Those Girls by Chevy Stevens

by:  Chevy Stevens
published by:  St. Martin's Press
publish date:  July 7, 2015

Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father’s fists. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation. They are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives.  

I read on Facebook Chevy Stevens wondering why people who don't like her books continuing to read them and give them negative reviews. I don't really have an answer for that, but I will say that Chevy Stevens is very consistent with what she writes.  When you pick up one of her books you know you're going to get some kind of horrific torture inflicted on a young girl in the Pacific northwest.  I've read almost all her books and they're all pretty good.

Those Girls is about 3 sisters that suffer terribly at the hands of their father only to kill him out of desperation one night.  That forces them to go on the run.  When their truck breaks down in a small farming town they find help in 2 young brothers from a local ranch.  However, those brothers turn out to be their worst nightmare.

I liked this book.  It was a Chevy Stevens book, though.  It was dark and graphic and the characters suffer terribly.  However, it's an interesting story of survival.  I would recommend it if you like that type of story.

Joint Review: Always Watching by Chevy Stevens

Author: Chevy Stevens
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Date of publication: June 2013

In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire—healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.

When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. 

Always Watching was a pretty intriguing book.  I did think it was a little long, but overall I enjoyed it.  I liked Nadine's character.  She isn't perfect and has seen her share of heartache.  She is a widow and her daughter is an addict who lives on the streets.  But she is a good psychiatrist.  When she gets a new patient who tried to commit suicide, she realizes that the woman was a part of a cult that seems familiar to Nadine. 

Through flashbacks, we learn about Nadine's time living on a commune with her mother and brother.  I thought those parts were creepy and disturbing. As Nadine begins to remember parts of that time that she blocked out, things get more and more disturbing.  There were a few twists that I liked and didn't figure out.  I also liked the ending.  The only part that I thought could have been left out was the whole romance with Paul.  It was kind of anti-climactic.  This is the first book by this author that I have read and I'm intrigued enough to go back and read more of her earlier books.

I've read Chevy Stevens' other books and I liked them better than this book.  The previous books had a much darker, gritter ambiance that this one seemed to be lacking.  Also with this book, I kept having the feeling that I had already read it or had seen a movie like it.  I could never pinpoint what book or movie it was, so it was just a feeling. 

While I liked the general storyline, I didn't care for Nadine herself.  There was a point where her brother says that she pushes too hard and I think that's what I didn't like about her.  I felt like she was smothering her daughter everytime she found her.  I didn't like the way that she would interact with some of the characters.  I thought sometimes the way she dealt with thing was less than tactful and the outcomes would have been more in her favor if she would have just backed off.

I won't hold this book against Chevy Stevens.  I can't like everything by the authors I like.  I'll be looking forward to her next book.  Looks like That Night will be coming out later this year.

ARC Review and Giveaway: Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens

by:  Chevy Stevens

published by:  St. Martin's Press 

publish date:  July 5th, 2011

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’s home life was not ideal. The question of why she was given up for adoption has always haunted her. Finally, she is ready to take steps and 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.

If you read Still Missing many of the elements of Never Knowing will be familiar.  It's set up the same way as Still Missing as the main character telling the story to her psychiatrist.  I was a little disappointed in this.  I thought that was really unique in Still Missing and really worked for that book.  In this book it still worked, but I had hoped for something a little different I guess.

I did really like this book.  It was really exciting and tense.  All the heartbreak and fear that Sara suffered with the reader does too.  Chevy Stevens does a great job of pulling you into Sara's world and let you walk around and get to know the characters. 

While I thought that Still Missing was way too in-your-face and kind of shocking for the big screen, I thought this book would make a really great movie.  I could see it cast with some cool people.  I kept thinking Agent Cho from The Mentalist might make a good Billy.  Sandra Bullock kept coming to mind for Sara, like her character in Murder by Numbers.

**********Giveaway************

Since we surpassed 700 followers (yay!) we're going to have another giveaway!!  I will be giving away my gently used ARC of Never Knowing to one lucky winner.  I'll go ahead and make this one INTERNATIONAL.  Please leave a comment below with your email address.  If you would like additional entries please share this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, etc. and leave the link in a separate comment.  I'll leave this contest open until 6/6/11.



Still Missing

by:  Chevy Stevens

published by:  St. Martin's Press

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two year old Realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever- patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor of the day pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent captive of a sadistic psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered spirit back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

The truth doesn’t always set you free.

I don't know if it's appropriate to say I enjoyed this book, but it was a very compelling read.  Once I started reading I couldn't put it down.  I had to know what was going to happen to Annie.

This was a very dark read.  It had a lot of violence and rough language in it.  If that's not something you can handle, this is not the book for you.  She spent a long time in the hands of a sadistic captor and the book is her retelling of the events to her therapist.  She's understandably bitter about what happened during and after her time away. 

This was a debut book by Chevy Stevens and I was impressed.  I'll be looking for the next book by this author which will be Never Knowing coming out next summer.  In looking at the summary, I think that one will be as dark and moody (and right up my alley) as this one.