You want to know what I do? I run a bookstore. That's what I do. Books. And when I'm not selling books, I try to do a little of what your crowd might call philanthropy. My own special brand of the stuff. Meaning that when I run into someone who has been treated badly, I don't turn my head away.

Firstly, thanks to the publisher for reaching out with the offer of an ARC. Nikki Griffin ended up carving her own little niche in my head, so it's pretty great to see her back!

I had some issues with the first book - fairly standard debut ones, but still. I'm happy to report this time around the author's confidence seems to have grown, expanding his sentences as it did - there's much less choppiness in the text, and it made for a much smoother read.

I'm a little torn about One Got Away - on the one hand, you can clearly see the author's growth, especially in writing style and some of those gorgeous descriptions of the California coast. On the other, what I loved most about the first book, what really stuck in my noggin and made it a memorable experience, didn't see as much of the spotlight this time around.

Nikki is taking on a much more streamlined investigation this time around, though where it leads is anything but neat. Most of the book is spent away from the bookstore, though it does get some time at the end. I appreciated that - too many books in this genre end abruptly, and I appreciated that the author took some time to slow down and tidy up when all was said and done on the mystery front.

Despite the lack of focus on the parts I loved about the first book, this was still an entertaining read, showing growth in all the right places. I'll certainly be back for book three, because regardless of focus, this is still a very exciting new series.

I loved the first book featuring Nikki so when this one was offered to me, I grabbed it quickly! Nikki is a take-no-prisoners woman (who also owns a bookstore) and as a PI she is determined to protect women from male predators. So when Martin hires her to find the con-man who has scammed his wealthy mother out of a small fortune, she is all in. But of course, things aren't always as they appear and once she meets the man, she realizes he's a smooth operator but maybe not exactly the man she thought he was. Throw in a savvy 11-year-old boy willing to help her, friend Buster who is good at finding people, and a sex-trafficking ring, and you've got the makings for a superb story! Loved it!

One Got Away by S.A. Lelchuk is the second installment in the Nikki Griffin series. Nikki is a streetwise, book store owning P.I. who defends those that can’t defend themselves. In One Got Away, she is after a suspected con man that may be blackmailing the elderly, widowed matriarch of a wealthy San Francisco family. But not all is as it seems. When the con man is kidnapped and the bodies of several young women are found abandoned in a trailer Nikki has more questions than answers and time is running out.

The story is well plotted, keeps the reader guessing and moves along at a fast pace. There is a moody film noir feel to the story and the writing. I can hear Nikki’s smooth narration - sharp and sarcastic - as she peels back the layers and carefully crafts her next step as she moves closer to the true nature of the crime. Nikki is a tenacious, smart, flawed character who doesn’t always land on the legal side of things but lives her life by her own code of justice, S.A. Lelchuk as created a character the is brash, unapologetic and original. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next Nikki Griffin book.

An excellent follow up to Save Me From Dangerous Men. A recommended first purchase for collections where thrillers/the previous title were popular.

This amazing book is for fans of Lisbeth Salander and Jack Reacher.

I enjoyed this fast paced and unputdowable read. Once I started my fingers could not turn the pages fast enough. Wow this was a wild ride and I loved it!

Nikki Griffin is an amazing character, and has a great back story and the reason why she is so passionate about protecting women. She is also a bookseller by day and private investigator by night. Who wouldn’t love a badass character with the perfect job I can only dream of.

Sounds amazing right?

In this second book, which I enjoyed reading so much, and can be enjoyed as a stand alone, we are taken along in an action packed adventure to find a con-man who has defrauded one of the wealthiest families in San Francisco.

Nothing is ever what it seems and this book is full of amazing surprises, with the twits and turns thriller lovers enjoy in their read.

I highly recommend this. I am so excited to read the first book in this series.

Thank you Flatiron Books for providing a Netgalley eARC. Opinions are my own.

A great and thrilling read from the very start! A bookstore owner by day and private investigator by night Nikki Griffin is not scared of much and is ready to get to the bottom of any case! With her motorcycle ready to go she won’t stop until she gets her answers!

I recently read "Save Me from Dangerous Men (Nikki Griffin, #1)" and loved it! When I saw "One Got Away" I knew I HAD to get this book.

Nikki Griffin is quite the character: thoughtful, loyal, somewhat 'hair-trigger' with reactions but, in the end, she is a good person trying to make her way through life.

Nikki Griffin 1 & 2 are both rockem' sockem' action books, entertaining from start to end, a pleasing journey.

I hope S. A. Lelchuk continues the Nikki Griffin saga.

Nikki Griffin is a tough PI who owns a bookstore on the side. When she is hired by Martin Johannessen, a member of a wealthy family, she is asked to find a con-man who, according to Martin, is taking advantage of the Johannessen family matriarch. As Griffin works to uncover the truth she finds that there is a lot more going on, both within the Johannessen circle and outside it, putting herself and others in danger. Can Nikki get to the bottom of things before the truth kills her?

One Got Away is the second novel in the Nikki Griffin series. While I have not read the previous novel, I never felt lost or confused about the characters, their actions or their motives. I always enjoy a strong, female protagonist, and Nikki definitely matches that description; she is a tough, independent woman. The narrative itself was okay; I didn't dislike it, but it did not really stand out or grab me. There were moments where it seemed as though the story was building up to something big and important, only to fizzle out, leaving me wanting more. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the opportunity to read an electronic advanced readers edition of One Got Away in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.

I was really disappointed by this one... I absolutely loved the first Nikki book. Save Me from Dangerous Men was brilliant - she was a badass protagonist who stood up for herself and for people who couldn't stand up for themselves, and every bit of the plotting, characterization, and action grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go until The Bitter End. I was beyond delighted at the second book being released, and eagerly dove in. But from the opening pages, this did not feel like the Nikki from the first book. She waffles, she relies on men, she follows stereotypical "bad boys", she makes foolish decisions
- she takes on a child sidekick for God's sake.... Ir just felt forced and nowhere near as flowing and natural in her characterization OR her vengeance as she did in the first book... The mysteries and conspiracies she uncovers feel like they've all been done a thousand times before. This one just did not entertain me the way the first book did....

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book, even though I loved the first one in the series. It was an okay book though, and I was able to finish after trying a few times. I was a big fan of the first and didn’t even realize this was the second, but was excited when I found out, but it sort of was a let down for me. It did have a few thrills, chills, and shocks, but nothing that blew my mind. Overall, I would recommend to those who loved the first book, but wouldn’t recommend to those who didn’t. I also think it would be better read as a follow up, but could possibly be read as a stand-alone.

Nikki Griffin is back a tough PI a strong woman afraid of no one.At the same tine she owns a bookstore loves books .Away from the peace of her bookstore she is involved in blood and gore activities.A true page turner love Nikki a strong kickass woman .Looking forward to next in series.#netgalley #flatirobnboojs

One Got Away by S.A. Lelchuk is the second book in the Nikki Griffith series. I won this book in an Instagram giveaway by Flatiron Books so while I hadn't read the first novel, I was still very much looking forward to reading this one.

Nikki Griffith is a bookstore owner/private investigator who will track down all the creepy bad guys for a fee. Not being familiar with the series, I was nervous about a disconnect between the first book and this one, but it worked well as a stand-alone and the writing was enough to hook me. As I read, though, I started to get annoyed with the characters. For one, every person feels like a shallow stereotype; all the people Nikki meets are extremely cliché and predictable.

For example, take the premise of the novel: a wealthy client meets with Nikki to investigate a man he believes is conning his socialite, stupidly-rich mother. When Nikki meets this man she seems to already know the situation is cliché because in the narration we read she says, “I'm surprised he didn't say, 'leave no stone unturned'.” And then believe it or not, he says it! So cliché!

I mean, if you say so, Nikki. I haven't read enough PI novels to know what the client is going to ask for, but you said it, not me. Anyway, this made me feel like Nikki thinks she's smarter than everyone she meets which, spoiler alert, she does. She also felt like a stereotype of a man's dream girl: super hot, book AND street smart, and uber cool because she rides a motorcycle. Anybody you come across in the novel is going to remind you how hot she is, so don't forget it. It's apparently super important.

There's also a mafia boss with a crew of henchmen; a lot of gun fights; a tough guy who gets shot and doesn't care; a fancy, rich heiress; oh, and ethics. Nikki's got mad ethics. So overall the book was pretty exciting, it was cool to find out what was gonna happen next even though it was just more people being predictable (but not because the author wrote them that way, just because we all know people are SO predictable, right? [They're not.] But because stereotypes are predictable, obviously.) So yeah, I guess in the end Nikki was super predictable and I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

So to wrap it all up, this book had me somewhere in between 3 and 4 stars. There were a couple of moments I can think back on that felt they could authentically happen in real life, but the fact that everyone is a glaring stereotype got pretty annoying. So round up? Round down? It's a tough call. But there were some pretty nice writing moments that saved this review and that takes it up to 4 stars for me.

Thank you to the publisher Flatiron Books for hosting the giveaway and gifting me an eARC of this book!

ARC review:

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but One Got Away really did not hold my interest. I've given it 2 stars.

Recap: Bookstore owner and PI Nikki Griffin is approached by a society family to track down a conman who has targeted the family's matriarch. She soon discovers that the family has plenty of their own secrets (an estranged artist daughter, one brother grievously injured in a drive by accident, and more), and that "Mom" is far from a helpless old widow. She enlists the help of her chop-shop friend Buster, a retired newspaper man, and a nosy child named Malcolm to track down the con man.

Review: I really liked the inclusion of these characters, but I found the story really quite implausible, and I was frustrated by all the time and text devoted to driving up and down the California coast. I do wish the bookstore staff and client's featured a little more heavily in book 2 like they did in book 1. Lastly, I found it hard to connect with Nikki's form of vigilantism.

Having enjoyed S. A. Lelchuck's previous Nikki Griffin book, Save Me From Dangerous Men, I was pleased to find book two was available.

This time, our intrepid P.I. is on the case for a man furious that his mother--head of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in California--has been taken in by a con man (I immediately got shades of Dr. Phil episodes in which desperate daughters try to get their mothers to see the light that Mr. Right, trapped in Uganda and needing just 20 grand more to secure transportation to the US, is in, fact, not real).

Nikki doesn't need much prodding. She is very much not a fan of men who hurt women.

But when she gets deeper on the trail of the con man, she realizes no one is telling her the truth, and it won't be long until her life is in serious danger.

This was a quickly paced thrill ride, though the plot and characters are outlandishly far fetched. Somehow this works (with the exception of the head gangster--I annoyingly read all of his parts in the character of Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone. Even more annoying considering I've never actually seen The Godfather), and though Nikki still reminds me of some male fantasy of a comic book heroine, well, I've definitely read worse women written by men. This book doesn't require deep thoughts--you just let the pages take you on a ridiculous journey that's quite fun if you can suspend your disbelief.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for making this review copy available; I can't wait to see what adventures Nikki goes on next.

Comparisons to Lisbeth Salander are apt, but private investigator Nikki Griffin, who also owns and operates a small bookstore, is more likely to break bones than crack a computer firewall. In this second tale of the series, Nikki becomes entangled with one of the wealthiest families in San Francisco. It seems as though the matriarch has been defrauded and possibly blackmailed by a con-man, and her son hires Nikki to track down the con man. As Nikki goes on the hunt, she quickly realizes that no one involved is telling her the whole truth. And these deceptions place her in the crosshairs of some very dangerous men. For most, that would be discomfiting. For Nikki, it’s where she operates best.

A big Thank You!!!!, to Netgalley and the publisher for my early access of One Got Away by S. A. Lelchuk and Flatiron Books. All opinions in this review are my own honest opinion. If you do not agree, it's ok! :) We all are are own people. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes General Fiction (Adult). To me this book was a great read and very suspenseful and action packed. One Got Away by S. A. Lelchuk, this is the second book in Nikki Griffin, in this latest book PI Nikki Griffin is back to find money from the wealthiest in SF family that was robbed by a con-man.

This book was definitely different from what I usually read, it was very good, it had plenty of action, lots of suspense, heart pounding moments, and a great storyline! It did have a lott of gore, lots of shoot in up action lol all and all it was a great read! Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for sharing this book with me!

I love Nicki Griffin. Actually, I want to be Nicki Griffin! A bad ass who owns a bookstore. My dream job. Can’t wait for the next book.