A fresh look at family drama filled with secrets. Wriiten with style.
Many thanks to Kcin Entertainment Group and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not my cup of tea...

Dark Waters is my introduction to author Nick Haskins. I thank NetGalley for a copy of this book, in exchange for my honest review. The book follows a prominent Black family in Philadelphia with Judge Keenan Waters Sr. and his wife Lillian at the helm. The Waters family, while largely successful has a host of secrets and lies that run the gamut. But, nothing appears to be worse than the infidelity going on with Keenan Sr. and his mistress. While Lilian continues to threaten to file for divorce, no longer willing to play the willful and patient wife, learns that her husband and his mistress are harboring the biggest secret of them all. One that ultimately can destruct the entire family.

Dark Waters is a character-driven novel. And I tend to love when characters are thoughtfully constructed and developed. In this case they were not. I would have rather the characters come alive instead of being told what they were doing by the author all throughout the book. As a result the writing did not flow as it could have and it made for a sometimes confusing and oftentimes underwhelming read. Don't get me wrong, however, this story line has a wealth of potential that could be explored. It just did not hit for me as perhaps it could have. There were also some errors throughout the book that made for a difficult read in some spaces, hence my lower rating. Not sure if I'd be willing to read a second installment without those things taken into consideration first.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley and Kcin Entertainment Group. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rating: 2/5 Stars
Published: June 6, 2023
Series: A Family Drama, Book 1
Pages: 217

“Dark Waters” novel is a first time read by Nick Haskins, new author to this reader. Where to begin or should I say end. I tend to give new-to-me authors a welcoming chance with their novels to please me as a reader but for this story, I really had to push my way through to the end. There was just too much going on in the story and too much drama that the storyline did not connect in places. At one point I had to digress a bit with the reading to try to understand the plot and intent of the story. There was no consistency that I almost DNF early in the reading.

Judge Keenan Waters Sr., the patriarch of this family dynamics is supposedly ruthless, handsome and exudes power, however he epitomizes the role of liar, cheat, and unscrupulous. Characteristics that are passed down through to his children who do likewise to gain power and success as their father. There was too much chaos in this story and over the top drama that I could not connect to any of the characters because they were all the same…unlikeable or weak. A house built on lies, deceit and secrets eventually come tumbling down on this family and I for one can’t say that they don’t deserve the outcomes.

Not well-written although it had potential to be a good book. It was lacking in areas and needed development of some of the characters. From the description, I thought this was going to be a good novel for this reader but overall, it just didn’t do it for me.

I really didn’t care for this book. The writing did not flow well. The plot had potential but it lacked focus. Instead of character development it gave more description of the characters. How they looked, what they drove, etc. It just wasn’t for me.

****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

This book was all over the place. Very confusing read. The storyline jumped constantly and just was not consistent. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.