Member Reviews
Suspenseful tale of revenge and love gone wrong!
The Crushing is the fourth book in author Kerry Peresta’s compelling Olivia Callahan Suspense series and proves to be a suspense-filled tale of revenge and regretted former lovers. With an engaging main character, a supportive group of women friends all suffering the consequences of ill-chosen former husbands, and an intense storyline, I didn’t want to put this book down.
The main character and the owner of her own private investigations firm, Olivia Callahan is still recuperating from an assault that left her with a traumatic brain injury years earlier but is forging ahead with her new career and patchy memories of her former life. However, she and the rest of her close-knit Wine, Whine, and Win women’s group become worried when one of their friends, Hannah, seems to drop off the face of the Earth soon after she marries and moves to a small town in Florida. Finally, they decide to have Sherry, with her newly granted PI’s license, check on her in person, and what she discovers is chilling. The exciting prologue foretells the extreme circumstances Sherry encounters in her rescue of Hannah from her abusive spouse. The psychological and physical abuse she had undergone in the previous two years was unimaginable, and Patrick’s relentless pursuit of his fleeing wife kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to pop up again.
In the meantime, a new client with ties to both Olivia’s incarcerated ex-husband and Callie’s former spouse shows up looking to hire her firm for some surveillance work on his wife, who he suspects is having an affair. It, too, turns out to be much more complex.
Hunter Faraday, now a sergeant with Richmond Police Department, returns, still hurting from Olivia’s rejection a year earlier and his more recent breakup with Detective Shiloh McPherson. He’s remained in contact with Olivia’s family but steers clear of contacting her until she reaches out for information he can obtain on her current case. To complicate his life and emotions, Shiloh also re-enters his life, needing his department’s cooperation on a case to Richmond that she’s been working undercover for several months. Naturally, he’s highly conflicted over his feelings for both women.
Even though this is the fourth book in the series, new readers should be able to quickly pick up enough backstory to read and enjoy this story as a standalone. With twists around every corner, the suspenseful involvement of the ex-husbands, and its emotion-fraught relationships, I recommend THE CRUSHING to readers of suspense.
Loved this book! A great thriller with suspense and mystery. Very engaging and sometimes heartbreaking. Throw in revenge and love, we have all the emotions in this one! Fast paced and I highly recommend!
I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
The victim of a vicious assault six years ago that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, Olivia Callahan is now a private investigator with her own firm. The assault that almost took her life resulted in a spectacular metamorphosis. No longer the shy, passive introvert she once was, she’s become a driving and determined force. However, the lack of impulse control caused by her rewired brain causes her to run toward trouble instead of away from it.
When Olivia sends her colleague, Sherry, to the Florida panhandle to find a missing friend, Hannah; the search takes Sherry into the dark heart of an abusive, hostage situation. The man Hannah married is cruel, dangerous, and well-connected. Olivia reels in her favorite cop—Sergeant Hunter Faraday—for a discreet assist, and it soon becomes clear that Hannah’s new husband is adept at waging war against anything that blocks his way.
While rescuing Hannah is Olivia’s primary goal, her incarcerated ex-husband has other plans. He’s collected friends who support his obsessive need to punish her for her role in his murder conviction, and a time bomb is ticking.
As Olivia and Sherry battle to save Hannah, try to neutralize the fiendish plan of an ex bent on revenge, and endure a terrifying race for their lives through the Florida wetlands, a final betrayal waits patiently in the dark. Smiling.
An amazing story. Cannot wait to read more from the author. Will recommend to others
Good story. There were a lot of twists and character interactions that weren’t expected. Kept my interest throughout the book. Did not end on a cliffhanger but I can definitely see this as the first book in a good series.
This is an entertaining continuing adventure. The heroine, Olivia, has been through much so to understand her better, the previous novels in the series should be read. This novel has several aspects of domestic abuse so potential readers should be aware of possible trigger situations. Olivia has come into her own and leads a successful PI business. She has baggage with a hateful and vengeful ex-husband, a man who may very well want to ruin her. But there is currently a great fellow with whom Olivia has struggled to make a romantic commitment in the past. Will she finally say yes this time?
There are a number of deceptive people involved in this novel so the plot has many twists and turns. There is a good deal of suspense as Olivia and her co-PI Sherry more than once encounter danger as they rescue a woman abused by her controlling and vindictive husband. The narrative progresses by focusing on different people. Only Olivia's was written in first person so it was not a confusing way to follow the action. It does give one the opportunity to see the action through the eyes of many characters.
This is a good novel taking readers farther along in the life of Olivia. I hope there are more adventures to come.
I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Partners in Crime Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.
I was drawn into this book and the first 20% by during my workout. If you like books with multiple storylines and strong female protagonists, you want to check out this book. Most of the main characters are female, which I didn’t release until I sat down to write this review. Olivia is a great character and I love to see where her story goes both personally and professionally.
After suffering a traumatic brain injury a few years ago Olivia has come leaps and bounds and now runs her own Private Investigator business. In The Crushing Olivia and Sherry are on a mission to save their friend Hannah from a abusive marriage but it is not easy and they will all end up fighting to stay alive. Olivia's favourite sergeant is back Hunter Faraday but will it end up a happy ever after for Olivia and Hunter or a ending? I became obsessed with this series from the start and I think this is the best one so far! I could feel the danger all around but couldn't see it. My heart was pounding hard for most of the book. The plot has a lot happening and the characters deal with it all so well. It's a mystery twist and the little romance is sweet.
2⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books for an advanced copy of The Crushing.
Olivia owns her own PI company and her friend/employee Sherry is worried about their friend Hannah who ran off and got married and no one can get in touch with her. They set off to get some answers all the while Olivia is dealing with a threat from her ex con and ex husband Monty.
This book had the potential to be really good but there were so many slow/boring parts that really drug on for way too long.
This is my first book by this author, and the first book of the series. Unfortunately it wasn’t until *after* finishing the book that I realized it is part of a series, which likely explains some of the difficulties and frustrations I had while reading it in that characters would randomly be brought up/referenced without an explanation of who they were or why they were relevant, and therefore increased my initial rating of the book.
I found the storyline to be well written, but the story starts a little slow and there were a couple of dry areas where I thought about DNFing it, but I’m glad I didn’t because the book ended up heading places I didn’t expect!
I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
Six years ago Olivia received a brain injury from an assault. Now she runs a company helping abused women. She and her partner with Hunter head to the Florida wetlands to save Hannah from her abusive situation but has Hannah changed after years of abuse?
This was a really suspenseful read and had that atmosphere that I was looking for and enjoyed about the genre. Kerry Peresta was able to weave a great story that worked and had me guessing what was happening from start to finish. I enjoyed the way the characters were written.
The victim of a vicious assault six years ago that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, Olivia Callahan is now a private investigator with her own firm. The assault that almost took her life resulted in a spectacular metamorphosis. No longer the shy, passive introvert she once was, she’s become a driving and determined force. However, the lack of impulse control caused by her rewired brain causes her to run toward trouble instead of away from it! Good book! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, murder, mystery, a great who done it and a few twists and turns. The story was interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!
This is such a good book! There were a few parts that were a bit too unrealistic so that took away from it a little bit. I think the concept was great, that the main character had overcome an assault and is a PI. it is a fast paced and suspenseful story, it kept me reading more and more to get me to the end!
Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and especially the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book!!