Julie's Review: Never Knowing

Summary: From the acclaimed author of Still Missing comes a psychological thriller about one woman’s search into her past and the deadly truth she uncovers. All her life, Sara Gallagher has wondered about her birth parents. As an adopted child with two sisters who were born naturally to her parents, Sara did not have an ideal home life. The question of why she was given up for adoption has always haunted her. Finally, she is ready to take steps and to find closure. But some questions are better left unanswered. After months of research, Sara locates her birth mother---only to be met with horror and rejection. Then she discovers the devastating truth: Her mother was the only victim ever to escape a killer who has been hunting women every summer for decades. But Sara soon realizes the only thing worse than finding out about her father is him finding out about her. ~amazon.com

Review: I know it's no mystery to you guys that I love thrillers and so when I kept hearing about Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens, I knew it was up my alley. I also knew it would be the perfect fall, creepy read. I have to say that this book knocked me out of breath a couple times. Throughout the book you feel terror and fear in step with Sara. You can understand what she's going through and yet there are times you want to shake her to put the lid back on the can of worms that has been opened. Yet, she can't. You see her life is at stake, the lives of people she loves are at stake and innocent people might be put in harm's way if she doesn't do something. The question is...Should it really be up to her? Can she out wit a murderer and psychopath?

I really liked Sara and I understood where she was coming from, she just wanted to know her adoptive parents, so she could maybe understand herself better. She never really fit in with her adoptive family and besides her mother, she always felt like an outsider. To say that her father is a jerk, is quite the understatement. He was cold towards her and loving towards her other sisters.

Sara is an excellent mother to her headstrong 6 year old daughter Ally and has a wonderful fiance Evan. They have the seemingly perfect life but we all know that nothing is perfect. Her birth mother doesn't want to have anything to do with her and until Sara digs into her birth mother's past she doesn't understand why. This is when the roller coaster of terror begins and doesn't let up until the end of the book.

What I loved about the book was the way it was written, journal entry but in a therapy session format. You were definitely on the outside looking in but I felt I had insight into Sara's thoughts.

There are a couple twists during the course of the book and I saw one of them coming but it still freaked me out. I liked the ending because I knew that Sara was going to be ok but that she still has a lot of issues to come to terms with and will still have to deal with them.

If you love crime novels, love being terrified and don't mind a main character being a serial killer then you should read Never Knowing.

I haven't read Ms. Steven's debut novel, Still Missing, but it is definitely on my list for January.

Final Take: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel.