They said she was armed.
They said she was dangerous.
They were right.
Petty Moshen spent eighteen years of her life as a prisoner in her own home, training with military precision for everything, ready for anything. She can disarm, dismember, and kill—and now, for the first time ever, she is free.
Her paranoid father is dead, his extreme dominance and rules a thing of the past, but his … thing of the past, but his influence remains as strong as ever. When his final will reveals a future more terrible than her captive past, Petty knows she must escape—by whatever means necessary.
But when Petty learns the truth behind her father’s madness—and her own family—the reality is worse than anything she could have imagined. On the road and in over her head, Petty’s fight for her life has just begun.
Fans of female-powered thrillers will love debut author LS Hawker and her suspenseful tale of a young woman on the run for her future…and from the nightmares of her past.
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Great book. Love the twist, held my interest and kept the pages turning. Had to finish once I got started.
The Drowning Game is a standalone suspense/thriller written by debut author LS Hawker. I absolutely love kick@ss heroines, and the main character Petty has been training since the age of three to kick some serious @ss. This girl is a one-woman militia in the making, but not because she necessarily wants to be…she truly doesn’t know that life can be any different. Petty’s upbringing brings “strange and dysfunctional” to a whole other level!
In addition to all her inherent bad@ssery, Petty is also fragile, uncertain, questioning, lonely, understandably paranoid, and a hopeless dreamer. I loved her character! The contrast between her core innocence and deadly capabilities made her very interesting to follow. The first half of this novel was on point as Petty’s isolated world was built, the villains and side characters were introduced, and the thriller/suspense/mystery element started to come to life. There did come a point later on in the story when things began to feel a bit one-dimensional in my opinion, but the stress of the events kept me turning the pages without regret.
Overall, I liked The Drowning Game and I loved that all my questions were addressed by the end. Ms. Hawker definitely has a lot of imagination and I am excited to see what else this first-time author has up her sleeve. If you enjoy the genres noted for this novel, then consider checking it out!
WOW!!! This was a really great story and would have given it 4.5stars if I could have. I loved the character – the good, bad and ugly. The story line and plot were thrilling and suspenseful. Just an overall great book and would highly recommend.
A page turner from the beginning.
This was a very different story, and the end was interesting. Never felt sorry for Petty. You knew she was going to figure it out. Liked both Petty and Dekker quite a bit.
Good beginning to a story I was looking forward to reading however, ran into a snag. Blah, blah, blah. The dialog left a lot to be desired. I cannot rate the book since I stopped reading it.
Loved it!! It was a real thriller and I loved the ending! I would like a sequel about Petty and Dekkar! Loved them!!
Really loved the book. It kept me hooked and wanting to just sit down and read it in one sitting. I’m excited to read more from this author.
I like a book that holds my interest and this tale certainly did. At first the main character, Petty, seems odd. As the story progresses however, she becomes much more endearing. It moves fairly quickly to the climax and has a satisfying ending. I would recommend this story!
Petty is a captive in her father’s house, but when he dies, she is finally free. Or is she? Her father’s will may seem unusual, if not downright cruel, as well as his choice of protector. But Petty is no ordinary girl. I would put her in the survival category, when you consider how primitive her upbringing, how ‘animal’ her senses. Well taught. Well prepared. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Armed and dangerous, she runs from the place she has called home, leaving behind her beloved dogs (incidentally, what did happen to them?) and the familiarity of the ‘inside’.
The chase scenes are well written, tense and page-turning. It’s not a book you can easily put down. Petty is naïve – a trait beautifully drawn – but carries a spark of toughness that kept me rooting for her. Dekker, an unwilling ride-along, has her back with his internal struggles which are real and heartrending. As are hers. I reveled in the intricate twists, the nearly-there plots which I thought I had worked out until the surprising denouement. All in all, it was the pace that made me want to take a look at other books by this author. Definitely one to watch.
First time with this author so hard to compare to prior works.