I love a book when I am wrong about who I think is the killer. This was a well written, fast paced, page turner that I didn’t want to put down.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens. Ever since reading Still missing, Chevy has been on my TBR list and the fact that the plot has more than a hint of realism - especially here in Canada I was eager to read Dark roads. However, the slow build at the beginning of the book and the plot dragged in the middle of book, made it less than thrilling. Luckily the solid ending made it an okay read on your summer holiday. The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to five hundred miles through British Columbia’s rugged wilderness to the west coast. Isolated and vast, it has become a prime hunting ground for predators. For decades, young women traveling the road have gone missing. Motorists and hitchhikers, those passing through or living in one of the small towns scattered along the region, have fallen prey time and again. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice. This is the story of three girls: Hailey, Amber and Beth. Review edited to fix grammatical errors.

This book was dark. There were many things that made my skin crawl. The story had good pacing and was a page turner. The characters were teenagers and young adults and there was some young adult romance stuff that didn't really fit with the tone of the novel. A good read!

5 stars

I basically read this from beginning to end without much pause because I just HAD to know what was going to happen. This was my first book by this author, and I have no idea if it is typical of her style, but I couldn't put it down. While you had some idea who the perpetrator was, there were still a few surprises, and the tension was high throughout the book. The book is told from Beth and Hailey's point of view, but there is never any confusion about whose story you're following, probably because of the way it's structured. Part one is told from Hailey's point of view, which covers the first third of the book. Beth's perspective takes over in part two and covers the second third of the book. I appreciated this because it really drew me into both of their stories and I had the chance to get to know them and their motivations before we hit the last third of the book when the chapters alternated between the two. While this tale was inspired by the Highway of Tears in Northern British Columbia, where women, many of them indigenous, have been murdered or gone missing since the 70s, this was a fictional tale where the author wanted to bring some attention to the Highway of Tears, and give at least one of the victims some closure.

This was definitely a thriller, but for me, it was about women who were victims deciding to fight back. In this small way, the author was giving a voice to these victims. If you like thrillers with interesting characters, you should definitely give this a try.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Chevy Stevens does it again! She has become an auto buy author for me. This one kept me on the edge of my toes. Thought I had it all figured out and nope I was wrong. It was an emotional ride. I think Chevy Stevens is an underrated author that doesn’t get enough attention. Do yourself a favor and pick this up. You won’t be disappointed!

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

My first Chevy Stevens book, it won't be my last. I am primarily a women's fiction reader, not a mystery/thriller reader. Loved this book,. Kept me guessing until the end. Creepy dark roads, woods, and missing/murdered young women. The stuff of nightmares!

Based off the blurb I was expecting something completely different. This story reads like a young adult novel. Don’t get me wrong I love young adult novels, but I was expecting this book to be different. I also figured out the plot fairly on and that was a bust.

I have been struggling to find an attention-grabbing book lately. This one kept me engaged and captivated with a well-written and well-moving story.
This is the type of story where everyone could be the villain and the hero. The kind of story where making predictions about where the plot is heading is futile because it will all change with the turn of a page.
I enjoyed reading the alternating story points of view from each of the girls. But I love that they don’t re-tell the entire story, just key moments before continuing the story.
This made for a great weekend read. It’s perfect for a weekend when the weather won’t let you go out to play because it is a great curl up on the couch book.

For years, the nearly five hundred mile stretch of Cold Creek Highway has been infamous as a place where young women go missing. Drivers, hitch hikers, and more. But their abductor has never been found. Hailey McBride lives in Cold Creek. Her father recently died in a car accident, leaving her to live with her aunt and her controlling police officer husband, Vaughn. Vaughn watches Hailey's every move, bullying and terrorizing her, keeping her from seeing her best friend, Jonny and her new love interest, Amber. Using what her dad taught her about the local land, Hailey plans her escape to the mountains. With Jonny's help, the idea is that everyone will think she was another victim of the highway killer. A year after Hailey disappears, Beth Chevalier arrives in town, desperate for closure after her sister Amber's murder. Beth's life is in shambles after Amber's death, and she starts to look into what happened. But Beth's search puts her in danger--and starts to reveal the truth about what happened to Hailey.

"I had to get out of this house, and this town."

This is a dark and often stressful book. It's told from two perspectives, Hailey and Beth. I was quite attached to Hailey, who is suffering at the hands of Vaughn, the stereotypical power-hungry small-town cop. He embodies the part of the sinister bad guy. Because he seems to control the entire town (no one will even give Hailey a job, since Vaughn doesn't want her to have one), her only choice is to go live in a shack in the mountains and basically let everyone think she's dead. The book shifts from menacing to survival-in-the-woods story and then we flip to Beth's perspective, where she's a struggling wannabe law student who arrives in Cold Creek to figure out who killed her sister (who was Hailey's love interest).

If it seems like a lot and a bit confusing, it is. I liked this book, but it did seem like it had multiple personalities. I found it tense at times (add to the fact that Hailey had a dog in the wilderness--I cannot handle books where something might happen to an animal) and other times a bit slow. Vaughn is our clear bad guy--Hailey even discovers some of his many terrible traits and crimes. But if that's true, then why are we reading? Just to catch him? At times, the book catches us off kilter, guessing and wondering. At other times, it falls a bit flat when the whole premise doesn't really seem to work. Who is our protagonist and what is the end goal?

Overall, this is an often dark and quite atmospheric book. It's creepy and twisty and sometimes heartbreaking. Is it worth reading? Yes. But I'm not sure if it ever lives up to its true potential.

This book was so good, you guys.

The plot reminded me a lot of the Highway of Tears disappearances. Women going missing or found dead, the police never finding the killer or really looking into it as much as they should have. I was so invested in this story. I couldn’t put it down. I just knew I had it all figured out - but I never saw that ending coming. With all the build up and suspense, the reveal was so worth it! And I loved that the ending wasn’t rushed like with many mysteries.

The last one I read by Stevens took me by surprise as well! I’ll definitely be reading more of her backlist. I love when I find an author who can write an unpredictable twist.

Dark Roads is a twisted story. The book is loaded with intriguing characters. I didn’t know how the story would unfold until the very end. I will definitely be reading more books written by Chevy Stevens. I highly recommend.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copies of this mystery thriller.

I was intrigued from page one since a ghost/spirit narrates the prologue. Set in rural British Columbia, Canada, the novel was written to draw attention to real unsolved disappearances/murders of First Nation women in the area.

The novel features two main characters, Hailey and Beth, young women who have experienced great loss in their lives. Given their ages, this felt a bit YA at times. I didn't anticipate the 'outdoorsy" lifestyles of the characters, although I should have, given the setting. It was great to have a dog as an important character in the story.

This was my first Chevy Stevens novel but it won’t be the last.

Sweet mother of pearl this book. I started reading it a few days ago but only read 2 chapters before setting it down and moving on to something else. I picked it up again yesterday and had to stop and make myself go to bed last night, with about 20% left. I was completely enthralled, my anxiety was through the roof, and I didn't realize how impactful this story would end up being. I'm ashamed to admit I almost shelved Dark Roads before I ever really gave it a chance, because of the anxiety it was causing me in the first section. I'm so glad I didn't and kept going. But now I have a stress headache. Whew.

There have only been 2 other books recently that have hit me like Dark Roads did, and those are Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass and What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson. When I tell you I didn't think I'd survive any of them, I didn't think I'd survive any of them.

I honestly don't even know what to write here. Dark Roads was twisty, disturbing, stressful, anxiety inducing, and held me in its dark clutches. I hated it and I loved it. There were times I found myself skimming, just to get to the next "meaty" part of the story. I was tempted more than once to skip to the end, because my God if this story didn't end the way I needed it to I was going to have words with someone, but I was able to hold myself back. And I'm very glad I did, as the journey Chevy Stevens took me on, along with Hailey, Beth, and the rest of residents of Cold Creek, is one I wouldn't have wanted to miss.

I should've skipped this. I liked the writing & it was a good story but it was too long and there was too many irrelevant details. This is a VERY slow burn mystery. It felt a little disjointed. I pushed through, I should've DNF but I was curious to see what would happen. It was okay, but the blurb makes it sound much more intense than it was.

My Review:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 stars

What a haunting thriller! It is a slow burn, but in the most scintillating, purposeful way. You have to get into the mindset of this small town in the middle of nowhere British Columbia where there seems to be a highway killer. It feels desolate and a bit hopeless - you need to imagine it to really understand the plight of the women in Cold Creek. Stevens writes so beautifully that I was completely immersed from page 1. This is a duo POV between Hailey McBride, whose father recently passed and Beth, whose sister was murdered by the highway killer. Their worlds collide and interweave as they have people in common they care about. Hailey feels bullied by her uncle (married to her Aunt Lana), Officer Vaughn and he wants to control every aspect of her life - so Hailey fakes her own death/disappearance to live off the grid in the woods. Everyone thinks she is murdered by the highway killer. Beth, on the other hand, comes to Cold Creek to investigate what happened to her sister and what made her want to move to this place. However, this makes her a target herself. My favorite part of the story is Hailey’s relationship with Wolf - the stray dog she befriends. Every time anything happened I had my fingers crossed that nothing happened to him… nail-biting the whole way through. The ending completely floored me - I didn’t expect it, and I should have seen it coming.

If you love a good, thoroughly well written thriller - this is it! So good!

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! Out this week.

I think this may well be the best book I have read so far this year. It had everything I look for in a book. Well fleshed out characters, a terrific story, plenty going on ,tension, suspense ,terror and moments that made me reflect and that even brought tears to my eyes. I went through the full range of emotions with this book. I don't think the blurb for this book did it justice, it was so much more than I was expecting. I have read, and enjoyed books by Chevy Stevens before, but for me this was an outstanding book, and definitely her best one so far .If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. I loved it.

I was captivated by Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens, an author I was not familiar with. Set in British Columbia’s rugged wilderness, this well-written, atmospheric thriller is exciting, chilling, heart-pounding, and fascinating! The plot revolves around a ruthless killer of young women along the Cold Creek Highway, and the survival of 17-year-old Hailey, who is living with her aunt, creepy, controlling policeman uncle Vaughn, and their young son. The well-crafted characters are compelling and kept me riveted. I look forward to reading more by Stevens.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC of Dark Roads in exchange for an honest review.

Seventeen-year-old Hailey must move in with her Aunt Lana and her police officer husband, Vaughn when her father dies in a car accident. Vaughn is well known and widely disliked in the town of Cold Creek as he uses his position as a police officer to bully and control. Hailey had the barrier of her father before his death, but that protection goes away now that he’s gone. The problems between Hailey and Vaughn are immediate, and just like her I’d have been counting the days until I turned eighteen!

Vaughn infuriated me! I can’t stand it when men go into policing because they crave power over others, but Vaugh was worse. Every time Hailey thinks of a way around his rules, to grab some independence he’s there to screw things up. It soon becomes apparent that he’s not just a control freak, male chauvinist, but he’s a dangerous man. Anyone stepping in to help Hailey risks his rath as well, so she decides to disappear until she’s of legal age.

While this is playing out, the mystery of missing and murdered women on the Cold Creek Highway becomes the central focus when another local woman, Amber, is found murdered. It’s speculated that Hailey’s own disappearance might be at the hands of the Cold Creek murderer, as well.

The murder of her sister, Amber, hits Beth hard, derailing her life plans. She travels to Cold Creek to find some closure and ends up staying to find out what happened to Amber, putting Beth in danger. She’s overcome by grief and sort of directionless, and at this point isn’t super concerned about safety. I was more than a little worried for her. Thankfully, she’s got a couple of people looking out for her. I was happy there was a bit of romance for Beth even though this story is mainly a mystery/thriller.

I started Dark Roads on the way back from vacation, and I couldn’t stop the story when I got home! I was on the edge of my seat guessing about what would happen next and wondering how it’d all turn out. It was a nail biter at times! I wanted justice for all these poor women, and I wanted Hailey to prevail! I was pleased to be surprised at the identity of the killer, but also happy that it didn’t completely come out of left field.

I was excited to get an audio copy because I’m already a fan of the performers. I love both Angela Dawe and Brittany Pressley’s narration, and each performed a main role: Beth and Hailey respectively. Isabella Star LeBlanc is a new to me narrator, but she had a lovely voice. I think she performed the prologue and epilogue, each leaving a lasting impression. The audio version is a total recommend!

This was a tough one to put down! I did figure out some of the story pretty early on, which is kind of rare for me, but it was really good! Chevy Stevens does a great job writing characters the reader cares about and roots for. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Being set in a wilderness in BC this one promises to be a thriller. Women have been going missing for a long time. Also some people passing through or living in the region have been prey. No one has been brought to justice for this either. Hailey lives in Cold Creek and stages her vanishing. Reading this will give you the why. Later Beth who actually had a sister who was murdered comes to find answers. In doing so though she is now in danger with the truth on Haily could be uncovered. Turning the pages on this thriller I was glad I picked it up.