Counter Attack by Patricia Bradley Review

 Happy Monday Everyone :)

I pray you had all had a lovely weekend, and that your week is off to a great start.

 My prayers are currently with everyone affected by the wildfires ravaging in so many places around our country and many others, and I pray everyone in these areas will be protected and soon see much needed rain.

The heat index has been through the roof in my area the last little while, and I'm not going to lie, I've been spending a lot of my time indoors with great books to read. I'm not the biggest fan of summer, but I am trying to find some things to enjoy about it as we get further into it.

Right now though, one of my favorite things about it has been the time spend indoors reading if I'm being honest

And because I've been doing so much reading lately, I have another book review to share with you all today from another new to me author.

I hope you'll all keep reading down below for today's full review.

Counter Attack by Patricia Bradley:

Source: Complimentary Copy Provided by the Publisher as Part of the Revell Reads Blogger Program

Publisher: Revell

Publication Date: May 16th, 2023

Genre: Christian Fiction/Suspense/Thriller

Series: Pearl River

Synopsis:

No sooner has Alexis Stone been sworn in as the interim sheriff for Russell County, Tennessee, when a serial killer dubbed the Queen's Gambit Killer strikes again--this time in her hometown. Pearl Springs is just supposed to be a temporary stop along the way to Alex's real dream: becoming the first female police chief of Chattanooga. But the killer's calling card--a white pawn and a note with a chess move printed on it--cannot be ignored.

Pearl Springs chief of police Nathan Landry can't believe that his high school sweetheart Alexis (he refuses to call her Alex) is back in town, and he can't help wanting to protect the woman he never stopped loving. But as the danger mounts and the killer closes in, can Nathan come through on the promises he makes to himself to bring a killer to justice before it's too late.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

Counter Attack was surprisingly my first experience with a Patricia Bradley novel, and I'm not sure how she hasn't made it on my radar before now. As someone who loves Christian suspense, this was definitely right up my alley, and I actually ended up reading the majority of this story in the same day.

 Counter Attack is the first book in a new series, and it starts off on a roller coaster ride right from the opening pages. The plot is fast moving, and it's written in a way that if you don't pay attention to every single piece of it, you'll end up missing something. Non stop action abounds around every page, and I appreciated that the story never grew boring or lackluster, but rather held the reader's attention right throughout.

I enjoyed that the mystery brings childhood friends Alexis Stone and Nathan Landy back together again to try and get to the bottom of the chilling events targeting their normally quiet town of Pearl Springs. As the two work together, a lovely second chance romance starts to rekindle, and it was beautiful how they were able to respect each other while still doing whatever it took to ensure they stayed safe along the way. The romance was clean, sweet and heartwarming, and I loved that the faith element was seamlessly woven in alongside.

Overall, a well put together mystery with horribly sinister undertones and well developed protagonists that kept me engaged right throughout.

My only complaints were the fact that I found the evil mastermind to be quite obvious, and I kept hoping I would eventually be proven wrong, but alas that was not the case. And this one has a pretty large cast of characters that often grew hard to keep up with who was who after awhile.

However, neither of those things diminished my total enjoyment of the story, and I'd still say my first experience with a novel by this author was a success.

Final Rating: 4/5.

Hopefully I'll get the chance to read more from Patricia Bradley in the future.

Thanks so much to Revell for allowing me to read and review this title!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Revell) as part of the Revell Reads Blogger Program. 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! I pray you have all have a wonderful rest of your day :)