Rachel Caine is a must read author that never leaves anything to be desired. The Stillhouse Lake series is a must read for lovers of thrillers. Heartbreak Bay tells the story of a missing mother and two dead children. This fast paced thriller leads the protagonists on a hot case that can drag up even the worst of memories. This is a quick, great read that comes highly recommended and does not disappoint.

After reading all the other books in the series, I was super excited to get this ARC. I am extremely happy to report this book did not disappoint. Great characters ( including a awesome and strong heroine), get story, and a great continuation of the series. If you have not read the series yet, I would highly recommend checking it out.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the ARC. #NetGalley #HeartbreakBay

Heartbreak Bay by Rachel Caine is the 5th in the Stillhouse Lake series. Ketzia Claremont is called out to investigate the drowning of two children found in a lake, still strapped in their car seats. The mother is nowhere to be found. Ketzia calls in Gwen Proctor, a friend and private investigator who has assisted her in past cases. Gwen is also being confronted with her past when messages are being sent to her and her partner threatening to destroy the life they’ve built with their kids. (For those of you who don’t know about Gwen, she was known as Gina Proctor who was married to a serial killer many years ago – you’ll need to go back and read some of Ms. Caine’s previous books.

Suddenly, Ketzia’s case and Gwen’s past collide with many twists and turns and having to confront evil in its worst form. The book is intense and not for the weak. You’ll find yourself holding your breath, shaking from frustration, and terror. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me an advanced copy of this book.

My heart is heavy after reading the author’s message at the end. Words escape me and I felt like crying after that. She shared that she has soft tissue sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. And, she’s going to fight for all it’s worth! My prayers are with her that she’s given the strength to continue and conquer the battle!
(To NetGalley: I'm not sure if I should have included this last paragraph. Please let me know and I will edit it.

I love Rachel Caine's Stillhouse Lake series!! When I saw it was a “read now” book on NetGalley, I couldn’t believe it!! I’ve read all the books in the series and was very excited about the fifth book coming out in March. Even though I have a lot of other books on my TBR stack, I put them all aside for this one!!! I started the book and stayed up all night to finish it!

Each book in the Stillhouse Lake series are stand-alones, but you really get to know the characters if you start from the beginning. They are all good books so it's a win for the reader.

If you haven’t read any of the books, the storyline is about a women that is married to a serial killer, yet says she knows nothing of his actions. Caine takes you through the life of this wife and mother and how they are all coping with this knowledge. This is a crime novel at it’s best. It is full of suspense, mystery, twist and turns and is a real page turner!! I recommend the whole series!!

The author has a note at the end of the book regarding her current health battles. I was shocked to read this as I’m sure all Caine fans were. It amazes me that she is still giving to her readers as she goes through these hard times. My thoughts and prayers are with you Rachel Caine and I hope you beat your health battles!! I look forward to your sixth book!!!

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for my review.
#NetGalley #HeartbreakBay #Thomas&Mercer #RachelCaine

I had read this book when it first came out but decided to read it again as I had not read the second book in this series. I really enjoyed the first two books and am now looking for the third in this series. In this book the wife finds out her husband is a serial killer and has been for years and he had been using the family garage which he had turned into his work shop. How would anyone deal with the horrors that would follow this revelation

Serial killer vigilante

“It’s so easy at a distance to pass judgment, to feel satisfaction when someone else receives pain you think they deserve.”

Heartbreak Bay protagonists Gwen Porter and Kezia Claremont are on a hunt of the person who's gone on a killing spree in small town Norton, Tennessee. Gwen is a missing persons private investigator. She has two teenage children–Lanny and Connor. Kezia, aka Kez, is a detective at the Norton Police Department. Gwen was called at a crime scene location by Kez, her bestfriend, to help in the investigation of the drowning of two girls strapped in the back seat of the car that was pushed to the lake. The location is close to where Gwen once lived in Stillhouse Lake with her late husband, Melvin Royal, a serial killer. Though Melvin is dead. He still haunts Gwen. He is there in here thoughts. He still has control over her. It brought back so much horrible memories from her old house and when Gwen got to the crime scene she didn't know why she was needed there in the first place.

The story is told in three points of view: Gwen, Kez, and Sam. Sam Cade is Gwen's partner who have adopted her two kids. He works as a flight instructor. There are a lot going on in the book besides the drowning of the two girls and the missing mother. There is also the harrassment that Gwen and her family received which also affected Kez. This is not a coincidence.

What I liked most is the police procedural used as well as private investigation know how I've learned and appreciated from the book. It is well-written. The thought process has a good flow. The pace is just right. The climax towards the last five chapters were the unputdownable scenes for me. The mystery & thriller element I am looking for in a book is definitely there. This is the main reason why I gave the book a rating of 4 stars.

This is the fifth book in the Stillhouse Lake series. I wanted to note that this book can be read even without reading the previous novels. The story from the book is the result of what happened from the previous books, however, the author explained well the history and the whys so the reader will be able to understand even without having read the previous works. One of the elements I liked is Caine's ability to insert flashbacks without losing the flow of the story. Another element I like in a mystery & thriller novel.

The characters were able to develop their own story throughout the book. Caine was able to give them each a story of their own without putting too much emphasis to the main three. They are drawn together through the horrid past they experienced in life. It brought them together and now they are all keeping their family safe. This includes Vee—a friend of Gwen's daughter, Lanny. Vee and Lanny are of the same age. Gwen took Vee under her wing and she's now part of the family. I'm miffed that everywhere they go, everything they do, they are being harassed—especially Gwen because she's the ex-wife of a serial killer. The harrassment has become the "normal" for them and it's a rarity that a family like Gwen's, is handling it so well. They have complete trust in each other.

The story is set in rural Tennessee in the small town of Norton and its surrounding areas like Valerie. I learned a lot of the Southern culture in the story such as racism: how the truck driver who pulled the car out of the lake treated Kez, how it is being a black woman cop in that area, their food and way of living, how it is to be in a small town having an influential family with money and who operates an illegal distribution of drugs, and how fast news can travel. Apart from culture, I learned a lot of new vocabularies and idioms from the book.

Now the big question–why not five stars? I cannot tell the writer what to write. I know this by now from years of reviewing. However, Caine's mysterious person was revealed in the end and the antagonist's story was not given enough spotlight. The antagonist deserves more. Heck the antagonist should have been given its own voice in my opinion. Caine wrote it in a way that it should have been given more in the story. Most story revolved around Gwen, Kez, Sam and their circle. I am looking at it all in their points of view. Now I am left with a lot of questions about the motives, intentions, all the hows, and whys. I've read so much mystery & thriller novels, some authors have done this without giving a lot away early in the book. I want to know what's on the antagonist's mind. Now I will never know.

This is for someone who likes police procedural, private investigation, missing persons, strong women characters, how to rise from aggravation, what do people being harrassed experience, gun safety and responsibility, serial killer, and mystery & thriller genre. No profanity. Not too graphic, in my opinion, comparing to other stories in the same genre. Just right for the story. I was able to sleep at night even after finishing the book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, author Rachel Caine, and publisher Thomas & Mercer, for providing an advance reader's digital copy of the book, which allows me to write an honest and unbiased review.

I should have known better to start reading this after midnight because it was 3 am before I had to force myself to put this down and actually sleep.

Gwen Procter, Sam Cade, and their family are once again in the crosshairs of a killer, and only their choices can help set them free.

This book, like the rest of the Stillhouse Lake series is absolutely thrilling until the very end. I can’t thank Thomas & Mercer, and netgalley.com enough for access to this book.

If this is Rachel's last book (slamming on wood) then she has outdone herself. Gwen is a badass heroine with severe damage. All the characters are destroyed and trying to live their lives. But Heartbreak Bay puts everything on a whole new level of horrible cruelty, evil of humanity and survival. I applaud Rachel for going here and loved every single second of this story. It went out with a bang of emotional trauma, emotional healing, physical healing and most importantly, self awareness. I feel privileged to have had a chance to read Heartbreak Bay because the humanity of it at the end touched me deeply. We're all looking forr the light at the end of the tunnel. All we can do is work our asses towards it.

I have been invested in Gwen, Sam, and the kids since the first book in this series. They are flawed and understandably so. I continue to be intrigued by the darkness grief can bring about. I commend the author on the gritty, deep seeded underbelly of vigilante justice and retribution. This book like the others showed the love of this family for one another, the hardness of their obstacles, and wound plenty of evil suspense throughout. Truly one of the only books I always recommend when asked about and this one will be no different.

Huge thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read my first Rachel Caine book, which turned out to be the 5th book in the Stillhouse Lake Series, #HeartbreakBay. Wow. I jumped into the middle of a firestorm here. Just because I’m probably finding out a lot of spoilers for things that happened in the four previous books doesn’t mean you can tear this book out of my hands or that I don’t want to go back and see precisely how these events unfolded because I do! After I finish this book! --- Done now. Whew. The story fed out like a snake shedding its skin, leaving me transfixed by the shiny new colors revealed as it swished its deadly tail. And that’s no exaggeration. Heartbreak Bay is so skillfully written it deserves at least a second reading – it’s a brilliant psychological study, both of deviant behavior and the behavior of ordinary people in conditions of extreme stress. HeartbreakBay could be used as a textbook on how to write a perfect thriller--how to find the pulse of horrific villains, how to break your readers’ hearts then give them hope again, and so much more. I’m headed to the bookstore for more books by Rachel Caine. Thanks again for this opportunity, #NetGalley.

Review Copy

I've been waiting for HEARTBREAK BAY for a long time. Finally finding that the advance copy was available was, well, it was heartbreaking to find that this might be the last book.

This book was full of action and suspense. It had horrendous, evil characters. It, like all the books in the series could be read on it's own. You would surely have questions that could be avoided by reading all of the books in order!

I absolutely loved this novel. If I had to make a choice as to which of the five books were my favorite, I wouldn't do it. I'd request all five in one volume and escape choosing that way.

Full review to be published online in late March.

HEARTBREAK BAY is the fifth book in Rachel Caine's popular and interesting "Stillhouse Lake" series. All the books in the series can be read standalone, but it's worth reading the whole series for context; and because, if this sounds like something you'd enjoy, there's not many series out there that are as well-considered and entertaining. The research is sound, the writing is good, and the tone manages to straddle the very narrow line between horrifying and life-affirming. This book also pulled up out of what was almost becoming a wallow in the last book; this time, the connection to Gwen's past felt much more organic, and there's a definite sense of moving forward from it.

Rachel Caine has a tendency to have her protagonists make terrible decisions in the name of protecting or saving the people they love. There's a bit of that here, as well as a reveal that fizzled. The book is strong enough to work without the big drama of a surprise revelation, but it felt like I was supposed to be more surprised; at the same time, it was telegraphed pretty clearly. Another good read in what has become a go-to series. Recommended.

Would you rather die or kill someone you love? That’s the question Gwen Proctor is faced with in the fifth installment of the Stillhouse Lake series. Gwen is the ex wife of a notorious serial killer Melvin Royal believed to have helped her ex with the killing of his victims, she’s come a long way from naive wife to total mama bear don’t mess with her, her children or those she loves and holds dear. You can’t go wrong with the amazing cast of Gwen, Connor or Atlanta her children, Sam her new husband, Kez her loyal friend and local cop. The characters are so real you want to pick up the phone and call them yourself. ! The emotions grab on you from the beginning to the end. I’ll be waiting patiently for the net book in the series.

Wow! This was a stay up all night to finish it kind of book. Once you started reading it held tight to your very soul and you just had to read through to the end. This instalment of Stillwater Lake was phenomenal. I adore the characters , they are so well written they feel like family by now.
The most gruesome of crimes, 2 dead babies. No mother or father to be found, could they have killed their own babies? . This crime takes Kez down a dark twisted path to find the most devious of criminals. A path of bodies left along the way. Gwen is being harassed again but this is somehow different, more cold and calculating... when gwen and Kez crimes twist together no one knows how this could end. Gwen will do anything to protect Lanny and Conner and her partner Sam will do anything to save them all.
Sit down and hold tight this horrific crime novel is a MUST read.
Side note: Normally I would not include this in a review but as the authors note was included in the book I am adding it. I adore this author and reading the final authors note I found some distressing news. So to Mrs Caine. My thoughts are with you as I sincerely hope you are no where near the end of your story and hope to be able to read many more Gwen/Gina books, they are among my top 5 book series ever. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Rachel Caine is an author that I absolutely love! The Stillhouse Lake series has yet to disappoint. I love the characters and the lengths they’ll go to in order to protect their loved ones. I felt that at the start of this book it didn’t automatically draw me in, but when the action started and you knew Gwen Proctor was really getting into something, I couldn’t put it down. After reading this, it sort of felt like a goodbye to the series and while I love it and could read anything that was written to continue the story of Gwen and Sam and their children, I feel at piece knowing that they’d be doing just fine with the amazing ending to this book.

This is the 5th book in the Stillhouse Lake series and I've read a couple others. I was able to quickly catch up to what I had missed so that was great. Read through this in 2 sittings! It was honestly better than the other's I've read from the series. What a great thrill ride! Loved the ending.. if you like suspense, I'd highly recommend this series.

After book 4 I was a little nervous that this series was too tired for me however I genuinely enjoy reading about Gwen, Sam, Lanny, & Conner plus I find Caine to be a very talented writer so I was still eager to read it. I liked this book significantly more than book 4 and enjoyed hearing more about the Proctor family and Kez. There were a lot of moments in the plot I really enjoyed although I do admit there were some things that were just okay and repetitive. There were things I clearly saw coming but also things I didn't. I do find Caine to be a very talented reader and obviously puts research into her books as well.

I love this series and hope it never ends.
In this book Gwen and Kez team up to protect the ones they love from becoming victims of a crazy person. Gwen will be judged by a jury of one.

Grab this entire series, it is so good.

"A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory". All the books in the series, including this one are quick and easy reads. I love everything about this book.

I received this ARC for an honest review. I’m writing this review just minutes after finishing. OH MAN!! I am going to have such a book hangover. This book is so thrilling. My heart is still beating fast. I love this series. This book is an continuation of Gwen, Sam, Lanny, & Connor’s life after the serial killer Melvin Royal.
Rachel is a master at drawing you into the story, and you are along for a thrilling ride. I love everything about this book, I really don’t want to say more about the story line because I don’t want to give too much away. Everything is masterly intertwined, and you find yourself trying to fix the puzzle.
Give it a try. You will love it!