I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

****Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.****

I had a hard time getting into this book at the beginning, put it down for a while but after I picked it back up, it was hard to put down. I gave it 4 stars because I would’ve liked to know what happened with the love interest and what happened to the girl that ended up in the hospital.

I had high hopes for this one as I loved butterfly garden, but this one fell flat for me. I had a difficult time liking any of the characters or really caring did them. I also had a hard time with the over the top undertones of fearing/despising men.

Now while I did like the book, it was not up to her Butterfly Garden series standards. I thought the book focused way to much on men being super over the top deviants and while yes there are men that are like that NOT EVERY SINGLE MAN is that way. Had I read this when I was younger I wouldn't ever leave my house fearing every man!
The murders were well thought out and I always enjoy the authors writing style...this book just fell flat with me. On that note I still would read more from this author.

I loved the authors other book “The Butterfly Garden” so I was excited to read this. It was so good! I liked the message that was behind it. It shouldn’t take so much for people to finally listen to victims. I can’t wait to read more of this series when it’s released. I hope we get a Rebecca and Corby love story!

I started reading this book, but sadly I did not finish it. This was nothing like The Collector-series, which I love. I found the writing shallow and the characters one dimensional. I ended up putting the book away. Therefore, I will not be reviewing it online, as I do not want to review a half finished book.

Definitely not the one for me...
The characters were all one dimensional and blah
The blurb sounded interesting, but the book just didn't deliver. I hate it when that happens. I figured out the perpetrator early on... Hate when that happens too! The relationships between these people were all just so toxic. I didn't relate to anyone, didn't root for anyone.
I'm kinda pissed I wasted half a day on this book, but I promised myself I'd only "cannot review" out of necessity. Sure, this egalley archived before I could read it, but it's available through my library's apps so I read it that way instead. And so this is my honest opinion 🤷

Thanks netgalley for giving me the pdf so that I can share my thoughts and opinions with y'all 🧡

I just don't think this book was for me. This was my first book by the author but I hope to still check out The Butterfly Garden as a lot of people seemed to have enjoyed that one.
I didn't really care for any of the characters and this was very over the top with man hating and violence. Having figured out the killer fairly early on, the rest of the book was just rough to get through.

I have nothing good to say about this book. I have enjoyed this author in the past, but this one was a miss for me. I did not like the characters. They were all the same (especially the males) and one dimensional. I could not relate or even feel for any of them. I did not find anything about the college setting realistic. The plot sounded interesting, but was written with such toxicity (and not is a good way) I could hardly finish. This was not the book for me.

Oh Dot Hutchinson how I love thee. Your books are always amazing and your writing tells stories like no one else.

Fairly decent read, but nothing to blow you out of the water. At times a little grating - It felt like I was being hit over the head with 'men bad! men rape! kill men!', which I'm all for a vigilante plot line, but this just felt too forced and the characters caricatures.

I had very high expectations of Deadly Waters for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I loved Butterfly Garden. The second was the premise of a female serial killer. Yes, please. Female serial killers are rare in the fictional world, just like in real life. Every other mystery, thriller, or horror novel seems to always have a male villain. So, when I read that not only was the premise about a female serial killer but a college girl hell-bent on revenge with a MO that might even shock Aileen Wuornos, I was on board.

What I got was a lecture. It seemed every other conversation was about how awful men are, how they constantly are trying to assault women, & all the unwanted gestures the young women get from undesirable men. While I appreciate educating of sexual assault & harassment through storytelling, it came across to me as preaching. And I am part of the choir. The female characters, while the intent was to have them come across as strong women, seemed to be afraid of every single male they encounter. But that is not without good reason as the male characters are all written to be shady, untrustworthy & potential rapists. However, I think this might have been intentional to avoid having a "white knight" male character to "save" the girls.

The narrative meant well. I get the message that was being conveyed, however, I just wish it was in less of a finger-wagging tone. Overall, it was an entertaining read & a timely narrative in the #metoo era.

After completely falling in love with Hutchison’s The Collector series, I was super excited to see what other stories she would craft.
This book was particularly rough for me for multiple reasons:
- the mystery is particularly predictable
- the narrating voice is almost fake in her goody two shoes naivety, in contrast, the bits we see narrated by the killer are quite interesting and have that biting edge that suits the story very well
- the final twist is both cheap and infuriating because of the aforementioned points I made.
- the level of man hating. Listen, everyone who has a social media account and has been listening to the news knows how these past years there has been a new wave of feminism and a loud call for equality between the privileged straight male class and those diminished because valued as “less”, and thanks to the MeToo movement, people have started to validate victims of sexual assaults and abuses in a way that was merely a dream four years ago. All of this is fantastic and much needed for a society to truly thrive. This book takes all of those good principles and twists them into their ugliest forms: every man is either a certified sexual predator or one in training. EVERY. SINGLE. MAN. Well, okay, except one, but that because he’s the love interest of the main character so we can’t have that for him....but the rest? They’re the spawn of satan. No doubts.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but I truly don’t think I will continue with this series if this is going to be its tone.

I'm very torn about this one. On one hand, this tapped in to the rage I've had for the past few years - I'm so tired of not being safe. I'm so tired of the stories of rape and abuse, the safety measures we automatically do (park under lights, don't wear both earbuds, etc). The fact that we know to be afraid of men. These murders, these girls, this story - all of this encapsulates that anger and fuels it and feeds it and validates it and I loved this story for that.

But, on the other hand, this story didn't have any good guys. Okay, 1. 1 in a whole sea of every guy being bad is unrealistic. I know it was necessary to show just how many bad guys there were and to give fuel to the murderer - I mean, there had to be bad guys to kill in order to....murder. But not all men are bad, not every drink spiked. I'd have liked the story to be less black and white and show that there is gray and make THAT also part of the story. But it did tap into that rage and I appreciated it for that. Loved the twist, didn't see it coming because I was so wrapped up in nodding along to all the pro-girl writing.

I really struggled getting into this book, but that could have been because I was sooo busy and just couldn't get my last great read off my mind!!. It was almost the middle of the book by the time I really started enjoying the story but the second half seemed to make up for it!

I absolutely LOVED "The Collector" series by Dot Hutchison so naturally I thought I would instantly love this book, but it definitely wasn't love at first read! But it did take some time to grow on me but it did! Dot Hutchison certainly has the ability to write phenomenal stories with superb characters!

The ending was really a surprise ending that I didn't really see coming in true Dot Hutchison fashion!

I don't know that I've heard Sarah Naughton narrate a book prior to this one, however, I wasn't disappointed in her performance! She definitely didn't turn me away from ever listening to her again!

If you're looking for a story that has a truly good mystery, then Deadly Waters should be on your TBR list!

I would like to thank Dot Hutchison, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for providing this book to me in return for an honest an unbiased review!

I have tried so many times to get through this book and I can’t do it anymore. I just can’t handle this extra man hating. It’s too much. This makes me sad as I loved Dot’s previous series.

I've read all of her other books and really enjoyed them. This not so much. Just didn't hold my attention.

TW: Rape, Sexual Assault

From Dot Hutchinson, the bestselling author of "The Butterfly Garden" (which I liked), comes a new mystery thriller, "Deadly Waters," which tackles a vigilante story in the midst of college sexual assaults.

The book is set at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida, and centers around journalism student Rebecca, and her dorm mates. They are just underage for drinking, but manage to get into local bars with fake I.D.'s. Most of her mates are there just to have a good time, but her hot-tempered roommate, Ellie, is always picking fights with men she thinks are preying on other young women.

Then someone starts taking the law into their own hands, and local police get involved when certain male students' remains are found in alligator-infested waters.

Ellie is a prime suspect, not only because of her temper and previous fights with men, but because she's very vocal in siding with the killer...even to the cops.

Deadly Waters is very contemporary in setting, but shines a light on a decades-old problem that often gets swept aside at colleges. And it's very obvious that the author has no patience for the men committing the crimes (and rightly so), to the point where only one male character seems to be trustworthy.

It's a fast-paced thriller, but not an easy read due to its subject matter. The book shines when it lets the women tell their stories, but can seem heavy-handed and cold in scenes featuring any male character. Unfortunately, it could also hit home a little too closely to readers who've experienced similar crimes.

I’m giving Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchison a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Really great story! I had figured out the who early on in the book. The clues where there. Then I became unsure, all of a sudden there are possibilities pointing to another culprit. I was surprised by the revealing of Gemma. That was brilliant!

Thank you to @amazonpublishing and @netgalley for the gifted ARC of Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchinson.

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Synopsis from the publisher: Florida journalism undergrad Rebecca Sorley is like any other college student. She tries to keep up with her studies, her friends, and her hot-tempered roommate, Ellie, who regularly courts trouble with the law. When a male student’s remains are found in alligator-infested waters, the university warns students to stay away from the reptiles. But then a second body shows up, and the link is undeniable. Both men belonged to the same fraternity and had a reputation for preying on and hurting women. Ellie has previously threatened to kill men who don’t take no for an answer. Rebecca and her friends thought Ellie was kidding. But now a vigilante killer is roaming campus—someone who knows how to dispose of rapists. Someone determined to save female students from horrible crimes. With each passing day, those who know Ellie become more convinced she’s responsible. But if she is, stopping her might not be in everyone’s best interest…

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Well where to begin… I was a HUGE fan of this author’s previous series The Butterfly Garden, and was so excited to see where her next book would take us, however this is not at all what I was expecting. Let me start by saying I really appreciate the sentiment behind this book and the attempt to empower women in the #metoo era, but this book missed the mark by making every character a caricature of an angry feminist man hater. All the female leads were one dimensional with zero character development. All they talk about in college is the evil men of the frats and the sweet angry justice of the gator murders. There are no male peer characters that offer a not all men are predators perspective, only a lone male police officer whose relationship with a student is questionable. This just kept beating the same note over and over that men are all sexual predators and women are all prey and that the only justice is the kind you take into your own hands. As a sexual assault survivor I appreciate the sentiment but also don’t believe in an eye for an eye. This didn’t work for me but it may work for other readers.