Unwrapping a Review of CONFESSION by Carey Baldwin

I first experienced the suspense talent of Carey Baldwin with FIRST DO NO EVIL and then her novella, HUSH, so when Witness Impulse released her romantic suspense, CONFESSION, I knew I just had to read it. It was everything I hoped it to be and more.

***I purchased this one for my own personal reading, but am sharing my honest and unscripted review with you.

Blurb for CONFESSION:

For fans of Allison Brennan and Karen Rose comes Carey Baldwin, a daring new name in suspense, with the story of a serial killer out for blood—and the only woman who can stop his reign of terror.

They say the Santa Fe Saint comes to save your soul—by taking your life.

Newly minted psychiatrist Faith Clancy gets the shock of her life when her first patient confesses to the grisly Saint murders. By law Faith's compelled to notify the authorities, but is her patient really the Saint? Or will she contribute to more death by turning the wrong man over to the police?

Faith is going to need all her wits and the help of a powerful adversary, Luke Jericho, if she's to unravel the truth. But she doesn't realize she's about to become an unwitting pawn in a serial killer's diabolical game. For once he's finished with Faith, she's to become his next victim.

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Dr. Faith Clancy is new in town, fairly new to psychiatry but not new to tragedy, discord, secrets, and personal fears. When her only patient, Dante Jericho follows her into her office on her day off and confesses to being the Santa Fe Saint, she does what she knows she needs to do – she turns him in to the police.

Luke Jericho is not happy about being attracted to his half-brother’s psychiatrist but when he finds out that she turned in his brother for confessing to being a serial killer, he sets out to not only clear his brother’s name with Faith’s assistance but with the hope of winning her over in a non-professional manner as well.

Faith battles her own demons even as she unwittingly finds herself pulled into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the real Santa Fe Saint. When she and Luke discover there’s more to this dangerous game than protecting patient confidentiality and discovering the truth about the Santa Fe Saint. She and Luke uncover secrets that lead them straight into danger.

CONFESSION by Carey Baldwin grabs hold of you from the first page and doesn’t let go of you until turn the last. This character driven suspense is so well put together you might think it’s real. The characters are alive with angst, suspicions, flaws, passion, and emotion that keep you turning the pages late into the night even while the creepiness of Faith’s newest patient makes your skin crawl and wishing you’d turned on more lights. But when the final twist comes, you’d better be ready.

I highly recommend CONFESSION by Carey Baldwin to anyone who loves a truly suspenseful story built on characters that leap off the page and sit in the chair with you while you read, even as the skin crawls on the back of your neck. I can’t wait to read the next one – I’m without a doubt a Carey Baldwin fan forever.

Happy Reading Everyone!

CONFESSION by Carey Baldwin, Witness Impulse, available now in print and ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.

***click on links or cover below for purchasing information

   

Unwrapping: Review of FIRST DO NO EVIL by Carey Baldwin

I opened my email one day and discovered a wonderful treat from debut author Carey Baldwin. She had sent me an eARC of her debut novel, FIRST DO NO EVIL, Blood Secrets Book 1 from Samhain Publishing, releasing June 26, 2012. It seems I was the first person to enter her first contest on her brand new website - love being in the right place at the right time. Added bonus, she's a debut author and you know how I love debut authors.

Blurb for FIRST DO NO EVIL:

One killer is in her blood. The other is in her house.

There’s a killer lurking in Dr. Skylar Novak’s family tree: the gene for breast cancer. That’s why her brilliant brother invented the Bella vaccine. But even if the miracle drug protects her from the cancer that took her mother’s life, it can’t save Sky from the flesh and bone evil stalking her in secret.
When the killer strikes, detective Daniel Benson finds himself in the wrong place at the right time. The bold detective manages to save Sky’s life…just in time for her to return the favor. Survival leads to seduction, and Danny risks everything—his career, even his life, to keep Sky safe. But will the buried sins they uncover cost him her heart?
Danny’s strong arms may hold her close, but only Sky can stop the terror that’s coming next…

Product Warnings
Contents include: One heart-melting hero—good luck getting this delicious detective out of your head. One reluctant heroine—wielding a Glock was never on her to-do list. One crazed villain—an entire flock of baa baa black sheep won’t be enough to put you to sleep. And a lifesaving vaccine with one deadly side effect—murder.

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Dr. Sky Novak is no stranger to crime or the aftermath but when months later she is confronted with the idea that she may be next or her brother, Garth, she turns to the one man she hopes can help her make sense of things.

Detective Danny Benson puts his life on the line all the time as a cop but when he entered Jolene's diner that cold morning he hadn't expected to meet Sky Novak or come quite so close to death. In the aftermath, while rehabilitating, Danny starts questioning the events of that day. That day that Jack Spurlock robbed Jolene's, held Neveah Flores at gun point and threatened to kill Sky if her brother didn't sit down and shut up. For a robbery, it was all so atypical that Danny couldn't let it go.

It isn't difficult for Danny to convince Sky that this was no ordinary robbery for she had already started to question the coincidences between the Halloween night that her father was killed and this Halloween robbery that left her fiance and the criminal dead, Danny severely injured and Neveah too frightened to return to work at the diner. There was one thing that tied both events together - Skylar Novak. Was there a serial killer behind both events? Was Sky the target or only those around her? As Sky begins to examine her world and the world of those around her, more questions are raised than answered. As Sky begins to worry for the safety of others around her, her own feelings for Danny begin to go far beyond trust and safety. When she asks him to teach her to shoot a gun, he gladly agrees on the condition that she tell him the truth about everything. It's this truth that pulls them closer and opens the door to things that might be best left unknown.

I wish I could tell you more but if I do, I'll ruin the read for you. FIRST DO NO EVIL by Carey Baldwin is an action-packed, grab you by the throat and not let you go until the very end, story! This being her debut novel, Carey Baldwin has hit an A+ grade. She's created great characters and a plot that twists and turns so many times that when you start to see it come together, you'll smack your forehead and say, "why didn't I see that coming?" I am a little disappointed, Carey, that you actually used the word snuck ... sorry, English major in me that makes me cringe at such slang.

FIRST DO NO EVIL, Blood Secrets Book 1 by Carey Baldwin is a romantic suspense that will have you gripping your ereader while worrying if you're going to be able to sleep after turning off the light. There's nothing like a well-plotted serial killer on the lose story to give you chills and heighten your senses. Throw in a hot sexy detective and a doctor heroine whose no shrinking violet and you've got yourself one excellent, steamy romance filled spine tingling suspense that you won't soon forget.

I highly recommend FIRST DO NO EVIL by Carey Baldwin for anyone who loves suspense, a killer on the loose who when revealed makes your blood run cold and a heroine who will have you cheering when she shows her true iron self. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next in the Blood Secrets series and Carey Baldwin is definitely now on my list of authors I read.

Happy Reading Everyone!
(Don't forget there's still time to win a signed e-copy of THE WHITE SWAN AFFAIR by Elyse Mady at the Wacky Wednesday post and I'll be choosing 2 new winners in the A WARRIOR'S PROMISE by Donna Fletcher giveaway since 2 past winners never responded. All will be announced in a special post on Saturday - stay tuned.)

FIRST DO NO EVIL, Blood Secrets Book 1 by Carey Baldwin, Samhain Publishing, release date - June 26, 2012 in ebood format.