White Out is a fast-paced, action thriller following small town detective Kylie Milliard as she seeks to uncover the mystery behind an unknown woman’s death.

The story starts off with a bang on the edge of cliff as a car hangs precariously. A young woman, identified as Lily, cannot recall who she is or where she came from. She wakes up as a victim of car accident, beside an unknown dead man and finds she has narrowly escaped catastrophe. She has odd images and recollections that she cannot piece together, but that are disturbing indeed.

The two ominous situations seem to be linked as Lily, the amnesia victim, and Kylie the small town detective desperately seek answers.

Set in rural North Dakota, the atmosphere matches the tone of the mystery and crimes that take place. Although the story is rather unbelievable in parts, and the writing not quite as polished and sophisticated as I’d prefer, the story is intense and intriguing and an interesting start to a new series.

Imagine waking up and not knowing where you are or who you are, only to find you are in the passenger seat of a car dangling over an overpass. This book is the main character with amnesia + small town secrets.

I was hooked right from the start, who is this girl? Why was she in the car? Who was she with? Etc. Overall enjoyed the book but I will say there were a few parts where I was a little confused about who was who or what was happening, mainly in what I would consider to be the climax scene at the end. Just a little too much going on for me to keep track of. This is the first book in a series and I look forward to seeing where we go from here.

3.5 stars

This story starts out with a bang and really doesn't let up. Lily wakes up in a car that has crashed and is hanging dangerously over the guardrail. There is an unconscious man in the driver's seat. She has no idea who he is, who she is and how she got in the car. She can't remember her whole life.

Besides Lily's POV, we get that of Detective Kylie Milliard. She is the small town of Hagen, North Dakota's only and newest detective, who is called to the scene of a murder of a woman found in a dumpster. We also get Iver Larson's POV, the owner of the bar where the dumpster is and the body is found. Lily has connections to the woman found and it seems Iver may, too.

This was a fast-paced, complex mystery. There were a lot of characters in this story--to the point where it was a little difficult to remember who was who. (detectives, sheriff, officers, doctors, lawyers, bartenders, etc.) I did enjoy the story, though, and had no idea how it would end. This was my first read by Danielle Girard, and I would definitely read the next book in this series.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

This story is told in multiple characters points of views and was fast paced, which was a plus for me. I also loved that I was sucked into the story from page one! While this book was very entertaining and kept me guessing, it unfortunately kept me guessing even after I finished the book with unanswered questions and plot holes. You will also need to suspense disbelief in some parts, but that doesn't really bother me, especially in this genre. Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the second one in the series when it comes out!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Author for the gifted e-ARC.

Thank you @netgalley and @daniellegirardbooks for the early gifted copy of White Out. It is out on August 1st!
I read this entire book in one day. It is a fast paced thriller, and really grabbed my attention. There were some twists and turns, and I enjoyed the writing style. I thought I knew how it would end, but there was a final twist I didn’t see coming. If you enjoy police procedural thrillers with a strong female detective, you’ll enjoy this one! 4⭐️

This is an intense thriller full of suspense. The storyline is very well developed and entertaining. I never knew what was going to happen next. I was hooked from the beginning to end. There are so many twists and turns. There were a lot of characters to choose from for a villain, which made it more intriguing. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to book number 2 in the Badlands series. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.

This is the first book I've read by Danielle Girard and wow, what a wild ride it was! You know those books that you can't put down because you NEED to know what happened? This is one of those! Lily Baker wakes up after a car crash with amnesia and only flashes of memories. She has no idea who she is or how she got in the car. That same night a body is found outside a local bar - who is it and what happened to her? As the story gets pieced together, Lily starts remembering more, and the pieces of the story starts falling into place.

There are alternating POVs in this book, and a LOT of characters. I had a hard time keeping track of some of the police officers/detectives, possibly because only last names are used. There were several times I was like "wait, who is this?" and had to backtrack. There were also several moments where I thought "that wouldn't happen that way IRL" in regards to police procedures but hey, it's a story, so suspend reality! That being said, I was sucked in from the beginning, and Lily's amnesia (though it made the story confusing at times) was a key part because since there were things that she didn't know, I had to keep reading to get more.

Recommended to anyone that enjoys twisty thrillers!

2.5 stars. Suspenseful and twisty!

This novel started off a lot stronger than it ended for me. I was immediately intrigued by the storyline opening with a woman waking up in a car wreck, not knowing how she got there. It had an air of mystery and tension from page one which intrigued me.

Told through multiple perspectives, I was curious with how all the characters would fit together. The writing kept me interested but felt overwritten and clunky at times and didn’t flow smoothly. It sometimes felt like forced descriptive detail.

The characters were memorable and likeable but their refusal to ask questions about their current situations to clear the air on what was happening became frustrating. That “unknown” aspect failed to pull the plot forward for me. There were several aspects to the storyline that didn’t make sense but I was willing to overlook those and simply enjoy the story.

Overall, this was an entertaining and suspenseful mystery. I simply didn’t connect with the writing or storyline.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for my review copy!

I’ve loved Danielle Girard’s books for years (the Rookie Club and the Annabelle Schwartzman series are terrific!), but WHITE OUT really blew me away! It kept me reading nonstop from beginning to end. WHITE OUT is proof again that Danielle Girard is a master of suspense and twisted crimes. In the frozen oil lands of North Dakota, a kick-ass detective and two broken souls try to solve a grisly murder and survive the fallout from the crime along with a dark past that won’t stay past.

When Lily wakes up after a car accident, she has no idea where or who she is. As she’s struggling to make her way into town, detective Kylie Millard is called out to a crime scene. A woman is found dead in a dumpster and Kylie soon realizes that Lily shares a dark past with the victim. As both women search for answers, Lily knows that regaining her memory is the key.
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White Out is the first book in the Badlands thriller and overall I liked this one. It was pretty fast paced with a good amount of action and mystery. I enjoyed the twists and can honestly say that I didn’t guess that ending. I did have a bit of an issue keeping track of all the characters, that would be my only gripe.
3.75 ⭐️

I would describe this book was part police procedural, part thriller, light on the investigative techniques and heavy on the dramatic fiction and suspense.

The reader is definitely kept in the dark until the very end. As I navigated through the mystery via the amnesiac and investigative characters, there is no way to figure out the big reveal, so it was engaging, constantly dangling the "who-done-it" to keep me turning the pages.

However, I'm not a huge fan of creating tension by keeping info hidden, as in had a character not kept a secret in the beginning, the story would have been over pretty quickly. Like, if Lily had disclosed her amnesia early on, or when Iver & Mike discovered the birthmark in the pic, why didn't they immediately call Milliard to explain? It would have totally exonerated him. And 2 characters with selective amnesia specific to the night in question, thus preventing them from disclosing relevant info, was just a little much.

The pace of the action was fast, but almost too fast. I would just finish processing one big event and then another would happen almost simultaneously. And there were just a few too many characters to keep straight; I kept losing track of which member of the law enforcement "small town good ol boy network" or "old nemesis from highschool" I was reading about.

There were definitely some areas where reality slipped a bit: our poor Lily was always getting physically battered and/or attacked by multiple people, being beaten up almost every other chapter and learning that she's being targeted by an unknown killer and she is like unfazed, mentally & physically, even though she was a survivor of previous abduction and abuse. She was apparently a heavy drug abuser, but experienced no withdrawals from quitting cold turkey. Her job wasn't mentioned beyond coworkers recognizing she'd been in some kind of accident, and even though she was injured she was expected to jump in on a medical emergency, but then she never worked again. Also, I felt like there was not enough tidying of loose ends (What happened with that jerk Kevin? And what actually happened with Iver's ex in the parking lot?).

But overall, this was an entertaining read and the mystery was definitely twisty, as long as you're willing to overlook some things, not take it too seriously, and just go along for the bumpy ride.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

This is the first book in a series and my first time reading anything by this author. I will start by saying I always get pulled in to a book that jumps into action, and this story did just that.

Lily Baker wakes up as a passenger in a vehicle that is about to fall through a guard rail. She has no memory of the crash or why she’s with the man beside her.

On this same night, a woman’s body is discovered in a dumpster. The detective, Kylie Milliard, is working this case and learns this woman has a link to Lily Baker. And as Lily tries to piece together the events of that evening, detective Milliard is also searching for answers with Lily’s help.

I don’t want to say too much more about this story because a lot happened in these pages. While this book is full of action, the storyline is really far fetched and I did find that some connections weren’t fully explained. I struggled at some points to keep track of characters as more and more were introduced. However, I love a detective story and a strong female detective at that! This book was definitely entertaining and I will continue with the series.

The opening chapters were so tense and gripping, I was basically on the edge of my seat the whole time. I didn't know where the story was going, I was ready for red herrings and real answers all mixed up in the narrative. I just didn't feel like I got that throughout.

With our main character having amnesia, it meant that she wasn't entirely captivating as she kind of just went along with what anybody said. I didn't care much for her finding anything out. Usually, with amnesiac storylines, you'd expect there to be clue finding and mystery-solving by conversations and pictures and the residence, but we got none of that. It was also a little hard to believe that she, as a nurse, went into the hospital and met her colleagues, who had no idea whatsoever that she had amnesia by the way she was behaving and just thought she had some kind of stomach bug. These are trained professionals, as is she -- it makes no sense. I was a little intrigued by Iver's storyline but it took way too long to get any substantial answers. The interactions between Lily and Iver felt so unnatural in terms of dialogue and their behaviours. Honestly, there weren't many red herrings either.

I also just wasn't a fan of the lead detective, Kylie. She was so harsh and unsympathetic and, yet again, didn't detect -- as her job title would suggest -- the fact that there was something wrong with Lily. Somehow they were all suspicious that Iver had been hurting Lily but they still let them both sit together inside the house without any guards. She saw a car in the driveway but Lily wasn't home, so she jumped to the worst conclusions immediately. It was all just a little too unbelievable.

Sadly this wasn't for me. I had really hoped that, after a really promising opening chapter, this book would be continuously strong, suspenseful and fast-paced, but it was merely slow and confusing for me.

While it took me a little while to get into this story, overall it was really good... and crazy!

Kylie Millard is a female detective in a town full of men... and they don't let her forget it. She is tasked with investigating the death of a woman found in a dumpster in the small town of Hagen. Along the way, we meet a strange cast of characters who all have their own secrets, interwoven together in this town, including Lily, a young woman who wakes up after surviving a terrible car accident and Iver, an alcoholic, recently divorced bar owner with his own demons.

As the story unfolds, we are taken along this wild ride of mystery, secrets and discoveries. This was a pretty fast paced novel that totally read like a movie or a tv series.

Thank you so much to Danielle Girard for my gifted copy of this DRC in exchange for my honest review. I cannot wait to see what there is in store for the next book in the series.

Thank to NetGalley, Danielle Girard and Thomas & Mercer for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Girard novel, but now I can’t wait to read her backlist because I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! I am a big fan of characters experiencing amnesia, especially characters that are so easy to like! I love the dark atmosphere of this one and I would definitely recommend! It was a super quick, addicting read!

Out August 1st!

I've been a Danielle Girard fan for a number of years, most recently her Anna Schwartzman series. White Out is the first in a new series set in North Dakota. It's a tight, smart thriller told in alternating points of view. Lily wakes up after a car accident in a strange car with an unconscious man and no memory of who she is, who he is or what happened. Iver wakes up with a migraine, a hangover and no memory of the night before. Kylie is Hagen, North Dakota's only detective, she wakes up to a woman's body in a dumpster.
And she must ferret out a killer.
In the beginning the three POVs bothered me a little...i would just get involved in one of the character's story and then have to switch to the next. But it didn't take long to get into the swing of things and get comfortable with the three points of view. I really liked all three of the main characters. Kylie is a tough, fair cop trying to solve a couple of murders while dealing with a witness and a suspect with memory issues and having to fight her way through Hagen 's "good ol' boy" network. Lily and Iver are both caring people worried and scared about what happened, their roll in the events, and what it is they can't remember. The author skillfully leads us to an exciting and unexpected conclusion....and I mean unexpected! Get ready for a surprising and twisted conclusion!!
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have heard really good things about this one, but after reading to about 20% I realized that I just didn't enjoy the author's writing style. I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with it, just not really my taste.

White Out has all the ingredients for a perfect suspense/mystery read. It’s a fast-paced, action packed, police procedural read with lots of twists and turns told from multiple POVs. However to fully enjoy this book the reader must be willing to suspend belief and accept some less than plausible situations. I am pretty good with suspending belief and rolling with the punches when it comes to this genre, as I find that a lot of times it’s one of the things that makes the book more enjoyable. This said, I still found myself shaking my head at some points in the plot, and I wish the author was more diligent with facts instead of relying on packing the story with “shocking” actions and situations just to make the plot more convoluted and surprising.

Overall, this was a solid 3 star read for me and I recommend it to all the readers that enjoy a fast paced suspense novels.

Thank you NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

White Out by Danielle Girard is a fast paced mystery thriller with a little bit of romance added into it! Told in several POV’s Girard keeps you coming back for more. It grabs you you from the first chapter until the end then leaves you looking for more!!! You will become invested in all the characters wondering where they will lead you next!! Bring on book 2!!

If you are looking for a page turning thriller this is the book for you! Being the first in a series it leaves you anxious for the next read!!!

Thank you Bookish Ladies Book Club, NetGalley and Danielle Girard for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fantastic read. I enjoyed the way she slowly revealed pieces of the puzzle. I will definitely be reading the next installment.