Wow. What a great way to start a series. The story pulled me in from the beginning and it felt like I was in the story. I thought the characters were interesting and very real. The twists taken along the way were unexpected but believable, which kept me glued to the story. I very much enjoyed this story and look forward to the next one.

This was an interesting story. I liked the plot, characters and overall writing. I did feel that there was a bit too much repetition in the details of her team and the polygamist group and their practices. I listened to this book (versus reading) and the narrator was ok. The transition to male characters was a bit rough (sounded a bit like a whiny wicked witch). I got used to it as the story went along.

I would recommend this story and am curious how this storyline will play out in the future. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for a review.

4.5/5 stars

Thank you Bookouture Audio for the gifted copy!

TW: child and sexual abuse, cults

Detective Eve Bennett and her team have been called to many crime scenes, but none quite as gruesome as the family for four with slit throats on church property. There are a number of confusing details about this case, including lack of struggle from the victims and the missing ten year old girl from the home. Eve and her team discover a multitude of disturbing and confusing clues, uncovering a secret the church definitely doesn't want you to know.

This book was such a pleasant surprise to me! This was such a complex and gripping story. I really enjoy learning and reading about the LDS cult and this book surrounded their church dynamic. Eve was such a great main character and so likeable. The twist was so unexpected and the ending was well done. This was a near perfect book and I'm really interested in reading more of her story!

Just a side note: There were some weird pauses in the audio, especially towards the beginning. As a listener, I got used to this but it was kind of distracting at first.

This is a terrific first book in the series Detective Eve Bennet series. The protagonist is a strong, feisty woman, who has a shocking backstory. Eve and her team - Clyde, Collin, Ray and Bina - are called to investigate the murders of a family who belong to a fundamentalist Mormon community where polygamy is the norm. I don't know a lot about Mormons but the horrors that befall the women and girls living in the community are horrific and beyond belief. I don't know if this is true of the Mormon community in real life, but if it is then even the thought makes me feel ill!

The story is fast paced, dark and very disturbing, and I listened in one sitting because I NEEDED to know the outcome (who cares about housework, cooking, speaking to the family anyway lol). And believe me when I say the outcome is shocking!! The main character is well fleshed out and her team were interesting and I look forward to getting to know more about them in future books.

I enjoyed the narration by Stacia Keogh.

The story was compelling, as are the strength and unity demonstrated by Eve and her team.

The research done for the procedural was very well done. I really like the characters and didn’t dislike which is normally a hard feat.
Clearly, Eve's familiarity and experience with the polygamist cult are key in this story. However, that was harped on a little too much.
With it being the first one in the series it is normal for there to be a lot of background history.
For the next book, I would probably perfer to read rather than listen to the audio version. I definitely recommend this current book to those who enjoy a good police procedural with a strong female lead and a team that works well together.

Honestly, I was unsure about the narration for the first 2 chapters but as I listened on, I really felt Stacia Keogh was outstanding. I feel she used used her voice as her own interpretation of the novel.
Stacia Keogh really brings the character of Hannah to life, which was quite eerie, hence very well done!
Predictable but enjoyable novel
Great introduction to Detective/ forensic photographer Eve Bennet and her team. Very good set up for the first book in hopefully an ongoing series.
Within the first few pages there is the layout for a backstory with Eve and the people she is investigating.
Main story is about murder, within the close knit Mormon Fundamentalists society in rural Utah. A lot of procedural speech in this book, so if not a fan, you may not love it, however, I enjoy this and it’s even better as the author has a law enforcement background. This really gives it a sense of authenticity.
With this book having deep roots in Eve’s backstory of her childhood in the Mormon Fundamentalists, I wonder if that will be a strong core subject of the series to follow? I think so, especially with her family.

A promising beginning to the series with a good narration. Detective Eve Bennett was raised in a polygamist community until her mother rescued a young teenage Eve. After years of therapy, Eve still carries some of the scars of her brutal upbringing and the brainwashing to which she was subjected. Nonetheless, she is now a well-respected detective in Utah with a territory that includes the very polygamist cult in which she was raised. When Eve and her team are called to the site of a horrific murder of a family in that cult, they are faced with hostility, obstruction, and more to thwart their efforts to solve the crimes, but Eve is strong, and her team has her back. She/They can do this.

The story is compelling, as are the strength and unity demonstrated by Eve and her team. The procedural seems well done, and the primary characters likeable. Clearly, Eve's familiarity and experience with the polygamist cult are key in this story. However, that aspect is overdone. It is unnecessary to constantly remind the reader of Eve's history with the cult and specifically with her stepbrother who is now the lead attorney for the district. Doing so is not only repetitive, but it renders too much of the story as historical narrative rather than current dialogue between the characters. What dialogue there is, is good, but more of it and less narrative would be preferrable. That said, this is the first in a series, and as such, it is common to get bogged down in the history. I definitely will listen to the next in series and recommend this current book to those who enjoy a good police procedural with a strong female lead and a team that works well together.

Book Title: Only Girl Alive
Author: Holly S. Roberts
Series: Detective Eve Bennet Book #1
Narrator: Stacy Keogh
Publisher: Bookouture Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: January 13, 2023
My Rating: 3.4 Stars

This story begins with the murder of the Tanner family who are Fundamentalist Mormons.
Detective Eve Bennet and her team have been called to the scene Hilldale, Utah. They are a specialist team that deal with crime in the Fundamentalist Mormon community - as this group still upholds nineteen century beliefs no longer practice by other Mormons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_fundamentalism

The bodies seem staged in a way that Eve knows something personal happened.

When they get to the last child’s room, they learn that the youngest, ten year old Hannah is missing. Eve is told by the child’s uncle that Hannah is safe at his home. However, he refuses to allow Eve as well as any of her team to interview Hannah.
Eve Bennet is no stranger to Fundamentalist Mormons and their world as she was raised a Mormon. This story is the first in this series so this story has a lot of back-story of when Eve was a child.


Story had me curious. I read Tara Westover’s memoir " Educated" In her autobiography, she goes into her
background as a Mormon where her father did not believe in public education.
I am somewhat familiar with Mormons who are member of the Church of Latter Day Saints but
wasn’t aware of the other divisions. That story was an emotional rollercoaster read for me.

The narrator for this audiobook Stacy Keogh did a great job performing the characters. She definitely made the characters seem so very real.

More information about Holly S. Roberts can be found on her blog at the following link ~
https://wickedstorytelling.com/blog/

This story is dark and disturbing. I hung in there partly because I had read Ms. Westover’s memoir.
Glad I did! This novel is good and I am once again faced with a story that I didn’t enjoy making it tough to rate. I go with 3.4 = good just not 4 star great!

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 13, 2023

Only girl alive is a good little police thriller set amongst the secretive Mormon community, Detective Eve Bennet was once a child living within the community after her mother was manipulated into joining them, so she has a unique insight to how the church and the men & women work, and they don’t take kindly to her investigations of a murdered family. The story was interesting and if I had to criticise, it would be that this is supposed to be a first in a series but it seems like there should of been a book before although I haven’t found one, and the audiobook was totally let down by the narrators monotone, slow narration. It was so bad I had to speed up the recording just to make it bearable, If I was to read any more I would definitely read as a book and not the audio version.

I have to be honest, as I began the book I felt rather deflated, thinking to myself that this is going to be a slow read. How WRONG could I have been?
Gripped, I devoured this sad yet thrilling book in two days, I simply COULD NOT put it down. I lost sleep but I just HAD to know.
Just brilliant, shocking twists and turns and a cleverly weaved and intriguing story.
Without doubt I hasten to recommend it.

CW // polygamy, cults, child indoctrination
TW // mentions of sexual and physical abuse

It's safe to say that I enjoyed this book. Despite the heavy topics it dealt with, Holly Roberts wrote it in such a way that you just can't look away from it. The book opens with the main characters walking into a quadruple-murder scene and having to process it and somehow, put their personal feelings to the side long enough to solve it.

Eve is such a complex character, leading a task force that brings her face to face with her childhood demons. Each member of her team is unique and strongly written characters. I want this team to be the focus of a TV show like Bones or NCIS or something similar. It's the kind of team that would make it work.

My only real complaint is with the synopsis of the book. While it's not an issue for me, it could easily be triggering to others, and I wish the setting of the book being within a polygamist cult was included as part of the marketing. It isn't a spoiler, as it's literally within the first few pages of the book. I actually went back to confirm to myself that it wasn't mentioned in the synopsis. I just wish it had been. I wouldn't want someone who is triggered by that sort of content to wander in unawares.

The mystery was twisted enough that I, a self-professed crime mystery solver, didn't see the twist coming. And yet, when I looked back, all the building blocks were there. I should have seen the answer, but Holly Roberts was skilled enough to hide all the clues in such a way that they seemed to point to something else. Brilliant writing, I must say.

I must say thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of the audiobook. If you love gruesome murder mysteries, do yourself a favour and check it out!

WOW! This was a great book and I now have another series to add to my ever-growing list of book series that I love. I can't wait for the next book to come out! This book had some twists that I did not see coming and they were pretty creepy and sad. I can absolutely see this book as being a real-life situation and would not be shocked to find out that it was based on real-life events. Which is just sad, disgusting, and rage-inducing! I did love that Det. Eve was able to break away and move on from her early life and find love and the strength to heal herself and become a kick-ass detective!

#OnlyGirlAliveDetectiveEveBennetBook1
#NetGalley

There is a lot to unpack in this first of a new crime series by established author Holly S. Roberts. On the surface, it sounds like another police procedural with a female detective solving a horrific crime. But as I read Only Girl Alive and became more and more engrossed by some of the horrifying things I was reading, I realized this was one of those rare detective stories where I was going to walk away knowing a lot more than I did about a certain subject matter, once I finished the book.

Detective Eve Bennett is called to the scene of a murder. An entire family has been stabbed in their sleep, except for their youngest daughter Hannah, who has disappeared. The victims are members of an FLDS polygamous cult, and in fact Eve was a member herself of this same cult. She was rescued on the eve of a marriage at twelve years old by her mother, who had fled the group years before. But Eve iis still haunted by some aspects of her former life, and she works surrounded by these people she once lived amongst.

When I saw this was a debut of a series, I thought it might be a new author. But after finishing the book I knew there was no way this was the author's first book, and sure enough she has books in other genres. She also worked as a homicide detective and the knowledge shows in the character of Eve, which feels totally authentic. The author has a blog and if you read it you will see she is passionate about some of the ideas she attacks in the book, such as incest and child marriage. She opened a window into a lifestyle which I knew little about and which was pretty horrifying.

I highly recommend Only Girl Alive, and I look forward to the next installment! Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Bookouture for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reading Between the Wines book review #3/115 for 2023:

Rating: 4 🍷🍷🍷🍷
Book 🎧: Only Girl Alive- Detective Eve Bennet Book 1
Author: Holly S. Roberts
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers | General Fiction Adult
RELEASES on January 13, 2023!!!

Sipping thoughts: I love a good series and oftentimes I am not lucky enough to read the first one exactly when the series start. I was so excited to catch this series in its premiere and equally as hopeful that it was a good book. It was!! I really enjoyed the writing and meeting Det. Eve Bennet. The storyline about the Mormon religious beliefs was so astounding and eye opening. This story was such a sad but thrilling read. I can't wait to be a part of Det Bennet's journey.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @BookoutureAudio for an advanced copy of @OnlyGirlAlive.

#OnlyGirlAlive #HollySRoberts #BookoutureAudio #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

This was a good but unfortunately I did not like the setting of the storyline. I will definitely like to seek out the next book to see what happens.

I recently watched a documentary on a sect just like the one on this book, so felt like this was part of the same group. This book is deeply uncomfortable to listen to but worth it.

I really enjoyed this book! I liked the narrator and felt that they went good with the story. I hope to read more by this author in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and to the author for the ARC!

Only Girl Alive written by Holly S. Roberts and narrated by Stacia Keogh is the first book in the Detective Eve Bennet series. The setting and the subject of the story really set it apart from other similar detective stories. Eve Bennet was brought up in a secretive traditionalist polygamy community and she returns to the same exact place that made her the person she is now. I've not read any other books in similar settings describing highly religious polygamist way of living and it was very interesting to learn more about it.

The beginning was a bit difficult to get into but it does pick up later. Even though I did figure out what was happening, I thought the book was still pretty good. I thought there was 1 or 2 too many members on Eve's team and it made it more difficult to keep track of. I would probably group them together a bit more. However, I will read other books about Eve Bennet if they would allow us to get an insight into that absolutely different way of living. The author did a fantastic job describing that world and it made me feel really bad for all the girls and women that have to live like that.

At first I thought the narrator was a bit stiff but as I kept on listening to the audiobook more, I realized that it actually illustrated Eve's character that was shaped by her childhood experiences in that community.

Overall, it was a pretty good crime thriller. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook. My review was not influenced in any way.

Only Girl Alive (Detective Eve Bennet Book 1) by Holly S. Roberts
Narrated by Stacia Keogh
Publisher: Bookouture Audio
Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thrillers
Expected Publication Date: January 13, 2023

Only Girl Alive is the first book in the Detective Eve Bennet series by Holly S. Roberts. This was the first book I've read by the author and I am absolutely hooked!

I found this book to be so unique. Detective Eve Bennet has such interesting life experiences that makes her uniquely qualified to investigate crime that occurs in a small town in Utah, that is home to a polygamous sect and lots of secrets.

I thought this story was fascinating! I loved the twists and turns and watching the team of detectives work to solve this horrific crime!

The narration by Stacia Keogh was amazing! She really brought this story to life!

I can't wait to see what's to come in future books! I'll definitely be reading them!!!

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

Well, this has to be one of the best books that I have listened to in ages. I struggled at first with the narration but the story wow. It was so different and I am so glad I read it. Completely addicted and cannot wait for more.

I was given an advance copy by the publishers and netgalley but the review is entirely my own.