I was very disappointed in this book. It looked good. It sounded good. But it just fell short. I read over half of it before giving up. It was just not for me.

3 stars

3,0 stars
I struggled with this book. I didn’t connect with any of the characters.
I've read the author's previous books, and enjoyed them, but this one wasn't that good.

I received a complimentary copy from Thomas and Mercer and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

This is my first book by Kara Thomas and so I went in with anticipation. Out of the Ashes is a perfect read for thriller lovers in need of an escape. The book follows Samantha a nurse whose family was murdered when she was thirteen years old. Years later when she goes to Carney to put her uncle's affairs in order new evidence and a new perspective resurfaces . What was intriguing is that a prison inmate claims
her baby sister is alive. Initially the plot had me in chains then a quarter through it became so dragged and I just wanted it to hurry along.. The plot was intriguing but could have been fast paced but overall I recommend.

I appreciate a nurse main character who is morally grey and thinks like a nurse. This book was full throttle from the beginning and i loved it! I just wish the characters were a little more fleshed out, I had trouble differentiating between some of the side characters.

This was a good book. It tells the story of Sam, whose family was murdered when she was a young teenager. She finds out 20 years later that there are people who have hidden the truth for decades. The story has a lot of suspense and is well written.

Samantha lost her whole family in childhood when her house was burnt down. She happened to be at a sleepover that night and was saved. Fast forward many years later Samantha is an ICU nurse. She returns to her home town where secrets start to unravel. The killer of her family is still on the loose and Samantha wants answers. This book was very well written, the character development was great, and the suspense did not disappoint. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

She always thought her entire family was killed by the police when she was a young girl. However, after her uncle’s death and her returning to that small town…she was told her 2yo sister may not have been in the house when the fire started. But if so, who took her sister and did that person kill her parents also.

I found this was a good murder mystery from a cold case that led to revealing new truths about her family from long ago.

I have loved Kara Thomas' YA books. They are twisty and a bit twisted and I've really enjoyed them so when I saw she had written an adult fiction book I was super excited to see if she would up the ante and be more twisted and darker. That is exactly what I got. This was very dark and gritty and dare I say a bit seedy. There is rape, murder, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and a prison contraband smuggling scene I won't soon forget. Thomas really went for it in this one! It's twisty, suspenseful and a bit shocking. It's the perfect level of disquieting for an adult crime novel. There were so many viable suspects and I was surprised more than once, especially by the final reveal. This book kept me turning the pages late into the night. I look forward to more adult fiction from Thomas and I'll be first in line.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

🧡🖤🔥🖤🧡🖤🔥🖤🧡🖤🔥🖤🧡🖤🔥🖤🧡

Out of the Ashes follows Samantha Newsom. Sam is 35-years old and works as a nurse in NYC. She hasn't had an easy life, filled with early trauma that has had lasting repercussions. When Sam was 13, her family was murdered and their home set ablaze. Sam escaped harmed, as she was at a friend's house that night for a sleepover, but the rest of her family, her Mom, Dad and baby sister were not that lucky.

Sam was taken in by family after the tragedy, but her life was no longer filled with love, or warm relationships. Particularly, tenuous was her relationship with her Aunt Mitch. The two butted heads something awful. Needless to say, Sam was eager to leave her small town of Carney, New York, behind when she got old enough. She's rarely gone back since.

She still keeps in contact with her Uncle Gil though and when he dies, he leaves Sam his house, hoping she'll keep it. Return to her roots. Sam doesn't want anything to do with Carney. The mystery of who killed her family was never solved, in large part due to the actions of local law enforcement. She doesn't want to be reminded of all that.

When Sam is contacted by an Investigator, Travis Meacham, who has been assigned the cold case though, she sees a glimmer of hope for finding the truth. Meacham reports he has a fresh lead. A prison inmate who claims that he saw Sam's baby sister, Lyndsay, being removed from the home before it burned.

Could her sister be alive? Was she kidnapped, not murdered?

She needs to take care of her Uncle's house anyway, it's the perfect excuse to return to Carney. While she's there, Sam plans to do some digging of her own. Sam's determined to get the answers she deserves about the night that shattered her life forever. With Meacham's help, she just may be able to solve this decades old mystery.

I really enjoyed this Adult Debut from Kara Thomas. It's the type of gritty Crime Fiction I tend to enjoy, the kind that feels a bit Hillybilly Noir, for lack of a better term.

The title of this book fits it to a tee. Sam literally feels like a phoenix rising from the ashes. She's been through some things, it's definitely had an impact on her adult life, but I felt like throughout this story, she grows and is sort of able to rebuild herself.

I loved Sam as a main character. This story is told entirely through her perspective and I appreciated that choice by Thomas. It felt fitting with the nature of this story.

I love the trope of a character leaving their small town in the dust and then returning many years later to investigate something that happened in the past. Luckily for me, that's exactly what this is. Out of the Ashes is a slow-burn, but I didn't mind. Overall, I felt it easy to get swept up in the story. There's a lot of drama in the town and with Sam's remaining family.

At times I struggled a little trying to keep up with the dynamics between them all, but I feel like for the most part, it was really well done. There is one really powerful family in the town, they own a large farm that employees a lot of people, and Sam and her family are quite involved with them. They definitely added a sinister, dangerous tone to the narrative.

The majority of the story is fairly bleak. There's not a lot to be jazzed, or happy about, but honestly, there shouldn't be. It's not that kind of story. The town is floundering, drugs have had a huge impact, like in many small towns in America. The locals seem a bit desperate and suspicious of outsiders.

They definitely view Sam as an outsider at this point. She's been gone too long, has a fancy education and a solid career. I felt for her. The jarring nature of her return to her hometown. That's always something I enjoy reading about. I've been in that position, so find it easy to relate to. When I do visit my hometown, it's like a completely different world.

There were some twists in this I didn't see coming and I did like how Thomas continued to build the tension throughout. She also allowed Sam to gain strength and confidence as the story progresses. Sam's a bit of a badass.

The conclusion almost brought me to tears. I was stunned. It was wrapped up really well. I'm impressed with Thomas's ease of transitioning into the Adult Thriller genre. I hope she continues to write YA Thrillers too though, because she is one of my favorite authors in that space.

Look at you being all multi-talented, Kara Thomas!

Thank you to the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I think this is a great effort for an Adult Debut. I definitely recommend this one for fans of dark, gritty Crime Fiction.

I've read some of Kara Thomas YA titles in the past, and I remember really enjoying her writing. I was curious to see how her work would translate to adult fiction; combine that with the fact that I was intrigued by the blurb of Out Of The Ashes, and I've been more than curious to pick it up. Now that I've had the chance to finish the book, I'm not sure what to make of it though... I'm not saying it's a bad read, but it did lack that je ne sais quoi that would take this story to the next level for me.

The premise of Out Of The Ashes has without doubt a lot of potential, with the death of the main character's family never solved and her returning to her hometown after so long. Somehow, the execution of the plot didn't really work for me though. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on the why, but I think it has partly to do with the pace itself. The pace is considerably slow during most of the plot, and it took me a lot longer than expected to actually finish what is quite a short book. Somehow, the story never managed to grab me completely, and I kept hoping something would happen that would speed up the pace. Which is strange, because technically a LOT does happen during the story...

I also felt that there were way too many characters introduced, and as a result most of them felt rather one-dimensional and underdeveloped. I struggled to remember where everybody stood in the story, and this only slowed down the pace even more... I also felt that some of the side stories were unnecessary; they didn't add much to the plot nor were they given a satisfying closure to wrap things up. The mystery itself didn't really stand out for me either, and I had mixed thoughts about the way things ended with the mystery around that night so long ago.

The main character Samantha herself has potential, but there were things about her character that annoyed me. And this especially relates to her behavior and the way she keeps putting herself in dangerous situations... I'm not sure her irresponsable behavior fits what her character seems to stand for; either way, it really irritated me. There were also quite a few cliches involved in general, and most of the characters weren't exactly likeable in the first place.

All in all I ended up having mostly mixed thoughts about Out Of The Ashes. Like I said before, it's not a bad read, but it's also sadly not a story that stood out in any way for me. In fact, I much prefer her YA books so far...

Out of the Ashes by Kara Thomas is a spell-binding novel of suspense where no one can be trusted.
Samantha Newsome, an NYC ICU nurse, returns home to assist her uncle Gil who has stage 4 cancer pass with dignity to the next life. Being home brings back all the horrible memories of Sam's childhood and why she left. Missteps, misinterpretations, lies, and a sloppy inquiry lead Samantha Newsome to search for the truth about the murder of her entire family twenty-one years ago. Thomas has written an engrossing thriller where every time you think you've solved the murder, you find yourself wrong. A terrific novel that is woven with twists at every turn.
#thankyouNETGALLEYforthisARC. #Unputdownable!

An adult thriller by Kara Thomas? Yes, please!

A woman with a small town dark past? Also, yes!

The whole story has you thinking you know what happened to this family. Every new character brings to light new clues and bits of information. And then suddenly you’re wrong!

And the ending will have you with the tears!

Read this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book.

The last thing Sam wants to do is go back to Carney New York but when her uncle Gill calls to tell her he has sage for lung cancer and wants her help to assist him to die she feels she cannot say no after the deed is done she now must go back to Carney New York because he has left his home to her and she wants to clean it out and put it on the market she has nothing but bad memories in the town it’s where her parents were shot and killed in their home set on fire where she was sent to live with an aunt who acted as if she didn’t like Sam and a cousin who was jealous of her. when back in town she runs into old friends and even older enemies but on her first day there a state investigator Mitchum shows up to tell her there’s a new witness in her families investigation. what the eye witness has to say will not only change how she looks at her own life but throughout her own investigation will change what she thinks of as family. She will have to figure out what’s rumor and what’s reality and what is the truth and what a red herrings but most importantly she’s going to have to figure out who is really on her side and who is just pretending. This book was so good and it seemed every time you turned around a lie was being uncovered and the truth was even uglier this was a great book and one I highly recommend thoroughly enjoyed this book so so good! I received this book from netGalley and Henry Holt and Company but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Wow, wow, wow! I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Kara Thomas's young adult books but she blew my mind with this adult thriller. I couldn't put this book down, every opportunity I had my nose buried in this book. The plot twists were some of the twistiest I've read in awhile, I'm pretty sure my eyes were bugging out of my head at times while audibly gasping hard enough to startle my cats. And I cried, I CRIED! I don't think a thriller has ever made me cry but all of the family aspects really got to me and I was swimming in a pile of Kleenex when I finished it. I loved the character Sam with her take no crap attitude and how determined she was. I loved the setting of this book with its small town, honestly there was nothing I didn't like about this book. Hands down one of my favorite books of the year.

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer for the gifted copy for my honest review.

YA author Kara Thomas's first foray into adult fiction, OUT OF THE ASHES — is an emotional and heart-wrenching suspense thriller of a woman's investigation into her family's murders.

When Samantha Newsom was thirteen years old, her family was murdered—someone set their Catskills farmhouse on fire. An unsolved crime, leaving nothing but ashes. A tragedy she has never forgotten. The case went cold and was mishandled.

Sam's entire family: her uncle, dad, mom, and baby sister, Lyndsay—gone.

Twenty-two years later, Sam returns to her hometown of Carney, NY, to care for her uncle's affairs. While there, Investigator Travis Meacham tells her a prison snitch has offered new info about the night of the murder. There may be a chance Lyndsay is alive. Someone carried her out.

Sam is drawn back into her past trauma regarding her family's horrific and unsolved murder.

The past resurfaces, and Sam is determined to find out what really happened to her family and to find her sister if she is alive. If she were alive, she would be a grown woman.

Was it a coverup, corruption, or motive, and what happened?

How far will they go to protect their secrets?

Told from Sam's POV, A small rural town with many secrets, drugs, and crime. Sam uncovers dangerous lies and truths in this twisty novel with family, memory, and justice themes.

A gritty, slow-burning suspense with lots of tension, mystery, and SECRETS. For fans of the show "Mare of Easttown" and true crime mysteries.

Thanks to #ThomasandMercer for a gifted ARC via #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: May 1, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
May 2023 Must-Read Books

I’ve read a few of Thomas’ young adult mystery novels and enjoyed them so I jumped at the chance to read Out of the Ashes. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. There were too many characters who were not properly introduced and developed so I had a hard time remembering who was who and the mystery was forgettable. Honestly, I can’t even remember who the culprit was after having finished it a few days ago.

What I enjoyed most about Out of the Ashes was the main character, Samantha. The best way to describe Samantha would be gritty and morally gray. She managed to flee from her hometown after her entire family was brutally murdered and the case is still open.

Samantha returns to her hometown with the hopes of getting closure for her family’s murder as she’s sucked into the investigation. Readers are introduced to many characters both new and old to Samantha. This is where the novel falters. The characters are forgettable and the relationships are confusing making it difficult to keep track of everyone, let alone their potential motives.

Overall, Out of the Ashes was disappointing since it was difficult to follow as too many characters were introduced with little to no development and the mystery that was entirely forgettable.

This is my first book from the author Kara Thomas. I enjoy mysteries where there are family secrets that are slowly revealed and we find out about it when the main characters do, and cold cases make the story that much better for me. Part of the appeal for me was because I'm originally from NYS & I'd lived for a time in the county that Ms. Thomas based the main plot in, so that piqued my interest further. .

For the first half of the book I was thinking that the story was slow moving and atmospheric, but I was looking for more suspense. The second half of this book drew me in and got me more engaged.. My only complaint was that I wish the main character Samantha had stayed on course to just find out what happened to her family and who was responsible for killing them all those years ago. Also did her little sister die in the fire too, or was she taken by someone as a witness implied? I felt it went off on a tangent seeking justice for other young women who went missing years ago.

Many red herrings are tossed around, enough to perhaps confuse the reader, as it surely did for me. I had a bit of a time keeping the characters' in order, because there were so many step siblings, half siblings and families entwined together All in all, it's worth a read for fans of this genre and for those looking for meandering plot threads that will all come together in the end. I hadn't guessed the outcome correctly and that was a plus.

Recommended 3.5/5 rounded up.. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When Samantha Newsom was thirteen years old, her family was murdered and their house in the Catskills was set on fire. The crime was never solved. Now, the case has been passed to a new investigator who tells Sam that her sister may have been spared that night. When Sam is drawn back to her hometown, she uncovers secrets that the people of Carney wanted to stay buried.

I have read and loved two of Kara Thomas’s YA mystery/thrillers, so I knew I had to read her adult debut. I was not disappointed. It was interesting to see how her writing transformed when dealing with adult characters and issues, and I think she did an amazing job.

Two aspects of Out of the Ashes that really stood out to me were Sam’s hometown of Carney, New York and the people who live there–they felt so real to me. Carney is a small, working-class town where everyone knows everyone. This played really well into the plot because everyone who lives there knew something important, but they were resistant to reveal any information because of a shared desire to protect each other.

As for the plot itself, I really enjoyed how many twists and turns this novel contained, and how there were many different threads of mysteries that were ultimately tied together. It was really hard to put this down until all of my questions were answered.

Overall, I think this was a very successful adult debut for Kara Thomas. I will certainly continue to write any novels she puts out in the future. If you read and enjoyed Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, I think you would really enjoy this!

This was a rollercoaster of a read that shared so many twists and turns throughout. However, I did struggle to connect with the story. I found it difficult to keep track of all the story paths that were happening and found myself having to go back to see if I missed something or to connect a name (there were a lot of Ealy's and Ginn's mentioned).

The MC was also hard to like at times throughout the book. She has built a great life, but yet, she kept putting herself and others in danger that it was just hard to rationalize her intentions.

Despite my concerns, I still found it to be a pageturner and had to find out how the author was going to conclude the story.

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas & and Mercer, for providing me with an ARC for this book.

Samantha goes back to her hometown where her family was murdered when she is told that there might be new evidence. She begins to dig up secrets and old wounds (with a nice twist!)