Kerry is a new author to me, after reading the blurb I was hooked! The cover and the story line drew me in like a moth the a flame.

This story is gripping, action packed and twisty turny. There are a lot of characters in this story, some of which I got confused with and found myself having to turn back a page to get back on track.

It seems this whole village has a secret or two, I never knew who to trust, even though some of them I should have trusted but for myself guessing their motives.

Great plot

Great story

Must read!

There was too much coming and going of the characters to make this a compulsive read for me. If Ben had run out of the house one more time I would have screamed ( sorry if you haven’t read this book that will mean. Thing to you!).
Plot wasn’t bad but nothing taut or exciting.

I would like to thank netgalley, kerry watts and bookouture for my arc in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story. Lots of suspense and revelations along the way. It was one of the few books that once I got into I didn’t want to put down. I found the first 25% hard going and at times almost gave up on this book. There were just too many people being introduced and too much chopping and changing from one to another. If it hadn’t been for this I would probably have scored this as a 5. I’m looking forward to future novels and seeing kerry develop detective Jessie Blake’s character

I love police procedural books, and finding a new series always excites me. This one being set in Scotland endeared it even more to me.

The story, albeit a good and well written one, brings with it a multitude of characters who at times I couldn’t keep up with. The author has a lot going on at one time and I found myself having to reread various parts of the story to remind myself where everyone fitted in.

That being said, the story finally gripped me when I had read a bit more, and I enjoyed it. There is a lot more to come, and the final small chapter gives us a little hint as to what may lie ahead.

Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for providing a copy.

I received a free e-copy of Heartlands (Detective Jessie Blake #1) by Kerry Watts from NetGalley for my honest review.

Twenty years ago in the town of Inverlochty, a young girl named Sophie goes missing. Now, twenty years later another young girl, Shannon is missing. Detective Jessie Blake is put on the case and soon realizes that this case mirrors the case of a young girl, Sophie, who got murdered twenty years ago. Shannon's body is found on a river bank just outside of town a few days later. Who is responsible for these two girls being murdered? Are they connected?

Detective Jessie Blake also finds that the people of Inverlochty are keeping lots of secrets and she believes they are hiding the killer as well. But, Jessie, just like this town has her own secrets she doesn't want to get out. Shannon also kept a diary that is full of secrets on all of her friends and neighbors. So many horrible secrets, buy why? A good story line with a good plot.

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

I’m really excited by this new detective series, it was a great first book and I look forward to what comes next.
Jessie Blake takes on a missing persons case; teenager Shannon Ross has disappeared after an altercation with her young uncle, when she comes to the aid of local Andrew Foster.
Where is Shannon? Could Andrew have hurt her?
The story unravels and more people are pushed into the frame - each of them seems to have a secret to keep.
There is a sub-story regarding two boys who are convicted of the rape and murder of another young girl - could the two cases be connected?
I have to admit, I didn’t join the dots until the last minute and it was a great twist!

I was looking forward to this book as its the First in the New Detective Jessie Blakes series so when Heartlands by Kerry Watts came available to read and review I jumped at the chance to do this.
However, I found this book an Okay read, It did not grip me and make me want hurry up and finish it. Plus read through the night.....Like I usually do if I find a good book to read.
I think the author has a lot of potential and hopefully the next book in this Detective Jessie Blake series will be better and will get me hooked.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free download in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wow, where do I start with reviewing this book?

First of all, I found it incredibly confusing; too many characters were introduced too quickly and I had no clue what was going on. There was a witch burning mentioned at the very beginning and she was eluded to in the book but that didn't go anywhere (so much scope for some creepy related storyline there). There were multiple timelines which were mostly clear but sometimes the story jumped without indicating, so that was confusing too.

I so, so, wanted to love this story because it has excellent bones, the premise is really good. Who doesn't like a story set in a little town in Scotland? There were flashes of brilliance in this novel but overall I think it was in need of a good editor to go through it and smooth it out.

I liked the character of Jessie Blake, liked Duncan too but I didn't learn enough about either of them to get too emotionally involved. I AM, however, looking forward to reading more about the two of them in another book and hope that their characters get fleshed out a little more then.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the read.

3 stars, I'm afraid. So much potential, but just not realised.

This was a riveting read from the beginning and if the next book is anything to go by then this looks to be another great detective with a past series

Would recommend this to anyone who loves the detectives with a mysterious/ damaging/dangerous past

Thank you Netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this one. I think the author has a lot of potential, but it needed some work. The mystery itself was well plotted and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. But the characters all acted so woodenly and the dialogue did not seem natural. And there was too much going on in the first half, I found it hard to keep track of The Who and the When.

Before I started this book, I did what I always do and read some of the other reviews to get a feel for the general consensus. Despite others' opinions, I still go in with an open mind - which may sound strange considering I check out the reviews beforehand with the idea of what to expect - because when I open the book, it's my opinion and my opinion alone that decides whether I am going to enjoy it or not.

Having said that, I began HEARTLANDS with no real expectations beyond what the description outlined. So of course I was surprised by the mediocre reviews of the book when I found it completely intriguing and compelling! So much so that I read it in two sittings, reading over 70% of the book right through to the end and staying up till almost 3am just to finish it! For me, this is a fantastic start to what I envision to be a promising series and I look forward to reading more of Jessie Blake in the near future.

HEARTLANDS begins some 20 years prior with the horrific rape and murder of local teenage girl, Sophie Nicoll, for which two boys of the same age were convicted. The detail of the crime through the eyes of these boys is both graphic and intense while at the same time terrifying for the girl. Although the POV is from that of the boys' you can still feel Sophie's terror at the same time.

Fast forward some 20 years and the disappearance of another teenage girl of similar age and appearance in Iverlochty in Perthshire, Scotland sends alarm bells ringing. But what does Shannon Ross' disappearance have to do with Sophie's murder in the North East of England two decades before? Are the cases somehow related?

These are questions the reader asks themselves throughout while Jessie Blake, newly promoted Detective Inspector transferred to Perthshire from London, and her partner DC Dylan Logan are not privy to this fact until nearer the end. But that doesn't stop us, the readers, from wondering and trying to find a link. While we get bits and pieces of the puzzle before the detectives, we are no nearer to piecing them together to form the bigger picture any quicker either. But don't let that deter you. There is a lot to sink you teeth into in this book.

To start with, HEARTLANDS is told in dual timelines from the previous crime to the present one, and from various perspectives. While none of it is in the first person, the third person POV enables us to be privy from just about everyone's perspectives and little pieces of their secrets. But how do we put them all together to make sense of the bigger picture? Honestly? I didn't care. I just enjoyed the ride just to see how it came to an end. I have always enjoyed dual timelines as they give us a wider perspective and this one was a whole lot wider with a completely different story unfolding in the first instance to the one coming to light in the present day.

Some have said there are too many characters with too many subplots to make sense of it all. But I disagree. Yes, there were a lot of characters but that was because there were two separate stories unfolding throughout. I do agree that some characters didn't seem to have a real purpose and just suddenly disappeared without any real reason from the story while I felt they could have been built on a little more, particularly as two that come to mind specifically for me from both timelines had such an impact on two separate characters that they deserved a little more time spent on and with them in those cases. One character seemed to be integral to the story at one point and then suddenly was gone! It all seemed a bit, well, sudden. Some aspects of the present day story did seem a little convoluted which could have been smoothed out a little better. However, having said that, at no point was I confused with who was who and with what fitted where. I was completely immersed within both stories as I watched each of them unfold and finally merge.

The main characters in HEARTLANDS, aside from Jessie and Dylan, were Rob and Cassie and Louise and Jason. Both couples were well rounded in the sense that the reader really gets to know them as well as empathise with them. As their stories centre around Shannon's disappearance we really see the core of each of them, though some more than others. The other central characters at the periphery of the story is Eric (Shannon's best friend), Ben (Shannon's uncle and Louise's brother) and Andrew Foster (a schizophrenic man Shannon looks out for while her uncle Ben and his friends ridicule him). Other periphery charcters are Blair Crawford (the journalist who covered Sophie's murder) and Tom Nicoll (Sophie's older brother) - both who have their place in the story. I would have liked to have seen a little more of Eric considering he was Shannon's best friend, and as best friends go they are normally the key to every teenage girl's secrets and the heart of their story. I did think Blair Crawford was a little redundant in the present day storyline as he didn't really do anything. And what was the note that was pushed under his door that he silently thanked Tom Nicoll for? We never really saw that play out.

The characters in the Daniel Simpson storyline in the aftermath of Sophie's murder were also well rounded, apart from the support worker Gail Robertson. I felt as she'd had such an impact on Daniel that she should have had a little more depth because by the next chapter in that storyline she'd suddenly departed. The fact that her departure had had such an impact on Daniel that he responded in such a negative way meant that her presence in his life had meant something to him. While his psychologist and social worker both were present through most of his storyline, I felt Gail should have had a bigger part to play also. Her sudden departure explained in a subplot kind of way just felt a little too dismissive of her importance to him.

As for Jessie Blake - I like her. Though we have only just scratched the surface with her backstory still lurking, I quite enjoyed the time I spent with her and Dylan, whom I also liked. I hope to see them both paired up again in future cases despite them both being in different parts of Perthshire. Yes, I would have loved to know more about Jessie although the focus here was mainly on the case at hand. But we did get little snippets sprinkled throughout the book to whet our appetites. And we were given that cliffhanger at the end in case we needed more. But so far, all we know about Jessie is that she moved to Perthshire from London to escape a past and a secret; that she was married, her husband's name was Dan and he went to prison; that she had a son; that she has an old friend called Carol who was constantly texting; she has a sister called Freya, a mother called Moira, a neighbour called Dave and a Russian Blue cat named Smokey. That... and now she lives in fear of Dan finding her. Anything beyond that, we'll have to wait for the next book!

I have to mention that I really liked the fact that Shannon was a well-liked kind-hearted girl. She was not the town bitch that got what she deserved, as the case is with many victims of these types of books. She really was just a lovely girl.

HEARTLANDS isn't the type of thriller you'd expect. It's not edge-of-your-seat but it is intriguing and it is compelling. It's a police procedural with a difference. The setting in the Scottish highlands of Perthshire gives it a different edge. I like it. When the killer is revealed it's unexpected but not a shocking twist. This book was much more than that.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping thriller with a difference.

I would like to thank #KerryWatts, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for this deliciously disturbing ARC of #Heartlands in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really good suspense/serial killer type of book. It draws you into the plot and you are on the edge of your seat the whole time!

This is a debut novel but it doesn’t show. This is an extremely accomplished crime thriller which whizzed me through the pages and kept me gripped until the last page, and beyond (I know, cryptic!)

A young girl has gone missing in a small Highland town and everyone is on high alert, because there are echoes of another similar crime from years ago. but how could the two possibly be linked? Newly-recruited to the Highland force from London, DI Jessie Blake is eager to prove herself by solving the crime, but she has secrets of her own to protect.

I really loved the setting of this novel and thought the author brought it to life really well. The town is populated by well-built and interesting characters and the author creates realistic and fascinating dynamics between them. It all gelled perfectly for the plot and I was really impressed with the quality of the writing.

There are a lot of characters in this book, and the timeline jumps around quite a lot, so you need to pay attention to keep up but the reader soon gets in to the rhythm of the story. The author does an amazing job of dropping tiny clues and hints as to the perpetrator throughout the book, but lays so many false trails that, although I had my suspicions, I genuinely was not sure who had done what until the reveal. It was very cleverly done and I enjoyed trying to work it out. I particularly enjoyed the historical crime timeline, and I think Kerry portrayed the events, and the aftermath and consequences brilliantly.

If I had a small criticism, I would say that near the end there was an odd change of pace where the book suddenly sped up events, jumped forward quite quickly and seemed to have missed out a couple of steps. It felt to me that a chunk had just been edited out, not quite seamlessly, and it stuttered the narrative slightly for me which took me out of the book for a minute until my brain caught up. However, it was a minot flaw and something I am sure the author will correct with experience. It did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book and should not put off a potential reader at all.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book, I felt it was a very accomplished debut and a really interesting premise for a crime novel, well-executed. I would highly recommend this book to fans of the genre. There were questions over Jessie’s past left intriguingly open and I very much look forward to reading more in this series.

Couldn’t put this book down! So many twist and turns I had to know what was going to happen. Can’t wait for the next book in this series!!

Shannon was a lively popular teenager. She was kind & considerate, always ready to stand up for the underdog. She was sensible & reliable so when she didn't come home when expected her mother was sure something dreadful had happened. At first DI Jessie Blake thinks this is a missing person case until a body is found. Who could have wanted to kill Shannon?

I was drawn to this book because the setting of the Scottish Highlands & Perthshire are place I know & love. So started this book with a great deal of optimism but soon began to struggle. I found the number of characters confusing. A large cast of characters need not be a problem if you get to know one lot before another lot is introduced but I didn't feel I had. DI Jessie Blake obviously has an interesting back story that will be revealed in later stories.

Although I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped I would like to see how the series develops. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher or letting me read & review this book.

When Shannon Ross, a teenage girl, disappears out of thin air, it is up to Detective Jessie Blake and her partner, Dylan to find out what has become of the missing girl. Is she alive? Did someone kill her? What does Shannon’s disappearance have to do with another case almost two decades ago? Are both cases related somehow?

These are just some of the questions that are left unanswered at the start of this new series by Kerry Watts. The mystery surrounding Shannon’s disappearance is really held strong for a good part of this story and I felt really drawn in into what happened this this teenage girl. Watts really knows how to keep you guessing by introducing a host of characters where anyone can be the culprit. I had a hard time in determining who was behind it all. Watts also runs a story parallel to the main story about a girl named Sophie who was murdered almost two decades ago. I was not sure at first what the connection was going to be and I feel that Watts really did such a fantastic job at keeping you guessing right up until almost the end. I will say though that the beginning of this book is quite overwhelming with the introduction of many characters, but after the first forty pages or so I was able to get a handle on all of the characters and the roles they in the story. With that being said, please do not let that deter you from reading as it does get easier.

There are two main couples in Heartlands - Rob and Cassie and Louise and Jason. I do feel like they were well rounded characters and that I really got a chance to come to know them and sympathize with what they were going through both as couples and as their stories centered around Shannon’s disappearance evolved. As far as Detective Jessie Blake, I think we really just scratched the surface with her, so it would be interesting to see her story slowly come about as the series progresses. Although, I would have loved to know more about Jessie, I think the focus was mainly placed on the case of Shannon’s disappearance.

Heartlands by Kerry Watts is a gripping police procedural with many twists and turns. These twists and turns are really shocking and quite expertly placed. We are also left with a bit of a cliffhanger which was a huge surprise and now makes me want to know what will happen next.

# Hearlands ( Detective) Jessica Blake book 1 #Netgalley.
The first couple of chapters started well, then things started to become a little confusing with so many different characters appearing, with not really a full explanation to their appearance. It took a bit of time to get to grips with everyone. Had it not been for that I would have given extra stars. Having said all that it was a good debut novel, and I will read book 2, however hopefully the author will not put so many characters in at such a short space of time, I can always persevere with the vast majority of books, yet I do know a few people would have given up at one stage. I honestly believe Kerry watts tried a little to hard, when it actually want necessarily needed. It actually was a very good debut novel. Sorry that I feel I have to give only a 3 star because of being a little bombarded with so many different characters. Which took something away. From the primary story so soon you

Twenty years ago in Inverlochty, Sophie, a young girl, went missing. Her body was discovered a few days later and two teenage boys were convicted and sentenced to five years in a young offenders institution. Now Shannon, a 15 year old girl, is missing, showing similarities to the previous case. Are they connected? Detective Jessie Blake is given the case to solve, her first since moving from London. She finds that the people of Inverlochty are keeping lots of secrets and harbouring a killer in their midst. There are a lot of characters to get to grips with but Ifound the storyline really gripping. A great debut book. I look forward to book number two in the series and getting to know more about Jessie as we know she is hiding something from her past.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I found it difficult to get into this book, just too many characters and too much going on. There was good potential in the story but it just left me feeling disappointed. I liked the relationship between Jessie and Dylan and there is great potential for a follow up.Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC. reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.