I wrote that description to help explain what the book is about. From the title and description on the product page, I was under the impression that I was going to be reading a mystery. After reading the book, I am more convinced it is a romance novel set in the context of a mystery. When assuming this, I think it's easier to enjoy.
If you are a mystery lover like myself, who likes to solve the case, you probably will be disappointed, unless the types of mysteries you like are dramas such as NCIS where you are not really allowed to solve the case. You may know the culprit, but the real focus is the drama.
I did find myself interested in the book and often looked for time to read. However, I found myself disappointed that the progression was primarily revelations rather than investigations and deductions.
A tricky thing with mysteries is that they depend upon the twist revelation to be well executed. A servable twist explains things. A great twist not only explains things, but completely changes how you view events, and it does so by overturning something the audience took for granted. Examples of this would be the Prestige, Empire Strikes Back, or the Sixth Sense. In this novel, I felt like it really only affected my view of one character, who was not the culprit.
Another thing about mysteries is the deduction process. A good mystery, in my opinion, shows more than it tells. Here, rather than actions leading to results, people just inform. This applies to the storytelling as well. It's said that Jared is a good negotiator, but I really did not see any evidence of that.
Finally, the ending has a lot to be desired of. It does not make sense in terms of some character actions. While it does tie up the main mystery, it still left me with some questions. At the same time, the last chapter felt tacked on. As a result, I see this as mostly a plot-driven-story rather than a story-driven-plot, which is probably best for a solid mystery.
But what if we think of this as a romance first? Then I don't think my complaints above matter so much. If you are not interested in who is the culprit but whether Jared and Rylee get together or not, I think it works. I'm not a romance expert, but I found it interesting enough. For me, the importance of romance is not if the characters are compatible, but rather the emotions and choices they make feel real and nothing objectionable happens. For those two points, I think it succeeds here.
One critique that will still stand is that it can be a bit hard to read at times. Occasionally a paragraph would take up a whole page. I would sometimes have to backtrack and re-read entire pages. One mystery in each chapter is when it occurs and where as sometimes you might expect it to continue to right off the previous, but it takes place days later. There are also a few grammatical errors, though one might be how they talk in Georgia. I asked my colleague from Georgia and she said that she has heard some people speak of the dead like they are alive like “Jess is our friend.”
In conclusion, it may not be the best novel you have ever read, and certainly not a best mystery, but as a romance, I thinks it's fine.
Note: if you are curious about language content, there was at least one f-bomb and a quite a few cases of "God" used for emphasis. Otherwise, a relatively clean book when it comes to language. As for sexual content, there was nothing explicit, but Jared is hinted at doing one night stands with many women before the events of the book.
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