Psychological Thriller
Date Published: September 23. 2024
Publisher: ACX
Narrator: Catherine Hein Carter
Run Time: 5 hours, 34 minutes
In the small town of Cougar, struggling single mother and veterinary
assistant Teresa Lansing is still bruised from a failed relationship when
Frank McAllister sweeps her off her feet. Frank is a big-city SWAT officer who
moved to Cougar only four months ago. He's handsome, charming, forceful, very
sexy, and a bit mysterious. He had his eye on Teresa even before they met and
is pushing for a serious relationship right away. Teresa finds his intense
courtship flattering, and the sex is fabulous, but she doesn't want her deaf
six-year-old son to be hurt again. Her former fiancé cheated on her
when he got drunk after being unjustly fired, but he loves her and her son,
and the whirlwind romance is complicated by his efforts to win Teresa back.
And then there's the matter of the bodies buried at Big Devil Creek…
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The following review contains potentially triggering subject matter, including body shaming, coercive relationships, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. These subjects are not discussed in detail.
Ornery Owl's Review
Rating: Three out of Five Stars
The story was well-written and engaging. However, there are a few issues that prevent me from giving it five stars despite the excellent pacing and sleek style.
First, I always knock a star off any story that normalizes body shaming, diet culture, and/or food policing. It's almost as if the authors of stories with heroines who bemoan the idea of getting fat if they eat their food without engaging in some sort of self-flagellation are unaware that fat women can read and are sick and tired of being Queen-Size Boogey-Woman.
The Queen-Size Boogey-Women does sound like a pretty good band name, though.
The male characters present a master class in abusive relationships, utilizing such techniques as DARVO, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, and love bombing. Frank is controlling and stalker-ish to the point of raising every possible red flag. While Brett isn't as terrifying as Frank, he is, nonetheless, immature and manipulative. He cheated on Teresa and wants her to excuse his infidelity because he was drunk at the time.
Alex's opinions on Teresa's love life flip-flopped like a sketchy politician's stance on key issues during an election year. Additionally, Alex allowed Lacey, the waitress with whom Brett had cheated on Teresa, to babysit Teresa's vulnerable, deaf son while Teresa was on a weekend getaway with Frank. If someone did that to me, I would no longer be on speaking terms with them.
Teresa's doormat behavior irritated me. A sensible protagonist wouldn't want to be involved with either Brett or Frank. She would also realize that Alex's relationship advice was whack, and Alex really wasn't a very good friend. Nonetheless, I had sympathy for Teresa up to the point where she threw an object into a duck pond while petulantly speculating that she didn't care if a duckling choked on it. By this point, I well and truly hated every adult character in the story.
My most frequently uttered thoughts while listening to this book were as follows:
"Ugh, the cringe!" whenever Frank love-bombed Teresa.
"Ew," during every intimate encounter with Frank.
"Will someone please murder this guy already?" whenever Frank said something like, "I understand the 'women's lib' position, but when you're my wife..."
The 1970s called. They don't want this guy back.
"Bitch, please!" whenever Brett opened his mouth to try and browbeat Teresa into taking him back.
If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller with lots of tension and a few spicy scenes, you may enjoy this book.
If you are looking for independent female characters who don't need a man to complete them, this story fails the Bechdel test.
There are also points in the story that have the potential to be highly triggering to someone who has a history of domestic abuse or sexual assault, so please keep this in mind.
To sum things up:
I recommend this story to readers who enjoy high-octane thrillers and are not bothered by scenes involving potential danger in a sexualized context. The plot was exciting, moving quickly from one scene to another. The execution was smooth, and the editing was precise.
I suggest that readers with a history of domestic abuse and sexual assault be mindful of the fact that this story contains scenes involving a charming but domineering male partner coercing, gaslighting, manipulating, and, at times, threatening his victim during sexual situations.
Listening to this audiobook makes me very glad that I no longer feel I need a man to complete me. I am one of those readers with a history of abusive partnerships, including sexual assault. There were times when this story made me very uncomfortable.
Sadly, men like Frank do exist, and those they target owe it to ourselves to learn that we don't owe them anything. Not our time, not our attention, not sex, not one single thing.
About the Author
As soon as Linda Griffin learned to read, she knew she wanted to be a “book maker” and wrote her first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” at the age of six. Her passion for the printed word also led her to a career at the San Diego Public Library, including 22 years as Fiction Librarian. She retired to spend more time on her writing, and her stories have been published in numerous journals. She has had ten books published by the Wild Rose Press.
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