A solid debut novel. Writing was good and I enjoyed the plot, but I found my thoughts wandering toward the middle as I lost a bit of interest.

I got back into the story toward the end, but the ending was a bit underwhelming for me since I guessed who was behind it all.

I will read more from this author!

This was a quick read that I finished in one sitting!!! It was fast paced and kept me entertained throughout. I will definitely look for more books by this author!

When Tina Evans gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night, she doesn’t think much of it; she’s been fielding distress calls from Bill for the last twenty years, ever since the day their father killed their mother.
At first, this call seems just like all the others: Bill’s holed up in a Brooklyn drug den and needs her to come rescue him. But when Tina gets there, her brother’s nowhere to be found. Instead, she discovers the body of a private detective hidden in the junk heap out back. He’s been shot to death, and his gun is missing from its holster.
Tina’s about to dial 911 when she receives a three-letter text message from a number she doesn’t recognize: “Shh...”
Tina doesn’t believe in coincidence—the death of this detective and her brother’s disappearance must be related. But how? Could it be her father pulling the strings from his prison cell? And is she willing to risk her own freedom—and her life—to uncover the truth?

😊What i liked -

✔ Thriller/Mystery/Crime/Suspense.
✔ This was a great debut book.
✔ Keeps you on your toes with suspense.
✔ I loved the constant shift in pace and the twists.
✔ Loved the Plot.

🤔What could have been better -

✔ Had guessed the end.


📚Who Should read :

👶Beginners
🕵️Thriller Lovers


📈My Rating : 3.5/5


Thank you, Chris Narozny & Crooked Lane Books , for a copy.

This was a good story which kept me turning the pages throughout the night. Great mystery, writing and plotting will recommend to all my friends who love this genre.

Tina gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night. This call starts everything. She doesn’t find her brother, but she does find a dead private investigator. Just as she was about to call 911, she gets a text from a number she didn’t know.. the text said, “Shhh.” With her brother no where to be found, she thinks he’s linked the the dead investigator. But how does it all fit together and who can she trust?

In this solo debut novel by Narozny, you will be kept on the edge of your seat as it is action packed. It includes twists and turns that you’ll never see coming – especially the ending!!! It was like a one-two punch of twists! I couldn’t believe it, but I really enjoyed the fact that I didn’t see it coming.

Tina may not have been my favorite FMC, and at time she wasn’t likeable at all, but I could understand Narozny’s choices for her. So that made it easier to read for me. I found his writing really interested, and very easy to read. There were times I felt like I was reading an internal monologue and would have preferred more dialogue. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book!

This book wasn’t really for me. I enjoyed it and was able to finish, but I wasn’t invested in the characters. It did have a few wow moments. Thanks

Special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. I enjoyed the fast paced nature of this book and the many twists and turns. If you're looking for a decent, quick thriller then this is it!

At under 300 pages, this short thriller really packed a punch. Fast paced and addictive, I was turning the pages at rapid speed to find out where Bill was and how the case ended. I'm surprised this is a debut novel! It was written so strongly. I'm so keen to read more by this author.

I enjoyed this one.

Tina gets a call for help in the middle of the night from her brother, but when she gets there, her brother is nowhere to be found. Instead, she finds the body of a private investigator and she receives a text from an unknown number that says, "shh." The plot thickens when she finds a phone on the PI with missed calls from her husband. It seems no one is who Tina thinks they are.

The plot was solid, with a lot of twists and turns and I didn't see the big twist coming. I love a good, "no one is who they say they are" plot, so this one held my attention. It is hard to go into detail without giving anything away.

I was surprised to find out that this was a debut, and I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Chris Narozny, and Crooked Lane for an eARC of Not by Blood!

Not by Blood starts off by throwing you right into the plot. I was a bit taken aback by this as a lot of authors have quite a bit of character development before they get to the action. That's not to say this is a bad thing, but the first chapter is baptism by fire and the mystery gets thicker from there. Despite this, I felt like the middle of the book got a bit slow and I was waiting for things to happen. The ending picked back up again and the plot twist was great.

I did think there could have been a bit more character development. I didn't find myself overly attached to any of the characters. Narozny does a good job showing how they are all flawed, but didn't really do any work to help me get attached to anyone in particular.

For me, this was just an ok book - It was a fairly quick read with an average amount of suspense. I don't have anything negative to say about it, but it also wasn't a book that will stick with me for years to come. I would give it 3/5 stars

I couldn’t get interested in this book!! I thought I was going to like it but because it’s a genre I usually read but this one just wasn’t for me

Not by Blood by Chris Narozny. This book was GOOD GOOD. For any Freida McFadden fans, this book will give you whiplash from reading it, just like hers! I had absolutely no idea how it was going to end but definitely NOT like it actually did. This book has such a good ending! Perfect to get anyone out of a book slump, because you won't want to put it down.

Tina gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night, which has happened many times in the past. However this time, it’s different. When Tina gets the the drug den to help her brother, he is no where to be found. What she did find is the dead body of a private detective, who has been shot ….and his gun is missing.

Is this connected to her brother’s disappearance? She is getting ready to call 911 and she gets a text from an unknown number that says, “shh.” Something sinister is happening and she is desperate to find her brother and find out what happened. Oh, by the way, her husband has also been the victim of a hit and run and is in ICU.

How is this connected? Is it connected at all? Enjoy the twists and turns. It will leave your head spinning. The ending was very satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

NOT BY BLOOD is a quick thriller with a good, well plotted twist at the end, but it was a struggle for me to read through the middle to get there.

The book is driven by action but I didn’t feel any connection to the characters, and that would have helped, I think. Tina, the main character who is committed to saving her brother, doesn’t act the way I think a mother would, and that got under my skin. However, the story focuses on the love between siblings, and the devotion of people who have survived terrible tragedies together.

Perhaps a dual point of view would have helped me get into this story a bit more.

Overall, this book was perfectly readable and the plot was interesting. It will appeal to those who enjoy quick reads and morally gray characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Crooked Lane Books for an ARC of NOT BY BLOOD and the opportunity to give my honest opinion.

Not By Blood is Chris Narozny's debut psychological thriller and believe it when I say this is a quick and arresting novel with an incredibly fast pace. It is only 258 pages (just over 7.5 hours on audio), and it flies by. I finished it in one day because I couldn't put it down, and I had to know where Bill was and what Tina was going to uncover in her search for him. There are many elements to this story, which means it is never boring, and it has been a minute since I read something so fast-paced and punchy. I really liked Tina’s character and it was nice to have someone so quick witted and smart as the MC. As she pieces together what happened and what is still going on, I was just trying to keep up and I didn’t have it figured out until she did. I loved the twists, and the climax of the novel was what I considered to be the perfect ending.

Jennifer Jill Araya is the narrator for the audiobook, and I’m glad I used a credit because I could definitely see myself listening to this again at some point. Araya was a great narrator, and I thought she was perfect as Tina, so I would recommend it for sure. Not By Blood could potentially be predictable for some readers, but if you enjoy crime thrillers and unputdownable reads you should easily find it enjoyable. I thought it was well crafted, and though Tina’s son kind of takes a backseat to the overall story, I feel like I understand why Narozny did it. Siblings and murder are at the heart of the book, so I recommend just sitting back and enjoying the ride!

Family secrets and past trauma are at the center of this book. Two people came from an incredibly dysfunctional family and their adult experiences could not have more different. This book was so involved. I could not help but feel for Tina. She had so much trauma that she had not dealt with from her childhood that she had a difficult time knowing how to set boundaries or recognize red flags. This author conveys the message of how important it is to get help for families in crisis.

This book, oh my gosh! It had sooooo much crazy potential! It just didn’t really live up to it for me, it was a little underwhelming

With her brother missing and her family in upheaval, we follow Tina Evans as she tries to discover who is behind the strange disappearances and accidents that have turned her family and her world on its head.

The overall plot and beginning of this book was very compelling. With an air of mystery and an underlying nefarious and unnamed threat, we follow Tina as she tries to discover who has her family in their crosshairs. As the story progressed I was very intrigued and compelled to find out what was going on.

The aspect of this story that was unsuccessful for my total enjoyment was the first person limited point of view. This type of perspective definitely added to the suspense of the story, but it limited the scope and complex dynamic of the broad resolution, which included other character(s) and their motivations.

Overall, I thought this was a well thought out and intriguing story. The execution (i.e.; the point of view), may have left me desiring to be in the heads of other characters and get their insight and perspective, but I thought this was a successful debut thriller novel.

If you are intrigued by the synopsis and enjoy domestic thrillers with a limited perspective and multiple threads of possible suspects, I would recommend checking out this debut author.

3.5✨’s

I read and reviewed a DRC of this book thanks to Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. All honest opinions are my own.

Happy Pub Day !!! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

#NotByBlood is my first time reading this author & I enjoyed it . I love a book where u have no idea where it's going.
I love how the ending didn't seem rushed or ridiculous & tied everything up nicely .

Thank u #Netgalley 🖤

Chris Narozny's riveting, twisty solo debut thriller of trauma, family secrets, addiction, violence, and memory, NOT BY BLOOD, features a woman who goes to extraordinary lengths to save her family.

Tina (Teen) Evans, EMT nurse (married to Tom), and son Aiden (age 6) knew something was very wrong with Bill Morgan (Billy), her brother. There were only two things her brother couldn't do without. Two things he needed to make it through the day: heroin and a little black book. He knew how to get at a moment's notice; the second: he never let out of sight.

Tina and her biological brother faced massive trauma in their childhood. Their father was convicted of murdering their mother, and Tina was sent to live with a foster family and Bill in a group home.

When Tina receives a call from her brother in the middle of the night, which is not unusual since she has been receiving Bill's calls for the last twenty years since the day their father killed their mother.

However, Bill is not there when she arrives at the Brooklyn apartment. Instead, there is the dead body of a private detective, Jake Bickert —hidden in the junk behind the apartment, shot to death, and his gun is missing.

When she is about to dial 911, she receives a vibrating text message from a private number. "Shhhhhh."

Bill left his behind his sketchpad. Was this a message from him? Her husband accused her of always choosing her brother over her own family. They had security, and he was tired of her putting her junkie brother over them.

Does her missing brother have a connection to the death of the detective? Why was her son left at home alone, and where was Tom? He would never leave their son alone at home. Why was Tom calling this private detective?

Tom is a philanthropist with a Harvard pedigree, was heir to a real estate fortune, and was an architect who designed and funded the construction of schools, hospitals, and community centers.

Then she discovers her husband is missing and has been hit by a car in an accident. (was it an accident)? What do the detective, her brother, and her husband have in common, and how is this linked? Could it be her father pulling strings from prison?

However, things are not as they appear, and the author keeps you guessing until the end with this action-packed suspense thriller with a jaw-dropping twist! A riveting tale of sibling loyalty and deadly family secrets.

A well-written chilling family mystery! I look forward to reading more from his talented author!

Thanks to #CrookedLaneBooks and #NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: July 18, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
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