Honestly- I love this series (and this will still be terrific as a standalone). Nikki's been through a lot in her life and now she gives back in a unique way. She owns a bookstore, has a weakness for readers (especially kids who read), and, in her spare time, such as it is, does not exactly PI work but more problem solving. Martin, the youngest son of a big-Pharma family, is concerned that his mother has been taken by a grifter and wants him found. Turns out there's a lot (a lot) more to the story. Geoffrey Coombs is a con man, for sure, but looking for him pulls out a twister (and more violent) tale. This one has great twists, including some that surprised even this veteran reader of tis genre. While it's extremely plot driven (and compulsively readable), it's the characters that stand out, starting with Nikki, of course. Her love interest Ethan is great, Mason the airplane loving kid is terrific, and oh that family. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I know some will find this implausible but is it? There's humor, great references to other books, and all in all, it's a fun read.

One Got Away is the second outing for bad ass private Investigator, vigilante, and bookstore owner Nikki Griffin. If you haven't read the first book, Save Me From Dangerous Men, you won't have any trouble starting with this one, although, I highly recommend reading the first because it is also a good read.

Nikki is hired by the son of a wealthy San Francisco matriarch to find the the con man that stole from her. It soon becomes evident that the family has their own secrets. There are some twists in the story and some of the situations that Nikki gets into are not too realistic, but the story moves along at a fast clip.

Nikki has a couple of sidekicks that help her. Mason, an eleven year old boy, and Buster. Nikki lives by her own code and that motivates her to how she punishes those who have committed the acts.

This is a quick read. The author writes a good PI procedural. I look forward to Nikki's next case.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The review is my own.

I absolutely loved Save Me From Dangerous Men and especially loved the fierce and fabulous Nikki Griffin.  She's a PI by day, and a hunter at night.  A hunter who tracks men...dangerous men.  To make them stop and to make them pay.  How can you not root for her?

Well, Nikki is back in One Got Away and she has a new mission.  This time she is hot on the trail of a con man, who leads her into ever increasing danger and intrigue.  I loved this book.  It was fast paced and fun and the perfect weekend read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Nikki Griffin would tell anyone that she’s just a simple bookstore owner but her side hustle is quite dangerous. You see Nikki is also a private investigator and she specializes in teaching men who hurt women a lesson. In One Got Away, Nikki is hired by a wealthy San Francisco family to track down a con man who is blackmailing their matriarch. As Nikki follows the trail of the con man she realizes there is more to this story than what she was told, and lives are at stake.

I absolutely loved Nikki Griffin in Save Me From Dangerous Men and was so excited to hear that Nikki was getting a series. One Got Away is the second book in the series and follows Nikki on another dangerous adventure.

Nikki’s character reminds me of another badass vigilante female character, Lisbeth Salander. This book (and series) is quite the page turner and I couldn’t put it down. I really hope that the author continues the series!

One Got Away is out April 13, 2021!

cw: drug/human trafficking, cartel violence/murder, sexual assault, kidnapping
Do you have a favorite series featuring a badass woman?

** I won an e-ARC copy of One Got Away in a giveaway. All opinions are my own**

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3826412036?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNasokArWv5/

ONE GOT AWAY: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A bookseller that is also a PI that has a grudge/revenge fantasy? Sign me up! The only thing is that the book was longer than it needed to be. Other than that, it would be a great summer beach read.

NOTE: I was provided an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this second book and can’t wait to read the first one as well as any future books in this series. P.I. Nikki Griffin’s brother Brandon has turned his life around, her bookstore is making money which helps with her investigative work and her relationship with Ethan is good as he allows her the space that she needs. Life is good…until she is hired by a very wealthy family who may have been swindled by a conman. She chases down leads that put her life in danger, but she is used to people underestimating her abilities. She soon realizes that the conman is involved in something more deadly than fleecing an older woman and that the family has not been completely truthful. She gets help from her quirky friends and her “sidekick” Mason, a twelve-year old boy who has been abused by his father (I really enjoyed the interaction between Nikki and Mason and her “handling” of his father). A great action and suspense mystery featuring a woman who never gives up, but does get even. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

Thank you to the author, Flatiron Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fast-paced read, and I found it hard to put it down. I enjoyed the heroine (the story is told from her POV) and her snarkiness - at the same time, her attitude of being smarter and of course sexier than anyone she meets was a bit wearing after a while. And she seems to live in a world where she meets one cliché after another, many of the other characters are shallow stereotypes, pure and simple, with no depth to them. Last but not least, I found the plot line more than implausible and had a hard time with the heroine's version of vigilante justice. All that - and yet there was something about this one that made it a fun read.

SA Lelchuk returns with the action packed PI Nikki Griffin series with her disturbing family background in which her parents were murdered, a trauma which has shaped who she is, a fearless defender of abused women and the vulnerable. She owns the popular second hand bookstore, The Brimstone Magpie, and her troubled brother, Brandon, has made remarkable progress, as he progresses to becoming a functioning member of society, whilst her English Literature academic boyfriend, Ethan, a relationship in which she feels safe and secure, is pushing for them to live together. A scion of the rich Johannessen family, their fortune based on Pharmaceuticals, Martin, hires Nikki to look into and follow Dr Geoffrey Tyler Coombs, whom he claims is a conman who has swindled millions from his elderly 81 year old mother, the matriarch Marie, and is blackmailing her.

As Nikki is to discover, the dysfunctional, manipulative and entitled Johannessen family are not what they appear, and there is little they can be trusted on. She meets William Johannessen, the victim of a hit and run, now wheelchair bound with injuries that have robbed him of the man he used to be, the other brother, Ron, rude and obnoxious, and their sister, Susan, an art gallery owner who has spent her life distancing herself from her troubling family. The British conman Coombs turns out to be a revelation, an educated and charismatic man with a taste for the rarified, expensive and the exclusive lifestyle, supremely difficult to resist, a man who sees Nikki as she actually is, something others fail to do. He has an attractive bad boy aura that Nikki is instantly drawn to, despite being in a stable relationship, their similarities to each other are unmissable. The two meet as she follows him to Monterey, only for Nikki to find herself in the dangerous and deadly world of crime and mobsters.

SA Lelchuk's crime writing is showing significant developments from the first book, which makes this a thrilling and exciting read with plenty of suspense and tension. What I missed was that Nikki spent far less time in her bookstore, and perhaps because of that, there were not as many as literary references as the debut. This is a wonderfully entertaining and engaging crime read, with a female, motorbike riding, protagonist, who has no problem becoming a vigilante, and here, she is willing to do whatever it takes to extricate a bright young bullied boy, Mason, who latches onto Nikki, desperate to be her sidekick, from his traumatic family. Many thanks to Flatiron Books for an ARC.

One got Away is a fast paced mystery. Nikki is a strong woman. I loved the fact she owns a bookstore. Lots of action page after page. This is part of a series and I look forward to more

OMG Nikki Griffin is a bad ass book seller! LOVE it!!

I know this was the second book and I haven't read the first one, but I was still able to follow whats going on.

So first and foremost, Nikki owns a bookstore (my booknerd self is screaming yaaay) but she is also a tough as nails PI who takes no prisoners! In this book she's hired to find a con man who conned an older woman (someones mom!) out of a ton of money.
However, it seems like everything is no what it seems in this book and that Nikki finds out that there is more to meet the eye not only with the con man but also the family who hires her.

Its a decent thriller but Nikki is what made hte book for me!

This was a decent thriller overall! I really liked seeing how everything comes together in the end. The pacing was alright - I did lose some interest in the middle, but it did pick up by the end. Everyone has things to hide, so this definitely kept things interesting. The mystery also went in a direction I didn't expect, so that was nice!

I haven't actually read the first book in this series, but I thought it was completely fine to jump in here. I'm sure I've missed some of the background information that we get in book 1, but this did a pretty good job of filling in the important bits. The mystery here is also self-contained.

Nikki was fine overall. I liked how she tries to help out a kid here and do the right thing. She isn't afraid to get her hands dirty to do so! She is somewhat motivated by revenge and trauma to protect women and children from dangerous situations and punish those responsible. Without having read the first book, I was still able to mostly figure out some of the relevant information about her past, so I could understand her motivations.

Overall, I did have an enjoyable time with this, though I don't know if it's a series I will necessarily continue. There are content warnings for violence and child abuse here.

I won a giveaway copy of this from the publisher (fulfilled via NetGalley) - thank you! All opinions are my own.

My video review can be seen on my channel (around minutes 3:33-5:12 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKkRvRzQ7kQ

A badass female PI, sounds like something that would be an insane page turner... But it didn't hit the spot for me unfortunately. It was kind of predictable not in a good away.


Thank you Flatiron and NetGalley for my ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion.

Vigilante. That's what Nikki's job title should really be instead of private investigator.

In "One Got Away", she's picked up a new case. The book follows her as she "works the case", learning secrets along with her. The most important thing is that everything is top secret. But something isn't sitting right.

I loved Nikki's attitude and her relationship with her brother. It's like she leads 2 lives. This was definitely full of suspense and I enjoyed reading it through to the end. I couldn't put the book down because the need to know what and who held the answers was so strong.

Kudos to Lelchuk! Thank you for allowing me to read and give my honest opinion.

This one was way more complicated than Save Me From Dangerous Men. There were a lot more moving parts, and not all of them were fully reinforced. We have Nikki, our badass not-above-bending-the-rules PI - except she takes a job from a really rich family, which already puts us away from her previous more "even the playing field" style. Like, she feels less like a force of justice (or at least balance) and more like someone just working for a paycheck.

Then we have Coombs. I didn't understand his gravity and effect on Nikki at all. She makes all these decisions relative to him and it's like she forgot she was a badass. There are still definitely some badass moments, but if there was meant to be genuine connection between them, I think we needed more than what we got.

We've also got some other really unusual side characters who come and go. Buster and Chris (or was it Charles?) speak to a less-than-legal past for Nikki, but we don't actually see that. It's a problem I often have with the PI angle: where do these connections come from? And then there's Mason, but talking more about Mason would be spoilery.

But once we got to Nikki bashing heads and taking names, I was all for it. She's clever with her methods and it added to the unique vibe of the book and Nikki's character. It also had the very classic Christie-esque "confrontation" ending. Overall, I definitely preferred the tension of Save Me From Dangerous Men - especially when the consequences of the two novels are compared - but I like Nikki enough that I would read another book.

Thank you to NetGalley, S.A. Lelchuk and Flatiron Books for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I was hooked on Lelchuk's writing after reading the first Nikki novel; I adore how badass she is and how she fights for those who can't fight for themselves generally. These novels are the perfect length that it feels like it's so short because there is so much that goes on throughout the entirety of the novel. I loved all the plots twists that went right up until the final page and I really enjoyed all the new characters that helped her along the way. Definitely looking forward to the next novel to see what mischief Nikki can get up to.

The first Nikki Griffin book was one I meant to get to and never did, if you're in the same boat the good news is it's pretty easy to jump right in on book #2. We get enough about Nikki's backstory to understand her but you don't get bogged down in it. The biggest downside is that one of the big themes of the book is that Nikki is going against her usual work and that doesn't come through quite as strongly when you can't contrast it with what you already know about her.

That issue with the theme was the real weakness of the book for me, but I am going to assume this is my fault in not reading book 1 and not the book's fault at all. That said, if you are looking for a book about a PI vigilante who wants to take down bad guys who hurt good people, that is not what happens in this book!

If you like PI books, there is a lot to like here. Lelchuk gets the genre, and you can feel the old school noir vibes along with the modern feel. Nikki is tough and her motivations explain why she often puts herself in ridiculously dangerous situations. Here we start out pretty mildly but by the end there is a whole lot of violence with a whole lot of mobsters and Nikki keeps on diving in as she climbs up the food chain to get to whoever's in charge.

For me, I am just okay on PI books, which is why this is a 3-star for me. It's not my favorite genre, but I appreciate that I did not have to constantly be annoyed with the protagonist for doing something stupid. Everything Nikki does makes sense! Even if it is dangerous. And I very much appreciate that, because it can be the thing that frustrates me most in crime novels. I read this really quickly, and I found it quite satisfying. I picked it up needing a fast book and the pacing here is top notch, it just moves and moves.

Nikki Griffin is a bookseller and a private investigator, and in the second book of the series, she’s on a new case. Though this is the second book of the series it can be read as a standalone, I read it as a standalone and did not have any problems understanding the story. Nikki is given a new case in which she is hired to find the con man who is blackmailing the matriarch of one of the wealthiest families in San Francisco. Along the way she finds out that the case isn’t all it seems and that maybe this family has more dark secrets than they were letting on. She also acquires a kid sidekick and we discover more about her relationship and connection with the con man. The story is alright but it just didn’t hook as much as I had hoped. Overall it was a okay read and the story wraps up well.

*I won this book in a contest hosted by Flatiron and am giving an honest review*

I picked up this book because Ioved Save Me From Dangerous Men and loved the main character, Nikki, bookseller with a tough PI alter ego and intriguing backstory. One Got Away continues with Nikki's adventures. My favorite is still the first book, but I will definitely continue with this series if there's more.

After reading “Save me from Dangerous Men”, I was so excited to read the sequel. I was a huge fan of Nikki Griffin and couldn’t wait to see where her get revenge on some more dangerous men. However, this book fell flat for me. There were too many side stories that distracted from the main plot and didn’t seem have a real purpose. While I enjoyed the subplot about Mason and his father, this story line seemed to be more consistent with Nikki’s character than the actual plot about Geoffrey and the Johannessen family. I enjoyed the fact that the story line included many layers and pieces, but the climax felt rushed to me, as if the author suddenly realized that there were a lot of questions that needed answering. In the end, I enjoyed it enough to still be a fan of Nikki Griffin, but unfortunately was disappointed with this sequel.

You want to know what I do? I run a bookstore. That's what I do. Books. And when I'm not selling books, I try to do a little of what your crowd might call philanthropy. My own special brand of the stuff. Meaning that when I run into someone who has been treated badly, I don't turn my head away.

Firstly, thanks to the publisher for reaching out with the offer of an ARC. Nikki Griffin ended up carving her own little niche in my head, so it's pretty great to see her back!

I had some issues with the first book - fairly standard debut ones, but still. I'm happy to report this time around the author's confidence seems to have grown, expanding his sentences as it did - there's much less choppiness in the text, and it made for a much smoother read.

I'm a little torn about One Got Away - on the one hand, you can clearly see the author's growth, especially in writing style and some of those gorgeous descriptions of the California coast. On the other, what I loved most about the first book, what really stuck in my noggin and made it a memorable experience, didn't see as much of the spotlight this time around.

Nikki is taking on a much more streamlined investigation this time around, though where it leads is anything but neat. Most of the book is spent away from the bookstore, though it does get some time at the end. I appreciated that - too many books in this genre end abruptly, and I appreciated that the author took some time to slow down and tidy up when all was said and done on the mystery front.

Despite the lack of focus on the parts I loved about the first book, this was still an entertaining read, showing growth in all the right places. I'll certainly be back for book three, because regardless of focus, this is still a very exciting new series.