Featured Summer  Read: New York Times Best Seller, Brenda Novak has given us a story about love found in the rubble of devastation in her latest release, Stop Me. 

Romain Fornier killed the man who murdered his ten year old daughter. After his release from prison, all he wanted to do was forget, and bury himself deep in the Louisiana bayou to be alone. Unexpectedly Jasmine Stratford walks into his life, claiming the murder of his daughter may be connected to her sister’s kidnapping sixteen years ago. And than she drops the real bombshell: he might have killed the wrong man.

I loved the relationship between Romain and Jasmine. Romain didn’t want romance or even love. He is a true warrior in every sense of the word. He’s self-reliant, dedicated to his morals (and to his grief), brave, and compassionate. His wife had died of cancer, then he lost his little girl in the worse way, leaving him understandably bitter, but not beyond repair. Love was the last thing he believed he needed or would find. Then Jasmine appears in his life, damaged and racked with guilt over the unsolved kidnapping of her little sister while she was babysitting.  There is an immediate spark, although both are fighting to deny it.

Both these characters are on incredible journeys of loss, pain and healing. Brenda Novak weaves her tale around the damage done to the survivors. She has taken on a tough topic, the murder of a child, than blends in the fall-out and those who are left behind to pick up the pieces.  Jasmine and Romain set out together to find who really murdered Romain’s daughter and kidnapped Jasmine’s  sister. There are a lot of dark tunnels they go through together as they weave their way through many surprises and twist in their drive to discover the truth. Their determination to stop those behind the kidnappings and murders drives the story at top speed towards a surprising end.  

I read this book in three days, unable to put it down.  And when it ended, I found myself missing the two main characters whose story I became so involved.  If you are a fan of Brenda Novak’s, you won’t be disappointed with this book which is the second in a trilogy about a group of young women who are all victims of crimes.  These women, instead of rolling over into the pits of a darkness to be victims forever, climb out to form a survivors network to help others.

Trust Me- In stores now.

Stop Me- In stores now.

Watch Me- Look for it July 29^th.

Question of the Day: 

It’s an unspoken rule that books in the women’s fiction genre not have murdered children in them.  What do you think of this ‘rule’?  As in Stop Me, are rules meant to be broken?