Unpopular opinion but this book dragged a little bit for me - I enjoyed the premise, but found the multiple parts to be a little choppy and had to suspend my disbelief at a few points. Not my favorite book from the author, but enjoyable enough. A high point was definitely Wolf!

obviously Hailey is my favorite character. The main characters tend to be my favorite character because we spend so much time getting to know them. I cannot stand her aunt... she is way too naive to see what’s really happening. I like how much of a badass that Hailey is. She knows how to protect herself and she’s not afraid to be alone. I’m not enjoying the triggering topics of sexual harassment & pedophilia. I tend to pick up books based off the cover and not read the backs and after reading this book I’m thinking I need to focus on the back cover more...

Overall - I’m enjoying this book. It is giving me serious “big sky” vibes. But instead of a trucker it’s a cop.

Stories told around the campfire are usually cautionary tales. The Cold Creek Highway is just the setting for those kinds of stories.

A stretch of highway littered with white crosses, of women taken and left for dead. A cautionary tale to never hitchhike, never walk alone on that stretch of highway.

“We don’t talk about our deaths, or how we each made our fatal mistake, but I imagine we all knew about the Cold Creek Highway long before our bodies were dumped in a ditch or buried in the woods under a blanket of damp moss. You couldn’t grow up in the North without your parents warning you, or the clerk at the gas station telling you to watch out, or walking past posters of the victims with their sweet, hopeful smiles.”

Hailey having lost her father to that highway is living with her Aunt and Uncle. Her uncle being a Sergeant with the police, but also an overprotective creep. He cautions her away from her best friend Jonny. When she is caught kissing another women he seems enraged. He also has a secret shed that he keeps locked.

When Hailey begins to fear for her life wondering if he is the highway killer, she plans to runaway to the woods until she’s 18 and doesn’t need a guardian.

When she finds the body of her girlfriend, she knows she made the right call.

Beth comes to town trying to find answers to what happened to her sister. When she crosses paths with Jonny and Hailey’s Uncle Vaughn she feels the tension and Doesn’t like the attention Vaughn is giving her.

This book had twists and turns steeper than the highway, it left me feeling creepy and reminded me never to walk alone!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the arc for review. All opinions are my own and given freely.

This book blew me away. Clever pacing kept me glued to the pages. Told from different perspectives, you get deeper insight into the mystery. There is suspense, action, and plenty of surprises. I love that I didn't figure it out before the reveal. I also loved the intriguing characters. They were complex and flawed. Excellent read!

A serial killer is stalking girls in the small town of Cold Creek. Dark Roads tells the tale of what's going on and the victims living in this creepy little town. In many respects, this book is a sad one, although I did think it ended on a hopeful note.

With a book like this I don't like to say much about the details beyond the synopsis, since I don't want to spoil. The story is told in three parts -- the first part is Hailey's story. She becomes suspicious of someone close to her and has to take some desperate measures. I found her to be a very unique and interesting character, especially how she's chosen to live her life. She does take some seriously scary actions and I was emotionally invested in her outcome.

This first part generated a very nice level of suspense and tension that hooked me on this story. Nicely done.

The second part is Beth's story. She arrives in Cold Creek to investigate the death of her sister Amber, who had been a close friend of Hailey's. Her plan is to walk in Amber's shoes, and all I wanted to do in this section was scream over all the decisions she made. This part was a bit slower, and not as atmospheric as the first part, but I still couldn't put this down. I needed to know the identity of the serial killer.

There are some romantic moments in both parts that helped with the dark subject matter and left me wanting to know more about Jonny Miller.

Part three involves some head hopping between multiple points of view that gives the reader a wider angle view of what's happening in Cold Creek. More possibilities for the serial killer are revealed. I was able to guess what was going on before the biggest reveals in the story.

Dark Roads kept me turning the pages until the end even though there were some parts I moved through quickly (ie. skimmed). There were some unbelievable moments as well that I didn't think too hard about, so overall, Dark Roads is worth your reading time if you like a crime drama with lots of atmosphere and tension. I particularly liked the ending and the decisions the main characters make in this story. Chevy Stevens is a new-to-me author that I will be looking for in the future.

4.5 Stars

Thank you St. Martins Press for a complementary review copy.

The Cold Creek Highway, in British Columbia, is known for the number of missing women, last seen there. Hailey McBride, knows the history, and thanks to her dad, she knows how to survive in the wild. Living with her aunt, and the local cop, Hailey searches for answers. When the cop starts threatening her, Hailey knows her time is limited. Beth Chevalier visits Cold Creek, desperate to relive the final days of her sister’s life. Will these two women learn the truth and bring justice for the lost souls, or will they end up as the next victims?

This is a fast read… readers will devour the words. The different points-of-view and perspectives add layers to the mystery. Chevy Stevens writes with a passion, readers will feel like they are there with Hailey. The wilderness comes alive, and each character evokes strong emotions of love and hate. This is an absolute must-read.

This was my first Chevy Stevens’ book and it won’t be my last. I loved the intensity and the intricate stories woven throughout. I appreciated the author’s tribute and hope all the souls find peace.

Notes:
This review was originally posted on the Ariesgrl Book Reviews website. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the free egalley, in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very well-written book. I like Ms. Stevens’ style and ultimately think I’d enjoy other books by her. However, this was not the mystery thriller I had been imagining. It really focuses on the story of one woman mainly and did little to challenge your thinking of who the perpetrator(s) may be, so there was little of a substantive surprise at the end. I struggled with rating this one because the writing is objectively good, but the story did not make the book unputdownable. Therefore, 3 stars ⭐️ seems appropriate. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

Chevy Stevens does it again! Another heart-wrenching thriller with characters you can’t help but love. Or hate. In this story, based off a real highway in Northern British Columbia, Stevens has you wondering who you can trust and if you can trust anyone! It’s a small town and everyone knows your business.

I loved the friendships, the courage and perseverance, and I especially loved Wolf! I highly recommend this novel!

Thank you to Net Galley for the digital ARC!!

Reviews also on goodreads & StoryGraph.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

17-yead old Hailey's world upends when her father dies suddenly, and she is forced to live with her aunt and her controlling and passively aggressive abusive uncle. Discovering a secret, Hailey turns to the woods to hide in rather than living with her uncle.

While hiding, another female, Amber, is killed, and Hailey is convinced hiding is her only option.

Beth arrives to find out who killed her sister Amber and her searching put Hailey's hiding in jeopardy of being exposed.

This is the first novel by Chevy Stevens I read. Her ability to vividly build the town and her word choices made this a suspenseful and thrilling story. The story grabs you immediately and never lets you go. She creates likable characters who live in a messed-up situation.

This is one of the best books I read in 2021. I am going back to Stevens's beginning and read her debut novel, Still Missing.

Knowing Stevens based the fictional Cold Creek Highway on the real Highway of Tears in British Columbia which consists of hundreds of miles of desolate highway where too many women have gone missing over the years, added to the overall feeling of dread surrounding the story.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com.

Loved It!
I can always count on Chevy Stevens for a thrilling and suspenseful read.
For decades a killer has stalked women who find themselves alone on Cold Creek Highway. There is a billboard on the highway of the victims that have gone missing and never found.
Hailey's world has come crashing down on her. After losing both parents she moves in with her aunt, her aunt's new husband and her cousin. The husband becomes creepier by the minute which forces Hailey to leave and take refuge in a cabin in the woods. When the killer strikes again the victim's sister comes to Cold Creek to discover the truth about her sister's death. As the story develops the two women are brought together surrounded by immense danger.
Atmospheric, intense and Wow what a surprise ending!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Chevy Stevens for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

A dark, emotional journey that I devoured in 2 days. A slow burn told by multiple perspectives which I really enjoyed. I have read several of her books and was very excited for this new release.

Hailey McBride calls Cold Creek home. Her father taught her to respect nature, how to live and survive off the land, and to never travel the highway alone. Now he’s gone, leaving her a teenage orphan in the care of her aunt whose police officer husband uses his badge as a means to bully and control Hailey. Overwhelmed by grief and forbidden to work, socialize, or date, Hailey vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer—who’s claimed another victim over the summer.

The story was loosely following Canada’s own Highway of Tears, which has been the location of many missing and murdered Indigenous women beginning in 1970.

A chilling thriller that will keep you turning pages to solve the mystery. Who is killing these young women, grabbing them along the highway? A friendly small town where everyone knows each other is plagued by the mystery of disappearing, murdered girls. The author does a wonderful job of sending the ready in different directions, allowing the killer to hide in plain sight. Told in two voices, Hailey and Beth recount their near death experiences at the hands of the perpetrator in frightening detail.

I love books that give you that creepy vibe and you spend each chapter trying to find out who the bad guy is. Dark Roads had my attention early on and I stayed in my reading chair all Sunday to finish it. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this is my first book by Chevy Stevens but I'm looking forward to my next!

The Cold Creek Highway has a bad reputation for hiding young female bodies in it's vast wilderness. One to many women have been murdered, their bodies found amongst the shrubs, and the killer(s) out free to strike again.
Hailey has moved in with her aunt and her husband after her fathers passing. She loves her aunt and her nephew but living with a cop isn't easy. He won't let her work or have any social life outside of school. He claims it's because it's not safe but Hailey knows it's because he wants to control her. Strange things start to happen and Hailey grows concerned she's not safe and needs to escape to the mountains. Her father taught her how to live in the wild and respect the environment so she's not afraid of being out there, except she knows that's where these girls have been murdered.
Beth moves to Cold Water Creek so she can be in the town her sister lived in before her death. The case is still unsolved and Beth wants to see if she can finds answers herself. She works at the local dinner just like her sister did and hopes she may over hear something she can go to the police with. What she's learning is the police don't seem to be very honest, and the more she asks the bigger target she puts on her own back.
How can this town put a stop to the violence and protect it's young women? Looks like the young girls will have to find out themselves!

I didn’t find this book as suspenseful as advertised. However, based on the great reviews for this book, I am the exception. Hailey McBride lives in the mountainous town of Cold Creek. She has recently lost her parents in a tragic accident and is living with her aunt and police officer husband. Many young women have disappeared while hitchhiking on the Cold Mountain highway for decades and it’s become an urban legend and warning to young women in this town. Because Hailey’s stepfather bullies and controls every move Hailey makes, she disappears into the mountains and the town rumors is that she was taken by the Cold Mountain killer.

Beth arrived in town to learn more about her sister’s murder a year ago and befriends Hailey and is doing her own investigating. Ok now the scene is set.

I thought this read like a YA novel and went back to see how it had been characterized and it was not YA. It was very unrealistic to me that Hailey was surviving a winter in an old mountain cabin and sneaking down for supplies. The story if Beth was predictable but the ending did have a twist. This book was just not a serial killer book I was expecting.

I received a ARC for this book from NetGalley and all the opinions are my own.

Chevy Stevens's Dark Roads is set in the wilderness and rugged terrain of British Columbia, along a highway where unsuspecting women traveling alone go missing from time to time--yet a predator never ends up being brought to justice.

Teen Hailey McBride learned from her father how to be self-sufficient--to hunt, to camp, to stay tough, and to never drive Cold Creek Highway by herself. Now that he's gone, she's grieving--and she's at the mercy of Vaughn, her aunt's controlling husband, a police officer on a power trip.

When she suspects that Vaughn is paying too much attention to her, Hailey decides to lay the groundwork for running away and to disappear into the wild. When she's eighteen she hopes to emerge, out from under others' thumbs.

What Hailey doesn't anticipate is that the community will assume she's been taken by the highway killer, which they do. But now she's stuck. She can't return to her aunt's, and for a time the book is satisfyingly focused on her survival skills and her bonding with a young dog while she determines her next move. This section was my favorite part of the book.

Meanwhile, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek to try to figure out what happened to her sister Amber, who vanished in the area. Beth becomes a potential target herself--while also inadvertently drawing attention to the truth about Hailey's disappearance.

I quickly became frustrated with Beth's careless, repeated, willfully risky behavior in what she clearly knows--after the loss of her sister--to be a potentially deadly situation. She's grieving and coping with substance abuse issues, but it was difficult watching her repeatedly lose control of her faculties and surrender her ability to protect herself when she knows how crucial it is to do so.

The bad guys in Dark Roads feel full-bore evil and overwhelmingly pervasive; in one case we see little evidence of redeeming qualities, which makes it feel too easy to wholeheartedly despise the character at hand (in another case, the matter involves more gray areas). The horrific abuses of power, toxic masculinity, and the disturbing, predatory serial killing in the book may make you angry enough to want to spit nails, which is how I felt.

In Dark Roads, characters figure out their places in the world, find internal strength when they need it, and learn to start to let go of what's weighing them down. Some elements felt too easy--certain characters' vulnerabilities seem destined to lead to tragedy and made me want to shout warnings I felt they shouldn't need--but the book was atmospheric, and the characters' friendship and loyalty (and, sometimes, selfishness) that Stevens explores kept me engaged.

Stevens's fictional Cold Creek Highway setting is based on the real-life "Highway of Tears" in British Columbia, where women have gone missing since the 1970s, and where a disproportionate number of Indigenous women have been abducted. Many of these missing-person cases remain tragically unsolved.

I received a prepublication digital copy of this title courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.

4.5 stars - Chevy Stevens delivers again with a suspenseful and heartbreaking story. I never quite knew the ending until it was revealed and I enjoyed the ride! The only negative comment I have is that it was a little too wordy at times (so only 4.5 stars instead of 5).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! All the stars for this thriller! Dark Roads was simply outstanding! This is my first Chevy Stevens book, and I’m kicking myself for not reading her books sooner. I will definitely be going through her backlist after this stellar thriller. The prologue grabbed you and didn’t let go. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. When real life beckoned, I could not stop thinking about the book and was eagerly anticipating getting back to it.

The book has many parts and several narrators but it’s not confusing at all. It starts with the devastating prologue and then immediately goes into Hailey’s story. Hailey recently became an orphan after her father passed away. She was living with her aunt and step-uncle, local police officer Vaughn. Vaughn and Hailey do not get along at all. He’s strict, inappropriate and definitely hiding something. When Hailey hits her brink, she runs away to live off the land. This part of the book was particularly heart pounding yet super impressive. The following part of the book was Beth’s POV. Her sister was one of the victims of the Cold Creek killer and she moves to town to get closure and find the killer. It was terrifying as she got closer and closer to finding the killer. Then, I was straight up sobbing in the epilogue. It hit on all your emotions. Dark Roads was devastating, heartpounding yet completely fantastic. I will not forget this book. It is in my top books of the year. Cannot recommend enough!

* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Based on the tragic and terrible history of the “Highway of Tears”, Stevens sets her novel in the fictional town and highway of Cold Creek. Cold Creek Highway is a long and dark highway in British Columbia that has been the killing ground of young women for decades. Dark Roads is told through Hailey McBride, a young girl whose father has been killed in an auto accident and now lives with her maternal aunt, Lana, and her controlling and husband and police officer, Vaughn; and Beth Chevalier, whose sister has become one of Cold Creek’s many victims.

Dark Roads is a fast-paced psychological thriller that has as many twists as the Highway it is supposed to take place in. Both Hailey and Beth have been hit hard by tragedy and both deal with in very different ways. I felt the girls’ characters were well developed and relatable. Added to the cast are some great and creepy characters. I loved the final twist, but felt the ending was a bit rushed though alternately satisfying.

Trigger Warnings: depictions of horrible abuse, torture, murder, sexual harassment, and police brutality

Dark Roads is my first novel from Chevy Stevens and after reading this one I know I have to add Still Missing to my TBR. Dark Roads follows the story of a highway known for mysterious disappearances of women. The novel begins with the story of Hailey forced to live with her aunt and husband after she is orphaned. While her aunt appears kind-hearted; it is quickly revealed that the uncle is a potential predator. From there, Hailey must make plans to escape all while disappearances and murders continue. The story unfolds like a slow burn thriller, which is sometimes off putting for me. That said, the survivalist aspect of the story kept me engaged and turning pages. The story comes with trigger warnings and is very loosely based on the Highway of Tears disappearances.

Reading Between the Wines book review #89/115 for 2021:
Rating: 4 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: Dark Roads
Author: Chevy Stevens
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers | Women's Fiction RELEASED on August 3, 2021!!! GET YOUR OWN COPY!

Sipping thoughts: Chevy Stevens is an author that has so much clout in the thriller world and this new book did not disappoint. I loved Hailey’s character and how she was such a strong female protagonist. The mystery behind what’s going on is not earth-shattering but I was still a little bit surprised. The best part of this book, in my opinion, is reading how Hailey makes her new life in the woods and her plan if she gets caught. I really enjoy Stevens writing and can’t wait to read another book by her.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley, @StMartinsPress and @MacMillanAudio for an advanced copy of @DarkRoads

#DarkRoads #StMartinsPress #MacMillanAudio #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThriller #GeneralFictionAdult #WomensFiction