Before She Finds Me by Heather Chavez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
Before She Finds Me is the latest release from Heather Chavez. I went into this very excited, as I really enjoyed Chavez’s two earlier releases, No Bad Deed and Blood Will Tell.
In this novel we follow the perspectives of two different women, Julia and Ren. On the surface, these women are as different as different can be, but their lives are about to become entangled in some pretty serious ways.
On the day Julia is moving her daughter, Cora, into her new college dorm, a viscous, seemingly senseless attack rocks the campus and leaves Cora injured.
It’s only due to Julia’s quick reaction that Cora wasn’t more seriously hurt. Unable to stop thinking about the event, Julia starts to question whether it was as random as everyone else seems to think.
Ren, pregnant with her first child, is a trained assassin, as is her husband, Nolan. Ren doesn’t know Julia and she wasn’t on the campus that day, but she knows who was, Nolan, and he’s left a big ole’ mess in his wake.
Ren needs to clean-up after him. After watching footage of the incident numerous times, Ren is curious about the woman in the crowd with the unbelievable reaction time. Who is she and what, if any, is her connection to this job?
When both women begin to hunt for answers, it’s inevitable that their paths are going to cross and their going to find themselves on opposing sides. With both Ren and Julia willing to risk it all to protect their families, which mother is going to come out of this alive?
Y’all, I went into this one with the highest of hopes. I found both of Chavez’s earlier novels to be engrossing and fast-paced. I had a blast with them. While I have read many great reviews for this newest book, I just could not connect with it.
The opening scenes were intense as heck, but then it slowed way down. By 21%, I was feeling nothing. I could have taken it, or left it. I just kept reading other reviews and they were glowing. I decided to keep going.
By 50%, I was contemplating giving up, but again, the rave reviews kept me going. I started feeling myself going into a slump. It felt like I had been reading it forever.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the writing. I still really enjoy Chavez’s writing. It’s fluid, well-thought out and her characters feel real. However, the plot was plodding along slower than a snail crawling up hill.
Frankly, I don’t know if snails crawl slower going up hill, but you get the picture.
When I finished, it was cause for celebration.
At that time, if you asked me how long it had taken me to read this, I would have guessed 6-weeks, but it was actually just shy of a month. It wasn’t fun.
This made it tricky for me to rate. I love Chavez and her writing, but it’s clear this one didn’t hit for me. My personal experience was more of a 2-star, but I know there is a good story in here and if you can be drawn into it, or into the characters, I know you will have a good time with it.
So, with all this being said, and my tiny complaints aired, just ignore me. Go read all of the 4-star and 5-star reviews for this one. If you have any interest at all, give it a shot.
I will definitely be continuing to pick up all of Chavez’s books as they are released. Just because this one didn’t knock me out of the park, doesn’t mean the next one won’t.
Thank you to the publisher, Mulholland Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I look forward to seeing what Heather Chavez comes up with next!