Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Netgalley Presents a Review for Say You're Sorry by Karen Rose


Synopsis:

Special Agent Gideon Reynolds has tried hard to put his past behind him. He escaped the violence of his cult upbringing when he was just thirteen, and since then routine and discipline have been his way of making sense of the world. But when a petite blonde woman crashes into his life, he begins to realize that a little bit of chaos might not be so bad.

Daisy Dawson has had more than her fair share of pain too—but she's done being a victim. Daisy's determined to explore every new experience she can—including getting to know the dark and serious FBI investigator she meets when she fights off a masked attacker one night.

It soon becomes clear that Daisy's attack was just the beginning. Now the bloodied bodies of young women are showing up all over California, and, as Gideon tries to find the killer, it's clear that Daisy is in more danger than they ever realised... 

I Special Agent Gideon Reynolds did not have a conventional upbringing. Raised in a cult in Northern California, himother smuggled him out when he was thirteen, and he never saw her again. It is not a bit of history he is keen on sharing, but being guarded has not gotten him any closer to what he really wants: a family.

Daisy Dawson lived a sheltered childhood. Her father, a former military man, believed that the woman he loved and her daughter were being hunted, so he took extreme measures to keep his family safe. But despite his best efforts, Daisy is done being scared. New to Sacramento, she is ready to jump headfirst into life--until she is attacked one night.

Gideon is caught unawares by Daisy, who is unlike any victim he has ever met. But the attacker is far from finished, and tracking him will threaten to pull Gideon back to the world he fought so hard to leave...

Goodreads:

My Review:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This is a story that all suspense thriller readers will want to read because there is so much stuff in this book that it took me two days to get through it but lord have mercy it was worth it! I have never read a book like this and I am waiting for more to come. Karen Rose brought it to the table and then some and had me on the edge of my reading seat waiting to see what was going to happen next.

In this story we meet Daisy who is living her life minding her own business when someone tries to kill her and an FBI agent Gideon comes to her rescue. Gideon saves Daisy and the two of them share this incredible chemistry but they soon find out that there is a serial killer on the loose and he is not going to stop until he gets the one that got away and that is Dasiy. Gideon is determined to save Daisy and take care of her and he will stop at nothing to save her from the killer.

This is a must read roller coaster of a ride that had me on the edge of my seat needing to know what was going to happen next. I need more and can't wait to get it! So go on and one click it!

Excerpt:

Sacramento, California

Thursday, February 16, 8:15 p.m.

“Daisy?”

Daisy Dawson flinched when Trish’s finger poked her upper arm. “What?” she asked, knowing
she’d been distracted. She returned her attention to her friend, who’d stopped in the middle of
the sidewalk, a worried expression on her face. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

Trish frowned. “What’s wrong with you tonight? You’re jumpy. Is it because of Gus? Do I need
to call Rosemary?”

Daisy rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension in her muscles. It didn’t relax her any
more than it eliminated the tickle at the back of her neck. Because someone was watching her.
Following her.

Again. Thanks a lot for keeping your word, Dad, she thought bitterly. She’d thought they’d had
an agreement. She’d thought he trusted her. She’d been wrong. Again. She wanted to scream,
to rage. To call him right now and tell him to stay out of her life.

A rough, wet tongue licking her fingers had her tamping her temper down. Absently she
reached into the pet sling that she wore cross-body and scratched behind Brutus’s enormous
wing-shaped ears. “Shh, girl,” she murmured, and the dog immediately settled. “It’s okay.” I’m
okay. Which wasn’t exactly true, not that Brutus would believe her anyway. The little dog knew
when she was spiraling, knew when she was on edge, and did what she’d been trained to
do—distracting Daisy before her spiral became a meltdown. Drawing a breath, she smiled
tightly for Trish’s benefit. “No, let Rosemary go home to her family. She’s earned it.”

Because tonight had been a hard night for all of them, especially Rosemary.

Trish’s eyes welled with new tears that she didn’t try to hide. It was just the two of them and
Trish knew she didn’t have to pretend around Daisy. “Poor Gus.”

“Yeah.” Keeping one hand on Brutus, Daisy lifted her other hand to Trish’s face to wipe away
the tears. “I guess he just couldn’t handle the grief of losing his wife.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to,” Trish whispered.

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.” All Daisy knew was that the man’s death from alcohol
poisoning had hit Rosemary hard. Seeing their sponsor cry like that as she’d told them of Gus’s
death had left Daisy shaken and feeling helpless. Daisy hated feeling helpless.

Trish bit at her lip. “He’d been sober for fifteen years, DD. Fifteen years. He was a sponsor even.
He was Rosemary’s sponsor. How can we expect to—”

Daisy cut her off by pressing a finger to Trish’s lips. “Stop. You cannot compare yourself to Gus
or anyone else. He was grieving. His wife died. They’d been married for fifty years. You said it
yourself—maybe he wanted to die. Maybe this was just his way.”

Trish nodded shakily. “I know.” She straightened her shoulders and took a swipe at each eye
with her sleeve. “You’re right.”

Daisy gave her a one-armed hug. “I’m usually right.”

Trish snorted. “You wish.”

Daisy laughed. “If I said we needed hot fudge sundaes with extra nuts, would I be right about
that?”

“Yes, but that’s a given. We always have sundaes after a meeting.”

Daisy linked arms with Trish and they began walking toward the diner where their sundaes
awaited. “What were you saying before?”

“Oh. I wanted to know if you were volunteering this weekend at the pet store.”

“I am.” Daisy smiled up at Trish, who was at least five inches taller. “Are you wanting to
volunteer or adopt?”

“Adopt?” Trish said it more as a question. “I was thinking about a cat. Something to come home
to, but not something I’d have to walk. Not with my crazy schedule.”

“I think that’s a great idea. So does Brutus, don’t you, girl?” Brutus popped her head out of the
sling that doubled as Daisy’s handbag, her tongue out in the cutest way possible. “See? She says
yes.”

Trish laughed. “Of course she does. She’s biased, though, coming from the shelter herself. You
really lucked out, finding a Chion puppy at a shelter. She is a Chion, right? I looked up Papillon-
Chihuahua mixes. That’s what the article called them.”

“Some people call them Papihuahuas,” Daisy said. Whatever breed she was called, Brutus was
perfect and necessary. “My dad found her, actually, while I was in rehab. One of the therapists
had a service dog that helped him control his anxiety, which helped him maintain his sobriety.
Dad went looking for a dog that could be trained to do the same for me when I got out. She was
the runt of the litter, which was why I named her Brutus. She was so tiny that I figured she
needed all the help she could get.”

“I wondered about her name. Although she looks like a Gizmo to me.”

Daisy laughed. With her large bat ears, Brutus did look like the little creature from Gremlins.
“She does. Before the gremlins turned evil, that is. Gizmo was my sister Julie’s suggestion when
Dad first brought her home.”

“If I could find a dog this little and this cute, I might rethink a cat, but I couldn’t bring a dog to
work.”

“Well, not where you work now. Which we need to change,” Daisy said firmly. “I couldn’t work
in a bar. You’re not being fair to yourself, Trish.”

“I know. I’m looking. I’ve got applications out everywhere. It’s not just having the booze all
around me. It’s also the drunken, grabby assholes who do not take no for an answer. I really
hate them.”

Daisy frowned at that. “Is somebody bothering you?”

“Not really. There was a guy today who was … belligerent. Just wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I stopped smiling when he ‘accidentally’ brushed his hand over my ass. Told him that I’d have
him thrown out. He got mean after that, insulting me. A real tool, you know?”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know.” Because her cohost at the radio station was the same way.

Trish frowned. “Is Tad bothering you again?”

Daisy shrugged. Trish was the only person she’d told about the smarmy Tad. “Same old, same
old. Little digs, meant to throw me off my game. I can handle Tad, for now anyway. If the time
comes when I can’t, I’ll report him. Did you report this guy who bothered you?”

“I did. I had to. My manager finally did throw him out. The guy kept baiting me, like he wanted
me to react. Normally I’d just wave that off, but I was on edge to start with. I had a big test this
morning and I’m not sure how I did.”

“I’ll help you look at the job listings when I’m done at the pet store adoption clinic on
Saturday.” A new job for Trish didn’t need to be permanent, just not at a bar. When she
finished dental assistant school, she’d be able to get a good job. “I checked again at the radio
station, but they’re not hiring right now.”

Which made Daisy wince, because she knew that she’d only been hired because her boss and
her father were old friends. It was something that Tad never let her forget. Which was why she
hadn’t yet reported him. She didn’t want to give him any more ammunition against her.

“I appreciate you asking anyway,” Trish said. “I’ll—”

A sound behind them had Daisy stopping abruptly once again. It was a shuffle, the scrape of a
shoe on concrete. A quick glance over her shoulder showed a familiar-looking man wearing a
baseball cap ducking into an alley. Dad’s losing his touch. He used to be able to hire people she
couldn’t see or hear.

Trish was frowning again. “What’s wrong?”

Daisy lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “My dad’s having me followed again. I can hear the
guy behind us.”

Trish’s frown deepened. “Again?”

“Yeah,” Daisy said grimly. “He hired a guy to follow me when I was backpacking across Europe
last summer. Pissed me off so bad that I came back early and Dad and I had it out. He promised
never to do that to me again, but I guess he doesn’t trust me after all.”

“He had you followed?” Trish asked, dumbfounded. “Why?”

“He was worried I’d fall off the wagon. That’s what he said, anyway.” Daisy still had her doubts,
thinking it was more about her father’s inability to break from a lifetime of paranoia. It had
killed her sister. It nearly killed me. It had certainly stolen what had remained of her childhood.
She wasn’t going to allow it to ruin her life, no manner how well-meaning her father’s
intentions might be.

Trish made a face. “Pretty ironic seeing as the guy is following you from an AA meeting. Do you
know who it is?”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Yeah. It’s our old ranch hand, Jacob. We grew up together. He’s like the
brother I never had, but I’m still going to kick his ass.” Which she’d done when she’d caught him
lurking in the shadows of a Paris alley, much as he was doing now.

Trish’s lips twitched. “Can I watch? My cable’s been out for two months.” She made another
face. “The cable people apparently like to be paid.”

Daisy patted her shoulder in sympathy. Trish barely made a living wage at the bar. “Go to the
diner and put in our order. I’ll meet you there.”

Trish shook her head. “I don’t care if he is your friend. I’m not leaving you alone.”

“I’ll be fine. Jacob is a like a cuddly lamb. A six-foot-two-inch, two-hundred-pound lamb.
Seriously, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Go on. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”

Daisy briefly considered confronting Jacob in the alley, but annoyance had her following the
path Trish had taken, then veering off to quickly duck into an alley of her own. Jacob deserved
to have the shit scared out of him for following her again. He’d promised to let her live her life
independently, just as her father had.

She ground her teeth. Damn them both. She was not a child. I wasn’t allowed to be one. She
was twenty-five years old, living on her own and doing just fine, all by herself. Well, not by
herself, but with the support of people she’d chosen for the job.

She heard Jacob’s footsteps seconds before he passed by. Leaping from the alley, she grabbed a
handful of his bulky padded jacket and yanked him back. He spun around in surprise, the brim
of his baseball cap hiding his face.

“The Giants?” she mocked. “That’s the best disguise you could manage? You thought I wouldn’t
notice you because you’re wearing a Giants cap?” Because he’d never be caught dead wearing
a Giants anything. They were both Oakland fans.

She reached up and snatched the cap from his head, realizing only a millisecond later that she’d
hadn’t had to reach up far enough. He was too short.

Because he wasn’t Jacob.

She took a step back, the gasp stuck in her throat, her pulse instantly going supersonic as the
man glared down at her, his dark eyes barely visible behind the nylon stocking covering his face.
Distorting his features.

She turned to run, but it was too late. His arm wrapped around her throat, yanking her to her
toes, cutting off her air. Instinctively her hands went for his forearm, trying to sink her nails into
his flesh, but there was too much padding in the jacket. She panicked, black dots starting to
dance in her vision.

And then cold steel was pressing against her temple and he was dragging her into the alley
where she’d waited for him. “You’ll be sorry you did that,” he rasped in her ear. “You’ll be
begging my forgiveness before I’m done. They all do.”

Sharp barking cut through the fog in her brain. Brutus.

Her panic abruptly vanished, her focus clearing as muscle memory kicked in and she could hear
her father’s voice in her mind, directing her movements.

Releasing her hold on the man’s arm, she twisted her torso, gaining as much momentum as she
could before striking his belly with her elbow. Hearing his surprised grunt, she sucked in a
breath and grabbed the pinkie finger of his gun hand, yanking it backward. Ducking under his arm, she gripped his hand, digging her thumb into the fleshy area between his thumb and forefinger, just as her father had trained her to do. Ignoring his cry of pain, she shoved the gun away with her free hand.

Then she ran.

Posted by arrangement with Berkley, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random
House Company. Copyright © Karen Rose, 2018.

About The Author:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:

Internationally bestselling, RITA-award winning, author Karen Rose was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. She met her husband, Martin, on a blind date when they were seventeen and after they both graduated from the University of Maryland, (Karen with a degree in Chemical Engineering) they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Karen worked as an engineer for a large consumer goods company, earning two patents, but as Karen says, “scenes were roiling in my head and I couldn't concentrate on my job so I started writing them down. I started out writing for fun, and soon found I was hooked.”

Her debut suspense novel, DON'T TELL, was released in July, 2003. Since then, she has published fifteen more novels and two novellas. Her seventeenth novel, ALONE IN THE DARK, will be released in 2016.

Karen's books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, London's Sunday Times, and Germany's der Spiegel (#1), and the Irish Times, as well as lists in South Africa (#1) and Australia!

Her novels, I'M WATCHING YOU and SILENT SCREAM, received the Romance Writers of America's RITA award for Best Romantic Suspense for 2005 and 2011. Five of her other books have been RITA finalists. To date, her books have been translated into twenty-four languages.

A former high school teacher of chemistry and physics, Karen lives in Florida with her husband of more than twenty years, her two daughters, two dogs, and a cat.




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