Say You're Sorry (Sacramento, #1)

by Karen Rose

[Berls]

I LOVED this book and will be hunting down more Karen Rose for sure! First off, it's long - the audiobook was 24 hours and 6 minutes - and that is typically a turn off for me. Thankfully I can read at 2x speed, so that cut it to 12 hours, but still... super long! But look, I read it in 4 days while living my busy life. BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD!

What worked for me:
- the characters! they are so complex and full. She used every bit of that length to make characters that really come off the page and to life. They have complicated backgrounds that truly inform their present decisions. Their relationships are beautiful and again, complex. There isn't a character that I wouldn't like to see their entire story - even the serial killers. This isn't one of those books where you like the villain, but man, you do feel SOMETHING for him and you understand how he got so fucked up, even if you still hate him.
- the plot! It was non-stop. I hated every time I had to hit pause to go live my life. There are several story threads and they are all pretty intertwined, but not in a confusing way. Instead, each thread adds to each other and just makes the story more robust.
- the suspense! I know this is like a sub-point for the plot, but I need to emphasize what a page-turner this is. You are seeing the story from multiple points of view and each one only escalates the tension and anticipation.
- The dogs! There are two pretty important dogs in this story and as a dog lover, that really does add a lot to the story for me. And, as a dog lover, any book where a dog is killed does not work for me, so don't worry!
- The romance! So I won't lie, this was kind of background for me and not super important - but it did play into why I liked the characters so much. It was a sweet romance - one that a character had tried to bring together in the past and now is happening because of this awful situation and it was cute seeing them have to admit that person had been right all along. And there's even a really good scene where safe sex is addressed, which is really important to me in my romance books!

What didn't work:
- um, can I have a sequel please? Now?

Narration:
- I have to add that this book was made all the better by Joel Froomkin's narration. You ever finish an audiobook and have to stop and think, "was that 1 narrator or 2?" because you were so oblivious to the narration? That was Joel's narration for me. I just felt like I was watching a movie with a full cast of actors, I think. I wasn't really aware of him - which to me says his narration was fantastic. I didn't ever stop to think something he said or some accent he used was good or bad, it just was there. At one point I actually considered speeding the story up from 2x because I had a book club deadline I wasn't sure I would meet - I decided not to because I didn't want to miss ANYTHING in the book - but his narration was good enough I think I could have.

So basically, if you like romantic suspense I INSIST you put this on your TBR. Like yesterday!