on Tour August 1-31, 2020

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Book two in the Annalisse Series focuses on the protagonist herself and a lifetime of lies.

Frustrated by the emotionally distant and frequently absent Alec, Annalisse heads to Walker Farm and Aunt Kate for guidance and advice. But she is blindsided when Kate tells her Jeremy plans to sell the farm. Annalisse’s anxiety grows, as does her list of questions.

However, all conversations are preempted by the dead body Ethan finds in the stables. Neither he nor Annalisse or Kate know the man, and after all the preliminary interrogations by law enforcement, Annalisse takes her aunt to Alec’s estate since the farm is now a crime scene.

Needing peace and quiet, Kate asked Annalisse to leave her at Alec’s stables to visit with the thoroughbreds, which she does—despite a storm brewing—and proceeds to the main house. Alec arrives moments later, having canceled his business trip to make things right with Annalisse. However, after telling him about the morning at Walker Farm and Kate being at the stables during the storm, the couple goes to retrieve her. And. She’s. Gone.

Overturned chairs and an empty syringe, coupled with the anonymous dead body has Annalisse fearing the worst… and after all she and Alec have been through, her worst is pretty bad.

Plot twists and revelations are dizzying as two investigations morph into one. Annalisse suspects everyone from stable hand Ethan, whose stories are never consistent, to her cousins, Jeremy and Jillian, who don’t seem all that upset their mother is missing.

At the heart of all this is the relationship between Annalisse and Alec. While distraught at the story’s beginning that she’s lost Alec, Annalisse appears to do an about-face. The harder Alec tried to pull them together, the more she backed away. Despite her thoughts of how much she loved the man, Annalisse ran too hot and cold for me with lame excuses and weak pleas. She knows how fleeting life is… she’s lost so much, but her choices annoyed me.  At one point, I wanted to push her into a closet, lock the door and find Kate myself. But that’s just me.

Dead bodies, kidnappings, car accidents, and assaults keep this read moving at a fast, edge-of-the-seat pace. As the truth takes shape, the lies grow deeper, and it’s almost inconceivable hate could run so deep.

A solid book two in the series, the ending is happy-for-now and wide open for book three.

Enjoy!

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