REVIEW: Bloodlines - Vanessa Skye

**Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. Any thoughts and opinions are my own.** 
Bloodlines by Vanessa Skye

Following the acclaimed debut of The Enemy Inside and its sequel, Broken, comes the stunning conclusion to the ‘Edge of Darkness’ series by investigative journalist Vanessa Skye, Blood Lines. Detective Alicia “Berg” Raymond is lying. She’s lying to the Chicago Police Department, to her boyfriend, Captain Jay O’Loughlin, but most of all, she’s lying to herself—about her past, her future, and her ongoing addiction. As Berg investigates a series of brutal rapes and sinks under an ever-increasing caseload, she finds herself juggling every aspect of her life—finding justice for victims of crime, keeping her own sordid past buried from her colleagues, struggling with blackmail that threatens to push her over the edge, and protecting her lover from the details of all of it. Wrapping her damaged head around living in a state of domestic bliss she’s certain she doesn’t deserve, Berg is driven by the need for justice and a determination to stop a rapist before any more innocent lives are ravaged. But when enemies from the past threaten her present, she is once again vulnerable to the demons that have plagued her every day of her life. It’s only a matter of time before her lies unravel and the fairy tale she’s finally started believing implodes . . . but the biggest threat of all, as it turns out, is her very own bloodline. Can she save herself, and the casualties of crime, from the lurking darkness waiting to strike, or will her own mistakes drag her under—this time for good?  

I have not read the other two books in this series but this one can definitely be read as a stand-alone. This book was SO good! Berg was my favorite character for several reasons but most importantly because I could understand the apprehension of letting your guard down around people. Berg's unwillingness to forgive herself for terrible things she did in the past is part of what drives her to continue to make terrible mistakes in her life. Including mistakes that involve colleagues. And some of her choices will really throw you for a loop if you're like me and didn't see it coming! Berg's relationship with Jay is very endearing and one of the best parts of this book because it's her motivation to save him that ultimately saves her.

Just when Berg thinks that parts of her past are finally behind her and buried deep where no one will find them, her bloodlines bring all her dirty secrets out in the open. And they don't just threaten to expose her, they threaten her life and the life of the one man she loves more than anything. I don't want to give away too much but you have to read this book! The action scenes are amazing and there are some pretty raunchy sex scenes that will have you blushing! 

I cannot wait until I read the other two books in this series. Vanessa Skye is a great writer and gives her characters so much depth and soul that you will feel like you're right there in the story with them. 

Check out the book tour and interview with Vanessa Skye

REVIEW: Lacy Eye - Jessica Treadway (LOVED THIS BOOK!)

**Disclaimer: I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Any thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Hanna Schutt never suspected that her younger daughter's happiness would lead to her husband's death and the destruction of their family. When Dawn brings her new boyfriend home from college for a visit, her parents and sister try to hide their doubts because they're glad that Dawn - always an awkward child - appears to have grown into a confident, mature young woman in her relationship with Rud. But when Hanna and her husband, Joe, are beaten savagely in their bed, Rud becomes the chief suspect and stands trial for Joe's murder.

Claiming her boyfriend's innocence, Dawn estranges herself from her mother, who survived the attack with serious injuries and impaired memory. When Rud wins an appeal and Dawn returns to the family home saying she wants to support her mother, Hanna decides to try to remember details of that traumatic night so she can testify to keep her husband's murderer in jail, never guessing that the process might cause her to question everything she thought she knew about her daughter.

You guys.....this book.....

I just....I can't even.... 

Lacy Eye is a phenomenal book. I would compare it to something along the lines of Gone Girl because of the suspense and the writing style. I dream of being the kind of writer that Jessica Treadway is. I knew about halfway through the book who the real killer was but even though I knew when I finally got to the part where the killer was revealed it was written in such a way that I was still like this: 

Dawn's lazy eye gives you an almost immediate reason to feel sympathy for her and to immediately dismiss her as anything more than a pawn in Rud Petty's sick game. The fact that her mother's facial disfigurement mirrored her own physical imperfection was not lost on me as I read the book. They were connected, two sides of the same coin. Even though Hanna had two children, Iris was always the stronger of the two children and Hanna believed that she needed to be emotionally and physically available for Dawn at all times. Because of her own guilt from her past, she saw Dawn as this broken little child who would always need her mother and who would always be dedicated to her mother. And that's why Hanna was so adamant to others that Dawn didn't have anything to do with her father's death. 

Even though Hanna's dog, Abby, would have barked if a stranger had entered the house but didn't the night that she and her husband were attacked, Hanna still believed that Dawn had nothing to do with the attack. She believed that Abby recognized Rud, who had saved her life after a suspicious poisoning incident that her husband Joe had suspected Rud of doing in order to save the dog's life to impress them. Hanna firmly believed Rud had been the one to attack them but that Dawn had been with her roommate Opal. She believed that until she had a flashback and remembered a tattoo on the person in the room. Rud didn't have a tattoo but the trouble-making next door neighbor, Emmett Furth, did. She started questioning everything about that night and was determined to get her memories back. When she finally does, it is not what I had expected....

Find it NOW!!

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