Review | Love You To Death by Caroline Mitchell

Title | Love You To Death

Author | Caroline Mitchell

Publisher | Bookouture

Source | Review Copy

My Rating | 5/5 


BLURB

‘I’m not your mother. You’re a monster. I don’t want you’

Women who gave a child up for adoption are being killed. A knock at their front door begins a nightmare from which they will never wake up.

For Detective Ruby Preston and her team, it is a race against time to connect the dots before the killer can strike again. But when Ruby receives a sinister email, the case takes a terrifying personal twist. 

Could the clues to the identity of the killer lie in Ruby’s own past?

Who can she trust with her secrets?

And could Ruby be next?

Love You to Death is a serial killer thriller packed with twists.



What Dawn-Tracy Thinks

I have been witnessing great things said about Caroline Mitchell yet I'd not read any of her work. I've read a couple of crime authors; Angela Marsons, Robert Bryzna, Kerry Wilkinson (All Bookouture authors), but I was lacking one in my collection. Fear of missing out (FOMO - is real you know), I decided that I wanted to dip my toe into her crime thrilling world and WOW was I rewarded for facing my fear.

Never before has a Crime Thriller had me so intricately hooked upon every single word and caused me to lay awake at 2-3am in bed just desperate to read more, but that is exactly what Caroline has achieved in Love You To Death. It's a storyline I've not had the pleasure of reading anywhere else before, so the fact that it had me tied to my bed, bound by the pages and words of this mind blowing story is a testament to the sheer impact this book will have upon you.

My initial response to having finished this book was posted on my twitter feed to Caroline and Bookouture was as follows; 

"OMFG just finished reading #LoveYouToDeath by @Caroline_writes ... What the hell do I do now I've finished?? @bookouture "

So what caused this reaction in me?

Love You To Death is the first introductory book to DS Ruby Preston who is one of my new sheroes in the crime world - I think if she teamed up with badass DI Kim Stone (courtesy of Angela Marsons) there would be a whole new genre of wonder-woman heroes (Bookouture, we can do this can't we? We can get two fabulous authors team up for a ONE OFF special book can't we? - Do I need to get a campaign set up?) shaping up the crime thrilling fictional world.

I love Ruby because she is the girl who made a choice to better herself, she lived right next door to the criminal underground - literally - and happened to fall in love with their son, Nathan Crosby, and we see the delicateness of their fierce, protective love for one another throughout this book. It has a kind of Romeo and Juliet theme going in that it's a forbidden love, but as anyone who has ever been in love will say, sometimes you can't help who you fall in love with. Their bond is joined forevermore with the daughter, Lucy they had adopted.

But aside from her love life, Ruby has to contend with a serial killer named "Lucy" who is killing women who had their daughter's adopted. Is it the Lucy? Why is she doing this? Is it some sort of revenge? All Ruby can focus on is trying to save the next victim, and the victim after her and her daughter.

Ruby makes a deal with the devil aka Lenny Crosby (Nathan's brother) and asks him to hunt down her Lucy - she needs to know if it's her, but she should have known it would come at a cost, and a whole load of manipulation from the Crosby family - interfering "Mother-in-Laws" ring any bells?

Then she has her colleagues on her back or stabbing her in it! Can she trust anyone and if she can, just who has her back and who is the snake in the grass?

The twists and turns in this book are far to many to mention, but each grips you in and not once did I know who the killer was until the very end and the shock was explosive! 

I'm glad Caroline left book 1 on a hook of how Ruby and Nathan's relationship and the revelation about their daughter hanging in the balance. I can't wait to pick up book 2 which Caroline has assured me today that is currently being edited!!!

OMG please don't make us wait much longer for book 2! This was incredibly twisted and tormenting with a satisfying breath of fresh crime thrilling air!