Having read the first book by the author last year, I was eager to read this novel. It didn't disappoint- it lead me through a suspense filled story. It was quick paced, engaging and thrilling. I really enjoyed it and felt that the author is really giving readers a must read story.

Eve Jackson believes wholeheartedly in clean water for everyone. But her activist past in her adopted home town made her the girl who cost their football hero his scholarship. But after a decade away, surely there will be a slightly warmer welcome waiting her?

But when visiting her sick adoptive mother, Eve finds out a young baby has been poisoned and once again she find herself at odds with the townsfolk as she begins to investigate.

Cole Sutton has his own problems. He has taken over the running of the family ranch but he has malformed calves and he is about to fault on a loan taken out by his late father. But when hurricane Eve sneaks about the ranch, initially believing that the poison must be coming from his farm, the years roll back to when Eve was involved in the "calf caper" but now he may just get the girl, not just an injured arm!

I hadn't read the first book in the series and I was in no way hindered by that. I slipped neatly into the narrative and understood where the characters belonged. The twisty plot was good cos no sooner than I thought I knew who the bad guy was, I changed my mind when a new bit of evidence came to light! I love having to wait to the end of a book for the solution rather than figuring out in 2 mins flat.

Eve puts up with a lot in this book, least of all her towns reaction to her mixed race appearance and her environmentalist escapades. Cole was the golden boy who never quite managed to attain the greatness they wanted for him, another nail in the coffin of Eve's popularity.

I loves Eve's family of the heart and I cannot wait to see what is going on with her mysterious sister, Cat!

Thoughts:

HIDDEN THREAT by Connie Mann steeps us in danger as we come home to Safe Harbor. Eve Jackson’s life in DC is getting complicated. A mess lingers from a government official and doesn’t seem to be ending soon. The visit home is just as knotty. Eve must face something she’s been running from as her adoptive mother battles cancer.

Mama Rosa endures but not easily, and she requests Eve’s clean-water background for a sick baby. Poison is the culprit. The child’s mother is under suspicion. In this small town, everyone does know everyone’s business, and they even know some characters can be as shady as the live Oak trees on a sunny day, with ghostly shadows moving about. However, this young mother is not guilty, and it is up to Evie to help prove it. Eve Jackson’s crusader ways were both problematic and resented as she went through her teen years. Many people and businesses have not forgiven or forgotten these things, but with blue baby syndrome hiding out here, Evie is ready to stir up the past to save a future.

Cole Sutton had to blink twice to see the woman before him, his painful memory made a comeback but other memories surfaced as well. With the financial situation here at Sutton Ranch, the last thing he needs is Evie to be here for more than a home visit. It was then that he realized how few those home visits had become.

Maybe he was not the only one in town remembering her outlandish, foolhardy environmental ways back in high school.

With one look at his deformed calves, she would call the DC sharks to shut him down. However, he wished that she’d call a team of vets to help him understand why this is happening. As we fall in love with Cole, we will discover that he is losing more than money. Cole’s heart splinters with the birth of each calf.

Her questions are causing more problems, as the rumor mill can be just as deadly to the ranch as a defaulted bank loan.

Determined to keep her focus off of his land, Cole answers her questions and goes out of his way in showing that he is doing things right. He’s not trying to cut corners, but danger starts to lurk around her, causing him to need to keep her close.

Her need for safety and his desire to keep her safe causes Eve to learn more than he wants, but Cole is beginning to realize he needs her help. A danger is close to home on Sutton ranch.

Could illness, deformed calves, and sabotage be connected? How far is someone willing to go in this game of seeking to destroy?

***This opinion is my own.***

Preview:

Inside HIDDEN THREAT by Connie Mann, the unexpected happens as coming home to Safe Harbor, Florida means facing old scars, painful remembrances, and people with long memories of her past as Eve Jackson’s nightmare is coming to life.

In DC, Eve is used to environmental catastrophes, water safety issues, and becoming ensnared in traps. However, Safe Harbor is supposed to be the exact opposite of that part of her life, until it isn’t.

Her adoptive mother’s cancer treatments are not going well, but Mama Rosa wants Eve to look into a child’s illness. She instructs Eve to worry not about her. With a lump in her throat, she is brought back to her past, when her birth mother issued a similar directive, but it became an end of life scenario. Torn between paths, Evie decides she is going to do both. She can help Mama Rosa despite her protestations and look into the child’s illness. After all, these patients are in the same hospital.

How could a major environmental concern lurk in her hometown?

Cole Sutton faces his own trials, as things aren’t going right. His equipment is consistently out of order, and the mysterious loan taken by his father is coming due. Cole does not need more rumors, sales talk, or environmental issues. Except an environmental problem is here at Sutton ranch, and Cole cannot find the source. It’s not just when Eve Jackson shows up. In truth, he needs the expertise with the way that she makes her living. His calves are suffering deformity. Even the vet doesn’t know why.

Is someone close to the ranch inviting dangers on his property? He is suffering losses, Cole’s animals are in jeopardy, and violence is brewing inside this little town. Whom can he trust?

Book Review: Hidden Threat by Connie Mann

Eve Jackson is in trouble at work—she’s accused a Congressman of illegally dumping chemicals, and her boss at Bradford Environmental isn’t pleased. And her foster mother is ill, so she returns home to Safe Harbor, Florida. Once home, she’s immediately pulled into an investigation into an ill baby. It could be a heart defect, but it could also be nitrate poisoning from the water. Yes, there are echoes of Erin Brockovich, which appealed to me.

Eve is passionate about her cause because her mother died as a result of drinking contaminated water. This passion is good—but it’s apparent early on that she’s a character with more than a few rough edges. If there is a diplomatic way to say something, Eve says the opposite. She’s a loose cannon who appears happy to trespass if it means getting the evidence she wants.

This meant much of the story conflict was caused by Eve, and made her a hard character to like, or even empathise with. I prefer stories where the lead character triumphs over external adversity rather than being the creator of said adversity. I know she had a rough upbringing, but surely someone told her you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?

The result was the fast pace of the suspense plot was interrupted by too many eye-rolling moments, like Eve getting upset when people object to her abrasive demands, or Eve getting upset after her designer sandals set stuck in the mud on a visit to a farm. It also affected my enjoyment of the romance part of the plot. I didn’t see any mutual attraction between Eve and Cole, although that could have been more that I couldn’t see what Cole saw in her.

The result was a romantic suspense novel that took me far too long to read, because it was too easy to put down. The plot had real potential and the final reveal of the evildoer was well done. But I wasn’t convinced by the characters.

I didn’t know Hidden Threat was part of a series when I asked to review it. It soon became obvious from some of the hints of backstory. This didn’t affect the story except in meaning there were a lot of minor characters (which I guess were major characters in the previous book). It’s possible that I might have had warmer feelings for Eve—and therefore Hidden Threat in general--if I had read the earlier book first.

Thanks to Waterfall Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an opportunity to read and give an honest review.
This book will keep your attention, the pages turning and you guessing whodunit to the end.
Eve Jackson is an environmentalist living in the DC area. She began living with a foster family in Safe Harbor, FL as a teenager when her mother died of contaminated water while they were living in Chicago. Eve blames herself for her mother's death and has devoted her life to making sure that everyone has access to clean water. She rushes back to Safe Harbor after getting a call from her sister that their foster mother, Mama Rosa, was admitted to the hospital because of dehydration. She gets tangled up with environmental issues in Safe Harbor when Mama Rosa asks her to investigate the case of a baby getting sick of what could have been a water issue.
Cole Sutton, local football player in high school, was thrown off his family's ranch by his father at the end of high school because of a disagreement. He has since been in the military and then living on a ranch in Montana when his mom asked him to come home and run the family ranch after the death of his father. He and Eve run into again when her investigation leads her to the Sutton ranch and other local ranches. Eve and Cole did not depart on the best of terms back in high school when her passions for the environment caused problems on the ranch.
Things keep happening on the Sutton ranch that threaten the future of keeping the ranch afloat financially--one thing after another. Eve doesn't exactly get a warm welcome back to town and someone is trying get her to quit her investigation. Expect lots of suspense, action, family dynamics and romance in this book. Ms. Mann does a great job developing the characters and brings the story to life with her scene descriptions and dialogue.
I highly recommend this book.

I had no idea Hidden Threat was book 2 in a series because the author is able to bring readers up to date so quickly you have no idea it was an update.
Connie Mann writes a well spaced story about one woman willingness to stand up against the odds to do what it right. Readers will be able to see the research the author put into Hidden Threat but her love for the story.
From first to last page readers will be emotional invested in this story. Eve will put at the heart strings as she fights to give those hopeless hope. Readers learn family isn't always biological but is chosen. You will cry, cheer and fall in love with Eve in Hidden Threat by Connie Mann

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance Copy exchange for my honest thoughts

Another of the lost foster kids the Martinellis took in is still trying to find her way. Eve Jackson, do-gooder and trouble maker rolled into one, has returned home to help Mama Rosa recover from cancer. Will the town be able to recover from her overzealous attempts to protect the environment and one special baby, or will all be lost, including a couple of lonesome hearts?

Cole Sutton struck me as a thornbird. Eve has hurt him badly in the past. She is likely to do so again, yet Cole cannot seem to stay away. Can he and Eve find peace while Cole is also defending his ranch against an unknown foe?

I honestly did not like Eve at first. She is impulsive, making decisions for others based on her world views alone, careening over others' needs and plans.

Typically, if I have this much dislike for a heroine at the start of a book, I just do not care for the novel. Connie Mann does the near impossible for me- takes a despised heroine and weaves her prosaic magic until I  am a  big fan of both Cole and his semi-nemesis, Eve.

I received this book from the author and NetGalley. I am voluntarily leaving an unbiased review,for which opinions I am solely responsible.

When a baby gets very sick from suspected poisoned water, clean water activist Eve Jackson vows to do everything in her power to figure out the cause and make the guilty party pay. When three deformed calves are born on Cole Sutton's floundering ranch, he's desperate to find the cause and save the ranch. Eve and Cole's worlds collide when her investigation leads her straight to the Sutton Ranch.

Hidden Threat is the first Connie Mann book I've read and I devoured it as fast as I could. Though Tangled Lies is the first book in this series and some things that happened during it were discussed, I was never lost. It intrigued me enough to want to go read it, too!

I felt really bad for the way Eve was treated by a lot of the people in Safe Harbor. She's met with hostility, derision, and suspicion because of some mistakes she made as a teenager and her “environmental crusades”. She's looked at as “one of those tree huggers just looking for a cause”. I really admired her passion to her causes and standing up for what she believes in. She's a a strong woman and has a real determination to make the world a better place. Cole's a very admirable and stand up guy. He's the kind of trustworthy and steady leading man that I love to read about. They had great chemistry and I was rooting for them even though there's a bit of bad history and opposing viewpoints between them.



From the opening chapter, I was hooked. The real world faded away and I was sucked into the town of Safe Harbor. Mann does a great job at conveying the emotions of the characters in a way that I felt the exact same emotions, as well; disgust, infuriating anger, anxiety, excitement, terror, joy, anticipation... the list could go on and on. It was an intriguing thrill ride that consistently ramped up the suspense the further along into the book I read. It kept me guessing, too. There were quite a few suspects and I had no idea who the actual culprit was until the reveal. I would definitely, and highly, recommend Hidden Threat to any lover of suspense!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and comments are my own honest opinion.

I absolutely loved Hidden Threat. This book is very well written with a super good plot and setting I just recently discovered this author and I love her writing style. I will definitely be reading more of her work. I highly recommend this great suspense/romance.

Once again, Ms Mann takes us back to Safe Harbor . This time the story is about another of the foster girls the Martinellis took under their wings. This family is a complicated one, but one that sticks together no matter what.
Eve Jackson , now working to protect the environment goes home when her foster mother returns to the hospital due to a relapse from her illness. Mama Rosa asks her investigate the illness of a baby in their town. Our other main character is Cole Sutton , a rancher that is back in town to help his mother with the family ranch. These two have a history and reconnect when Eva suspects his ranch is causing the baby's illness.
It's an engaging story filled with intrigue, whodunit, family dynamics, revenge, environmental issues and a budding romance. It is also a story that highlights the fact that what we experience in our childhood can affect us so much as an adult that at times it inhibits us from being a happy , fulfilled individual.
Another worthwhile story by a very talented author.
I was gifted this book by Netgalley. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

I love Connie Mann's books. She writes very well and I always enjoy every moment. She does suspense well.