Coming Back By Emma South

Buy Link: Coming Back

After being abducted and vanishing without a trace, she was presumed dead. But Christie isn’t the kind of girl that goes down without a fight. When she crawls out of the forest almost two years later, bruised and bleeding, she is confronted by a world that seems to have moved on and left her behind. 

Dean Hawking returned to Warfields after a terrible tragedy on the job shook his faith in humanity. The cop’s transfer home wasn't the cure-all he hoped for until the best thing about it, the girl he loved since high school, Christie Jayne, turns up alive. 

Their worlds are thrust together again for the first time in years. Though still reeling from her ordeal, in Dean she finds a fathomless love that reminds her there are still beautiful things in the world. In Christie, he sees his chance at redemption… 

Then Dean uncovers some startling information about Christie’s case, revealing that she might be in imminent danger, and their second chance at love will be put to the test when the full story of her escape is revealed. Can there be any coming back from what she’s had to do?

First, I want to mention, do not read this before reading The Last Thing I see.... which I will be reviewing straight after this one. 

I think THE LAST THING i SEE should have been the first book in the series, and and it end with him getting the call to tell him about Christie being alive. 

This book ruined the second in a way because I knew everything was okay. It doesn't say it was a series and if it wasn't for me looking on Amazon, I would never have known there was another book to this one. 

Anyway..... 

Christie is kidnapped after a traumatic experience of finding out her boyfriend, fiance or whatever has died in battle. Needing to get out of the house she leaves to take a walk, but it ends up a run with her ending up in a dark park, alone and that's when she is taken. 

Nearly two years later, she is found crawling out of the woods. 

You'd think her story would be simple but it's not. The police get nowhere close to finding her kidnapper, and the only place she will leave to is her back garden. 

Dean and his dog lure her out, and she starts taking day trips with them and it starts to help her. 

But what Christie is suffering with is belonging, she still feels like she's dead, that everyone has mourned her and wish she didn't come back. It was heartbreaking to read. 

The story unfolds and the story plot is really good, but I felt like the ending was rushed. It didn't really give me what I wanted, but did at the same time. 

3.5*

Smolder By Graylin Fox

Buy Link: Smolder

Clinical psychologist Ellie Quinn is starting a brand new job at a hospital in Savannah. She doesn't expect the amorous attentions of quick-tempered ex-cop Owen Mata and handsome Russian surgeon Dmitri Komarnitskaia. But choosing between the two is soon the least of her worries. When she persuades a battered woman to leave her husband, Ellie finds herself the target of a sinister serial killer, and something about the case is making Owen increasingly unstable. Only with Dmitri does she feel safe, but if she can’t bring her psychological skills to bear to catch the killer, she won’t be the only one in danger.

I thought this book was going to be a love triangle between the three characters above, but it's not. It's pretty certain who she chooses very early on in the book. 

I actually found the book really interesting. It's the first time I've read a book like this, a thriller so to speak, so I was surprised how much I LOVED it. 

Ellie starts her new job meeting Dmitri straight off the bat in the parking lot, and when she is in side and meets her first case, the case that puts her in danger, she meets the Owen. 

Never believe what you think reading the book. I'm telling you, I had so many scenarios running through my head, thinking I had people figured out, but I never. 

There is more to Owen then the quick bad temper. He is more than that, and I never saw it coming, at all. 

My first thoughts on Dmitri was that there was something off about him. He was nice ALL the time, and it didn't bode well with me.

The ending of the story had me on edge. I literally couldn't put it down and if one of my kids needed me I had that phone glued to my hand, never taking my eyes away from the screen LOL 

All in all I loved this book and would defo recommend it. It so funny in places I had to screen shot it and send it to my friend. The ending was the funniest. The situation was so serious, so outrageous, but the things she thought or said, was just WOW LOL I laughed so hard. 

4.5 *