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Hand of Retribution
Brianna Hatherd wants nothing more than any other college freshman. Independence. A touch of adulthood. To be away from her small hometown. And for a brief moment, she achieves that goal. Until she receives word of a home invasion that has yielded a horrifying outcome.
Thrust back into Cullton, Pennsylvania, the town she thought she had left forever, Bri finds her family in shambles. Determined to find answers, she gets stonewalled in every attempt by local law enforcement and townspeople. With seemingly nowhere to turn, she prays for justice in a most heartfelt plea for at least one person to see her heartache and intervene.
Soon after Bri’s cry for help, mysterious, supernatural deaths begin plaguing Cullton. As she musters the energy to continue her fight for answers, suspicion over those mysterious deaths is cast her way. Only when a stranger reaches out to Bri does she learn the most inconceivable revelation about the happenings in her hometown, and the price of answered prayers.
Thrust back into Cullton, Pennsylvania, the town she thought she had left forever, Bri finds her family in shambles. Determined to find answers, she gets stonewalled in every attempt by local law enforcement and townspeople. With seemingly nowhere to turn, she prays for justice in a most heartfelt plea for at least one person to see her heartache and intervene.
Soon after Bri’s cry for help, mysterious, supernatural deaths begin plaguing Cullton. As she musters the energy to continue her fight for answers, suspicion over those mysterious deaths is cast her way. Only when a stranger reaches out to Bri does she learn the most inconceivable revelation about the happenings in her hometown, and the price of answered prayers.
325 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 28, 2022
8 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
K.L. Bedwell
4 booksKevin was born in Ft. Myers, Florida, and now calls Pennsylvania home. He can be found on a mountain bike, shredding the trails when not working or writing. The woods are the best therapy. One of his biggest laughs in life is watching people cross the street as he walks his Rottweiler/English Mastiff rescue. He’s a hundred-and-forty-pound baby. Kevin’s works include Not In All My…, Hand of Retribution, Jordyn, and Mihos.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 14, 2023
To be honest, I don't remember what about this book's description drew me to it. I have a habit of adding something to my TBR pile and letting it sit long enough for me to forget the premise of the book. That way, I go into the story as blind as possible.
This was the case with Hand of Retribution. I didn't remember anything about the description, and I didn't bother refreshing myself on it when starting this book.
I've been asked a few times why I don't mentions trigger warnings. Well, I do when I feel they are warranted. Check out my review of Girl of Dust and Smoke by Halo Scot, incidentally one of my favorite reads of 2022. As far as every single trigger warning for every books, um, I read horror and dark fantasy. We all know what we're getting in to here.
With that being said, Hand of Retribution should carry a trigger warning for rape at the very least. Just know that going in to it.
The book starts out with a cryptic prologue scene that gets explains further later in the book, followed by chapter 1 showing us a carefree main character Bri as she arrives at College. She is excited and thrilled to finally be leaving her small town behind. Then chapter two happens. There's our trigger warning already. After that, this book goes on a roller coaster of fast and slow on a mystery, thriller plot that just goes deeper with the supernatural the closer you get to the end of the book.
There is a family murder and *ahem* attack...that summons Bri back home to her hated, one horse town only to find out there have been no arrests and there are no leads as to who may have done this. With nowhere else to turn, Bri goes to the local church and prays for justice for her family. What follows is a story of supernatural mystery with a theme of "be careful what you wish for".
The small town gets hit with a rash of mysterious deaths, one by one; deaths that Bri always seems to dream or get flash visions of beforehand. The rest of the story follows Bri as she struggles with this along with everything else family related on her plate. This is a multiple POV story, so we get to see insight into various perpetrators, side characters, and such as the story unfolds.
You would think that would give away too much insight into the "who done it" part of the story, but not even close. Well, it does as far as the family's attackers, but as a reader, you kinda need to know who's who for the way this story unfolds. If you haven't guessed it by now from what I've said along with the title of the story, this is a good old revenge story scenario.
There's a pretty decent body count with this story, and they build slowly. The first two are kinda, eh. The third one gets a little more graphic, and after that, all bets are off. You know for sure if you hadn't picked up on it yet that something's behind all these deaths and its supernatural.
Characterwise, this story is mostly young adult, but there is a good mix of adult characters and POVs as well, but trust me, the story and events themselves are not young adult. As long as you take the previously mentioned trigger warning taken into consideration, this book has enough to satisfy supernatural thriller fans and horror fans alike; and even mystery fans because it takes FOREVER to start hinting at where the revenge aspect is coming from. This story got me begging to know about halfway through.
For the cons, let's see. Well, one of the reoccurring things that jumped out at me is there's one character, the police chief, that gets described as "runs his tongue over his teeth." I had a hard time picturing that. I even found myself acting that out in various ways to try and gauge what expression or emotion the writer was trying to convey. Before you accuse me of being petty, it happens with this character a lot...and I mean A LOT. You'd be a fool to turn it into a drinking game.
The writer gets pretty descriptive with some of the scenes, and you can tell a thesaurus is always within arms reach. It's not a bad thing, and some readers absolutely love that. I'm just being nit picky now.
The ending took a turn I didn't fully see coming. It gives us closure with everything and all, but the very last chapter? I'm mixed on that one. It's an interesting take, but it wasn't a direction I would have taken it at all. It doesn't ruin the story, but I'm not convinced it accentuates the story either. It definitely answers the rest of the questions the read has, but I'm undecided if those questions needed answers or if leaving it to our imagination would have been better. Either way, it was a good read and I don't regret it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This was the case with Hand of Retribution. I didn't remember anything about the description, and I didn't bother refreshing myself on it when starting this book.
I've been asked a few times why I don't mentions trigger warnings. Well, I do when I feel they are warranted. Check out my review of Girl of Dust and Smoke by Halo Scot, incidentally one of my favorite reads of 2022. As far as every single trigger warning for every books, um, I read horror and dark fantasy. We all know what we're getting in to here.
With that being said, Hand of Retribution should carry a trigger warning for rape at the very least. Just know that going in to it.
The book starts out with a cryptic prologue scene that gets explains further later in the book, followed by chapter 1 showing us a carefree main character Bri as she arrives at College. She is excited and thrilled to finally be leaving her small town behind. Then chapter two happens. There's our trigger warning already. After that, this book goes on a roller coaster of fast and slow on a mystery, thriller plot that just goes deeper with the supernatural the closer you get to the end of the book.
There is a family murder and *ahem* attack...that summons Bri back home to her hated, one horse town only to find out there have been no arrests and there are no leads as to who may have done this. With nowhere else to turn, Bri goes to the local church and prays for justice for her family. What follows is a story of supernatural mystery with a theme of "be careful what you wish for".
The small town gets hit with a rash of mysterious deaths, one by one; deaths that Bri always seems to dream or get flash visions of beforehand. The rest of the story follows Bri as she struggles with this along with everything else family related on her plate. This is a multiple POV story, so we get to see insight into various perpetrators, side characters, and such as the story unfolds.
You would think that would give away too much insight into the "who done it" part of the story, but not even close. Well, it does as far as the family's attackers, but as a reader, you kinda need to know who's who for the way this story unfolds. If you haven't guessed it by now from what I've said along with the title of the story, this is a good old revenge story scenario.
There's a pretty decent body count with this story, and they build slowly. The first two are kinda, eh. The third one gets a little more graphic, and after that, all bets are off. You know for sure if you hadn't picked up on it yet that something's behind all these deaths and its supernatural.
Characterwise, this story is mostly young adult, but there is a good mix of adult characters and POVs as well, but trust me, the story and events themselves are not young adult. As long as you take the previously mentioned trigger warning taken into consideration, this book has enough to satisfy supernatural thriller fans and horror fans alike; and even mystery fans because it takes FOREVER to start hinting at where the revenge aspect is coming from. This story got me begging to know about halfway through.
For the cons, let's see. Well, one of the reoccurring things that jumped out at me is there's one character, the police chief, that gets described as "runs his tongue over his teeth." I had a hard time picturing that. I even found myself acting that out in various ways to try and gauge what expression or emotion the writer was trying to convey. Before you accuse me of being petty, it happens with this character a lot...and I mean A LOT. You'd be a fool to turn it into a drinking game.
The writer gets pretty descriptive with some of the scenes, and you can tell a thesaurus is always within arms reach. It's not a bad thing, and some readers absolutely love that. I'm just being nit picky now.
The ending took a turn I didn't fully see coming. It gives us closure with everything and all, but the very last chapter? I'm mixed on that one. It's an interesting take, but it wasn't a direction I would have taken it at all. It doesn't ruin the story, but I'm not convinced it accentuates the story either. It definitely answers the rest of the questions the read has, but I'm undecided if those questions needed answers or if leaving it to our imagination would have been better. Either way, it was a good read and I don't regret it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 25, 2024
The story itself was excellent, but the proofreading and editing was awful.
There were so many grammatical and spelling errors throughout the book that I was tempted to just stop reading several times.
There were so many grammatical and spelling errors throughout the book that I was tempted to just stop reading several times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews