Gone to Her Grave by Melinda Leigh

Title: Gone to Her Grave
Author: Melinda Leigh
Series: #2 in the Rogue River series
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Montlake Romance (October 21, 2014)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕☕☕

Synopsis: In Solitude, Oregon, everyone has secrets…and some will kill to keep them.

When she believes a teen is falsely accused of drug dealing, social worker Carly Taylor takes on a high-risk case and her estranged husband—the detective in charge of the investigation—to prove the boy innocent. A deadly new designer drug has taken hold of her small rural hometown of Solitude, Oregon, and Carly is determined to find the real dealer and clear the teen’s name. But the deeper she digs into the case, the more danger she unearths, until someone decides it’s time for Carly to move on…permanently.

Investigator Seth Harding knows he can’t stop his wife when she has a child to protect. But he risks any chance of reconciliation with Carly if he can’t learn to accept her dangerous job. When a drug dealer decides Carly is getting too close, will Seth lose her altogether?

A pulse-pounding Rogue River novella, Gone to Her Grave is the second exciting addition to the new romantic suspense series from Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot.

My Thoughts: While I really enjoyed the first installment in this series I thought the lack of conclusion in this book was more pronounced than the former.

The Good: I liked the suspenseful moments where Carly was making home visits to a family in a really bad situation. This smacks of realness and it made me identify with Carly and the fact that she didn't run headlong into danger was a plus. I liked seeing Stevie once again even though she had a very small part in this book.


The Bad: The continuing storyline that connects all four novellas in the Rogue River series didn't really move forward even though the death of Carly and Stevie's dad is being investigated now. If it weren't for the rehashing of the big bad drug craze happening in the small town there wouldn't have been much to connect the two stories.

Also, the romance was problematic because Seth and Carly are married yet separated throughout the entire book. There was huge communication issues between the two because of Seth. I couldn't connect with him because he was a macho-my job is more important than yours is-jerk. I could see how they might be able to work it out but only if Seth does some major soul searching and changes his attitude. A novella just didn't give a warring couple time to work out their differences.

In a Nutshell: I'm invested in Rogue River and will continue reading the next two books.

On Her Father's Grave by Kendra Elliot

Title: On Her Father's Grave
Author: Kendra Elliot
Series: #1 in the Rogue River series
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Montlake Romance (October 7, 2014)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: In a small town like Solitude, Oregon, keeping a secret can be murder.

Stevie Taylor had left her sleepy Oregon hometown for a more exciting life. But after her police chief father passes away, the LAPD cop returns to Solitude and signs on as a patrol officer, hoping to heal from her loss…and from the horrific things she’s seen in the city.

In Solitude, everyone knows everyone else’s business—and, to Stevie’s dismay, local gossip soon ties her to the new police chief and a man from her past. Tragedy then shakes up the small town when a teenager dies after taking a strange new drug. Now, the seasoned LA cop must hunt down the dealer while investigating the most important case of her life, one that could divide her tranquil town.

The first of four thrilling Rogue River novellas, On Her Father’s Grave launches a new romantic suspense series from Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh.

My Thoughts: A Strong start to a good Rom/Susp series.

The Good: While this is technically a novella it felt a bit like a serial as the underlying premise of the series is left dangling. Presumably, to finish out in the coming books. I list this as a good thing because with page length being limited, some novellas try to insert so much information that it ends up hurting either the plot or the character development. Sometimes both. Neither suffer here. We get a good sense of the main characters and a nice balance of info on the secondary characters as well. The plot, also, was satisfyingly tied up. At least part of the plot was. There are a few mysterious aspects introduced but the main one (what killed the teen) was put to bed even though there are still some questions on who is pulling those strings. The romance aspect was minimal yet nicely done. At this point there is only budding romance which was smartly done considering the length of the piece.

The Bad: At this point I might speculate that switching authors may be a bit of a hinderance in the continuity of the story and writing style. Elliot wrote the first and third of the series and Melinda Leigh wrote the second and fourth. I could also speculate that Leigh's input on the series may introduce yet another H and h, another romance, and another main plot without putting Stevie's father's story to bed, all would be bad in my eyes as Elliot did an outstanding job of setting this up already. I'd hate for all my unanswered questions to get left unanswered. But speculations aside there really wasn't many things that I would consider to be bad about this story. Unless one would find the name Stevie for a heroine to be annoying then one might have something to complain about. Other than that, I got nothing bad to say.

In a Nutshell: Overall I'd say this was a darn good novella. I'm very much looking forward to reading more in this series and would recommend this one for someone who wants a short read between other longer books. Be warned though, you may find you need to continue to book 2 right away.