Jack Petrov, lead singer of a successful rock band, is spending the Thanksgiving weekend with his wife and children in the Poconos. He has been out of the limelight for two years after a terrible car accident that resulted in the deaths of two of his children. Traveling with the family is the children's nanny, Penny Shepherd. Penny and Jack have been best friends since their days at Princeton. After a verbal fight with his wife, Jack orders Penny to drive him after he gets buzzed in the lodge's bar. Before they can return, they are abducted by kidnappers hired by someone called the Employer. Although treated okay at the beginning, their treatment worsens as the Employer demands information from Penny. After the truth is revealed, the Employer leaves after a final goodbye and Penny and Jack are left to try and survive, still as captives.

The writing was ok and the plot is good but the story just didn't hold my attention

Jack is a better than average rock star needing medication for an ulcer. Penny is the anorexic nanny suffering from depression. They have known each other since university and stayed friends with Jack later employing her to mind his children. Someone has paid to have one of them kidnapped and the other becomes caught up in the abduction. Their captors are a group employed to extract recompense/revenge from individuals and they are experts at inflicting mental and physical torture on their victims. Who is their employer and who is the target?
At times, it felt like there was too much going on in this story. The author seems to have a lot of interest in health related conditions eg children vomiting, Jack’s ulcer, anorexia etc. At the start wondered when the list of children and their issues/health problems was going to end and whether this was about someone’s struggle with an eating disorder?
I had been warned parts of the book were quite graphic and initially felt the torture scenes were not for the faint hearted. After a while, they seemed a bit monotonous and unbelievable.
Overall, this story did not give me anything to rave about or leave me with a burning desire to read the likely sequel. I am conscious of the variety of reading preferences out there and this could be the perfect read for someone else.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free digital copy in return for an honest review.

Deceptions is an interesting novel which is the first of a trilogy. Starting out with the first two chapters as a dark engaging thriller written in the third person, it soon turns into a first person narrative that unfortunately hinders the overall piece.

The main character, Penny is a nanny to numerous kids who all seem to have genetic imperfections or behavioural issues which after reading the overall first narrative of the main character, I personally found the family dynamics a bit overwhelming. The main characters is kind of likable but is a bit annoying and if written in the third person throughout, would make this a gripping edge of your seat thriller.

Mansfield, does have an interesting writing style and really comes to her own when she leaves Penny to the side. Her dark sense of torture and a couple in peril are outstanding and this is where she shows her true talent. The plot is bogged down with multiple children and characters involved in the domestic setting of the novel. Pairing this down to a more nuclear family may have added more development to these sections.

This is a very dark book with rewarding payoff but there are some overwritten passages which a good edit could cut through to make this an outstanding novel. I will add that the passages after the kidnapping are tense, fraught with unnerving passages that really enter into the horror of the piece and this is the fantastic part of the work overall. This part of the story deeply involved me and this part of the book kept me reading.

The ending of the book has a very unfinished and cheap marketing approach with the words TO BE CONTINUED which left you feeling cheated. A bit like Back to the Future 2 and everyone feels like they have been ripped off. I think this could have been handled slightly better with tying up some threads whilst giving a false conclusion with an added epilogue to prelude to a sequel. Unfortunately, it feels like an overwritten novel that could have better serviced by a great editor.

Overall, it’s an uneven thriller with strong third person narrative and very weak first person narrative. When it gets dark, it thrives but when dealt with Penny as the voice and narrative, the novel is let down with annoying presence.

An intriguing story. Will read the next installment.Not for the faint of heart.

The story stats off with the family of a Rock Star, Jack and his family. They are on vacation in the Poconos for Thanksgiving. Penny his long time friend and nanny/ assistant is busy with the children. His wife is not all that interested in any of them. Penny is the mother figure for the kids. Jack & his wife had a fight and he asks Penny to drive him home in the middle of the night in a snow storm so she can bring the car back to take the kids all home. They are kidnapped on a side road they took to get away from the storm. The story goes on with their ordeal and the problems with the family at home since they have been taken. They are not taken for ransom. Deep psychological thriller. Lots of torture goes on. There are two more books to this series.

Jack was a very smart man, but he could not see the trouble he was in. A Princeton graduate, living a life in the spotlight, but when it came to his family, it was as if he knew nothing at all. Deceived in every way, his marriage had died a long time ago. He thought she was a very good wife, but she wasn’t very good at all. She’d been hiding things from him, the worst he could imagine. But then there was Penny, Jack's long time best friend who herself hid things from Jack - her deepest dark secrets, her internal struggles, and her love. But when she is erroneously kidnapped along with Jack, everything takes one surprising turn.

I can’t say anything about this book without giving any spoilers. For me, a good book is one that involves the emotions, whether its laughter (not much of that) or tears (plenty of those), plenty of tension. I really cared about Jack and Penny and what happened to them was torture - to be away from friends and family for so long. Even though I guessed who was behind the kidnapping about ¾ of the way through it didn’t matter. I wanted to know why it was going on.

I absolutely loved this book; It is the first in a series and I really can’t wait for the next one, hope it comes out soon. 5*

Deceptions
By Dana Mansfield

A Thrilling and Captivating read !http

The story of Penny and Jack best friends from college. Now in a employer/employee relationship. They both find themselves in a dangerous situation,  being kidnapped and held with no ransom demands.

A Thrilling and Captivating read, with a cliffhanger ending.
4 stars !

I graciously received this ARC through Netgalley from Black Rose Writing for a honest review.

There is definitely a lot going on in this story. Sometimes too much. Maybe that is why it is being continued as a trilogy. Jack and Penny met years ago at university. Penny was instantly charmed by the way Jack was caring for his little sister. They became the best of friends and apparently that friendship continued as Jack became a rock star and fathered several children with his wife Crystal, none of whom Crystal seemed to particularly want to mother. Jack was not the typical rock and roll type, he loves his children above all else and is a good and decent family man. His wife is the partier in the family and she often takes off for long stretches of time leaving her children in the care of their father and Penny who has become their nanny. Penny has come from a dysfunctional family and having nothing to do with her own relatives she comes to love Jack's children as her own. Penny suffers depression and bouts of anorexia which she tries to hide from Jack along with another darker secret. While spending the Thanksgiving holiday together, Crystal and Jack have a fight and he demands Penny drive him home during a snow storm. On their way they are kidnapped by a strange group who claim that although Jack is the real target they are taking Penny along as well. Someone they call "The Employer" wants information from her.
They soon learn no ransom will be asked for them, and they are to be held prisoner for however long it pleases the employer. Because of the brutal was Penny was treated by the kidnappers considering she was supposedly not even meant to be kidnapped I thought it was a bit too easy to figure out who this mysterious employer was. Still it did hold my interest even if it did seem to be trying too hard to incorporate too many dramas at once into one plot line.

Deceptions is a brutal, twisted book written by author Dana Mansfield. It ends with an unexpected cliffhanger. The torture is unbelievable. I don't want to read the next book, but I really need to know what happens to these characters. Thanks to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for the advance copy.

If I could give minus 5 stars I would but the worst I can do it seems is give a one. I read 3-4 books a week, mostly mystery and suspense. Before this book my most hated read was "Gone Girl" but this takes the cake. None of it makes sense, the continued torture is disgusting, the improbability of Jack and Penny lasting through all that is absurd. No suspense because you can figure out yourself who the "employer" is right away behind the kidnapping and torture. Don't know why I continued to read this but wanted a satisfactory ending which wasn't there. To think they would want me to read two more sequels is disgusting in and of itself. Please don't continue to print sequels to this book! It's horrible