Pretend You’re Safe (The Agency #1) – Alexandra Ivy (Review)

Publication date: August 29, 2017

Cover blurb:

HE SEES YOU
First came the floods. Then came the bodies. The victims—strangled, then buried along the shores of the Mississippi—have finally been unearthed, years after they disappeared. He remembers every satisfying kill . . . each woman’s terror and agony. But there’s only one he truly wanted. And fate has brought her within reach again . . .

HE KNOWS YOU
Jaci Patterson was sixteen when she found the first golden locket on her porch. Inside were a few strands of hair wrapped around a scrap of bloodstained ribbon. Though the “gifts” kept arriving, no one believed her hunch that a serial killer was at work. Now Jaci has returned home . . . and the nightmare is starting once more.

AND HE’LL NEVER LET YOU GO
Back then, Rylan Cooper was an arrogant deputy sheriff convinced that Jaci was just an attention—seeking teen. It was a fatal mistake. There’s a murderer in their midst, someone determined to settle old scores and keep playing a twisted game. And it won’t end until Jaci is his forever . . .

**

I know, you are all dying of shock…FF actually read a book without a hot guy with a gun on the cover!!!  But never fear, it was romantic suspense and there were murders, so it’s right up my alley! I had read some of Alexandra’s PNR novels, so I wanted to see how she handled RS.  Overall I thought the story was good!

Jaci Patterson has had a difficult life, being raised by her grandparents after her mom refused to raise her.  Then as a teenager, someone started leaving lockets containing a lock of hair wrapped with a bloody ribbon.  Even though she reported it to the police including her crush Rylan Cooper, nobody except her grandparents would believe her.  The lockets stopped when she went away to college and she hoped it was over.

She returned home to Heron to take over her grandparent’s property, and then after a flood bodies are found…and the lockets start up again.  Rylan has returned home as well to help his father repair damage to his house after the floods, and is determined to help Jaci this time.  The danger to Jaci is apparent, and it isn’t long before they are in a race to discover who the murderer is before it’s too late.

While I enjoyed the story itself, I wish that there had been less time given to Jaci’s mother and her family, and more to Rylan.  I didn’t feel like there was a good explanation as to why he chose not to believe her back in the day, especially if he had been interested in her as well.  But I am intrigued by the police chief and his relationship with Jaci’s (rather bitchy) sister so I hope to see more of them in the future!

I received an ARC from Kensington via Goodreads Giveaway, thank you!