The Killing Tide follows in the way of Dani Pettrey’s previous titles with a strong mystery story, plenty of action and high-stakes suspense, and charming, faith-filled romance.

When investigative journalist, Gabby Rowley’s life is threatened by the drug lord she helped send to prison, her protective big brother, Noah, insists she return home with him to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he and his Coast Guard Investigative Service team can keep an eye on her. But when bodies begin to pile up, including one of their own, Gabby is drawn to the investigation, even if it means working alongside old flame and the man she left behind, Finn Walker.

The Killing Tide plunges readers straight into the story and lives of the many characters. It took me a little while to work my head around the plot and backstory. It felt like perhaps I had missed a prequel, like I should know these people and the people they know. Instead, the characters’ backstories are mostly filled in throughout the novel, while some are just alluded to, with more details perhaps to be revealed in the second book in the series. The writing jumps around a lot in The Killing Tide. The pace is very quick and the action, deaths, twists and investigation clues just keep coming. Some sections are only a half a page long, before they jump to another thread of the story, another character’s perspective, and then switch again. Once I got my head around who was who and how they fit together, The Killing Tide was an easy story to enjoy.

Aside from Finn and Gabby, there are a lot of other main characters, some of which share in the chapter perspectives. Finn and Noah, Gabby’s brother, are teammates, and their fellow CGIS unit are a tight-knit group. As Dani Pettrey often does, this book is situated around a strong family-like work team.

I really enjoyed the multiple threads of the investigation. Just when you think all the clues have been laid out, another death is revealed or another layer to the organisation was discovered. The end bad guy was a surprise and I liked how that was a plausible and clever reveal. All the main characters are strong men and women, equally capable of saving themselves and others - and they need to do so multiple times over.

The Killing Tide is a fun and exciting first book in a new series. Book two in the Coastal Gaurdians series is set to follow Rissi - another member of the CGIS team and the past that returns to haunt her.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

This is the first book in the Coastal Guardians series. I was excited to start a new series by one of my favorite authors.

Gabby is on the run. A drug lord is trying to have her killed, and she ends up staying with the man whose heart she broke last time she was in town. She chose her career over love, and now it’s like she’s getting put in the same situation. When people are murdered, Finn’s team has to investigate the deaths, including a few of their own. Two investigations are going on at the same time, and it seems like they will intersect at some point. With Gabby disappearing to investigate on her own all the time, keeping her safe is a hard job.

Gabby disregards anyone who wants to protect her to the point of wandering off for coffee with a “friend.” I put the word friend in quotation marks because she takes the woman for coffee to pursue an “angle” (her words) for a story. The friend is 7 months pregnant and has just lost her husband to murder. How low can Gabby go? Pretty low. I never understood what Finn saw in her. She’s already chosen her career over him once before, and she’s clearly willing to do it again with no hesitation for most of the book. She resents people trying to keep her safe and readily puts herself and OTHERS (including a pregnant woman and her sister) in dangerous situations with no regard for their anyone’s safety. She’s literally like that for almost the entire book, and I hated her character.

My final review is 2.5 stars. If the story were only about Gabby and Finn, it would probably be lower. The saving graces for the book are Noah and Rissi. I ended up hating Gabby’s character so much that even when she has her “changing moment” at the very end, it didn’t affect my view her. I was also disappointed in the ending. I don’t mind antagonists that act like Bond villains, but if they don’t hesitate to kill everyone in their way for most of the book, it doesn’t make sense later on if they suddenly change and put people in a rescuable situation.

Side Note – The ARC I had was awful. The formatting (I had a Kindle version) was horrible. Scene switches had no gaps, so it was jarring to start reading the very next paragraph and realize it involved different people. Also, attention to detail was lacking. When talking about bail hearings, the time wasn’t consistent. There were also numerous wrong words (ex. “roller her eyes”). This is NOT the caliber of work I’m used to from this author, and I have no idea what happened.

This is the first book of Pettrey’s that I haven’t liked, and I’m sorry for it. Her writing is normally so great that it hurts to say I don’t like it.

*The formatting and mistakes did not affect my overall rating. They are mentioned purely to reflect what I experienced reading the copy I was given. My hope is that these glaring mistakes were fixed before the publishing date.

*I received a copy of this book from Bethany House from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Dani Pettrey's books. This one has a lot of characters, a lot of stories, a lot of background things happening all at the same time. I had to really focus to remember who was who and to keep up with the fast-moving pieces and parts of the book. With that said, it's an amazing book and I look forward to more in this series!

I have been reading Dani Pettrey’s books for years and her latest, The Killing Tide, does not disappoint. Gabby is an investigative reporter whose life is in danger from one of the men who she helped put behind bars. She protestingly agrees to leave Raleigh and go to Wilmington where her Coast Guard brother and his team can help protect her. However, she also returns to Finn who she once ran away from to keep from falling in love.
I really enjoyed the plot, however, I found myself wishing for more of Gabby and Finn’s backstory. I was wondering why she spent a winter in the loft on his property. It was also slightly confusing to have some much of Rissi’s inner monologue but it does seem to set up well for the next book in the series. All in all, The Killing Tide is an exciting read that I couldn’t put down.