Ponder: Trust Me, Stop Me, Watch Me

Brenda Novak authored a trilogy of books featuring three women, each herself having personally endured a harrowing experience and surviving, who band together to form Last Stand, an organization dedicated to helping victims of crime.

• Skye Kellerman in Trust Me ©Jun-2008 had been attacked in her own bed and had managed to fend off her knife-wielding assailant. Skye saw his face, enabling her to identify him, so he stalks her to finish the job.
• Jasmine Stratford, a psychological profiler in Stop Me ©Jul-2008, suffered the kidnapping of her younger sister sixteen years earlier while baby-sitting her. Jasmine seeks to find the perpetrator.
• In Watch Me ©Aug-2008 Sheridan Kohl was parked at a lake with a teenage boy when a stranger wearing a ski mask shoots them both. Sheridan survives, but the boy, Jason, does not and the stranger was never caught.

TRUST ME ©Jun-2008 by Brenda Novak - 1st in a trilogy
STOP ME ©Jul-2008 by Brenda Novak - 2nd in a trilogy
WATCH ME ©Aug-2008 by Brenda Novak - 3rd in a trilogy

I enjoy all of theses books because they are action packed, suspenseful, and feature strong, brave, resourceful women. There is a bit of romance to spice up the emotional field, but it is not dominant in the story. Each novel can stand alone; there is some cross reference among the three female heroines Skye, Jasmine, and Sheridan but that does not hamper understanding the characters nor cause confusion in following the plot.

The plot in Trust Me is that Skye lives alone in a remote location and must protect herself. She takes an aggressive approach to derailing her stalker and does not just quake in a defensive mode. Sure, she is terrified but she rises above it. As he lurks outside her house trying repeatedly to break in, the tension is high and I turned pages rapidly. The scene reminds me of that final climax in the classic movie Wait Until Dark 1967 where Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman Susy alone at home with three thugs. Susy disabled all the lights in the apartment to level the playing field with her attackers. This YouTube trailer conveys the terror in the movie. The movie's climax is ranked tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

In Stop Me Jasmine anonymously receives a package containing a strong indicator that her sister might still be alive. She needs to elicit help and information from a bitter, reclusive man who lives in the bayou of Louisiana. Romain was recently released from prison for shooting a man he thought had murdered his daughter. Jasmine believes the true murderer of his daughter is the same man who kidnapped her sister. She bravely forages out into the swamp, alone, to engage the help of the ex-con Romaine. Dark, creepy, scary settings make this book a page turner.

The opening scene of Watch Me is that of Sheridan, badly beaten and lying motionless in the mud deep in a forest, playing possum as she hears the scraping shovel sound of someone digging her grave. The hounds of Cain, a nearby tender of the wildlife preserve, raise such a ruckus that Cain comes out to investigate and interrupts the culmination of Sheridan's proposed fate. Cain is the step brother of Jason, the boy shot in the car beside Sheridan many years ago at the lake. This is my favorite novel of the three. The convoluted relationships among one step brother, who is the sheriff, the sheriff's twin sister (former wife of Cain), and a second step brother make for a real puzzle to sort out as to whodunit. Who killed Jason, many years ago, who beat up Sheridan, who killed another victim in the book, and why did this all happen?

Noting that since the release dates of these three books are within one month of each other, it is highly unlikely they will be categorized as high literature. But they are well written, have interesting premises, and entertain well as they hold my interest. I rate each three stars, better than average and not a waste of time. I learned there is a second trilogy and I have downloaded it to my Kindle and look forward to reading them. I think they very well may be worth it.

THE PERFECT COUPLE ©Jul-2009 by Brenda Novak - 4th in second trilogy

THE PERFECT LIAR ©Aug-2009 by Brenda Novak - 5th in second trilogy

THE PERFECT MURDER ©Oct-2009 by Brenda Novak - 6th in second trilogy

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This past spring/summer I also read novella and neglected to review it. I tacked it on to this post because it too is by Brenda Novak and because I am so terribly behind in my blog posts for book reviews I needed to consolidate. When We Touch ©2012 by Brenda Novak, Inc. is the kickoff novella to the Whiskey Creek series. 

I reviewed the ten books in the Whiskey Creek series in my post for May 5, 2018. In book 9 of that series the the background reveals that the lead male character Kyle had never quite recovered when the love of his life, Olivia, married his stepbrother Brandon. How did this transpire? The novella reveals all the juicy details. Olivia, a wedding planner had been forced to arrange the wedding of her trashy, self-centered, conniving sister Noelle to Kyle the man Olivia loved. Kyle had reluctantly felt obliged to marry Olivia's sister Noelle when she became pregnant; but the Kyle-Noelle the marriage ended in divorce. The Brandon-Olivia relationship took off in this novella. Sound very soap opera-ish? It was.

I rated this novella only two stars, ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it, but it helped me understand the circumstances behind book 9 of the Whiskey Creek saga and completed my reading of the series. I had downloaded a Kindle version of When We Touch and read it in one fell swoop on my computer screen. Hey, don't judge me. Some folks while away time on video games.