Kate Roberts writes delectable murder! I started with her steamy romances and stayed for her mayhem. This one kept me guessing until the very end. Sooo good!

The third book in the Hidden Sins series by author Katee Robert is a change in reading pace, and the story itself holds shocks and twists.
Review copy received from Montlake via Netgalley

I can’t even tell you how long I had this book sitting on my phone unread. I probably started it 5 times, read a few pages, and put it down because I just didn’t have the stomach for it. It’s a dark book, and it was just too intense for me to handle at times. (Trigger warnings for graphic violence, gore, and some mentions of rape.) Once I was in the right mood, though, I finally dove in and enjoyed it.

This book focuses on two girls who survived a horrific massacre at their college sorority house. Lei Zhang and Emma Nilsson had their own reactions to the trauma they endured. While Emma has developed a pretty severe panic disorder and various other mental health challenges in response to her fear, Lei’s response to fear is to fight harder and push farther. That’s not to say Lei’s not deeply affected too, because she clearly is, but she just channels things differently. When a new killer surfaces who bears a resemblance to the man that terrorized them years ago, the FBI and Agent Dante Young get involved. Dante and Lei have a somewhat inconvenient attraction to each other, but they have to put it aside while they figure out who seems to be hunting the women again.

As you can imagine, this book is chock full of trauma. Lei and Emma are, of course, profoundly affected by what happened to them, and it is very painful to read about. They have all kinds of coping strategies, some healthy and some not-so-healthy, that have gotten them through.  It’s hard enough at the beginning when their fears seem understandable but perhaps hyperbolic, but it gets downright horrifying as the book progresses and you learn how much danger they’re actually in. For me, this book was creepy and shocking, and it was only when I was in the right mood for those things that I could enjoy it. The plot twists do get a little overblown toward the end, but by that point I was in deep enough to buy in!

Lei and Emma are not pushovers. Lei is the obvious fighter and battles her fear with a sheen of anger, but Emma has more strength to her than others give her credit for. In particular, I loved seeing the women support each other. They did perhaps use each other as a crutch too often, but who the hell could blame them? They never wavered in their love for each other and their desire to keep the other one safe. I really liked that aspect of the book.

I also really liked Dante and Lei together. Dante is calm, cool, and collected, which is a real balm for Lei. He doesn’t have a magic cure for her, though. There is an excellent scene near the beginning where Dante says something kind of paternalistic and Lei rightfully puts him into his place. I was 1000% there for it. Even better, Dante realizes that while he didn’t intend it that way, he was absolutely playing savior and not respecting the hard work Lei did, and still does, to handle her own trauma. That moment sold me on Dante and Lei together!

Unfortunately, while there is a lot of awesome chemistry, there is no sex in this book. I know, I know...that’s normally a problem for me too, but honestly I don’t see any way sex would have worked in this book. The original sorority massacre happened twelve years ago and Lei has had relationships with other men in the interim, so that’s not the issue. But there is just too much genuine danger in this book, and too much horror that keeps being dredged up. Sex would just have been out of place. Things never get farther than some very sexy making out, and for a change I was ok with that.

When did I learn this was in the same series as another Robert book I liked, The Devil’s Daughter? Literally right as I was typing this sentence and I looked up the book on Goodreads! My point is, while it’s a series clearly there is no harm in reading them out of order, because I haven’t read Book 2 and had no clue it even existed. I am really liking Robert’s voice in this series, and I will certainly be backtracking to read the book I missed.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Thank you #NetGalley for a copy of #TheSurvivingGirls!

I really enjoyed this book. The storyline was very intriguing and kept me interested and entertained! There was never a dull moment and it was a very quick read (cover to cover took me less than 48 hours!) The Surviving Girls is the first book I’ve read by Katee Robert and it won’t be my last!

Typical killer/romance book. Plot was ok. Little cheesy on the romance part, but all in all a fun book.

If this book focused exclusively on the mystery aspect of the story, this would be a four star book. As it is, the implausibility of the relationship between Dante, the FBI agent, and the key witness in an investigation, Lei, almost distracting. It is a shame because the suspense parts has lots of great twists and turns. I would say, just ignore the romance, but the author spends a considerable amount of time trying to justify the warp speed insta-love. Now, I'm not a huge fan of insta-love, but it's often unavoidable in many stories, however, when the hero and heroine barely spend any time together and the attraction takes place in a compacted space...it's almost unbelievable.

OMG I love the way this author has written these books. I couldn't put this down and im waiting for the next book to come out. She makes the book a page turner from the start right to the end. I have to say i was disappointed when the book ended i wasn't ready for it to end.

Wanna know what would have made me give 5 stars to this book instead of 3? If the label romance wasn't on this book. There is no real romance in this story, only some pieces that were thrown into it and I am not sure that we were supposed to fall for that. Lei and Declan could have gone each to their way and I would have been completely fine with that. There wasn't enough relationship material for these two. The "romance" killed a book that was good. We could have been fine without it and that's even a bigger disappointment because I am a fan of Katee Robert and she writes good romance books.

The twist on the killers identity was good and I enjoyed the suspense side of the book, which is the sole reason I am recommending it. Don't try to go for the romance and only have eyes on the killer. Emma seemed like a character whose story I might enjoy reading and I hope she will get a book and some kind of happy ending. Maybe she already did by the end of this book, now that I think about it. The book is a stand-alone, but you could also read the other books in the series.

OMG, this book. It was seriously un-put-downable romantic suspense from start to finish! The romance naturally (or should I say thank goodness? Because it certainly isn't always the case...) takes a back seat here to the suspense portion...because hello, serial killer. Or spree killer. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, people. A bad guy is doing bad things, and our heroine and hero need to stop him, stat.

I loved Dante and Lei--such strong characters, and phew! that chemistry! But first, they had five murders to solve, and a connection--or is there one?--to find between them and the ones that Lei and her roommate/sorority sister Emma survived eight years earlier. I spent so much of this book trying to figure out who was tormenting Lei and Emma and how they could have possibly known so much--I have to admit, the truth is a twist i never saw coming! Bravo, Ms. Robert!

Honestly, when the tension was ramped up to maximum levels, I'm not sure who was more stressed, me or Lei. Perhaps this wasn't the best choice to read in a cramped coach seat while flying home this weekend--there was much wincing, gasping, and OMG-ing on my part that I'm sure had the seatmate I'm not related to wondering about me (the one who was related to me is all too used to this kind of behavior from me), but at least it was a pretty short flight. Plus, it definitely kept my mind off of the turbulence we ran into about halfway there...

I absolutely cannot wait to see what Ms. Robert has in store for us next in this series!

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I couldn't stop thinking about this book and kept wanting to know more. The twists and turns were certainly in this one. I cant wait to read other books by Katee Robert. Thanks for the opportunity.

Ok so this is the first time I've read a book by this author...that is not an outright contemporary romance story. This is the first book I've read of this series, and believe you me, I'll be looking for the first two. I super enjoyed this story!! The suspense, the crime that was committed to all the girls...and Lei and Emma now... Whoa! Gripping. And rather gruesome. And the suspense... I didn't want to read it at night for fear of nightmares... I didn't know Ms. Robert had it in her. I won't say anything about the plot but...whoa! This is such a good read!!

Lei is so strong and smart and so very admirable. Dante is solid and earnest and can handle Lei fine. I keep thinking he's like Blair Underwood or Taye Diggs... Sigh. It's bad timing but their love story seemed to be in the periphery of things...as it should be since there's a serial killer to catch. The build up was just fine to me.

Love the other secondary characters. Emma is so broken, I hope she finds her strength soon. Clarke is so tough but makes you wonder who she is beneath that shield. Tucker...surely there's a story there too??

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book.

This book was ok . The characters were not believable to me . The plot consisted of killing , revenge and a little romance with a few twists and turns . Thanks to #Netgalley and #MontlakeRomance for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review ! # TheSurvingGirls

2.5 Stars

The Surviving Girls was gruesome and thrilling, but very implausible in parts.

The romance was sudden and underwhelming but didn’t take up a large part of the story. The fact that Dante was so unfocused because of his attraction was a little disappointing.

I will say the story kept my interest, kept me turning pages even if parts were unbelievable to me.

A copy was kindly provided by Montlake Romance in exchange for an honest review.

I expected to like, and maybe even love, this book. Katee Robert does an excellent job of writing romances, and I thought that would carry over to the romantic suspense genre. It doesn’t.

The Surviving Girls reads as if it were written very quickly with little thought given to motivations, details, or plausibility. Characters are lost track of, behave improbably when facing their worst nightmare come true, and lack substance. I felt as if I were reading a novel in which the author decided: let’s throw this in to see what happens. We never find out the “whys” or “hows” of several key incidents. The repetition is frequently mind-numbing. Research/plotting seemed minimal.

The romance aspect is an unbelievable love-at-first-sight scenario in which the FBI agent, Dante Young, becomes a muddle due to his immediate and overwhelming attraction to a victim/suspect and Lei Zhang forgets that the reality she’s been fearing is occurring because she is so fascinated by Dante. This fits the TSTL category.

I would like to say that the last 4% in which something actually happens saves the novel, but it doesn’t. Unless you’re a die-hard Katee Robert fan, I’d give this one a pass.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a thrill ride of a story. The Surviving Girls is a nail biting, suspense read that has the reader on the edge of the seat. The romance seemed more like an after thought as the intense thriller plot dominated the story line and I found the book very hard to put down. A well written story, great depth and character development. A definite must read for thriller lovers!

Good read. I was burning the midnight oil to see what happened next. The book has a twist, that I figured out, but it was still fun to read. The book is full of suspense and fear, that puts you inside the house or the woods, both settings are prominent in the storyline. Lei and Emma are never safe no matter where they go. Even when they thought they had built a fortress of safety, they were in danger all the time, and didn't know it, very creepy. I enjoyed this book.

I didn't realised that it was a suspenseful romance, and while that isn't quite my genre, I liked Lei and Dante a lot, and if it IS your thing, I think you'll love this. The mystery part was truly suspenseful and from chapter 8 on I just kept reading...and now it's 2 am. This book reminded me of a really good Criminal Minds episode, and I definitely want to read more Katee Robert books.

I love this series from Katee Robert. The tension, suspense, action and story all add up to a fantastic read that keeps you guessing.

The Surviving Girls is the third book in The Hidden Sins series and with it, the series keeps getting better.

There’s romance, but it’s all in the suggestion; we only get the connection between Dante and Lei but that’s enough to know that what they have is gonna be something off the charts!

The story focusses on the nightmare Lei & Emma have live thorough and the effect it’s had in them both.

At one point I did wonder about a scenario (how it actually turned out) but I was just a tad off....

This was a really great, engaging read. I couldn’t wait to find out what was gonna happenwhile not quite wanting the story to end.

Katee Robert writes this genre so well and I can’t wait to see what she gives us next!!

5* recommended read.

The Surviving Girls is definitely going to keep you on your toes. It's one of those mysteries that will leave you so enthralled that you won't have time to hypothesize. You will just be along for a ride hoping and praying that all goes well.

I'm not sure that I would ever classify it as a romance unless one sided serial killer stalker romance is where the classifying came from. There are romantic elements not involving a psychotic sociopath but the focus is definitely on the crime and the unraveling of its master plan.

I was completely enthralled by the story and am now going to have to go back and read others in the series.

First all thank you for the opportunity to read this book. One word: AMAZING. This book had it all for me, romance, revenge, killing, and the best ending ever. I cant say enough about this book. I loved all the characters and the twists that were thrown in were perfect. I love books about things like this. I want to go back and read the other two in the series now. SO GOOD!