I thought this book was okay. There were quite a few Spanish phrases making me wish I knew Spanish! The book alternated between present time from the perspective of FBI agent, Mercedes Ramirez and past events. Admittedly I am a bit confused as to the character that the past events were associated with - I thought it was Mercedes, but then later it seemed like it could be the killer (or perhaps the past events alternated between telling what happened to Mercedes and other chapters on what happened to the killer?) I liked that it wasn't immediately obvious who the killer was - there were a few possibilities which made the book more suspenseful. I received an ARC from NetGalley - my opinions are my own.

I thought I could read this third installment in the series but apparently no. This story involves some of the characters of the previous books (not too much) and I felt lost. I found myself thinking "what do I care about Prya?" (I think that's the right spelling of her name), and was skipping anythinh related to her and those characters, which lead to me feeling at loss regarding other things in the story.

I don't know why I insist in reading books about child abuse either if they depressed me!

Anyway, the book is good. I was totally digging Mercedes until I started skipping content because of past characters I couldn't connect with.

Thank you Netgalley for procuring me with a free copy of this title.

4 stars!

“Those who turn to violence don’t usually have solutions to offer. Or they tried, and lost, and think this is their only way forward.”
The Summer Children is the third (and final) book in the Collector trilogy. The three books even though they are part of a trilogy can easily be read as standalones, they mention previous characters but not enough for the reader to get lost. This one features Agent Ramirez who works at CAC (Crimes against Children), she returns home one night to find a young boy in front of her house, covered in blood and clutching a teddy bear. The boy tells her that the angel killed his parents and then drove him to her house because she would keep him safe.

The pattern continues with even more children showing up at her door over the course of the investigation, both girls and boys and even siblings. While her team is trying to investigate who the killer is, we get flashback chapters of a child narrating their own abuse story and in the middle of the investigation, Agent Ramirez is dealing with her own traumatic past and family fallout as well as her relationship with her girlfriend who is admittedly shaken up to have all these kids showing up in the middle of the night.

“Children don’t get hurt in your little world.”
Dot Hutchison once more delivers a thrilling horror book I couldn’t put down, or get any sleep afterwards. It deals with a lot of abuse against children and I won’t lie, I skipped a few paragraphs here and there even though the book doesn’t go into explicit details. But it is so beautifully written, and Mercedes is a character who is always truthful with the young kids – as they too, have dealt with painful situations – that made her character so likeable and sympathetic.

The Summer Children is not my favorite book in the trilogy, The Butterfly Garden is a hard one to top – in general for its genre, I absolutely loved it – but it’s not as mild as The Roses of May but each book offers something different. The Butterfly Garden gives us an inside of a killer’s mind and MO, the whys and the hows, The Roses of May a bit more mother-daughter dynamic in the midst of a horrific situation and The Summer Children dives into the detective work. Each book has interconnected characters, Inara and Bliss from the Garden are back and I love them. Mercedes with Eddison, Sterling, and Vic are a tight group and their friendly banter brings a levity to the dark genre with a few jokes thrown in as well. Definitely a powerful ending to a haunting trilogy.

This was an excellent wrap up to the trilogy. I really enjoyed seeing the "girls" heal from all their trauma while supporting the FBI team through their own tribulations. While the previous two books were well written and engaging, this one took the cake. Agent Ramirez's story completely came to life and on several instances I had NO CLUE who the perp was going to be. The relationships were well developed and you could practically feel everyone's emotions. I really hope we can get maybe a novella or something with everyone a few years down the line again. I'd love to see more of Sterling and Eddison, they remind me so much of my husband and I.

DNF, thought it was a continuance of the butterfly garden and realized I was wrong. Just didn't grab me like the first book did, but will give it a try later on.

It was a interesting mystery that showed how the sins of the past effect the present in various ways. It

I have been dying to read the third book since I knew there was going to be one! This series is AMAZING. And the book made me love the series even more.

First, this is the third book of this series, and I highly recommend to read the books in order to understand this one. Even though people, and past events are told in this book, they are explained so you don't feel lost. But in my opinion it's better to read the other novels first.
FBI agent Mercedes Ramirez is coming back from a date with a fellow agent as she pulls up to her house she finds a bloody boy on her porch. The boy said someone came into his house and killed his parents, and made him watch. Mercedes is part of a unit: Crimes Against Children. So whoever left him there knows what her profession is and also knows Mercedes has a dark past.
As time goes by more children are left at her house with their parents murdered. Parents who were not good to their children, abusive parents.
Are these murders connected to Agent Ramirez's past? Is this person trying to destroy her career? Her mental state?
Past characters from the other 2 series show up. Sometimes it could get confusing with them, because their pasts come up and it could be hard to follow. Sometimes I had to reread certain chapters to understand. The mystery and suspense is great. Thrilling, to understand the mind of this murderer.

Absolutely loved this book, read The Butterfly Garden, 1st in the series and became hooked. Would definitely recommend this book and look forward to any other titles by this author *****

This book is the 3rd book in the Collector Trilogy, told from Mercedes Ramirez's point of view. This one is better than the second, but not as good as the first. The first in the series are usually better. Once you get over it not being about the Butterfly Garden, you can really get into the books. I love the way you still see a few of the characters from the first two books, and the ending was just how I would want it to be!

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this novel in exchange for my review.

I read The Butterfly Garden when it was first released. I loved it, devoured it. There was just the right amount of edge to it, and I was fascinated by the premise. When the second in the series was released, I couldn’t wait to read it. Sadly, it fell a bit flat for me. I didn’t like the characters as much, and the story didn’t grip me the way the first book did. Naturally, when the final book in the series was first brought to my attention, I was a bit apprehensive but definitely wanted to check it out.

The Summer Children seems completely different to me than the first 2 books, almost as if the writers of each book were different. I enjoyed it more than The Roses of May, but not nearly as much as The Butterfly Garden. I was a bit more intrigued by this story, and enjoyed the way the characters were all brought together for a neat, tidy finale. One of my only major gripes about the book was the amount of Spanish with no translation. I don’t speak Spanish, so this was confusing for me, and I feel like some of the lines were lost in Google Translation. But the story was solid, the murder mystery was creepy, and I was surprised at the outcome.

Love The Collector trilogy and for me this one is the best so far. Dot Hutchison is a spectacular author, she brings a chilling subject right to the core of our hearts and then warms us up again with character you route for and love.
FBI Agent Ramirez is being sent children to look after, literally to her doorstep. They are being saved from bad families by a person the kids call "The Angel". Ramirez is stuck between her own horrific past and the present of helping these kids, who have been told she is their safe person.
The relationships between each character is just amazing and so well written because you never forget them, even after putting the book down each year. The characters are defiantly what make this book so great.
Huchison is one of my best go to author and this book just jumped right into the top of my top 10 reads of 2018. 5* all the way!

I started this book very confused, and I think that not having read the first two books caused that. There were missing elements that led to me not getting into the book at first, mostly that she was in a f/f relationship and the scene about the sexual harassment because I thought Mercedes was just a weirdly chosen male name. That being said, once I locked those elements in I did enjoy the book. Well written, good pace, I especially liked the interjecting scenes with the backstory of the children. The vagueness of "the angel" at first and how the character gradually fills out with details through their horror-stricken stories was especially good. Characters were believable, and the ending was just. Overall, a good read, I would have liked a little more description. There were some scenes that I felt left a little too much to the reader's imagination and could have been very powerful where instead they fell a tad short. I recommend doing the other two books first before trying to re-read the group so it makes more sense.

This is the third book in the Collector series – but the first I have written. In all honesty, that was a huge shame for me because at some points I floundered with the characters and reference to the earlier books. Clearly this can be read as a stand-alone but I am sure my considerable enjoyment of this book would have been enhanced had I read the earlier books.

The Summer Children was presented through the character of Mercedes Ramirez an FBI agent within the Crimes Against Children unit. Mercedes herself was subjected to abuse as a child, a fact that was ignored by her extended family from whom she is estranged to such a degree that she has to change her phone whenever they track her down. Her family is now her colleagues, an intriguing cast of characters, close-knit, dedicated and supportive of one another to the nth degree.

Returning home one evening she finds a boy, bloody and bruised waiting on her porch with a teddy bear. He has been told by the ‘Angel’ to wait for Mercedes who will keep him safe. What follows is a sometimes harrowing catalogue of crimes against children and the efforts made by the authorities to protect and save them.

This is a really well written book with strong characterisation and staggering plot development and structure. I cannot praise it enough. However, I would urge you to read it as it is powerful and moving and just tragically sad.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

This series remains one of my favourites, but The Summer Children now holds the title as my favourite entry.

As before, we're following our team of agents - now including Sterling from Roses of May, yay! - and this time the focus is on Mercedes. Unlike the last books, we don't spend this one looking through the view of the subject of a case, but directly from Mercedes herself.

There's something about the way that Dot Hutchison writes such horrific things that allows me to read without being overwhelmed. None of these books deal with run of the mill badness, but this one in particular deals with the true evil that visits all too many children. She never downplays or shies away from it, but somehow she manages to write hope between even the bleakest lines; some people don't make it through awful things, but even then there's the reminder that others will. It's a delicate balance and a testament to her ability as a writer that these books deal with the worst in people without being <i>about</i> it - instead they're about all the people who face that darkness as victims or hunters and the good that they find in each other.

As always, the extended family of this unit includes Priya, Inara and Bliss, and I love that they seem to be on track for being a permanent fixture in the series.

This was a phenomenal book in an amazing series. I was provided with a free copy for review by Netgalley and the publisher but my opinions are my own. As with the others I'll be buying both the digital and the physical copy anyway!

I loved this final book in the trilogy! The Butterfly Garden had my attention from the first page and so I was invested in the characters already. And even though this novel deals with horrific instances of child abuse and murder, if you can stomach that you are in for a real treat of a novel! We see the FBI agents, Mercedes, Eddison, Sterling, and Vic as humans with compassion as well as all the flaws that come with life's challenges--especially dealing with the kinds of crimes they do. And so beyond the plot of a self-proclaimed "angel" killing the parents of abused children, we see protagonist Mercedes facing relationship problems, family secrets from the past, and a host of work issues. I also loved re-connecting with the "butterfly girls" from the garden as they continue their healing process. Lots of humor and poignant moments made this book an incredibly satisfying conclusion to this trilogy. I do hope to see more from this FBI family in the future!

I don't normally read murder/mystery/suspense novels. I can't even begin to tell you what drew me to the first book, <i> The Butterfly Garden </i>, but whatever it was, I'm thankful. I can't say that it drew me into reading other books in this type of genre, but I've enjoyed every book in this series in ways I can't describe.

Hutchinson is good at writing the heart wrenching, but leveling it with humor and love. The relationship within this team of agents is perfect - warm, affectionate, serious, happy. The relationship they have with girls that they've rescued from other terrible situations is handled just right, giving them a solid base to start their lives from. Mercedes and Siobhan's relationship gives insight into how same sex relationships can work and do suffer from the same hang ups as relationships always have. There is so much diversity in the relationships within Hutchinson's books.

I cried, I laughed, I cringed, I cried and laughed some more. There were parts that were truly terrible, and parts that were light and amazing and everything just balanced.

Were there parts of the story that I think were probably not quite realistic? Possibly, but they didn't detract anything from the story. I admire that Hutchinson doesn't give everyone a happy ending; some times, no matter how hard you try, you aren't always going to be in time to save everyone. It gives good depth to the story and to the character development.

I hope Hutchinson continues to write in this series - they just keep getting better and better, every time.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of The Summer Children. This is the third book in the series, I really LOVED the first book and this one, the third in the series, was so far the best of them all. I loved the characters and felt I had a vested interest in them, I feel the love and friendship the characters had with one another is what made the third book the most enjoyable so far in the series.

The story starts with FBI Agent Mercedes Ramirez coming home from a date night to a child on her porch covered in blood and stating that an “angel” told him Ramirez would take care of him. What happens from there is a case of bloodied children being left for Ramirez, although the children are unharmed, for the most part, why are they showing up on her doorstep?

The subject matter is be a little tough but written in a way to also show compassion, love, caring and friendship. I enjoyed this book and will be adding it to my physical copy in my library.

This is the third in the Collector Triology. I loved the first, Butterfly Garden, but I haven't read the second yet, The Roses of May. I will be correcting that shortly. I just skipped over here to the third and I'm kind of glad I did because this way it kind of really makes me want to read that second one with all the references to it. Plus it shows this one stands on its own.

All the characters are really well drawn. Love, love, love Detective Ramirez. She's very witty. Throws a spanish line out now and then. Its always pretty much cursing which I do, too, so I love it. Everything is always prettier in spanish and no one yells at you for cursing.

Some of the inside references made me laugh. The Killer Klown reference slayed me.  And if you don't know what it references, just google.

Though it is the crux of the subject of the book, it gave just a little info on being a foster child. But it worked within the storyline. And a fabulous storyline it is. Very fast paced.

I have two complaints. Some dialogue appeared to be repeated immediately within a page when not necessary. And, the ending seemed to go on for ever. Just when you thought it was done, another chapter would pop up. And then another and another. Though all would have been good endings, we only needed one.

But all in all, I seriously enjoyed it and would most definitely recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy.

An excellent conclusion to a fantastic trilogy. The Collector started by focusing on the victims of a psychopath, while the FBI team trying to figure out what was happening was mostly a sideline. The second novel gave equal attention to the victim and the same law-enforcement team. Now the spotlight shines on Mercedes Ramirez, one of the cops. Kids are being left on her porch by and "angel" who takes them out of horrific situations by killing their parents. Mercedes mostly worries about the kids, but she has to work with other FBI teams to try to stop and apprehend the killer. Me, I would have given the murderer a medal, being that the parents were monsters, but once the baddie starts making mistakes, the spree has to stop. Mercedes is also worried about the system itself. Yes, the kids won't be abused by their parents anymore, but it's not like their lives in the foster system will be perfect from now on. The girls that the team rescued in the previous installments are also part of this story, as they try to move on and leave behind the nightmares that they endured. But the main focus is with the team. Now, I want to believe that FBI agents that deal with these cases are just as united as Vic's people, but this part was a little implausible (how they stay at each other's houses all the time and such). I still loved the whole book from start to finish and the only thing I dislike is how there will be no more books in this series.