In the wilds of Alaska, someone sinister is hunting… Alexandra Collister came to her estranged cousins’ B&B in Falls Lake, Alaska, looking for a fresh start. The surrounding forest can be harsh and unforgiving–luckily, rugged wilderness tracker Quinn Mantell offers to be her guide. Still recovering from a toxic previous relationship, Alex is wary of getting too close, but when savagely … savagely deep claw marks appear outside her bedroom window, keeping her distance from Quinn is no longer an option.
Then a body turns up exhibiting the same ruthless slash marks, and Alex knows it isn’t a coincidence. Something sinister is lurking in the woods around Falls Lake, turning Alex’s fresh start into a brutal game of survival. The murky veil of forest offers more threats than answers. Can Alex and Quinn find the killer before darkness falls for good?
more
I had such high hopes for this book because I am a fan of Karen Harper, but this just didn’t live up to my expectations.
Karen’s books are usually full of suspense, twists, turns, unputdownable action, but this one was just not.
Because I am a fan, I will not let this book deter me from reading more of Karen’s books.
#DeepintheAlaskanWoods #NetGalley
Looking for a fresh start and escaping an abusive relationship, Alexandra (Alex) Collister comes to Alaska and the B&B that her cousins own. When both the outside of her window and the body of a woman show bear claw marks. Alex and Quinn, a local tracker, must determine if they’re related or if something else is going on. Is it possible that it’s a human monster involved?
I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next one. The book’s well-written with great characters whom you’ll like getting to know. It was full of action and intrigue keeping you on your toes. I highly recommend this book.
The story of this book was a good one! I gave it 4*s because it seemed that at times it was going in a circle. And the parts just seemed out of place. It’s going to be a trilogy and I will read the other two hoping they don’t run in circles.
Was glad to catch this one series in the beginning thanks to the author catching my eye. The escape is to Alaska to a B and B begins tentative at first but turns into something else thanks to danger coming to call. The suspense will heighten as Alexandra and Quinn take us on the cat and mouse game that has you at times scrambling to find out the answers to the clues. This will keep you entwined from start to finish. The setting is perfect with your blood racing until you see how this ends up.
How fortunate that Alex see her fiancé true colors before she marries him, but will she be able to get away?
We travel from Illinois to Alaska, with her possessions in tow, along with her darling scottie dog, Spenser. Will she be able to escape and hide? The author gives us so much suspense and danger, with a murder and stalking, and yet there is a bit of sweet romance. I also loved the family dynamics and how they might not cousins might not have seen each other for a long time, but love each other.
We get a really good look at the wilderness here, and learn a bit about tracking and looking for signs, footprints, etc. We also learn about the wildlife and to be weary and respectful!
Will life ever return to normal here? Will the evil ones be caught? Answers are forthcoming, with this story that has a lot going on! Sure to keep you page-turning! There are also more to come in this series, and I am sure looking forward to future reads!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin. and was not required to give a positive review.
Ooh ,,, this one was hard to get in to and I honestly gave up about halfway through. I though it would be one of those quick, enjoyable reads and instead I found myself frustrated with the writing and bored.
I’ve read Karen Harper before and was excited to receive this eARC. It sounded interesting and just the type of story I like to read. This one felt rushed and the writing felt forced. It was hard to connect to any of the characters. They were just so unlikeable and one dimensional. The author attempted to give them a backstory but it felt trite and unbelievable.
Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me. You can’t like them all. It won’t stop me from reading this author again in the future, but not this particular series.
Thank you #netgalley and #harlequintrade for the eARC.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve read one of Karen Harper’s romantic suspense novels, although I have been keeping up with her Amish novels, which I thoroughly enjoy. This is the first book in her new Alaska Wild series, and while loved the setting, the escape from a controlling, abusive fiance plot, and the murder mystery subplot, I found the pacing a bit slow, and the romance a bit sparse, which is why I’m giving it 3.5 stars rather than 5.
As always, I could find no fault with Ms. Harper’s writing skills, but I found her heroine, Alexandra (Alex), somewhat clueless when it came to her romantic relationship with her boss, a veterinarian, who, although charming at first, gave her more than a few clues about his controlling and abusive nature. When he finally shows her his true colors, Alex, rather than quitting and getting a restraining order, flees her Chicago suburb and re-establishes her relationship with her two estranged twin cousins who own and operate a B&B lodge in Alaska. We also learn that in the womb, Alex also once had a twin, but a later sonogram showed only one embryo, so Alex had to assume she’d absorbed the twin that disappeared in the womb, and way too much time in this novel was spent with her talking to her missing twin, who she’d even named, and the fact that she was so obsessed with this knowledge made her seem more than a tad mentally unstable to this reader.
Once arriving in Alaska, Alex is almost immediately attracted to Quinn Mantell, who owns and operates a nearby wilderness training, tracking and survival camp, and he even has his own television series, which brings in more than a few secondary characters involved in filming his series as well as his students, and also results in mysterious bear claw markings on the outside wall of the room Alex occupies at the B&B, the back wall of the cabin shared by two married, secondary characters, Sam and Mary, who live and work within the camp compound, and eventually those same marks are also found on the dead body of Val, the filmographer’s annoying, disliked, and disgruntled girlfriend. There are more than a few red herrings in the mix as well, but trying to discern who was behind the odd goings on kept me guessing, so kudos to Ms. Harper for not giving away the identity of the true villain too soon.
While this novel was an interesting read that kept me guessing, I really had a problem with how fast the relationship between Quinn and Alex developed. I’ve known more than a few domestic abuse victims, and they tend to be rather reluctant to fall into new romantic relationships, not trusting men, or their own judgment, but Alex and Quinn fall in love with each within her first 2 days in Alaska, and it simply wasn’t believable. All in all, Deep in the Alaskan Woods was not a bad read, but it’s not one of Ms. Harper’s best novels. There will be two more novels in this series, featuring the two cousins who run the B&B, and I’m hoping they are an improvement over this one.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.