One of those books where it's obvious a man wrote the sex scenes. The mystery takes a back seat to frequent, graphic sex scenes that aren't really hinted at in the description. Much of the writing is really cringeworthy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I think I would rate this half a star if I could. I hate to be so harsh, but this was an awful read. There was so much sex. And all the MC talked about was sex and how much he loved it. And the descriptions. *Shudder* I can give you a sample.

“Her shaved tunnel of love looking so pink and juicy”

He also shouted out his other book. In this book. In such an odd way…

“Aftеr reading two chapters of Dark Obscurity by Bradley Cornish, he fell in love with thiѕ author and was very much in love with the book.”

Anyway, the sex was needless and didn’t add anything to the story? This was supposed to be a thriller but all I remember is the horrible sex.

So I guess thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this in exchange for my very honest review.

Steve's plans of a relaxed and laid-back vacation get thwarted when a woman he had seemingly saved by chance in the past, comes back to his life, with the pretext of wanting to profusely thank him. Something about her belated gratitude, and super friendly overtures seems off to him, but he is unsure of what's troubling him, until she leads him to her "kidnapper"'s secret. Steve is taken aback at what he finds while he learns more about their devious plans. The plot is suspense-filled and the narration is engaging, and make up for garnering the reader's interest although the characters lack a bit of depth. I loved reading this book and I am grateful to Prodigious Publishing and Netgalley for gifting me with a copy of this book.

This was a definite DNF for me. I tried but at 25% I was just done. Number one... I didn't like Steve from the beginning and I'm sure that feeling wasn't going to improve. Number 2... this book to me seemed nothing like the blurb I read. And finally graphic sex, which as a rule doesn't bother me, it certainly did in this book. Is this Penthouse or a mystery? All i could picture was a creepy professor preying on his young female students.

honestly, i read a lot of romance books, so i kind of can tolerate the sex scenes. but, this was just so much graphic sex it just to be so much and was just kind of gross in my mind. and the whole book didn't even really follow the description, so it wasn't even that good. and the writing was also so bad. but, at least the cover is cute.

Thank you NetGalley, Prodigious Publishing and Bradley Cornish for the advanced readers copy. The description of the book made it a must read for me, but unfortunately it ended up being very hard to enjoy and to read. I felt like the story was being to,d backwards, many of what should have been known in the beginning was not found out until the end. With this style of writing, I think it was ,want to surprise the reader with the information that it would find out, but it actually made everything easier to figure out and nothing was a surprise. This book was a slow read and very hard to get into.

The plot was ok but seemed lacking in some areas. I didn’t really care for the characters and the sex scenes just seemed redundant with no relevance to the story. I’m sure there are some who will really enjoy reading this.
Many thanks to Prodigus Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a new author for me and I look forward to reading more from them. This is a story that is full of action and twists and turns that kept me turning pages to the end. The characters brought the story to life and easy to read. They kept the story engaging and really just made the story for me. This is a well developed story that pulled me in right from the beginning. This is a story about romance, betryal and lust. I am glad I picked up this book and I think you will too. It is really fast paced and hard to put down. I highly recommend this book.

This book was not at all what I thought it would be.

Lies behind the woods begins with Steve Breiten. He is a college professor who seeks a normal, quiet life, not dealing with all the failed relationships and drama. One day during office hours he meets a mysterious woman, Tara, who his tip to the police helped to save a few years ago from kidnapping.

Tara is seductive and sexy, and that works very well for her. The subject matter does discuss Stockholm syndrome. The content may be triggering for some, and cases of abuse are included in the storyline.

This book was not what the description would lead you it to be and while I do not like to give one star this deserves it. The characters were shallow, the plot contrived and there was gratuitous, graphic sex scenes with a pretense of story tossed in.
Even with its short length it was a struggle to finish because it was so absurd.
Give this one a hard pass.
Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the free e-book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This whole book description makes me so uncomfortable. i am not a.fan of poking at a traumatic experience and using it for sex. it’s a no from me, and i would encourage the author to expand their writing ability into something better.

This is when I normally thank Netgalley for the ARC, but not this time. This is the kind of book that makes me question the screening process that goes into Netgalley’s selection of authors/books. This book is a poorly-executed mystery presented in the form of a Penthouse Forum letter. It does not live up to its description by any stretch of the imagination, and I am so disappointed.

The writing was convoluted and confusing and the characters evoked no empathy. Steve, the main character, only thought about sex. Whether he was fantasizing or actually engaged in it didn’t matter much as far as descriptions were concerned. It’s told from Steve’s POV in third-person, and there’s a lot of “introspection.” For the purposes of this review, let’s define “introspection” as fantasizing about having sex with the women in the book. Sex was described in painful detail. There’s a paragraph devoted to describing the type of nipples Steve preferred on a woman and this likely being a result of his mother breastfeeding him until the age of five. Words like “joystick” were laughable, but sentences like this one made me question why I continued reading: “He moved up and aligned his pulsating love muscle with her waiting juicy body.” I could go on, but…. Ewwww.

So the sex takes up a good portion of the book, but I kept reading because I was intrigued by the mystery. Let me tell you up front, if you’re reading this for the mystery aspect of the book, you might as well stop because it’s not worth the trip to get there. There’s a sex cult. In other words, it’s an excuse for more sexual encounters, fantasizing, revelations, insights, what have you. Ugh. I don’t even know what to say about the plot. It’s just not worth the effort to try to formulate sentences.

Verb tenses made it difficult to determine when events were occurring. This was especially true during the epilogue, when the storytelling changed to present-tense with a bit of past-tense mixed in just to confuse things. But then there was this, which seemed like an important quote from Tara’s mother, but didn’t really make any sense. That was partly because it’s just a stupid statement and partly, I think, because the verb tenses were wrong: “Tara was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, and the truth will never be the same.” I may never be the same.

On his 25th birthday, Steve is almost hit by a car as he was running. From that car, Steve hears a woman screaming and a man with his arm around her neck. Thinking the woman was screaming from the truck almost flipping over, Steve thinks nothing of the incident until he sees a news story about a local missing girl. Steve decides to go to the police with the details that he remembered, the girl is found two weeks late
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Fiver years later Tara, the kidnapped girl, comes to Steve's college class to thank him for saving her. But Tara is thinking of different ways to thank Steve. As she stays with Steve, Tara begins to make sexual advances until Steve finally gives in to them. Steve finds that Tara is not as damaged or innocent as she is perceived.

I found that this book and the description do not match. I think that if they had this book would have made its way to readers who enjoy aspects of the story, I found that at some points in this novel, the plot was there but was not elaborated on. At times it felt like I was reading two different stories as the first half of the book does not collaborate with the second half of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley, Prodigious Publishing, and Bradley Cornish for allowing me to read this ARC.

Shortly after I started this book, I realized it was not for me. The cover intrigued me but I only got to 20% before throwing in the towel. I did not connect with any of the characters at all. I want to thank the publisher for this complimentary copy of this book and opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Steve is a college professor, out for his daily run. A van comes speeding by without regard of anyone or anything in the road. What Steve sees is a man driving, one hand holding down a young woman with a foot hanging out the window. And she's screaming.

He turns it over in his mind and decides it was really nothing ... until a week later when he reads in the newspaper about a missing woman .... the picture is of the woman he saw in the speeding van.

His report to the police leads to finding the woman and arresting the man ... who ultimately spends 3 years behind bars.

Today ... a woman walks into his office. It's the same woman who was kidnapped. She's profuse in her thanking him, although belatedly, for playing a role in her rescue. One thing leads to another and he's getting a not-so-great feeling about her. She's offering herself and he's finding it hard to say no.

It’s only a matter of time before she leads him to the secret that lies behind the woods…

I found the plot a little on the thin side. Mostly the first part of the book was graphic descriptions of every intimate encounter Steve has with his multiple conquests. The second half of the book takes place deep in the woods .. where he learns a lot about his past. All the characters were abused one way or another when they were children. The kidnapper was abused while in prison. This was just an okay book for me.

Many thanks to the author / Prodigious Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of LIES BEHIND THE WOODS. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

It was really hard to get into this book for me. I wanted to keep reading but this needed up being a do not finish for me. Just didn't grab my attention.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of the book!

On his 25th birthday, while jogging down, Steve witnesses a kidnapping case. He thought he did a right thing by saving her and he thought he was a hero. Three years later, Tara, who was the victim visits him, after the abduction and Steve is juggling with various lust feelings as Tara is doing sexual advances towards him.

I am having mixed thoughts about this book. First taking positive side, the plot line sounds great to me. However, I didn't very much like the book much--it became kind of lame and predictable. The writing was a bit sloppy and I didn't really enjoy reading this book. Too much unnecessary things. If the unnecessary stuff was not in the book particularly the sexual things, then this book might have become great.

I don't really like giving negative reviews but this is one of the books I didn't really enjoy reading. Worth two and a half stars in my opinion.

First of all, I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for granting me access to this book. As much as the cover is eye-catching and the blurb sounds intriguing, I gave up reading after the first three chapters due to the following reasons - the writing is choppy and most of all, the whole premise definitely doesn't fit what the blurb is saying as I thought it's a suspense thriller (well it still is in a way) but the direction then veers off and left me rather stumped. In other words, it wasn't what I'd expected and it left me disappointed, as I thought the blurb sounds promising and have potential.

Lies Behind the Woods was not really what I was expecting it would be from the description. It sounds more like a thriller (and it kind of is).. but I would say it takes more of an erotica turn. I loved the idea behind the story but unfortunately this one was just not for me due to the some of the very graphic sex language.

The pace was a bit slow and the plot a bit predictable. I don’t always have to like the main character to like the book but, in this case, I actively DISliked him and found myself hoping things would not work out for him. Not the best attitude to bring yto a mystery! People who like a bit of sex with their mystery reads may like this book more than I did.