Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. Psychological thrillers are so popular in our library. I thought this would be right up our community’s love of suspense novels. But I felt this was very predictable and weak on a story line. It won’t be getting a strong recommend from me.

I had read a few mixed reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed Cover Me in Darkness as much as I did. I thought Amanda was the ideal narrator, somewhat unreliable and definitely broken from her complicated past. I assumed the story would be a slow burn, but there's actually a good amount of action, all of the terrible things happening to Amanda added to the tension and made me more invested in the mystery. The writing style could've been more compelling but the plot more than made up for it. Recommend for fans of mysteries with a cult twist.

A story of one woman attempting to move on with her life but her mothers suicide threatens her anonymous life she leads now.
The story centres around Amanda who, in the past was part of a religious organisation called the Children Of The Greater God with her mother. Following the suicide of her mother, Amanda suspects that all is not as it seems and fowl play may have been involved. What follows is a thriller in which Amanda seeks to uncover the truth putting her own life in jeopardy.
A story that held me for hours while i read and read. The characters are all fully fleshed out and I enjoyed it.
Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of the book.

The description of a mystery/thriller involving a young woman escaping from a cult had me intrigued. However, the plotting is a bit slow and there are some segments that feel a little TOO farfetched and distracted me from the story overall. It was good but not great.

Thank you to NetGalley and Midnight Ink for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Have you ever read a book, enjoyed it and yet when someone asks you how it was and what is was about you blank? That's the issue I have run into with this title. I liked it! I liked the story a lot, I liked the characters. But I have nothing to say about it outside of it's good. This is not helpful, I realize, when trying to give other people an idea if the book is something they would enjoy or not.
What I keep thinking I will say about it actually belongs on the back cover of it for anyone to read. And anyone can read a description. I'm not sure if this inability to review the book is due to my inability to come up with words or because the story itself is hard to talk about outside of the description on the back of the book. So, you are welcome. I'm of no help if *you* are trying to decide if this is a book that you want on your to-read list. All I can give you is - it's good, I liked it. *Shrug*

You know that feeling- you read the synopsis and then hook, line, and sinker - you have to read the book, like now. I saw the synopsis for this book - hmm, murder mystery meets cult escapee? - um yes, sign me up, please!

My favorite elements of "Cover Me In Darkness" were the plot and the main character, Amanda.

Amanda is painfully introverted, and her comfort in being alone is only magnified after her adolescent trauma. She holds her time at the cult and her mother's crime close to her chest, refusing to let others in to what she feels, rightfully, is kind of a freak show. As an introvert myself, I enjoyed her mannerisms, and also felt for her struggle to both enjoy and live her life as an introvert, while balancing her social and work responsibilities.

A good book...felt the ending was a little rushed and anti climatic but all in all it was an interesting page turner.

Very captivating and not at all predictable! I especially liked learning about Amanda's life in the cult. The title didn't exactly fit the book, but it was what originally caught my attention.

For the past ten years, Amanda has tried to forget her past and move on with her life as ten years ago her mother killed her younger brother Jackson and tried to kill her other brother Dylan and wanted Amanda's help. One thing led to another, and her mother ended up pleading insanity and ended up in a mental institution. Ten years ago, her mother was a cult, and during that time, the cult leader Patrick also went to prison. Now ten years later, Amanda's mother is dead, and Patrick is being released from prison. Amanda turns up to the asylum only to discover her mother's suicide isn't as straightforward as it seems. As Amanda goes digging for the truth about what happened to her mother, it seems that someone is out to get Amanda and keep her from talking. They are also doing a bang-up job to make her look like she is the crazy one as more people are getting killed along the way and it looks like Amanda is the one making the killings. Has Amanda inherited her crazy killer mom genes or does someone want Amanda stopped and will go to lengths to see her either dead or locked up? Find out in this fast-paced Cult thriller Cover Me in Darkness by Eileen Rendahl.

I received Cover Me in Darkness by Eileen Rendahl as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review. An intriguing mystery surrounds Amanda Sinclair and she's in a rush to solve it.

Since leaving the Children of the Greater God (COGG), Amanda has started a career and is starting to enjoy life. In order to keep her past in the past, she has kept a distance between herself and those around her. Until her mother's untimely death, that is right when Patrick Collier, the religious leader of COGG, is about to be released from prison. Amanda ends up balancing her life between the mystery of who falsified test results and work and what really happened to her mother.

Amanda's mysterious past intrigued me and there were so many times I just couldn't put this down. There were some night's I was reading way too late. COGG was particularly interesting due to the background of the manipulation of cults. Rendahl does a fantastic job of writing how people are drawn into and trapped within a cult. My main interest definitely lay around COGG, and so some other areas seemed less interesting in comparison.

At times it can get pretty slow, especially at the beginning. But, as the mystery picks up and Amanda does some sleuthing it gets you guessing. With Amanda's inexperience of detective work there's a lot of misguided guesses, from both you and Amanda about who is trying to mess with her. Secrets... Lies... Love interests... How does the story end? Guess you'll have to find out yourself to learn who Amanda really needs to protect herself from.

I rated the book 3 stars. I am really in two minds about it. There were twist and turns and a lot of mystery which kept me going to the end. It did however tke me about 4 weeks to finish the book which is a very long time for me. Some parts felt a bit stretched or unneccessary. I think it would have been more captivating if it was a bit more fast paced. Overall good, but unfortunately not great!

The interesting premise of this book captured my attention. Amanda is a "survivor" of a cult, but she is psychologically damaged. The cult leader is about to be released from prison where he's been serving a sentence for embezzlement, just as her mother, who's been in a facility for the criminally insane, dies. Amanda believes there is a connection between these two events, and as she starts to investigate she becomes paranoid about circumstances at both work and home. The police question her sanity, which feeds into the paranoia. She must ask herself if she is imagining things, or if she is really in peril. By the end of the book, the question is answered.

Rendahl tells a good story, although some of the details are inconsistent. Amanda's confusion and fear is more told than felt. Nonetheless, this is a book I wanted to come back to after setting it down.

Amanda Sinclair is a lab technician at an on-the-brink of big-time breakout cosmetics company in Chicago. And she has a secret.

Her mother killed Amanda's younger brother, and then tried to get Amanda to help her kill her other brother. For the past 10 years, her mother has been in a mental institution.

Today she received a phone call ... her mother has committed suicide.

Found in her mother's belongings are newspapers outlining her mother's crime and information about the cult leader that Amanda holds responsible for her mother going off the deep end. Amanda now believes someone intentionally killed her mother.

And then strange things begin to happen. Someone pushes her into oncoming traffic. Something she has eaten or drank was laced with a poison.

Who wanted her mother dead? Who wants Amanda dead? Why?

You can take your pick of suspects. Her mother's psychiatrist who seems to have taken a personal interest in Amanda. A young man, co-worker, who has been rebuffed from Amanda more than once. A young woman, also a co-worker, who seems to get real friendly, although they barely know each other. Her boss who is in the middle of selling his company... and Amanda has found some discrepancies in trials that were done. A woman who once worked at the mental institution, who seems to never have existed. The homeless man that Amanda has befriended?

This is a well-written mystery with lots of intriguing characters. Secrets abound ... characters lie. Who is Amanda to trust? Twists in the story line kept me turning pages until the very end.

I wish to thank the author / Midnight Ink / Netgalley who provided an uncorrected advance copy of this novel. The opinion expressed here is unbiased and entirely my own.

Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to get into the book. While the premise certainly drew me in, the execution just couldn't keep me interested.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc*