The Bus to Beulah turned out to be very good. The lead character, Maria, proved to be an extremely strong woman. She had to kill a woman and then had to learn to live with it.

The book begins with Maria leaving her Aunt Marianna and boarding a bus to Beulah to begin a new life and a new job, while living with her Uncle Tomàs and Aunt Sophia. The bus makes a stop and Maria over hears an argument between a girl, Julietta, and a madam. Julietta didn't want to become a whore. But the madam insisted that she most certainly would. It seems her step-father sold her into prostitution. It was assumed that Maria heard the exchange, so she was kidnapped.

They kept Maria chained up. One day, she made it into the kitchen and was able to retrieve tools that she used to break out of the chain. Jimmy, one of the men who held her captive, brought the madam to watch over her. In the bedroom where she was kept, she made enough noise that caused the madam to inquire as to what the problem was. When she entered the room, Maria pretended to be out of it and when the madam approached Maria got her in a head lock and killed her. She then escaped.

As she was wandering, she came upon a store. Albert, one of the men who was responsible for her captivity, called her by name. At first, she thought he was part of the party that her uncle had employed to search for her. She realized her mistake and attempted to flee. She was recaptured and knocked unconscious. Albert decided to send her back to Mexico where she would be killed. She was dispatched with two men, one of Albert's men and Dante, a drug king pen.

Sheriff Will Moser was the person that Tomás turned to to find his niece. Will then hired his old military buddy, Eli to help in the search. Eli brought with him a whole team of men who he enlisted to find Maria. While en route to Mexico, Maria and company stopped in Beaumont, Texas for gas and food. Eli's team accosted them and rescued Maria. And she lived happily ever after.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But it didn't take long before I was hooked. The characters were easy to follow.and the plot, too, wasn't hard to keep up with. I would definitely recommend it for book club.

Promoted as general fiction, The Bus to Beulah by Eldridge Hanes is a quality standalone thriller. Maria is travelling from Mexico to the United States when she gets caught up in an immigrant smuggling ring. Her Aunt and Uncle do not accept that she did not get on the bus as she had a legitimate working visa and they had raised her after her parents died. Caught up amidst a Mexican drug cartel and corrupt police, one local Sherriff won’t let the matter go. With wonderful characters and a resourceful well connected team of former military personnel, a gentle action tale unfolds. A most enjoyable and credible story, set against the backdrop of immigration workers, that makes for a four and a half star rating. With thanks to Spark Press and the author, for an uncorrected advanced reader copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

I could not finish this book. Dialogue was stilted, pacing slow., and characters plastic.. It had the core elements of a decent plot, even a compelling one, but it needed much more editing to rid it of its sluggish prose.

I really enjoyed this book. The story put a spotlight on human and sex trafficking in a way that I haven’t read before. It’s a heartbreaking and terrifying novel due to these subjects. It made me wonder how many people I encounter that have been trafficked. While some people might not enjoy how many characters were introduced in this story, I liked that it provided a spider web effect on how entangled sex trafficking becomes with how many people are involved. This is a book that I will recommend time and time again.

Very good book. We need more books that talk about human trafficking ...books that bring more awareness to people about what is really going on in the world around us. I wanna start by saying this book had me hooked from the very first page to the very last page. As I got about a quarter way into the book I started to get confused. Lots of different characters being introduced that started to confuse me and made it hard to follow. Through the whole book I wanted to get to know Maria more...I never felt like I completely got to know who maria was as a character. Lots of side characters that made it difficult to keep my attention. All around a pretty good book I would have just liked to read more about the main character.

When reading the synopsis I thought the book would be so cool because it talked about Maria and her kidnapping and discovering a human trafficking ring.

I got even more excited because when I began reading I found it that this is based out of Raleigh/Durham NC and even talks about Wilmington, NC which is my home town that I lived in for 21 years. Wilmington is also known for their human and drug trafficking so I was anxious to see how it played a role. I also lived in Raleigh/Durham for 2 years! However…I thought the story’s main focus would’ve been more on Maria finding her way back home and the struggle she may go through to do that. It wasn’t. It focused heavily on all these side stories that I couldn’t keep track of who was who and who knew who. There were so many different characters being introduced constantly it felt like there were 35 people to keep track of and hard to connect with characters. And the entire time I kept saying…. “Where is Maria?” So I was pretty let down in the sense that I wish there was more of Maria. It definitely picks up more towards the end, I just wish the main focus was on Maria’s journey rather than all these side stories. I so badly wanted to love this book especially with it being a thriller. It just missed the mark for me.

Thank you to #netgalley and #sparkpress for the eARC! #thebustobeulah

This was such a good read that had me on the edge of my seat with my heart in my mouth. It was a quick read with such an interesting premise, it was gripping and I couldn't put it down. Well written with a good storyline and well developed characters. I really enjoyed it,