⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Was I hooked by that book? Absolutely. Edge-of-your-seat action and complicated personal relationships made for an exciting crime thriller that was hard to put down.

Laurel’s family was never simple—but her half-sister, Abigail, a brilliant, unpredictable psychopath, just made it lethal. Accused of murdering their father, a man she always called a monster, Abigail claims self-defense. As the trial unfolds and long-buried family secrets explode into headlines across Washington State, Laurel’s hard-won privacy is shattered. And the nightmare is just beginning. Even as Abigail’s trial consumes public attention, new dangers close in as the murder of a prominent scientist and the illegal poaching of a rare Pacific plant point to something insidious. Laurel turns to Washington Fish and Wildlife captain Huck Rivers, her partner in work and life, for help. But the deeper they dig, the more the case seems to echo the chaos unraveling Laurel’s world. With danger tightening around her, Laurel faces an impossible choice: trust Abigail in one crucial, treacherous alliance, or risk losing everything. Her career, her relationships, even her life hang in the balance. The clock is ticking—and if the threat breaks loose, nothing will be fast enough to stop it.

MY THOUGHTS

Keep your enemies close and your psychotic sister even closer. Even if you want to get as far away from her as possible. Because you just don’t know what she’s going to do next. Holy moly, Abigail is in a league of her own. I truly wished there was someone else who saw the real woman behind the manipulative façade. But that group is slowly growing. I cannot wait to see where her story is heading.

This murder mystery led to a very intriguing culmination of what initially looked like separate incidents. Just as Laurel and Huck and their teams began to sink their teeth into one murder, something else would be thrown into the mix. The action was fairly fast-paced and flowed smoothly from one event to the next.

Laurel and Huck kept being the glue that held the story together. I loved the way they loved each other. They were fundamentally the same people we met in the first book, but they have grown together as they continued to make room for each other.

I can highly recommend this series if you like a slow burn romance with interesting characters, murder, and clever detective work. It is definitely better to read the books in order and there are plenty of character and relationship development from book to book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Were you hooked by that book? Let me know in the comments below.

Genre: Romance, Suspense
Published: December 16, 2025
Sensuality Rating: Warm
Series: Book 5 of Laurel Snow
Other books in the series: You Can Run, You Can Hide, You Can Die, You Can Kill