TW/CW: kidnapping however, I ended up DNF'ing this book so please do your own research!

Synopsis: He thought he witnessed a kidnapping. He thought he did the right thing. He thought he was a hero. He thought, he thought. Until his thoughts came back to haunt him.

Steve Breiten is a college professor who has a long line of failed relationships behind him. All he wants is a long vacation in the mountains, free of drama and responsibilities, where he can relax, read, and maybe even start writing his book. He didn't expect a mysterious woman to walk into his office - not that woman, the one who had been kidnapped all those years ago and rescued after a tip he'd left at the police station.

Now, his plans for the summer have taken a dramatic shift. Tara Murphy is determined to show her gratitude for his actions that fateful day, and she won't take no for an answer. As the heat builds between them, Steve finds himself at a moral crossroads. He doesn't want to take advantage of this young, damaged woman. But he finds his resistance to her sexual advances fading fast.

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

Thoughts: I've never read anything by this author before, but the cover and the synopsis drew me in so I requested an early copy to review. Right from the start I did not like the writing. I felt it lacked depth, and that's saying something from someone who prefers concise writing. I only managed to make it 17% into the story before I had to DNF the book and let me explain why.

Besides the horrible lackluster writing I felt like this was the authors idea of a sexy romp. I was able to move past his inner monologue constantly objectifying her at first, but when it got to the part where she wanted to spend the night at his place and “thank him” and he continued to objectify her in detail I just couldn't continue. Oh and this happened on the very first day of their actual meeting after the incident where he saved her somehow? From what little I know she was taken and raped and Steve had a part in saving her (but maybe not because the chapter after I DNF'd it started talking about some weird camera thing which I'll jump into in a moment).

As this is an ARC I will not directly quote, but suffice it to say things like: Steve telling Tara the problem is he had sex with her mom and saved her life so the relationship dynamics would be on uneven footing, Steve could not stay with a woman for more than a year and a half because he had daddy issues, and Steve wanting nothing more than to dive into Tara's "country-bred mounds" actually happened in the first 15% of this book. Even with as awful as that was I continued. The next chapter "The Flying Mirror" talked about a new type of intelligent traffic-enforcement camera that would be able to detect if something looked suspicious about an automobile, or anyone within the automobile. Are you crazy? You expect me to believe this crap? I think not. Basically I think I am reading a book of convenience where Cornish is jacking off the entire time. No thank you. Hard pass!

Rating: DNF

Hashtags: #LiesBehindtheWoods #NetGalley

This book was a DNF for me, I couldn't get past the main character who was unlikable from the start. I made it to the first very open door sex scene and gave up. It didn't add to the story and just made it creepier. Sorry to the author but this was not for me.
NetGalley made the ARC available to me for an honest review.

I didn't find this book very interesting and honestly, felt kind of bored while reading it. I don't have too much to say about it because I found it uninteresting, and not much really stood out to me.

Wow, I hate giving bad reviews, but sorry to the author, I just can’t avoid it here.

Steve is a creepy professor who likes creeping on the young women in his psychology classes. One day three years ago, he unwittingly saw the abduction of a teenager.

Steve has sex with every woman he comes across and he apparently loves fantasizing about literally everyone. He does have some morals, I guess. He tries to reject the advances of the abduction victim, Tara, since he feels there’s a power imbalance... and also because he slept with her mom. And the DA that charged her case. And his last girlfriend’s older sister.

This dude is just too weird.

Here are some text examples:

“ He thоught ѕhе hаd a country wholesome quаlitу about hеr—ѕеxу, but rеаdу tо milk a соw if nееdеd. Someone he would love to have fun with if given the opportunity.“

“ Hаd ѕhе ѕеlесtеd that blоuѕе to arouse him? In light оf the еvidеnсе оf hеr maturity, and her еаѕе with hеr past trаumаtiс еvеnt, hе now thоught maybe she hаd dressed to impress him. Hе саught himself ѕtаring аt her breasts аnd thеn rерrimаndеd himѕеlf. Hе was соnfuѕеd. He didn’t knоw hоw hе should treat her. The six-year age difference didn’t bother Steve at all, but he couldn’t help but view Tara аѕ a уоungеr ѕiѕtеr, оr as ѕоmеоnе whose life he once saved.”

“ mоrе thаn tо divе intо thоѕе whоlеѕоmе country-brеd mоundѕ—tо tеаr аwау hеr blоuѕе and expose hеr milkу white bosom. His testosterone couldn’t hold him back as he wanted to see whаt her niррlеѕ lооkеd likе; he imаginеd they wеrе large аnd pointy, with rosy but рimрlу аrrеоlаs. Hе соuld еаѕilу imаginе ѕliding his big hard erection bеtwееn hеr аmрlе breasts.”

“ Stеvе ѕаw Jаnе’s big brеаѕtѕ and perky hard nipples staring at him. They were nоt too lаrgе, but rather, thеу wеrе nаturаllу реrfect. Steve ѕtооd thеrе for a moment аnd tооk in the ѕight оf tорlеѕѕ Jаnе. Aѕ a breast mаn, hе relished thе mоmеnt whеn a nеw lover exposed hеr brеаѕtѕ tо him for thе firѕt time.”

And this zinger:

“ Hiѕ mоthеr breastfed him until thе аgе оf five аѕ a wау of соmреnѕаting fоr hеr broken mаrriаgе, and hе сrеdited thаt fоr hiѕ fascination with female breasts. Hе аdmirеd аll shapes and ѕizеѕ, аnd аlwауѕ evaluated hоw thеу would lооk bra-less in a ѕhееr whitе blоuѕе.”.

I read up to the 30% mark and it only gets more sexual from there. Which, that’s not a problem, exactly, it’s just that I thought I would be reading a thriller and not erotica.

So if erotica about power imbalances is your thing, here you go.

Oh wow. So...DNF 15% This is certainly not the book I thought it would be.

A man gives a tip to the police that saves a woman who was abducted. 3 years later she shows up to his office wanting to thank him. I was able to move past his inner monologue constantly objectifying her but when it got to the part where she wanted to spend the night at his place and “thank him” properly 2 paragraphs after telling him she was raped while she was abducted, I stopped. Wtf.

I always feel bad DNF-ing, especially ARCs, but that was enough for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me access to this title.

Lies behind the woods by Bradley Cornish.
A good read with some good characters. Little slow but readable. I did like the cover. 4*.

I hate giving low star ratings but this story just didn't cut it for me. While I didn't hate the concept behind the story I think it fell short on delivery. The writing itself is pretty choppy. I feel as if there was too much dialogue and not enough development of plot and character. I also personally am not a huge fan of cheesy sex scenes. The whole porn -driven commune deep in the woods ran by the main characters father lost me. When I selected the book I really was not expecting it to take that turn. However since it did, I wish the author had spent more time developing Breitenbush. I probably would have enjoyed reading more about the cult/ commune. Overall though there was just too much going on in the book and things just happened too fast.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

I don't often give 1 star reviews but unfortunately I absolutely hated this book.

There's a major lack of detail, and the plot is entirely predictable.

Another issue I had is that the book starts off with a passage about Stockholm Syndrome. This made the twist completely clear from the start, which seems like a bad idea.

I wanted to stop reading about a quater of the way though, but I try to finish books I've been provided with via Netgalley.

I can't say I recommend this one