Fallout by Carrie Stuart Parks Review

 Hello Friends :)

Happy Friday, and thank you so much for choosing to drop by The Preppy Book Princess today.

I hope you've all been doing well, and all been finding lovely new fiction titles to get a little break from the real world.

I've personally not been in the greatest mood the last few days. I'm not really much of a summer person, and this one seems to be even worse than usual. I'm so ready for a break from the heat, the crowds and the bugs, and I'm ecstatic that September is only weeks away.

One way I've been trying to escape all the ugliness of summer, is curling up inside with some great new reads.

I recently had the chance to read an upcoming release by a new to me author, and today I'm excited to share my review of this one with you all.

Keep reading down below for my full review.

Fallout by Carrie Stuart Parks:

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publication Date: September 13th, 2022

Genre: Christian Fiction/Suspense/Thriller

Synopsis:

Samantha Williams’s carefully crafted life is about to be demolished as thoroughly as her art classroom when a careening SUV smashes into the school.

In the dusty farming community of LaCrosse, Washington, art teacher Samantha Williams manages to save her students when an SUV crashes into the school. Her car isn’t so lucky. Oddly, her purse—containing her driver’s license, credit cards, and other identification—is missing from the wreckage, forcing her to rely on the kindness of strangers. Never one to trust easily, Samantha is thrust into a world far different from her simple life of jigsaw puzzles, children’s books, and lectures at the library.

One of the strangers who befriends her is a reporter from Spokane who is in town investigating two sets of skeletal remains that were recently discovered. When authorities discover that the driver in the school accident was shot before the crash, Samantha quickly becomes enmeshed in strange events, which turn ominous with the discovery of blackmail, murder, an abandoned town, and a secret government project.

Samantha has long tried to forget the tragedy of her past, but the links here can't be ignored. Yet these are secrets that others are determined to keep buried, and they’ll use any means necessary to stop Samantha’s search for truth.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

Fallout was my first experience with a novel by Carrie Stuart Parks, and wow did I end up being impressed. I could barely put this one down once I started it, and I loved that it kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. With how many suspense type of novels I end up reading, rarely do I find one that keeps me guessing right through until the end, and this one managed to accomplish exactly that. I pretty much suspected every single character throughout the course of the story, and I still ended up being completely shocked at the way everything came down at the end.

The characters were three dimensional, layered and flawed, and I found they were easy to connect with. I liked how this one really only had a light romance element, and instead the focus was on the complicated mystery, and the main character Samantha trying to connect the pieces from the mystery to her forgotten past.

The historical component made the mystery that much more intriguing, and you could tell the large amounts of research the author must have done to portray this entire situation realistically and authentically. The story felt original, and well developed, and it will definitely not be my last experience with a novel from this author.

Lastly, I loved the overall faith message, and the way that the dark content was counteracted with the need for Jesus.

Overall, a wonderful Christian suspense story, and one that blew my expectations right out of the water.

Final Rating: 4/5.

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to advance read and review this one!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great weekend, and I hope you'll consider stopping by on Monday where I have a fun review planned of an upcoming Christian non-fiction title!