Poisonous by Allison Brennan

Title: Poisonous
Author: Allison Brennan
Series: #3 in the Maxine Revere series
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Minotaur Books; Reprint edition (April 12, 2016)
Source: Library Find
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2

Synopsis: Teen-aged Internet bully Ivy Lake fell off a cliff and few people cared ... except her mentally-challenged eighteen-year-old step-brother, Tommy. He loved her in spite of her cruelty. He's distraught and doesn't understand why his blended family is falling apart. After a year, the police still have no answers: Ivy could have jumped, could have been pushed, or it could have been an accident. With too many suspects and not enough evidence, the investigation has grown cold.

Tommy thinks that if someone can figure out what happened to his step-sister, everything will go back to normal, so he writes to investigative reporter Maxine Revere. This isn’t the type of case Max normally takes on, but the heartbreak and simple honesty in Tommy's letter pulls her in. She travels to Corte Madera, California, with her assistant David Kane and is at first pleased that the police are cooperative. But the more Max learns about Tommy and his dysfunctional family, the more she thinks she’s taken on an impossible task: this may be the one case she can’t solve.

If Ivy was murdered, it was exceptionally well-planned and that kind of killer could be hiding in plain sight ... planning the next act of violence. Max believes the truth is always better than lies, that the truth is the only thing that matters to gain justice for victims and their families. But for the first time, she wonders if this time, the truth will kill.

My Thoughts: While I wasn't as involved with the crime part of this book as I was in the previous book I did enjoy this book quite a bit.

The Good: I liked Max's interactions with the kids in this book. She showed immense compassion when talking with them and treated Tommy, an 18 year old with special needs, with respect. I'm not sure if she would have been as compassionate if this was the case we read about in the first book. In the first book she was colder...almost impersonal. She also did whatever it took to get to the truth  regardless of who might get hurt. In the second book she had to take a hard look at who she was as a person and made some discoveries she didn't like. In this book she is still struggling with her discoveries she made of herself in the previous book. This has made her a better character. She isn't as "in your face" and even though she is still a very strong woman she doesn't plow over people or jump into verbal confrontations immediately, as she would have in the first book.

The investigation was interesting and completely relevant to the time with social media such a huge impact on our youth. I liked seeing, once again, Max's methodology and her legwork when it came to investigating the cold case.

The Bad: While I like that Max's character is growing I don't think she made as much of a forward movement as she could have. She is having a hard time not opinionating about Nick's and David's ex's. She's not understanding even though the women, mother's of their children, are complete witches there is a large amount of finesse and towing the line in making sure those women do not cut the men completely out of their kid's lives. Max's personality is to just blast the women, hire a better lawyer, take what is owed you. Stop playing nice. The men don't want that stress on their kids because those women would make the kids miserable by not letting them see their dads, talking bad about their dads in front of them, etc. I'm not sure if Max has the capability to learn these things. She has no intention of becoming a mother and I'm not sure is she is maternal at all even with the compassion she showed the boys.

Also, there was some things that were repeated throughout the book. I was a little annoyed with this but didn't notice it happening in the other books so I'm hoping it's just a one off. Oh and if you're more interested in the romance aspect of Rom/Susp this book has very little in the way of romance. Nick does make an appearance a couple times in the book but the majority of the book is about the investigation. There isn't a lot of suspense build up either. There is some at the end but like I said it's mostly about the investigation.

In a Nutshell: I'm enjoying these books more than I thought I would after reading that first book. Even though I only rated this 3.5 I'm looking forward to the next book a lot.