Twisted truth by Melinda Leigh.
Solitude, oregon, series, rogue justice book 1.
When Detective Seth Harding responds to shots being fired, he faces a familiar sight: a double homicide. However, he is shocked to find a young boy chained in the basement. The terrified child refuses to speak, but Seth knows he is the key to something sinister.
Reluctantly, Seth calls the only social worker he trusts with the traumatized boy—his wife. Carly is recovering from her own trauma suffered on the job, but she can’t turn away from this case, not from another child in trouble. With torrential rain bearing down, threatening to isolate their little town in a killer flood, Seth and Carly know the best way to keep the boy safe from danger is to take him back to their farm.
But danger is as relentless as the storm. And it’s following them all the way home.
A really good read. Likeable story. 4*.

Yet another terrific read by Melinda Leigh. The first in a two-part novella series ( Rogue Justice ) with Kendra Elliot, Twisted takes off with the finding of a lone child chained in a basement. Together, Detective Seth Harding and his wife, Carly, will push through to unwrap the mystery behind the child who won't speak. Solid character development, believable dialog, and a unique setting make this one of my favorite reads of Leigh's.

I enjoy these novellas written by Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot. This is a short, quick story that I listened to in just under two hours. The book opens with shots fired. Detective Seth Harding is called to the scene of a double homicide where a young couple has been killed in their bedroom. The even more shocking situation is finding a young boy chained in the basement. He does not speak and is scared to death. When he is cut loose, Seth calls his wife Carly, a social worker, to come and get the young boy.

Who is the young boy? Were his parents the murder victims? Why was he chained up in the basement? A lot of questions with no answers. Can they solve the murder and find family to take the boy home? Will they be able to help him get over his terror? While all this is going on, there is a torrential storm with flooding everywhere, it is going to be a long night.

This is a short read, fast-paced, and packed with action. The setting of the small town with the rain storms set a mood of suspense and darkness. These characters have been introduced in the Rogue Series, but you do not have to have read that series to enjoy this quick read. I have not, but might go back and read them as I seem to be on a Melinda Leigh/Kendra Elliot kick right now. I am looking forward to Truth Be told, the second book in this novella series.

Received from NetGalley for my honest review
Completed 10/21/17
110 page ebook

Well, if you have ever read my mini reviews before, or my reviews for the Solitude, Oregon Series in particular, then you already know that I read this series for the books by Kendra Elliot, who I enjoy and I just have to suffer through the books by Melinda Leigh so I can get the full story. Each of them writes a novella that is basically two parts of the same book. So I can't just read Kendra's books or otherwise I wouldn't know what was going on. In this case, Melinda did the first book, so I read it to know what was happening for Kendra's book.

I don't like these characters, specifically I don't like Carly, at all. That's my own personal judgement, I make no excuses for that. Some people just don't like certain characters or certain types of characters, and for me, I don't like Carly and I don't like any of the storylines that have to do with her.

But, aside from that, all the books in the Solitude, Oregon Series are solid good novellas if you like romantic suspense. Most people likely won't have the problem that I do with Carly and many people will probably like this series in general. If you want to give it a try, make sure to go back to the beginning so you know know who the cast of characters are in this now 10 book overarching series, even though this one, and the followup are in their own two book niche.

Setting = B
Plot = B
Conflict = B
Characters = D
Theme = B

Loved it! A fun, fast-paced read with lots of action right from the start! Seth, a detective, and Carly a social worker, make for a very likeable couple. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Twisted Truth by Melinda Leigh
Series: Rogue Justice Book #1
Publisher: Montlake Romance

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Montlake Romance for the ebook ARC of the novella, Twisted Truth by Melinda Leigh in exchange for an honest review.

Detective Seth Harding responds to shots being fired, he finds a double homicide. However, he is shocked to find a young boy chained up in the basement. He has no idea how long he has been there. The terrified child refuses to speak.
Seth calls the only social worker he trusts for the traumatized boy - his wife. Carly is recovering from trauma suffered on the job but she can’t turn away from this case, not when a young child needs her help.
Meanwhile torrential rain is bearing down, threatening to confine the little town in a killer flood. Seth and Carly know the best way to keep the boy safe is to take him back to their farm.
But danger is as determined as the storm, and it’s following them all of the way home.

I give this book a rating of 4 stars and I highly recommend it. It was a fast paced and short novella. It was filled with suspense and emotion. I found that you got to know the characters well even though it was only a short read. It was told in two point of views, Seth and Carly. I will definitely read more books by Melinda Leigh.

I enjoyed this novella. It's a quick story, but packed with a good mystery and a lot of action. I had not read any of the other stories featuring these characters but it stood up well as a stand alone. There were a couple of unanswered questions that hopefully the sequel Truth Be Told will clear up.

I don't know understand how I forgot to post this review but oh well! It gave me an opportunity to read it once again..
Twisted Truth is the first book from the Rogue Justice series but a novella from The Solitude Oregan series.
This is my first Melinda Leigh book so I felt a little out of place but honestly that didn't last long.
I actually liked this book quite a lot...It's fast paced and full of suspense. considering the fact that it's a novella, it was quite captivating. I think the only down side for me was that even though this book was under the romance genre... hmm... not much romance in it but nonetheless, I read it, I liked it.

Twisted Truth is the first book of a new series whose books are alternately written by Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot. This series is a spinoff of the earlier ones they wrote together and features the same main characters. This first installment in the series is a very quick and easy to read novella. I was very excited to read it, as the main characters are Seth Harding and his wife, Carly, whom I've already grown to love in previous books.

In this one, Detective Seth Harding is sent out on a call of shots fired and arrives at the scene of a double homicide. To his horror there is a young boy chained in the basement, so he calls his wife, Carly, a social worker, to the scene. With torrential rains and possible flooding imminent, Seth and Carly take the boy to her family's farm, where the couple live. Soon, they are facing more danger from more than the weather.

This book had a very compelling storyline. It was fast paced and suspenseful. Carly and Seth, as well as their extended family, were wonderful characters. I look forward to the next installment in the series. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Twisted Truth is the start of the next Rogue River installment which is penned by two authors and features two sets of protagonists all set in the town of Solitude, Oregon. Now it was a bit confusing at first when I started reading Twisted Truth because I haven't read any of the other installments of this series but it was easy to follow and quite refreshing to read a mystery suspense story with a different perspective presented in the next book. Twisted Truth starts out with a double murder and a child found chained in the basement where the victims were found. Seth is the detective that was called on the scene and when he discovered the young boy he immediately had to call the one person he trusted to take care of the boy's welfare, his wife Carly, a social worker. In the midst of trying to find out what happened, Carly and Seth find themselves trapped in their own home with their own family's safety threatened by hostile forces trying to take the boy. The action was fast paced and the mystery is definitely not easily solved, the tension was definitely there and readers will have a hard time not biting their fingernails trying to find out who would die next. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author was able to lead readers to the maze of the plot plus giving me characters who are completely three dimensional that you are hard pressed not to be invested in them. Twisted Truth would definitely make me pick up previous and future books in the series.

This was definitely a five star read. I enjoyed it soooo much. It was a novella so it was a quick and easy read. I loved the husband and wife duo. They made this book well worth it. There was a great storyline and great characters. What else do you need from a book!!! I do have to say that my favorite part of the book when the goat helped save the day. I would recommend this author to everyone.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary Jo – ☆☆☆
I have to say I felt lost during the first part of the book, almost as if I had started reading in the middle, rather than the beginning.

There is a lot of action packed into a few short days – a double homicide, a kidnapped child, and more tragedy. There is a happily ever after, but the path is filled with lots of drama and intrigue.

The ending was sort of abrupt as well, leaving the reader to wonder how the story ends.

This was a short book and easy to read. Despite the romance publisher, this was really a regular police procedural with no romance. The story was okay, felt kind of average. It wasn't as compelling as I'd hoped, maybe because of the short length. But I did like how the author tied up all the various bad-guy elements.

This novella is the first part of a two part collaboration with Kendra Elliott, a continuation of the Rogue River/Solitude Oregan characters. Detective Seth Harding responds to a possible shots fired call and makes a gruesome discovery of two people gunned down as they slept. Upon further search, they are horrified to find a young boy chained up in the basement. Seth calls in his wife Carly, a CPS worker, to take care of the terrified boy. Carly is suffering her own trauma from a case that ended very badly a month ago, but knows she cannot leave the boy.She sees the boy has bonded with her brother Bruce, a rookie officer, and is compelled to find a way to help him. A monster storm has hit Solitude and the torrential rains have washed out many roads and bridges forcing Carly to take the boy home with her and possibly endangering her own family. This book alternates between Seth and Carly's POV, providing similar but unique aspects to the story. The story was well written and suspenseful, and surprisingly detailed for a novella. My only concern was that at the end I felt there were some unanswered questions, and it was at that point that I understood the story would continue in Truth Be Told. Looking forward to reading it as well.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an opportunity to provide a review.

This mystery book was said to be the start of a series, so I was intrigued. But it turned out to be a spin-off series and it felt like it. I could tell that the characters had had stories before this one and it didn’t feel like it was for a first time reader.

Other than that, the story was pretty okay, short and effective. But I figured out most of the twists before the main characters, I also solved everything before they did.

All in all, I wish I had known this was a spinoff before requesting but I still had an okay time.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Twisted Truth in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
I have read and loved all of Melinda Leigh's books to date and herself and Kendra Elliot are my joint no. 1 favourite authors and you just know when the 2 of them get together to create these novellas that you are in for a HUGE treat and the way their write is so similar that it makes these novellas seamless. I read this in 1 sitting couldn't put it down and great to revisit the Taylor family again. Twisted Truth is a fantastic read and features Detective Seth Harding who responds to a report of shots being fired and he finds a couple shot in their bed and a terrified little boy locked in the basement. Seth calls his social worker wife Carly and thus starts the journey to find out who killed the couple and to keep the boy safe by taking him home with them but the killer is coming back for him and the trail is leading him right back to the Taylor household. On the edge of my seat now waiting to see what happens next in Truth Be Told by Kendra Elliot.

The Rogue River series introduced me to both Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliott. Since that series of novellas, I've not only kept up with the additional novellas but I've also started reading the authors' full length novels. They've both become favored authors.

Twisted Truth is a great addition to the Rogue River series and is great way to catch up with favorite characters. In this latest novella, Carly and Seth rescue a kidnapped child and are challenged with keeping not only the child safe but their own family. My only complaint is that the story was too short - such as the case with a lot of good novellas. I wanted it to take longer to resolve as I was enjoying the plot and the characters.

The good news is that the story continues with Kendra Elliot's Truth Be Told.

Thanks to NetGalley and Montlake Romance for an ARC.

I am already a fan of this author and really enjoyed this book, however, I didn't realise it was so short. I much prefer a longer novel. Great story line and great characters.

Great Read! I really enjoyed this book. Plenty of suspense to keep me interested. Well worth the read and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.

Melinda Leigh is one of my favorite mystery writers and this will be an amazing new series. This is a great start and introduction to new characters that you cannot help but fall in love with. The social worker that has faced her own demons and her husband that finds such horrifying scenes that drag her back in. Seth and Carly must work together to face evil that they have not come across before, but will they be enough to stop it? Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book and write a honest unbiased review.