First, thanks to Midnight Ink, Netgalley and the Aimee Hix for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Willa Pennington is an ex-cop who is now training to be an Private Investigator under her father’s supervision. Willa is asked to help out a family friend’s granddaughter who has been living with her abusive boyfriend. Willa arrives at the house to find the boyfriend dead and the granddaughter missing. Being an ex-cop, Willa starts investigating the death on her own and finds herself messed up with ATF operation, being run by an childhood friend named Seth.
This is Ms. Hix’s debut novel, and after reading it, it appears this will be a great series to read. I loved Willa Pennington, she is a strong female character. The novel was well put together with humour and suspense, one moment you couldn’t wait to get to the next scene to see what happens, and the next moment you are laughing-out-loud.

I would recommend this novel to all my suspense/thriller friends and I can’t wait to read the next Willa Pennington series.

What a great female character! I love the character interactions and family-centric theme in this action/mystery. Highly recommend.

Not a bad debut book from this author but to be honest I didn't find this book to be very appealing as I think the genre seemed to be more a romantic whodunnit which just isn't my taste in books. For a whodunnit, the main character Willa seems to spend a lot of time thinking about the male characters in the book and not necessarily about their guilt!

How exciting to get to read a book before it's even out! So happy to have received a copy on netgalley. This was for sure an edge of your seat book!

What Doesn't Kill You is a terrific debut novel. Aimee Hix has written a mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat and up way past my bedtime so that I could finish it in one sitting.
Willa Pennington is an ex-cop who thought being a PI would keep her out of the line of fire and away from dead bodies. Boy, was she wrong! After agreeing to do a favor for her elderly next door neighbors, Willa discovers a dead body and is set on a course that is twisty and dangerous. Making things even more confusing, Seth, her deceased best friend's older brother, is back in her life and she doesn't know if she can trust him or if he is trying to kill her. Willa is in a race against time to solve the murder.
What Doesn't Kill You is a fast-paced rollercoaster ride. I couldn't put it down! Aimee Hix is definitely an author to follow.

I wish I could have given this book more than 5 stars. The Willa Pennington P.I. series by Aimee Nix will be amazing if this debut novel is any indication. As an ex cop Willa stumbles upon a dead body and decides to use her P.I. and cop skills to solve the murder and not end up dead herself. Bringing her in contact with someone from her past; Seth.
The chemistry between Willa and Seth was sexy, funny, touching, and awesome. The past relationship between them seemed like something they were both fighting, but were they fighting hard enough? or did they decide to try and act like past was past and never happened? I thought Aimee did a great job touching on serious and emotional issues that effected both Seth and Willa, showing with her words how they struggled and were fighting to overcome.Thank you NetGgalley and Aimee Hix for allowing to read and review this book.

I was impressed with this author's first book. She has a way with intermixing suspense with humor that has you on the edge of your seat while also hanging on to it from laughing.

What Doesn't Kill You kicks off a new series about a former police officer who quits to join her father's PI business. She hasn't gotten her license yet but when her next door neighbors ask her to help their granddaughter move out of an abusive situation she figures what's the harm. Well things take a big turn when she arrives to find said abusive boyfriend dead.

Willa is not one to just stand on the sidelines and let the police handle the situation. With her police training and tough as nails personality she is a force to be reckoned with.

While she is meddling where she shouldn't, she is also having to deal with the brother of her dead best friend who is back in town with whom she has a long history with and its looking like he might not be the good guy he once was.

There is so much going on through out this book – more than what I've noted in the review – that your never bored. I'm looking forward to more in this series.

Lots of action, suspense and a touch of romance.

Willa Pennington, 27, gave up her job on the police force and is an apprenticing PI under her father.

Violet Horowitz needs help moving out of a bad relationship and her grandparents ask their neighbour, Willa, to help. Willa finds Violet's boyfriend Joe Reagan murdered and no Violet anywhere.

Willa is encouraged by Det. Jan Boyd to help on the case at the same time that Willa's childhood BFF Seth Anderson appears to renew old acquaintanceships.

Who is Seth now? How does Willa really feel towards Seth? Can Willa use her 'cop skills' to protect her brother Ben, solve a murder. and keep herself alive when a Neo-Nazi has her in his sights because of her mixed race status?

This may be Aimee Hix's first novel but it reads like a well established author's work. Looking forward to more Willa Pennington novels.

Aimee Hix is a new author to watch out!
I really enjoyed the first book of the Willa Pennington series and` ll looking forward for the next books.

At the beginning I had a bit to struggle with the frist-person narrative, because it`s not my favoured narrative form when I´m reading a book. But it fits the book.

What doesn`t kill you is a fast pacing story about Willa beeing ask to do her neighbours a favour by helping their granddaughter moving out from her abusive boyfriend. What seems first a smal favour changed suddenly to murder and a missing granddaughter.
Beeing an ex-cop Willa started snooping around on her own and soon she`s finds herself knee-deep in a ATF operation with a murderer on her heels.
Beeing sometimes to headstrong than it`s good for her, Willa meets in Seth - an old childhood friend and ATF agent - the considerate and balanced counterpart she needs. Furthermore working together helps both to sort out their long suppressed feelings for each other.

I loved how Willow and Seth interacted with each other and now I`m hoping that we`ll get more of these two - and their developing relationship - in the following books.

While still reeling from the death of her best friend, aspiring private investigator Willa Pennington agrees to help the granddaughter of a neighbor move away from an abusive boyfriend. But when she gets to the house, she finds the boyfriend dead and the girl missing.

After calling the police, she decides to investigate herself, even though she is technically unlicensed. She has been apprenticing under of her private detective father, who is currently on vacation. Her attempts to solve the murder lead her to reconnect with her dead best friend's brother, with whom she develops complicated relationship.

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately it read more like an unpolished rough draft of Veronica Mars fan fiction rather than a finished novel. The way the police allow her to traipse through the crime scene unaccompanied was completely implausible. The protagonist as reckless damsel in distress trope got old quickly and she just comes off as immature and whiny. There are countless inexplicable leaps of logic and connections that appear randomly. Most of the novel is overly neurotic internalizations rather than action or dialogue with other characters.

The conclusion for the story was good and almost made up for the flaws of the rest of the novel. But then a new character (and potential threat) appeared near the end and then inexplicably disappeared. This ruined what could have been a solid ending.

To make matters worse, the ARC that I read was rife with countless typos and paragraph formatting so bad it was hard to tell who was speaking sometimes. I hope the publisher fixes these before it goes to print.

I think this author shows a lot of potential. It's just not fully realized in this novel.

Willa has left the police force and is working under her father's guidance to learn the PI business.
While her parents are out of the country on a long overdue vacation Willa discovers a dead body. After she reports the body to the police a long chain of events take place that jeopardize Willa's life and that of her younger brother.
In swoops her best friend's (who was killed in overseas) brother who she has not seen in a while because he reminds her of his lost brother. One thing leads to another and the two end up working on this case together until they crack it wide open.

I enjoy reading books by new authors.
Will is an apprentice PI looking after her younger ( but more responsible) brother. The neighbours ask her to help their grand daughter. From there the bodies start piling up.
An admirable start for a first time author. This is the first in a series. I would be interested in seeing the development of this fresh new character.

Willa Pennington is an ex-cop, now in training to follow her father as a Private Investigator. She is asked to help a family friend's daughter. The daughter wants to leave the house she's been sharing with her abusive boyfriend ... and wants someone with her while she moves.

When Willa arrives at the house, the girl is nowhere to be found. However, the boyfriend is there ..and he's dead.

Doing her duty, she calls the police and reports. From there, what should have happened was for Willa to go about her own business. But Willa is not wired that way. She has a bad habit of sticking her nose in where it's not needed .. or wanted.

But then, this case becomes personal for her. Seth is an old flame, the older brother of her best friend who was killed overseas. The attraction has always been there, but there's only been a single one-night stand ...and that was years ago.

Seth appears out of nowhere and has an extremely high interest in the death of the man. While Willa is still attracted ... she doesn't trust easily. And when someone attempts to kill her .. twice .. she's wondering just who she can or cannot trust.

This is the author's debut novel and the beginning of what looks to be a terrific series. Willa is a wonderful character. She's young, she's feisty, headstrong & stubborn, and is still trying to come to terms with the loss of her best friend of many years. She has a younger brother that she adores and would protect with her life. And then there's Seth ... the man she's been attracted to forever. But he has secrets ... secrets that he's not sharing with Willa.

The book is suspenseful. There's a lot of action, some of it quite brutal. The author has done a fine job balancing Willa's professional life with her personal life. I look forward to seeing more of this author ... and Willa Pennington.

Many thanks to the author / Midnight Ink / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.