapters are nice and short, I’d think, well maybe just one more.

Considering the fires all over our country right now, it was also quite a fitting read being about the aftermath of a terrible wildfire in Victoria 2 years beforehand and the search for the truth about those fires. I didn’t know this before starting reading as I didn’t read the blurb, I had it out because I read book one in 2018 and really enjoyed it. I’m now waiting for the library to get hold of book 3 for me.

In this novel, Melbourne journalist Georgie Harvey is on an assignment in the small rural town of Bullock 2 years after wildfires tragically nearly wiped out the town and killed 46 people. She is there to find a story, but she finds more than she bargained for. This novel asks the questions what are the long term after-effects of a tragedy like this on the people and the town? Should people rebuild in such an area? And why would they want to? It also asks the question if it is arson and the person is caught, what would justice look like for a crime like this?

As Georgie gets to know the people in the town and builds trust with several of the characters, she starts to uncover a mystery about a missing man, is he missing or is he dead, and if he is missing, then why? Her investigation leads her to work with police officer John Harvey from Daylesford, who we met in book 1 and who Georgie had an emotional connection with. This book takes place 8 months after book 1, and that connection is still there for both of them, but can anything come of it this time since Georgie is still in a relationship. For me, a big part of my enjoyment of this book was the connection between these two characters and the relationship and banter that builds between them. I can’t wait until book 3 now to find out where this possible relationship goes.

Franklin has his own issues in his town, with vagrants, vandalism, and break-ins to investigate as well as a love triangle that may prove dangerous to all involved.

The characters are all very real and very Aussie and I could relate to many of them and see the behaviours of others as very understandable, both the good and the bad.

I really loved meeting Georgie, Fraklin and his daughter Kat, as well as the other police officers from Daylesford. I wasn’t really a fan of Georgie’s partner AJ in books 1 and that didn’t change in book 2, I admit to having my fingers crossed the whole time that they would break up.

There was plenty of intrigue and twists and turns to keep me interested throughout this novel, and I enjoyed it even more than book 1. This can be read as a standalone, but for your enjoyment, I’d read book 1 first.

You may see this book pop up again in one or more of my challenges this year as there are a few crossovers.

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#AWW2020 2/50