Member Reviews

This was an excellent, quick, engaging read. I loved the character development, how the two main characters were so intertwined but their stories so distinct that you had no trouble knowing who was who. I also loved that this book is at its core about murdered and missing indigenous women. There is far too little ever said or written about them.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Chevy Stevens for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Dark Roads is available now.

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I got about halfway through the book, and put it down. I think someone who likes YA books would enjoy this book.

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This was just an okay read for me. It was atmospheric and I was pretty into it the first 40%, but felt a whole lot of nothing happened for a while. I didn't feel like there were enough twists; and this shouldn't have been marketed as a thriller. Maybe mystery or suspense??

Compared to other thrillers I read - I wanted more and a quicker pace.

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I got about 20% through this book and just could not keep reading it. While it's marketed as a thriller, it has a teen/YA feel to it and just wasn't particularly grabbing my interest. It's not that it was bad - it just isn't a book for me. Because of this, I did not want to negatively review this book online or continue reading it with the thought that my opinion would be swayed by my interest.

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Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

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For years, women have gone missing from or have been found murdered along the fictional Cold Creek Highway, in British Columbia. Five hundred desolate miles of highway where women hitchhikers and drivers with broken-down vehicles have been preyed upon and the killer or killers never found.

The story begins as we read about the brutal death of one of the victims, a person who is the victim of violence. And therein sets the tone of the book.

The protagonist is seventeen year old Hailey, who has recently lost her father. Her mother has already died a few years ago and thus after her recent loss, she is now living with her aunt and her cruel, cop step-uncle, Vaugh.
Vaugh is a despicable person who's set his eyes on Hailey. Vaugh also hates Hailey's longtime friendship with Johnny, who is her best friend, and her budding friendship with Amber, a waitress at the local diner. When Hailey finds realises that Vaugh is behind a lot of terrible things which have occurred in the area, she makes it her mission to find evidence. However, when she does have evidence she fears for her life and flees to the hills. The wilderness which her father has taught her to live and to survive.

I don't want to reveal more because there is so much more to this story than what meets the eye. The author has done a great job in characterisations and world-building. I thought the story was a little long but that's a personal opinion.

I will still recommend this book because it should be read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This was my first book by Chevy Stevens and it won't be my last! This story hooked me from the start! So much drama with the characters and filled with suspense. This had me turning pages very quickly!

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This is the second book by Stevens and it completely blew me away. This dark, thrilling, and suspenseful book pulled me in from the beginning and didn't let go until the very end.

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The book starts out with the missing girls on Cold Creek Highway. which gives the impression that this is going to be about that and a possible serial killer. Well, that's not exactly right. This was more suspense than a psychological thriller but had me guessing to the end (the end was really drawn out and I fought to stay interested). After the death of her father, Hailey is sent to live with relatives. She lives with her aunt's family that includes her young nephew and Uncle Vaughn, who makes me very uncomfortable with his creepy behaviors toward Hailey. He is a police officer and uses his badge to intimidate. The vibe in the house is uncomfortable as Hailey doesn't feel she has anyone to confide in as things begin to get to strange and deadly. While the book did drag on at times, and, if you suspend disbelief, it's a good story with an interesting twist and it's a;; wrapped up nicely in the end.

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I am a HUGE fan of Chevy Stevens. ANYTHING she writes is worthwhile. With that, I do usually find her story telling unique and that is a quality I find interesting and what makes me pick up the books. However, Although I did like this book, I found it NOT to be my favorite from her. Worth the read though.

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Cold Creek Highway winds its way through vast and rugged wilderness in British Columbia. Its isolation in places has become a hunting ground for predators, with scores of missing girls as proof of its dangerous nature. Hailey McBride lives in Cold Creek, forced to live with her aunt and overly strict uncle after her father dies in an accident. Vaughn is a policeman, controlling in a way that seems unnatural to Hailey. As Vaughn seems determined to take away everyone Hailey hold dear, including her best friend Jonny and a young waitress named Amber, will she make a decision that will put all at risk?

I usually like the books by Chevy Stevens, but this one is too overly complicated. There is a lot going on and the introduction of a new main character later in the book convolutes the novel even more. Having read another book similar to this one, with young women going missing from the roadway as a major theme, I could not help but to compare. The distasteful and aggressive Vaughn is so over the top that it seems obvious that he is not who he appears to be. Each character has a side plot and this leads the book astray.

Overall, I was not a fan of Dark Roads and would be hesitant to recommend it to other readers.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Dark Roads by NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

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I LOVED this book. This is the first novel I have read by Chevy Stevens and without a doubt it will not be the last.
This book is about a highway where women tend to mysteriously disappear. The story is told by two women, one escaping a terrible living situation and letting people believe she has been abducted and another coming into town looking for answers. I don’t want to spoil anything for future readers.
I really liked how this book was written, being told separately by the two main characters and then switching.
Normally I have an idea of how the story might end, but this one had me guessing quite a few times. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller. Plus it’s by a Canadian author, so that’s a bonus!

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1.5 stars.

A complete miss for me. I cannot, in good conscience, give this a full 2 stars.

This was my first experience with this author. I don’t like writing negative reviews, but I believe in being honest. Sadly, this is one of the worst books I’ve ever finished. I listened to the first 20% on audio and found myself cringing at the awkward dialogue so I switched to reading the physical book with the hopes that it was the audio narrator I wasn’t clicking with. By 50%, I switched back to audio knowing it had nothing to do with the audio narrator and everything to do with the book itself. I refused to give up because of all of the raving reviews - I was sure it had to get better. Unfortunately, this got progressively worse with each chapter in the second half. I quadruple checked Goodreads to confirm I was reading the same book everyone else loved.

I will start by saying I don’t enjoy YA and this felt very much like a story for a younger target audience. The premise intrigued me since it is based on real events. I expected to read a book giving voice to the victims of the Highway of Tears but this novel lacked focus and instead centred around wild teenage characters gallivanting around the small town. In my opinion, this book failed to deliver what it intended and there was far too much ridiculous side story going on.

It was a complete disconnect for me with the writing. I didn’t care for any of the characters except Wolf, the dog. The dialogue and inner thoughts of the characters were consistently cheesy and cringey, lacking any sort of natural ease. I have never rolled my eyes as much as I did with this novel - the behaviour became more absurd and outlandish as each chapter went by. The amateur sleuthing was too much for me to handle.

I will stop here as I recognize how much time and effort goes into writing a novel and clearly this wasn’t intended for me. I would be very hesitant in picking up another book by this author.

Thank you to the publisher for my digital review copy! Thank you to my lovely local library for the physical and audio loan!

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Not my favorite title by Chevy but I still enjoyed reading it. I just wasn’t connected to the characters as well as I usually am with her books and I found it kind of slow. However, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to others.

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The twists on who was to blame for the women's disappearances were pretty good in keeping the suspense of who it was almost to the end. I think there were a few aspects of the story that didn't add much to the book and made parts a bit slow. Some of the characters actions while trying to find out what to their friend/loved one were quite unbelievable. Overall I found it entertaining enough.

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Girls are dying along one stretch of road. Yet the cases are not getting solved. Hailey stumbles upon pictures of the bodies and her pictures are included. She runs away to live in the mountains with the help of her best friend. The story is full of action, twists, and turns. The last chapter was so sad. This was a good book.

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Thanks to NetGalley for the ecopy for my kindle. I was surprised by this. I was hesitant going in, but it was better than what I expected. I was invested in this story from the very beginning. It was fast paced and thrilling. Most importantly, I didn't guess the ending!

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So sorry for the late review, I thought I post the review already.
Dark Roads was a great read , I love the strong female main character so often women are written as weak. Great read

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Unfortunately, I was not able to finish Dark Roads. I had a hard time connecting to the characters and the plot moved too slowly. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. Since I was unable to finish, I will not be posting any reviews on any other sites. Thank you.

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REVIEW: Reading this book as a work of fiction: thrilling, intense, edge-of-your-seat madness. Getting to the end and realizing it was based on true events: ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING.

This thriller already had so much going for it; the setting was eerie, with it being in creepy woods and women turning up missing in the most grotesque of conditions. Haley thinks she has escaped her less than appealing life (being married to a man, a cop, who bullies her) and retreated to this ghostly, atmospheric mountainous landscape only for it to be something much more awful than she could have ever imagined.

The Plot Twists were THERE. I felt like I had absolutely no idea what was coming next, which is exactly what I want in a thriller. I found myself flipping the pages non-stop, completely unable to put it down.

I was rooting for all of the characters, and how could you not? But my favorite was definitely Wolf, the dog.

Highly recommend. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for a copy of this one - I only apologize for taking so long to get to it!

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