On a lonely stretch of beach in California is the remote town of Gothic. It’s the place to find lost souls. And when Adam Ramsdell finds a body in the surf, a woman who is obviously dead, he flips her over and hauls her off the beach. Only to have her come to life. Who is this woman and why isn’t she dead? It looks as if someone tried to kill her. She has bruises around her neck and has been battered by the ocean.

Elle. Her name is Elle. She thinks. She just isn’t sure of much else. So she takes refuge in Adams’s home. Remote and private. Just the way he likes it. Adam isn’t a talker. He says he has no friends, but everyone in town likes him.

As she heals and begins to get fragments of her memory back, she is terrified. What is it she can’t quite see in her nightmares? Or who? Someone tried to kill her and she has no idea who or why. Which makes trusting strangers difficult. It seems everyone in this town has at least one secret and she suspects Adam has a few as well.

And when her nightmare turns into reality, more people will be hurt.

This was a good mystery/suspense read. The characters were fun and the tension was real.

NetGalley/June 21st, 2022 by HQN

Adam is haunted by his past and goes down to the beach, thinking about walking into the water and ending it. Instead he comes across a woman he thinks is dead but he manages to revive her. She has no memory of her past, doesn’t know her name and someone is determined to end her life before she regains her memory. Adam reluctantly take her under his wing. The book is set in a small town with a very efficient and sometimes funny rumor mill. The little town the book is set in is cute and there are a lot of quirky characters. The book has suspense along with a romance. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

This new series from Ms. Dodd grabs my attention and keeps me turning page after page. The character development as well as the small-town antics keeps me amused. Adam is a man who wants to be left alone to lick his wounds. He seems to be the standard stoic introvert. This is until we learn about his childhood. I am stricken with sorrow and a feeling of helplessness. I want to go back in time to wrap this tough boy in warm protection. Elle's missing memory makes each childhood flashback a treasure. I just really liked these two characters.

I want to talk more about Adam. They say that our childhood experiences are what makes us what we are today. Some people crack and break through the adversities. Others overcome and go obsessively in the other direction. I feel like Adam's parents had all the best of intentions and they just didn't get it. His story is so awful that I teared up reading about it. They loved him so much and yet they made some bad mistakes. I completely understand Adam. My parents are known for being "serendipitous". This created chaos and drama in my childhood that I would rather not recall or live through again. I am the exact opposite. I have to plan everything and know all the details before I make a move. I struggle to avoid being too rigid and it took a long time to find a balance. This is why I can relate to Adam so well.

Adam is a man who we know will do the right thing. When he saves Elle, what he does to help her is more than the average bear. I'm impressed. Elle's slow memory and her ability to do things she didn't know she could do are about amusing and frightening. To be out of control like this, especially of one's mind is a nightmare for me. Elle takes it all with grace. In figuring out what is going on with Elle, things get complicated. There is some seriously heavy material in this book that adds layers and enhances my reading experience. The heavy stuff is nicely balanced by the hilarity of a small-town rumour mill. I love how the townspeople come up with theories about Adam and Elle.

This is a lovely suspense with a light romantic element.

I thought the pacing of this book was good. It kept me wanting to pick it up.

Adam is a bit of a loner and lives in Gothic, California. He doesn't talk about his past and he tries not to get close to anyone. One night, he decides to end his life and instead he found a dead body. At least he thought it was a dead body, but when put the woman over his shoulder to carry her, she threw up water and started breathing. She thought her name was Elle, but that was all she could remember. That and her attack. Elle had bruises from someone trying to choke her and she survived the water long enough to get close to shore. Elle didn't know who tried to kill her, just that she trusted him. Adam takes care of Elle and she just doesn't leave. He uses Rune, the local fortune teller to help Elle start remembering things. Everything came back in pieces and small memories. Elle was kind and everyone in Gothic welcomed her. While they try to figure out Elle's life before, Adam keeps on eye out. He's worried the person might come back to finish the job.

I really liked the setting for this one. The relationship speed annoyed me, but I also understand how they quickly bonded. Overall, this was a fun read.

I gave this book 4 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my earc.

I have enjoyed some of Dodd’s romantic suspense, so it was natural to be excited about this new suspense. However, I could not get into this particular story. Unfortunately, I could not finish this one.

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<p>This is my first Christina Dodd book in a really long time, and my first that isn't Historical Romance. I was originally just skimming the first couple of chapters to decide where to put it in my review line-up and next thing I knew I was hooked. The writing is descriptive and you can very easily picture the California coastline in Gothic (her small town where this story takes place). The hero, Adam, is a standoffish grump who isn't so grumpy once you get to know him, and the heroine Elle has no memory of her life at all, save for the few moments before her death.</p>
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<p>Adam fished Elle out of the sea, and she's dead. He tosses her over his shoulder to haul her up to land and she vomits seawater and is back amongst the living. Minus her memory. Being dead, even for a short time, added to the traumatic was she was killed is sure to hurt her brain. Some memories slowly come back, some come back full force. One of the flashes of memory that comes to her is of the night she's killed. Someone is strangling her, and she's able to hurt them back. But she doesn't know if they survived or not. She doesn't know if they think she's dead, or if they're still coming for her. The whole book had me flipping pages quickly to find out what would happen next!</p>
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<p>For Adam's part, he has his own past that is never very far behind him. The ghosts of his own past haunt him, and he likes it that way. He doesn't want to forget and move on. He wants to remain hyper vigilant at all times, to ensure nothing like that can ever happen again. His past was...unexpected. I loved watching him fall for Elle, his sunshiney heroine. </p>
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<p>Gothic is a small town near Big Sur, California where people go to reinvent themselves, to hide, to start fresh. Elle may not remember her life, however she's able to fit in with the misfits of Gothic, and make a nice home for herself. But as pieces of her memory float back to her, she's sure of one thing. She's single. Which helps out a lot since she's falling for Adam, and hard. But the closer they get, the more danger they're in. They just don't know it.</p>
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<p>We all know that the danger to Elle is still out there, and it's closer than ever. But Adam's past is ever-present, and coming in hot as well. These two fight for each other, and they fight for a future. I enjoyed watching their journey into Happily Ever After. I can't wait for the next Gothic book!</p>
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<p>***ARC courtesy of the publisher Harlequin via Netgalley</p>
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Washing up on the beach of what is called the City of Lost Souls seems fitting when Elle cannot remember her entire name or any of her past. Danger lurks in plain sight. Quirky story with interesting characters.

This was a pretty interesting and fast read. In the town of Gothic, a remote village between the Santa Lucia mountains and the raging pacific near Big Sur, is where Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half drowned body out of the surf. She wakes up with no memory of what happened to her before she was almost killed and only remembers her first name. During the course of her stay in Gothic she figures out bits and pieces everyday of who she was and why she ended up in Gothic. She won’t be safe until she figures out who tried to kill her and why. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Adam and Elle and how they fell in love and the backstory for Adam and how he ended up in Gothic was so sad.

Thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Christina Dodd has been on a fantastic writing streak with great books and this is another notch on her belt!!

You can really tell that this mystery/thriller is published by Harlequin, because it has that campy romance thing going on big time. A beautiful female scientist is discovered dead on a beach by a hunky man with a heart of gold and a troubled past. In slinging her over his shoulder to bring her body to authorities, she expels the water in her lungs and comes back to life. (Um, okay.) She's covered in bruises and has marks from being strangled by giant hands, but she has amnesia and cannot say who she is or who is after her.

Okay, I can get on board even though a lot of that is kinda out there. But it's more than a little off-putting for this traumatized woman to almost immediately be checking out her rescuer's package. And the characters in the town are meant to be sort of charming oddballs but they're quite over the top. One of the main characters is a likeable fortune teller who used to be a psychiatrist, but the author kept misgendering her (she now identifies as female). Rune was referred to as "she" most of the book and then every once in a while for no reason the author would just randomly call her "him" and once referred to her as "a large man." It's great to have a trans character, but then you have the responsibility to treat her with respect.

And the villains in this book.... oh my goodness, they're straight out of a cartoon.

All the same, it's a fun read if you want a sort of romantic modern sexy "Murder She Wrote" kind of thing set in coastal California with movie stars, fortune tellers and troubled pasts. The sex is very PG, even though it is a big part of the plot. G, almost. We hear a lot about how the main character has a giant erection and is wondering whether she's wearing panties and things like that as he nurses her back to health, and she nearly immediately falls in love with him even as she's supposedly terrified and tortured with nightmares and flashbacks. Just suspend your disbelief if this is your cup of tea.

I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.

This one took me a minute to get into but once I did I could not put it down. I usually don't read a book this far in advance of release but I just couldn't wait to dig into it, after all it is by one of my favorite authors and once I read just a part of the tag line I was hooked. Gothic is a small town on the Pacific coast outside of Big Sur and full of quirky characters in the town of Lost Souls. Adam pulls what he thinks is some plastic out of the surf but it is really a body and when he lifts her over his shoulder she comes back to life. Battered and bruised and frozen, Elle does not remember who she is or what happened to her. Now Adam not only is her protector but they are embroiled in finding out who she is. So many twist, turns, and other stories going on. Just when you think you have it figured out there is a twist to take you in a different direction.

Glad this is going to be a series and I cannot wait to see where it goes.

"When you’ve already died, there should be nothing left to fear… When Adam Ramsdell pulls Elle’s half-frozen body from the surf on a lonely California beach, she has no memory of what her full name is and how she got those bruises ringing her throat."

Ok, with that synopsis, who can really resist this book? Not me, and I'm so glad I didn't try! Disclaimer: I'm a huge Christina Dodd fan. I was before I read this, and I definitely still am. This book, filled with lost souls, was also a mystery, a thriller, and a suspense filled ride. I absolutely love the town of Gothic and look forward to reading more about it and its inhabitants in the books that follow this one.

Adam leads a self imposed solitary existence, and he has no plans to change that, until he finds a dead body on the beach near his home. Enter Elle. After bringing her back to life, and realizing that she has no memory of who she is or how she got in the water, and after noticing that she is covered in bruises, he takes her home with him and promises her a safe place to stay until she is well enough to leave. That proves easier said than done when he starts developing feelings for her. The search for Elle's identity and the mystery of her death leads to violence not just for Adam and Elle, but for other residents of Gothic. It turns out Adam isn't the only one with a checkered past in the town.

I loved this book so much in part because I loved Adam and Elle so much. They were great characters with great chemistry. The other residents of Gothic were pretty great, too, and everyone's back story was detailed, which made it easy to get invested in them. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this book series goes.

The plot was interesting and the writing was superb, which made this a quick read for me. The pacing was also on point.

In summary, I highly recommend this book to readers looking for a good mystery to sink their teeth into.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Dodd's latest combines fun, interesting characters, a bit of romance, and a solid mystery. It's fun to figure things out with the characters.

Adam is hiding from the world and avoiding everyone in the Got hic City until he pulls Elle from the sea. I thoroughly enjoyed this romantic suspense book filled with fun and interesting characters. Hopefully I will meet them again

OK, I really loved this book about a quirky town full of quirky characters. The town is named Gothic and sounds like a wonderful place to live. The characters sound like people I would love to know and become friends with. I highly recommended this book to readers who like romance and mystery.