I have no idea where to start with this. This is not the typical Lisa Renee Jones book and I loved it. Lilah Love has a secret. This secret could end her career as a profiler for the FBI. Being sent back to New York from Los Angeles to find a connection to similar murder scenes.
Lilah, is smart and cautious about profiling this case. She knows it’s related to her secret from her past. She left New York to get away from it. She also has connection with Kane Mendez, whose family is Know in the Mexican drug trade. This connection complicates her trying to keep her secret buried in the past. Her brother is also chief of the East Hamptons police department and her father is running for mayor of New York City. Knowing what she has to do, she keeps her wits about her while stressing over not linking her past to the present.
I can’t wait to read the conclusion in Murder Girl. I received Murder Notes as an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. I recommend The Lilah Love Series if you like suspenseful stories .

3 1/2 stars
The story feels like there is more to it but somewhere it falls flat. It could be because she mention Cujo her shotgun in almost every single chapter or the endless monologue Lisa Renee Jones uses though out the story. The more Lisa Renee Jones uses the inner working of the lead characters mind the slower the story becomes until it stops the flow of the story and leaves readers trying to decide if they should finish the book or more on to something with a little more bite. Lilah is suppose to be a expert profiler but seems lost to many times and readers will lose hope in Lilah.

The story has lots of promise but falls flat many times.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Montlake Romance for the advance copy

One of the best reads for when you need a little shake-up in your reading.
Nothing gets me going like a good old-fashioned mystery. Give me a cop on a mission and I am your girl. Murder Notes is smart, thought-provoking, and thrilling. All the things I want in a book.

Do yourself a favor and GET THIS BOOK!

4 1/2 Star Review.....

Murder Notes is the first book in Lisa Renee Jones brand new series, LILAH LOVE. And while I’m not usually a fan of serialized series, and especially the cliffhangers at the end of each book, I must admit this one reeled me in, hook, line and sinker!

A fabulous mix of romance and murder, suspense, Murder Notes has a steady flowing storyline, with interesting and engaging characters and a wealth of mystery and intrigue too. There’s simply nothing not to like about Lilah Love’s character and her support cast are absolutely brilliant.

I can’t wait for the next gripping instalment in this heart-stopping series.

Really enjoyable read defiantly got the Criminal Minds feel to it! This books kept me guessing with its twists and turns! Thankyou to Netgalley and Lisa Renée Jones for the arc!

It was a good book that had a few twist and turns . I recommend it for those who like mysteries. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book. The only thing that I hated was that it ended with a cliffhanger .

I have loved every book that I have read by this author, but this is my favorite so far. I loved the mystery and intrigue, mixed with family secrets and past and present lovers all vying for Lilah's attention and she just wants to do her job and find a killer. I have so many questions and I know that I'll have more before I get the answers I need and I am OK with that. Can't wait to read book 2. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book provided through Netgalley.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but will not be the last! Murder Notes is a fantastic story of FBI Agent Lilah Love and the first in what I hope is a series! I liked how the author gave you teases of her back story throughout the book but doesn't paint the whole picture until needed. This story is ripe with suspense and I can't wait to find out who done it! Her relationship with Kane is phenomenal and their chemistry is off the charts! What has happened to Lilah has made her the person that she is and she doesn't apologize for being a strong independent woman that also has a vulnerability that she keeps very close to her chest. I hope to find out more about her family in the next book in this series! Well done Ms. Jones! You have garnered another fan with this book!

FBI profiler Lilah Love is called to a scene at Santa Monica Pier where a dead body has been found. The scene is similar to others around the country and a tattoo on the dead mans body is the same as that on Lilah attacker many years ago in The Hamptons where she grew up. On this information Lilah is sent home to investigate when another body turns up. As she works the case those closest to her come under the microscope.. could it be that her family are involved?

I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. Thanks to Montlake Romance and NetGalley for a copy of this book to read in exchange for my honest opinions

Lilah is one of the most complex and traumatized characters I have read in a while. She has one secret she shares with Kane Mendez and it is so damaging they would both end up in jail.

She is the top profiler for the FBI assigned to catch a serial killer who has a particular method of killing. Little did she know when she was given this assignment she would end up back in New York after years of avoiding anything to do with her family and her ex Kane. This killer is sending her messages and everything she holds dearly is in danger.

I was caught up in this story from the first chapter. I love complex characters who are strong enough to understand their dark psyche and yet continue to function while hiding their secrets. I can hardly wait to read the next installment of this story. Lilah has a puzzle to put together if she is to catch her killer... her life is in danger as well as Kane's and perhaps even her family. What a ride!

I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I thank the author for sharing a copy with me.

Lilah Love is a twenty-eight year-old FBI profiler working on a murder investigation in California when she’s entrusted by her boss to travel to New York to draw parallels to a case being investigated there. Upon her arrival, she receives word that another body has been found and she makes a beeline to the crime scene. At first it’s unclear if and how the cases are related but it’s up to Lilah to connect the dots. New York is her old stomping ground and a place where she left one big secret buried two years ago. Within hours of her arrival she receives the first of several notes from an unidentified stalker. Lila analyzes the first murder note for clues about the sender but the subsequent notes are not handled with care or closely examined.

Loved
First time reading this author’s work and I loved Lilah’s humor! The snack size bites of catty female foolery also made me smirk a lot.

Issues
This was not a spine-chilling or highly thrilling read. Lilah spent endless pages trying to figure out who she could trust and this story was devoid of action, despite all fifteen of the references to Lilah’s shotgun, Cujo. Basically, Lilah spent the entire story chasing her tail, creating more unanswered questions, and not quite having a sense of direction. As a result, my interest in the story began declining around the 59% mark when Lila’s thoughts became repetitive and the story seemed to fizzle. Lilah’s every thought was fed to the reader so any surprises on her part was nonexistent. She wasn’t the wild card she was supposed to be around all of the other characters because there was more telling than showing of her expertise. Essentially, she proclaimed to the reader that she was an expert profiler and the other characters regurgitated that back to her, but demonstration was weak. Bits of Lilah’s thoughts?

I was Lilah Love then, but now, damn it, I am Murder Girl. I’m her because dead bodies have a way of talking to me, and if they didn’t, there would be more dead bodies, more murders I didn’t stop. So yes. I’m Murder-f*cking-Girl. I can hunt a killer and catch them. I can find a way out of this.

Not to mention how joke-worthy Lilah’s full name is...

Other issues?
The one steamy scene was so vague that I had to reread it several times to make sense of it. All of that sexual tension, self-denial, and lust built up to a peek-a-boo intimacy scene that didn’t seem necessary to include.

Caught in the crosshairs of Lilah’s profiling gig is her ex-lover, Kane Mendez. All of the references to Kane being “the devil” and “Satan” lacked that gripping intensity and the other secondary characters were mostly superficial. I wanted to love-to-hate Kane, but the character depth wasn’t enough for me all around. There was also a half-hearted attempt to create a strong romantic push-and-pull between Lilah and Detective Rich, but I didn’t understand why he pursued her so strongly. The connection between the two felt forced in order to create some more drama-rich tension.

◈ The gist of this story?

No one is shooting straight with me. Everyone is talking in circles.
-Lilah

It felt like nothing much happened in this story and I grew bored over time. This book has a light tone and is perfect for a reader who won’t be frustrated by the lack of resolution behind the mysterious deaths for which the entire plot is centered around. I was expecting more investigative details and didn’t realize this story wasn’t a stand-alone book until the end. I guess that explains all of the six feet tall and good-looking men sprinkled throughout the text...

I love suspense, and I haven’t read it a lot in the past few years so I was excited when the opportunity to review Murder Notes by Lisa Renee Jones came up. I was in dire need of a change of pace, especially because the book I read before this took me 3 weeks to finish! PLUS, she was scheduled to come to Wicked Book Weekend, so I could kill 2 birds with one stone. (What a horrible expression! Why would I kill any birds?)

“Death simply becomes me. In fact, some might say I’m so fucked up that I do death better than I do life. And while death is attracted to me, my own is not appealing.”

Lilah Love is an FBI profiler, one of the best in the country, earning her the nickname of “Murder Girl”. Originally from a wealthy family in the Hamptons, she has been gone for two years with secrets, demons and regrets chasing her. She is investigating some related cases that are either an assassin or a serial killer, and one of her clues leads her back to her hometown, where she arrives just in time for another murder.

“This is where you belong, Lilah Love. You’ve been gone too long.”

I got into the story at first, but I never really liked Lilah that much, which held me back from loving the story the way I wanted to. I just wasn’t that invested. She left her lover, Kane Mendez, son of the crime lord, behind in the Hamptons when she left, but their feelings are still there, simmering at the surface. Though this wasn’t a romance book, the push and pull between Lilah and Kane was my favorite part.

“He is the devil, but then, I am no angel. He made sure of that. He touched my life forever, and I can never undo the way he changed me. And in some of those nightmares he talks about, I imagine what I would become if I ever tasted his version of temptation again. They were—are—the bloodiest of them all.”

The mystery of what happened to make Lilah leave is carried almost throughout the whole book, but luckily we do find out in this book, if we didn’t I would have been so mad!

We are introduced to a LOT of characters, and there is a lot to keep straight in this story. So much so that I started to lose interest. Not a lot actually HAPPENED. There was more internal thoughts and her investigation than anything else and knowing that nothing would be resolved until the next book in July made me really lose interest a bit towards the end, taking 10 days to read this book (I read my next book in a day, so it wasn’t my mood).

The story itself is very complex. It seems this killer is killing people because of Lilah and secrets she keeps. Despite my not loving the heroine, I still am dying to know how this will end, but I am not sure I will remember enough to care in July.

Likes:
•A very complex, detailed story.
•You can see her writing talent in every word.
•The chemistry between her and Kane.
•It’s nice to read more of a mystery than a romance for a change.
Dislikes:
•I never fell for Lilah. She is a total alpha female. I liked her OK, but she was just a little too brash for me.
•Knowing that it ended in a cliffy made me not really care to rush to see how it ends.
•Waited a bit too long for the big reveal of the secret they harbor.

The Down & Dirty:
There is no doubt about it, Lisa Renee Jones is a great writer, on a different level than some of the books I have been reading. Lilah Love is a badass FBI profiler that just never fully grew on me, and I need to love the heroine to love the book. It’s an exciting, complex story that I am having trouble straightening out and figuring out what’s going on, but I think that’s intended. If the next book was coming out in a month, I’d grab it, but by July, when the next installment comes out, I’m not sure I will still care enough to pick up the next.

Rating 3.5 Stars, 2.5 Heat

DNF… for now, at least

The premise had such promise and was right up my alley-- FBI profilers are my literary crack-- but Lisa Renee Jones’s MURDER NOTES had two fatal flaws for me that resulted in a DNF-for-now: (1) the first-person narrative (a perhaps-irrational dislike, but I have a really hard time getting into it across the board) and, more importantly, (2) heroine FBI profiler Lilah Love was thoroughly unlikeable. If I’m ~40% of the way through a novel and I can’t be arsed to care about the protagonist(s) and/or uncover the big, bad secret they’re hiding, it’s time to move on. My TBR pile is too massive to keep plodding through things that don’t capture my full interest.

**ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Murder Notes #1

I'm an so confused this story keeps getting deeper and deeper it starts off we meet FBI agent Lilah Love who is a crime profiler on a case that she believes might be a serial killer, this case leads her to her hometown and right back into her ex Kane's waiting clutches. Kane is a wild card he's a son of a dead drug cartel leader and supposedly hasn't taken over his fathers business but that's still under question. Lilah is also the daughter and sister of the mayor and the cheif of her hometown. And this is just the beginning she feels there's, much more to this case then just a few murders, which she herself and Kane have a few skeletons and secrets they share that she feels may be connected in this case as well. This story keeps getting more and more twisted as new leads arise new bodies pile up and the plot just keeps getting thicker. And by the end of book one I'm confused and just pissed off lol...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2218923146

This is the first book I have read by Lisa. This book is a thriller/mystery. Lilah Love is an FBI profiler. The case she is currently working is going to take her on one hell of a ride. Some she is a serial killer but Lilah thinks its an assassin. Lilah’s past and present are about to collide. Her case takes her to her hometown. This case is tied to her some how and she must figure out how. Preferably before more people die. There are too many things that connect together to narrow it down. Lilah is forced to face the fact that her own family maybe involved somehow. She is being left little murder notes by someone. Maybe the same someone who is killing, maybe someone who knows about her secret. Lilah is forced to face all the reasons she left her hometown and the people. Will Lilah figure out who is after her. Will she find the person responsible for the murders in her case? I really liked this book. It was a bit slow at spots but that is as to be expected. The book is setting up the series. Lilah is forced to relive the night that changed her life over and over. Trying to figure out how it connects to what is currently happening around her. Lilah faces her ex, Kane. Who she doesn’t want to love or even like but you can’t control who you fall for. Kane and Lilah understand each other better than anyone else ever will. So many of the people Liliah once knew or are her family are connected to either her case or her secret. She isn’t sure who she can trust. She is also dealing with a current love interest who just doesn’t listen when Lilah says she is done with him. Lilah is also known as Murder Girl. I look forward to reading the next book in the series. I can’t wait to see where this story goes next.
I was given this book in return for an honest review.

This story captivated me. Lilah Love is an FBI agent that finds herself investigating murders on both coasts. There is only one problem her family and her ex is on the east coast which she left and never looked back and now they all are in the middle of her investigation. Lilah has a dry and no holds bar sense of humor. She will tell you like it is and does not care how you take it. Lilah is a very strong woman with her owe past. I loved this story.

Lisa Renee Jones opens a new stimulating world in the Lilah Love series. Intense intrigue, steamy encounters, and unanswered questions surround Murder Notes. Around every corner there is a new tidbit superbly delivered to entice you down another path. I love Lilah and her dark bits. Kane and Lilah's relationship add a heightened potency to a suspenseful journey. Just when you think you have all the answers, Jones floors you with an amazing cliffhanger. A terrific new mystery series. I can't wait for book two, Murder Girl.

Lilah Love ran away from her home in the Hamptons. Leaving behind a life of privilege and position after a blood soaked night on a dark beach. Kane, her hot as hell ex-boyfriend has taken over as head of his family. Problem is - it’s a crime syndicate with a very long reach.



Lilah Love sounds like a stripper name. Right?! Nope. As a matter of fact Lilah is an expert FBI Profiler with quite a successful record to her credit. Despite her protest, she is sent back home to solve a murder which may be related to a string of killings in her jurisdiction. The last thing Lilah wants to do is come back and face her ghost though it haunts her dreams every night. Or confront Kane, who let her leave but has never let her go. Or her Daddy, the mayor, who has lofty aspirations for higher office. Her brother who is dating Kane’s side piece Samantha. Nevermind her ex-best friend who is now the District Attorney.



Murder Notes is more suspense/mystery than it is hot sexy romance. If you’re looking for lots of sexy time, you won’t find it here. If you’re looking for an entertaining, funny, badass heroine - then jackpot! There were times when I was confused as to how Lilah connected points, I never lost interest. The twist, the turns, whose lying, who can I trust, you’re trying to scare me away but I’m STAYING til I catch you, no matter what you do - kept me invested. I drank in every single word until the end. Lisa Renee Jones’ Murder Notes is page turning good time. More please!

Where do I begin reviewing this book? From the very first page, Lisa Renee Jones reels you in with the story of Lilah Love and her trials, tribulations, and skeletons. At times the story moves along at a slower pace, but this just increases the anticipation of what is to come. I found myself wanting to skip to the end to speed up the process of discovering the answer to the twists and turns in the book. However, I did not and ultimately did not want to because I did not want the story to end.

Lisa Renee Jones does an excellent job of building anticipation and suspense. You will definitely not want to put this book down!