One of the moments I enjoyed a lot last year was when I asked a group of people if they knew Stacey Abrams wrote romance novels. They did not. I blew their minds.
When I had an opportunity to read an arc of the rerelease of Never Tell, I jumped at it. The book was originally published in 2004. At this point in my life, I’m not really looking for romantic suspense stories. I also don’t read true crime stories involving murder. It’s not a source of tension that works for me right now. So when I say I didn’t love Never Tell, you know where I’m coming from. But, if you do like romantic suspense, give this a try.
Dr. Erin Abbot has a secret and a serial killer in New Orleans knows what it is. Gabriel Moss is trying to get his local newspaper off the ground and he needs a good story. When he hears Dr. Abbot explaining her serial killer theory to a New Orleans police detective, he is convinced that this is the story that could launch his paper. He is also interested in Erin and wants to help and protect her while she searches for evidence that will identify the killer.
Never Tell is very 2004, particularly in its gender dynamics. While Gabriel, mostly, respects Erin’s boundaries around sex, he thrusts himself into her life repeatedly, insisting that she’s more interested in him than she will admit. There are also some very 2004 attitudes towards BDSM and kink (BDSM = bad). That said, Montgomery/Abrams keeps the story moving. Her characters are interesting. I had a hard time with the violence, because that’s where I’m at mentally these days, but if she wanted to write a sequel with Erin and Gabriel investigating a non violent crime, I would read it.
CWs – on page violence, psychological violence, sexual assault, murder, and grooming of a minor.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.
