Afraid: Three Riveting Stories of Suspense

Afraid is a 3 story book by 3 different author's that are interconnected in that all 3 of the women in the stories were in St. Cecilia’s School for Girls in Strasberg, Austria at the same time, and became friend's while they were there. Retribution by Lisa Jackson is the first story. In it we meet Lucy who was sent to the school after she testified against her mother's boyfriend and sent him to jail. That man vowed to make her pay no matter what, and he has just been released. Which sends her back to St. Cecilia's in the hopes of hiding from him, along with her daughter. I had a really hard time with this story as I couldn't really connect with the main character or even like her that much. The plot and suspense in the story were good, I just really didn't like the character. Ghosts by Alexandra Ivy is about Rayne. She was roommates with a girl named Natalie, who committed suicide the day they were graduating. Rayne has gotten some items from Rayne, and in one of the boxes she comes across a note. Because of this note, she gets into contact with Natalie's brother to try to find answers to what really happened to her. I think this one was my favorite of this whole book. The characters drew me in, but so did the story and plot. I wish it had been longer because I felt like there could have been so much more to this story, but honestly it was good even as a novella length! Alone by Lisa Childs is about Erin. Erin was sent to St Cecilia's after her and her sister were kidnapped-she was found and her sister never was. Erin has gone home for her father's funeral and a body is found-which in turn reopens her sister's case. This one was probably the one that I struggled with the most, and not because there is anything wrong with it. But just because it creeped me out a LOT! I am not a fan of horror type movies or the like and this one just has that feel to it. But honestly, I still liked it better than the first book. All in all, this book was definitely well worth the read-some I struggled with but on a whole I did like them even if I did love one way more than the rest! And I really think that is just due to personal preference than anything else. The plots are well written and the stories are good. I would read them again!

Afraid by Lisa Jackson, Alexandra Ivy and Lisa Childs brings readers three thrilling tales of romantic suspense. The commonality between the three stories in Afraid is the fact that all of the women once attended a boarding school together. The stories are all told by changing the point of view between the characters and with some flashing back to the past. Retribution is the first story in Afraid and it introduces readers to Lucy Champagne. Lucy had been sent to St. Cecilia’s after a traumatic event in her childhood. Lucy’s mother had been attacked by her then boyfriend and Lucy at only eight had been the one to testify against the attacker who is now out of prison sending Lucy into hiding. Ghosts features Rayne Taylor who’s roommate and friend, Natalie, at St. Cecilia’s had committed suicide. Rayne finds things that belonged to Natalie in her old school things and returns them to Natalie’s brother who never thought Natalie’s death was a simple suicide. Rayne also has questions and wants to get to the truth of what happened. Alone features Erin MacDonald who had been sent to St. Cecilia’s after Erin and her sister had been kidnapped but when the ransom was paid only Erin had been returned to her family. Now years later no one has ever found out what happened to Erin’s sister, Anna Beth, and now after Erin’s father’s death she returns home to Detective Rafe Montego still poking around in the old case. Being familiar with all three of the authors writing Afraid of course I felt that I would enjoy this one before I even picked it up. All three stories were entertaining in their own ways as they were different from one another with my only real complaint coming from the length which is normal for me to want a bit more depth with novellas. Overall though this was full of solid writing one would expect and I flew right through waiting to see what happened with each new tale. I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.