From my blog: Always With a Book:

As you know, I am a big fan of series, especially crime fiction series, so I love when I stumble upon a new series at it's onset! Don't get me wrong - there's nothing wrong with coming across a series mid-way through, and I have learned to not be as high-strung, if you will, when it comes to reading series in order - though I do find that character development is best when you start at the beginning! But, here we are, a brand new series and I think it's off to a rocking start!!!

I love when our main protagonist, here a female lead detective, has baggage! It makes for a much more relatable, realistic character, don't you think? And that's exactly what we have with Detective Gina Harte. She's got issues and she's got flaws, and yet she's one tough, strong female lead and I think I'm going to really enjoy getting to the heart of what makes her her. We get hints about it, but I think we have really only scratched the surface of it in this first book.

The case in this first book really kept me guessing as to who was behind it. I loved that I really ended up suspecting just about everyone involved. And I loved that Carla gives voice to the guilty party - I always find this so fascinating - creepy, but utterly fascinating. It really adds such an extra layer to the case, allowing us to be in that person's mind.

I am really looking forward to seeing where this series goes next. It certainly is off to a great start and is perfect for fans of fast-paced, twisted police procedurals. And I cannot wait to continue to get to know all the core characters that we have just started to get to know in this first installment. This is why I love and continue to read series...I love the continuity of characters!

The premise for this story is something that will play on your fears and shows you a woman caught up in a living nightmare. You will also see the investigation play out as we follow Detective Gina Harte who is determined to solve the case. Gina has her flaws but always tries to do her best as she has to juggle her family life with work. One of the things that I enjoyed was how well Carla Kovach developed her characters giving me an emotional connection to them that made this book so addictive for me.

The Next Girl has a disturbing and dark storyline but it isn't really graphic in it's descriptions it is left more to the reader to fill in the blanks, I guess in a way this can be even more sinister. For some of the story I found myself sat upright on the sofa just waiting to see everything play out. It didn't take me long to read this story and I think this was down to a overall balanced feel as I was shown both the police work involved but the more personal side to what happens when a person disappears along with those left behind. You also have a deranged abductor who made my skin crawl but also curious to see if I would find out his motives and to see if he would be caught. I'm delighted that this is the start of a new series and I look forward to seeing what Gina's next case will be!

A darkly addictive start to a new detective series!

Four stars from me!

With thanks to Noelle at Bookouture for my copy. This is my honest and unbiased opinion.

OMG! This book had me on the edge of my seat. The first chapter or so I was a little bit unsure of who was who as there was a lot going on all at once. But it all came together soon enough. And I was actually surprised when the killer was revealed. Lately I've been in a kind of "mystery/thriller slump" where I suss everything out before the big reveal. This is my first book by Carla Kovach and I am thrilled that The Next Girl is part of a new series. Thanks NetGalley! I am so grateful that I came across this title.

This is the first book in the series featuring Detective Inspector Gina Harte. I read the synopsis for this book and I was immediately intrigued and I couldn’t wait to dive in to the story. Boy oh boy am I glad I did as I absolutely blinking well LOVED it but more about that in a bit.
Detective Inspector Gina Harte is a complex character but she is someone I took to from the start. I just somehow knew that there was much more to her than you might first think there is. Gina is a dedicated police officer, who is in charge of a small unit investigating crimes against vulnerable people- adults and children. She knows just what it is like to be a vulnerable person so she strives to do as much as she can for them. Gina is the sort of person that I would on my side and I certainly wouldn’t like to go up against her. She is in charge of a good bunch of people, who work really well together but they also work well on an individual basis. Each have each others’ backs too which is what you need in a team such as theirs. In her personal life, things are a little less positive. You learn that Gina is a widow but at first you don’t know the circumstances in which her husband Terry died. However as the story continues little snippets start to emerge about his treatment of Gina and I am not surprised that Gina is not mourning his death. As harsh as it sounds good riddance to bad rubbish. However there is the complication that Gina’s daughter is still grieving the death of her father and she wants to organise a memorial service for him. Her daughter doesn’t know her father’s true character, as her father died when she was a baby. Gina hasn’t enlightened her daughter in order to protect her and to avoid damaging her daughter’s opinion of her (the daughter’s) father. Her daughter is resentful of Gina’s dedication to her work and feels that she and her daughter (Gina’s granddaughter) are being neglected, as plans are often cancelled at last minute. I can see why Gina is trying to protect her daughter but at the same time, I do think that she should have been upfront and honest with her daughter, when she felt her daughter was mature enough to be able to understand and cope with hearing the full story. Her daughter is going to react very badly when she realises that Gina has kept the truth from her. It’s certainly a difficult situation.
Literally from the moment I picked up this book, I didn’t put it down again until after I had finished it. It was certainly the book to pick up on a dismal bank holiday Monday where you don’t have to go out anywhere. I was so wrapped up in the story and so focussed on the book that I didn’t realise how quickly the page numbers were flying past or how fast the time was going. It’s no word of a lie to say that I didn’t realise how quickly I was speeding through the book until I looked up and checked only to find out that I had cleared 60%. ‘The Next Girl’ is one heck of a rollercoaster read with lots of twists, turns, moments that you don’t see coming and moments where you just want to close your eyes as you fear what is going to come next. At times I really didn’t want to read on because I feared what was going to happen but because I needed to know what was going to happen, I needed to read on. I know that might sound daft to some but it makes perfect sense to me. By the time I finished reading the book, I really did feel as though I had been through an emotional wringer. ‘The Next Girl’ is really well written and the author writes about difficult subjects with great sensitivity. I have to say that I found myself nodding along with the reactions of some of the characters to certain situations. No I haven’t been abused as a vulnerable person but I have a background in Child Protection, have liaised with officers from the Vulnerable Persons Unit and I used to work as a case worker in adult & child protection, so I have come across various similar attitudes to those expressed by some of the characters in the book.
In short, I absolutely, totally and utterly LOVED reading ‘The Next Girl’ and I can’t recommend it highly enough. ‘The Next Girl’ has to be one of my top reads of 2018. Carla Kovach is right up there on my ‘must read authors list’ and I will certainly drop everything to read her next book. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 5* out of 5* although I really wish I could have awarded it more stars because I really did enjoy it that much.

Thank you to Bookouture for letting me take part in this tour. I read the blurb for this and I was hooked! The cover was changed too and I love how bright it is now. The blue is so eye catching. 

The story follows DI Gina Harte and Deborah Jenkins as well as Deborah's family. 

Let's start with Gina. Gina clearly has a tortured back story which I look forward to digging into a bit deeper. She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Hannah, who thinks that she can't put her first. Hannah doesn't understand why Gina needs her job so much. I  am intrigued to go into more of Gina's character. She is going to be interesting to follow as the series progresses. 

As well as following Gina trying to investigate Deborah's disappearance we also see flashes of Deborah's life. She's locked up somewhere, chained in a small room and is laying in her own filth. It's a day or so after she gave birth. I couldn't imagine what poor Deborah had been through. She's been missing for 4 years and no-one had seen any trace of her. What happened to her in those 4 years? What had she experiences. I just wanted her to get free. 

The other part of this story is about Deborah's family. A lot of the time in these sorts of stories no one thinks about the family that's left behind if the person isn't found. Luke has been looking after their two children and has really given up all hope that she will ever be found. He's starting to move on but in his heart he still loves Deborah. I honestly felt so sorry for Luke. I cannot imagine what it must be like to not know what happened. To not know if the person you love is alive or not. Do you move on? Do you continue to hope? 

Carla got the suspense and the intrigue just right. I was reading the pages building up to the end and I was getting stressed and I didn't know what to do. My boyfriend kept asking if I was okay. It. Was. Tense! 

This was the first book I have read by this author but it won't be the last. I am really looking forward to more from Carla.

4 Bold Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Well, this was absolutely a wonderful start to this new series.... I might need to rethink my entire I don’t necessarily always like police procedurals thing... because the last few I have really enjoyed.... maybe I like them better when they take place in the UK? so I should modify it to I don’t always necessarily enjoy police procedurals unless they take place in the UK....

This series focuses on Gina Hart a detective somewhere in the UK.... i’m sure the exact setting of this book was mentioned, however it is not coming to mind and it doesn’t even matter because the plot and the characters were so fabulous.... I usually focus a lot on the characters and I did like Gina and I’m really looking forward to see her character grow throughout the series... however I have to give it to this amazing plot it kept me enthralled....

What would you do if your wife the mother of your children went missing without a trace? What if it was your daughter who went missing? How would you handle the day today, how would you move on? And what would you do when a baby who was abandoned at the library turned out to be a DNA match to your missing wife/Daughter? Debra has been missing for over four years and now little baby Isabel has turned up... her mother is Debra, but where is Debra? Not only did we get the point of view of Gina, but we also got the point of view of Luke Debra‘s husband and Deborah herself..... oh and I mustn’t forget the point of view of Debra‘s kidnapper and he was as creepy and delusional as you would expect....

Really enjoyed how the story unraveled.... you know the kidnapper was somebody who had some connection to Debra’s life, but who was it? Love all the different points of views... couldn’t even imagine how Luke would deal with the situation especially because he had just begun dating somebody else.... and I have to admit I always enjoy being in the mind of the antagonist... Love the thought process of the crazy person especially how they justify their actions.....

Strongly recommend to fans of crime fiction, police procedurals, and a book with a very strong plotline.....

*** thank you so much too Bookouture and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy! This is the first in a series and I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait for the next book!

Detective Gina Harte - Book 1.

Deborah Jenkins sets off for her short walk home, but she does not make it home that night. She is never seen again.

Four years later, a baby girl is found abandoned on a doorstep. An anonymous phone call urges the police to ren a DNA test on the baby. The baby belongs to Deborah! She's still alive! Detective Gina Harte and her colleagues begin to investigate where could be and what happened to her. This is a roller coaster ride with plenty of twists and turns. I have two criticism of this story:- 1) There is far too much sobbing throughout this story, some needed, a lot not. 2) Two Detectives have a cold. We all know how a cold effects you. We don't need graphic detail of nose blowing snot and throat mucus. It was quite off putting. I would have given this book five stars if it was not for this.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Carla Kovach for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful start to the Gina Harte series. I loved her and can't wait for more. Please write faster!

This book felt like I was watching a crime fiction tv show, in which I constantly have in the background on tv. It came to no surprise that I finished this in less than 4 hours. I ate it up. It was descriptive in all the right places . It really made you feel for the woman kidnapped , the husband and the short sections where a girl friend of the husband was involved.
I won’t post spoilers.. just know if you like a really fast crime fiction read... check this one out. I’ll be reading the second book in this detective series .

Oh my! What a ride this book was! I expected a routine police procedural but I got so much more in this book. It was everything the blurb said and more!

A newborn was left on the doorstep of the library on a cold, rainy December night and DNA testing showed the child to be Debbie's daughter. Debbie who was presumed missing since the past 4 years. This lit a fire in DI Gina and her gang, and then it was a race against time to find and save Debbie.

An exciting fast-paced thriller by Carla Kovach, the story though routine, the writing escalates it to a higher level. I couldn't put down this book. I had to read it a one go. Everytime I tried to stop reading, the book called to me and forced me to keep reading. Such was the magic of author Carla Kovach's writing!

Carla has written this book in third person in 3 POV. DI Gina and her investigation, Debbie along with her kidnapper, and Luke and his mother-in-law Cathy. This investigative story also shows the humane side of life, where a cop has a shaky relationship with her daughter due to her reluctance to reveal secrets of the past. A husband/father trying to bring up his kids with his MIL without knowing if his wife has left voluntarily or against her wishes. A woman kidnapped and chained for 4 years, forced to undergo torture, abuse, and rape, gives birth to premie daughter and left with a torn, bleeding body.

In narrating the story, Carla has weaved the personal life and trauma of these characters, making it alive and real, without slowing down the pace. The emotions evoked caused an inner quickening of my breath, to know how this story ended. This is the mark of a good thriller.

A fabulous way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

P.S I just wish the publishers stop with the same tag lines. In fact, don't give the title a tag line. We will give it to you in our reviews.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Next Girl by Carla Kovach that I read and reviewed.
This was a pretty good start to a new series with a very interesting lead detective and interesting investigative team. If the series stays true to this one it should be pretty good.
As for this book it was pretty good and it keeps reader guessing who kidnapped Deb and what is going to happening next with the crazy guy that has her.
I am giving The Next Girl four out of five stars.

I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next in the series.
DI Gina Harte is a feisty character and I loved the interaction with her and her colleagues.
A baby is found abandoned on the street and we learn that she has been taken from her mother who is being held captive in a barn.
Debbie begs her abductor to phone the police and ask them to do a DNA test so the baby can be brought up by her mother.
Debbie’s husband Luke has never given up hope even though four years have passed since she disappeared. He’s tried to move on with his life but has not been able to.
When he’s told that the baby is Debbie’s he hopes she will be found and helps the Police try and find her.
Gina and her team work relentlessly trying to track down the abductor and the final few chapters were brilliant.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I'm very excited to be sharing my review, which is written with thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my copy of the book.
In 2013, Deborah Jenkins went missing. She's not been seen since, and the police had no clues as to where they might find her. Four years later, a newborn baby is found outside the local library, and DNA tests confirm that it is Deborah's baby. Deborah is alive, but the mystery still remains as to what happened to her. Can Detective Inspector (DI) Harte and her team find Deborah before it's too late?
The Next Girl is the first novel to feature DI Gina Harte. Although it focuses more on the crime itself than the characters investigating them, the characters still have a lot to give, and I enjoyed getting to know them, particularly through the revelations about their personal lives. Gina has a dark secret, and with this comes a lot of issues, and I hope these will be explored further in books to come.
The cover of The Next Girl is gorgeous, but don't let this lull you into a false sense of security. In the novel, we meet a highly disturbed perpetrator, who made my skin crawl and made me feel incredibly angry. Although the novel is written in third person, we are able to see the investigation from several different perspectives: the police, the perpetrator, the victim and the victim's family, and this gives The Next Girl a strong emotional pull. The reader is able to realise what is at stake throughout the investigation, and is also given insight into the impact it is having on everyone involved.
It takes a while for The Next Girl to gather pace. The reader is given snatches of information here and there, but the leads are not fully realised until fairly near the end. At times, this was frustrating, but the technique means that my own frustration mirrors that of the characters, and I was able to connect emotionally with them. As the pace quickened, I soon realised that DI Harte and her team were locked in a race against time, and this created unbearable tension. I was desperate to find out how the case would be resolved.

The Next Girl Detective by Carla Kovach
Detective Gina Harte #1

D.I. Gina Harte works hard to bring justice to those who have been abused. She has worked hard to get where she is and takes her job seriously. She has never told anyone about her ill-fated marriage or why she might actually be happier without her spouse than she was with him. Her daughter doesn’t understand and often gives her grief for not showing any grief.

In this first book of the series, mostly police procedural, a woman has gone missing for four years, sudden information indicates she may still be alive and in the area and the hunt is on to find her. Gina’s potential love interest, her family, her colleagues and other issues in her life are mentioned.

This was well written if a bit abrupt toward the end. I would have liked to hear more about why the abductor did what he did, how he managed to get away with it and wanted to know how the family managed later in time – perhaps an epilogue? I am interested in reading the next book in the series and hope that Gina will open up to her daughter so their relationship can perhaps improve. I am not sure how believable I found the story but did find it entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Review Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

Four years ago a young mother and wife disappears on her way home from work. Present day and a newborn baby is found abandoned on the steps of a library.

A very well written debut. The author has written a cast of well rounded characters with a strong female Detective Inspector Gina. She is a forceful character who is a survivor of domestic abuse.

Luke, the husband of the missing woman was particularly interesting. Still in love with his missing wife but trying to rebuild his life and testing out a new friendship whilst maintaining a happy home life for his two children.

I will definitely be awaiting the next in the series.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
'The Next Girl' focusses on the mystery surrounding the disappearance of mother of two, Debbie Jenkins. Debbie left behind a grieving husband, Luke and two young children. No sign has been seen of her for four years, since she disappeared on the way home from work one evening. Fast-forward to the present day, and a newborn baby is found. An anonymous tip tells the police to test the baby girl's DNA. Suddenly the mystery is bigger than everyone thought.
The book was a thoroughly enjoyable book in the mystery/thriller genre, complete with twists and turns and fascinating characters. I was excited to read that 'The Next Girl' is the first instalment in a mystery series focused on British detective, DI Gina Harte. I look forward to reading more in the series. I believe the next book is due out sometime in August this year.

A solid, well written read. Kept me guessing about who the kidnapper was. I enjoyed reading this book and will look for other books by this author in the future.

Gina Harte is a domestic abuse survivor, a police detective, and apparently a horrible mother. In the first installment in this hopefully continuing series, Harte is faced with an abandoned infant that has a DNA link to a missing woman from four years prior. This re-energizes the search for the woman and intrudes on Harte's ability to live up to her daughter's standards of making all the dates they make and being supportive at her dead ex-husband's memorial. That certainly is a mouthful! But Ms. Kovach, over the course of the novel, lays everything out: the guilt, the love, the need to do something. Harte is a complex character and it was great getting to know her. I look forward to the next in the series!

The Next Girl is the first installment in Carla Kovach's mystery series featuring Detective Gina Harte. It's not the most complex mystery I've read recently, but I found it easy to get lost in just the same. The complicated nature of the heroine makes up for any deficiencies in the plot itself, and I found myself quite invested in her personal struggle as well as in the plight of the victims of our very sadistic villain.

Four years ago, wife and mother Deborah Jenkins disappeared without a trace. The police did everything possible to find her but it was all to no avail. Her husband, mother, and two young children have all come to terms with her probable death, and although it hasn't always been easy, each of them has begun to figure out what life will look like without Deborah there. And then, an abandoned infant is found outside a nearby library, an infant who's DNA matches Deborah's, and suddenly, the investigation into Deborah's disappearance is active once more.

Detective Gina Harte remembers the Jenkins case well. She wasn't the lead investigator back then, but she's familiar with the investigation nonetheless, and now that Deborah's case is in the forefront of everyone's minds again, she's determined to reunite the woman with her family, no matter what it takes. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done. The original detectives did their job thoroughly, and in spite Gina's efforts to find something they missed, nothing jumps out at her. But Gina knows that Deborah is out there somewhere, most likely the victim of unimaginable horrors. After all, how else could she have given birth to the baby girl who was left outside the library?

Gina would love to devote all her attention to the Jenkins case, but her personal life is pretty messy. Her adult daughter is in the process of planning a memorial celebration for her late father, a man who had once turned Gina's very existence into a living nightmare. Gina doesn't want to participate in the celebration, but neither does she want to ruin her daughter's memories of her father, so she keeps the truth to herself, something which pushes the two women further apart. And, as if all that isn't enough, Gina is sleeping with one of her direct superiors. Neither of them would go so far as to call what they have an actual relationship, but they're both aware it's very much against the rules, so they've been meeting in secret for the past several months.

The story is told from four different points of view. Most of our time is spent with Gina, but we also see things from the perspectives of Deborah, her husband Luke, and Deborah's captor. For the most part, this narrative style works well, although spending a significant time in Deborah's head took a little bit away from the mystery itself. The identity of her captor isn't revealed until the end of the story, but his motivation for abducting Deborah is laid out pretty early on. Fortunately, there were still a number of things to be discovered about Deborah's ordeal, and Gina's race to uncover the truth definitely kept me fully engaged.

If violence against women is a trigger for you, you're might not want to pick up this book. Deborah suffers horribly at the hands of her abductor, and Ms. Kovach goes into quite a bit of detail about what has been done to her over the years of her captivity. Plus, Gina's former husband was terribly abusive, and she is still dealing with flashbacks and nightmares about the abuse.

I found myself quite put off by the author's need to describe in painstaking detail a cold Gina and one of her fellow detectives came down with about a third of the way into the book. I don't object to the characters getting sick, but I do object to having to read about all their coughing, sneezing, and nose blowing, especially as it didn't really do anything to move the story forward. It just gave the characters something to complain about, and it was unnecessary.

I'm eager to learn more about Gina Harte and her friends and family. She's exactly the kind of complex heroine I love encountering in a thriller. The second book in the series is supposed to come out later this year, and I definitely plan to pick it up.

Buy it at: Amazon/iBooks/Nook/Kobo