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The Truths That We Hide
Kate Foley was 10 years old when she and her 5 year old sister Lily witnessed their mother being brutally beaten and murdered. She made a solemn vow to her mother to take care of her sister and keep her safe. Years later, she finds herself raising her sister's 12 year old son, her sister is in Alcohol Rehabilitation and evidence from her mother's murder has started turning up in new crime scenes. Nothing could have prepared her for the terror that is upon her or the truths that will come out about her past.Jack Abrams was the new Chief of Police in Gig Harbor, Washington and after working in the Violent Crimes Division in Seattle, Washington he was ready for some peace and quiet. That is until he met Kate Foley, daughter of former Police Chief Ed Foley. Evidence from her mother's murder and her troubled nephew will throw them together. Can he keep his personal feeling for Kate at bay or will their growing relationship stop him from doing the one thing he vowed to do, protect Kate and her nephew at all costs.
230 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 24, 2018
TL;DR: If you like schlocky crime drama and romance and can handle the VERY MATURE SUBJECT MATTER present in the book, I'd recommend reading it with friends, or listening to the audiobook.
I read this book twice, first in audiobook format and then the e-book version.
I cannot bring myself to give this book a higher rating than 3 stars [no half stars allowed, apparently, or I'd give it a 3.5] largely because of the quality of writing and the general weakness of the plot and characters.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Side characters and scenes with them seem to only further serve the romance of the main two, which comes across as cliche and inorganic. This book also fails the Bechdel Test as the only scene in which two women interact about something other than the men in their lives, the conversation begins by reminding us of Kate and Jack's too-quickly developing romance.
The romance: Exists almost purely as physical attraction cemented by enduring drama/trauma together. They have seemingly no genuine chemistry, and they are both essentially peer pressured into loving each other by a group of friends/family that for SOME REASON seem to think they would be good for each other. Despite this, Jack consistently oversteps his place as a Chief of Police and as a boyfriend. He essentially inserts himself into Kate's life and then immediately cements his position by getting physical with a 12 YEAR OLD BOY that he's only known for about 2 days. During the chapter where Noah goes missing, Jack gives up 2 hrs into the search, returns to Kate's house, makes the unreasonable assumption that Noah was just being a little turd, flops down on HER couch to watch HER T.V. while HER nephew is STILL MISSING, and demands that she reheat him some dinner, to which she easily capitulates. Kate is the WEAKEST, most SPINELESS female lead I have ever had the displeasure of getting to know in reading a book, and despite all of Jack's GLARING FLAWS, she falls in love with him anyway, somehow.
The dialogue, MY GOD, THE DIALOGUE. It reads as if it were a Japanese manga translated into written book form. Characters wax poetic and dump exposition ad nauseam, and scenes which would be better served with accompanying sepia tone flashback footage exist purely as dialog. This issue persists throughout the whole series, so fair warning to would-be readers.
This is a very Boomer book, and if you read it you'll see exactly what I mean. It leaks into every facet of the book from the general writing to the dialog. The language characters use feels incredibly dated, despite the book being set in 2017. The only characters that use foul language in any meaningful way are the villains. Any opportunity for harsh language to be used by a lead character [other than Jack] is undercut by the use of soft baby language. [Kate calls a murdering, rapist pedophile a "jerk". She's a GROWN WOMAN who was JUST kidnapped AND assaulted by the man, and she can't even bring herself to call him anything harsher than "bastard" or "jerk".] This is a consistent issue throughout all 3 books and it completely deflates the tension in any serious scene. There are also several strange, seemingly out of place quips about "social media" in this book.
Neither Kate nor Jack seem to have any real agency over themselves, and side characters frequently display a stronger ability to interact with the narrative than them, which is bizarre given the fact that several of these will later become protagonists in the series themselves and continue to display limited agency within the confines of the plot. Kate and Jack never develop beyond the archetypes they are set up as and it's bizarre.
Final point: WHO is this book for? No really, WHO? The forced romance and the over-the-top sex scenes make the book come off like I should be reading it in the bathtub with a glass of chardonnay with scented candles and mood music, but these scenes are often paired with scenes of absolutely graphic violence, pedophilia, and rape. The tone is inconsistent and it makes it difficult to get invested in the drama of either the A or B plot [A being the romance, B being the crime drama] when the book can't seem to decide what sort of story it wants to tell at any given moment.
I read this book twice, first in audiobook format and then the e-book version.
I cannot bring myself to give this book a higher rating than 3 stars [no half stars allowed, apparently, or I'd give it a 3.5] largely because of the quality of writing and the general weakness of the plot and characters.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Side characters and scenes with them seem to only further serve the romance of the main two, which comes across as cliche and inorganic. This book also fails the Bechdel Test as the only scene in which two women interact about something other than the men in their lives, the conversation begins by reminding us of Kate and Jack's too-quickly developing romance.
The romance: Exists almost purely as physical attraction cemented by enduring drama/trauma together. They have seemingly no genuine chemistry, and they are both essentially peer pressured into loving each other by a group of friends/family that for SOME REASON seem to think they would be good for each other. Despite this, Jack consistently oversteps his place as a Chief of Police and as a boyfriend. He essentially inserts himself into Kate's life and then immediately cements his position by getting physical with a 12 YEAR OLD BOY that he's only known for about 2 days. During the chapter where Noah goes missing, Jack gives up 2 hrs into the search, returns to Kate's house, makes the unreasonable assumption that Noah was just being a little turd, flops down on HER couch to watch HER T.V. while HER nephew is STILL MISSING, and demands that she reheat him some dinner, to which she easily capitulates. Kate is the WEAKEST, most SPINELESS female lead I have ever had the displeasure of getting to know in reading a book, and despite all of Jack's GLARING FLAWS, she falls in love with him anyway, somehow.
The dialogue, MY GOD, THE DIALOGUE. It reads as if it were a Japanese manga translated into written book form. Characters wax poetic and dump exposition ad nauseam, and scenes which would be better served with accompanying sepia tone flashback footage exist purely as dialog. This issue persists throughout the whole series, so fair warning to would-be readers.
This is a very Boomer book, and if you read it you'll see exactly what I mean. It leaks into every facet of the book from the general writing to the dialog. The language characters use feels incredibly dated, despite the book being set in 2017. The only characters that use foul language in any meaningful way are the villains. Any opportunity for harsh language to be used by a lead character [other than Jack] is undercut by the use of soft baby language. [Kate calls a murdering, rapist pedophile a "jerk". She's a GROWN WOMAN who was JUST kidnapped AND assaulted by the man, and she can't even bring herself to call him anything harsher than "bastard" or "jerk".] This is a consistent issue throughout all 3 books and it completely deflates the tension in any serious scene. There are also several strange, seemingly out of place quips about "social media" in this book.
Neither Kate nor Jack seem to have any real agency over themselves, and side characters frequently display a stronger ability to interact with the narrative than them, which is bizarre given the fact that several of these will later become protagonists in the series themselves and continue to display limited agency within the confines of the plot. Kate and Jack never develop beyond the archetypes they are set up as and it's bizarre.
Final point: WHO is this book for? No really, WHO? The forced romance and the over-the-top sex scenes make the book come off like I should be reading it in the bathtub with a glass of chardonnay with scented candles and mood music, but these scenes are often paired with scenes of absolutely graphic violence, pedophilia, and rape. The tone is inconsistent and it makes it difficult to get invested in the drama of either the A or B plot [A being the romance, B being the crime drama] when the book can't seem to decide what sort of story it wants to tell at any given moment.
October 4, 2018
This is Elizabeth's first book and its really good for a new Author. Now her second and third book in this series is amazing. The story gave me goosebumps in several scenes and the next 2 books in this trilogy are even more intense.
I tried her on kindle and loved it so we bought the print and also the audible versions.. The audible is great in the car.... I am looking forward to the rest of her books in the future. She is a up and coming author and I hope others find her and spread her name.
I tried her on kindle and loved it so we bought the print and also the audible versions.. The audible is great in the car.... I am looking forward to the rest of her books in the future. She is a up and coming author and I hope others find her and spread her name.
December 9, 2017
Good read
I have read several of this type of story and thought this was good. It held my interest and ended up reading it in one sitting. I think the only thing I would suggest, is a little more development of the characters and don't rush
I have read several of this type of story and thought this was good. It held my interest and ended up reading it in one sitting. I think the only thing I would suggest, is a little more development of the characters and don't rush
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews