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Donna Collins
Author
Hunted: The Sacrifice (Book 1)
When Cornish nurse Eliza Hamilton is mugged on her way home from work late one evening, the mysterious Roman Holbrook appears out of the darkness and fights off her strange attacker. He quickly disappears into the night before the police arrive, leaving a semi-conscious Eliza questioning if he was, in fact, a figment of her imagination. That is until he shows up on her doorstep one rainy night – and all hell breaks loose again. But is this man her hero or does he have a more sinister motive for wanting her kept alive?
Reviews
Amazon

Eliza is attacked at a train station on her way home from work on a dark and stormy night. Yes, it's a horror/suspense novel that starts on a stormy night. But, it's also well-written, and the setting really fits the action of the tale, so it's not just for the sake of the trope. What attacks Eliza is less clear - it's certainly not a human, and she would have died without the last-minute rescue from Roman. He's the hero of the moment, but he's certainly not a hero in the classic sense. I won't say any more about what attacks Eliza, or what's up with Roman - there's no way to do it without spoilers - but things are not as they seem.

I enjoyed the way this book played with some common horror tropes, like the rain mentioned above. Yes, it was a dark and stormy night, but it's also England, so the rain makes sense. And when the unlikely...occurrences... happen later in the book (it's REALLY hard to not give spoilers!!), they're both expected and unexpected. A bite doesn't do what you think a bite should do, but a good whack to the head does the trick like you think it will (again, so hard not to spoil!). And Eliza and Roman's backstories - really the WHY of the book - also play with common tropes - and I can't explain this one without a spoiler, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to see it: Eliza's tale could quite easily have felt like a ripoff of the DaVinci Code, but it doesn't as it's both more down-to-earth and more horrifying than either the Bible or Dan Brown could have predicted.

My only real complaint was Roman - we got some backstory, and he's one hell of an interesting character, but it's not clear to me why he needed to be so much of a jerk. Yes, some of it is cleared up when we really learn what's going on with him, but he's just such an ass to everyone, and there's no payoff to it. Maybe this gets resolved in the other 2 books, and I'll certainly read to see if that's the case, but he'd better have a change in attitude soon, or I won't be able to keep up.

This was a great book to read around Halloween, and I finished it on a dark and stormy night, which felt even more apropos. It was a fairly quick read, and just dark and broody enough to satisfy. Download and enjoy!
 

Amazon

Woah, I really liked this book! I haven’t ever read a mystery thriller type book before, and this was a perfect introduction for me! The characters of Eliza and Roman were a fantastically unlikely pair, and the development between them, as well as the settings and people around them, flowed really well.

The character building and the settings were vivid and realistic, enabling me to watch the story unfold in my imagination. Which is a thing I love in my books, so well done!

I gotta say, being that I am from the states, there was a lot of words that I didn’t get right away, more sayings then words, but it was easy to pick up their meanings. It was a lot of fun to experience another country through the dialect.

One small thing that I noticed was that the dialogue appeared stiff somethings, almost forced, but it wasn’t all the time. Just a few things here and there.

Overall, this gets a 4.5 stars from me and it looks like I’ll be getting the next ones in the series, because I have to know what happens next!

Amazon

Eliza is a nurse who has no idea what life holds for her. Roman is on the search for specific items and Eliza is the key to him getting into Heaven. One night as Eliza leaves the hospital she is attacked by some kind of shadow monster. Roman saves her and tries to bring her back her purse the following evening. Eliza is having experiences of the supernatural kind since that evening. She is beaten, kidnapped, tortured, and more. She fights back and continues to escape until she cannot any more. Roman continues to save her, but what are his nefarious reasons? Her brother Billy is a police officer looking to put their dad away for the murder of their mother. Something about Eliza’s blood is VERY special. I could not figure out what the total story was until I was ¾ of the way through. It is an EXCITING book that will definitely keep you on your toes! Expect the unexpected and the explanations will blow your mind and who all is involved! This book ends in a cliffhanger and I definitely want to read the next one in the series.

Amazon

Eliza is a nurse who has no idea what life holds for her. Roman is on the search for specific items and Eliza is the key to him getting into Heaven. One night as Eliza leaves the hospital she is attacked by some kind of shadow monster. Roman saves her and tries to bring her back her purse the following evening. Eliza is having experiences of the supernatural kind since that evening. She is beaten, kidnapped, tortured, and more. She fights back and continues to escape until she cannot anymore. Roman continues to save her, but what are his nefarious reasons? Her brother Billy is a police officer looking to put their dad away for the murder of their mother. Something about Eliza’s blood is VERY special. I could not figure out what the total story was until I was ¾ of the way through. It is an EXCITING book that will definitely keep you on your toes! Expect the unexpected and the explanations will blow your mind and who all is involved! This book ends in a cliffhanger and I definitely want to read the next one in the series.

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