Holly B / Dressedtoread

#BookReview #BlogTour What Lies Below by @barbarasissel #lakeunionauthors #LoneStarLit #suspense

 

A blend of mystery, suspense, and foreboding nightmares.

This is a multi-layered story that gripped me from the beginning. Gilly O’Connell is such a sympathetic character and my heart ached for her as she struggled with the guilt she carried concerning  her husband’s murder.  This is because she had a vision about it and instead of warning him she simply dismissed it as another bad dream.  How can she possibly forgive herself? I could feel Gilly’s pain and wanted to be her friend (as she certainly needed one).  I loved her strength beneath all the pain she was feeling.

Wanting to get her life back on track, she moves to a quiet town and becomes a waitress in a café.  Things don’t stay quiet for long as news of a child abduction is reported. There is an underlying tension that builds as details surface. Does she dare reveal her latest dream? Could it help solve the crime? Could it backfire? She is determined not to repeat history. The flow of the story was perfection and pulsed forward as the hunt for the child became intense. My heart was racing as I held my breath during one of the final scenes.

I couldn’t stop reading until I found out what happened. I kept changing my mind about who the kidnapper was and NO, I didn’t predict the ending!

If you love suspense and an unpredictable mystery, this one is a Fantastic Ride!!! 4 Stars

WHAT LIES BELOW
by
Barbara Taylor Sissel
Genre: Contemporary Mystery / Literary Suspense
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Date of Publication: May 15, 2018
Number of Pages: 334
  
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Gilly O’Connell’s nightmares aren’t just bad dreams; they’re glimpses of terrifying realities to come. Gilly has spent her entire life trying to suppress the foreboding visions. So when a dismissed premonition leads to her husband’s murder, she buries the guilt and pain of the unsolved crime in the only way she knows how—she runs from it.
Three years later, after overcoming a battle with addiction and starting over in a small Texas town, Gilly dares to believe the worst is over. That is, until another crime rips her heart open: the abduction of a three-year-old girl. Gilly knows more about it than anyone…
She’s dreaming again.
Gilly is convinced that if she tells the police she dreamed of the kidnapping before it happened, there’s no way they’ll believe her. But when she finally gets the courage to come forward with what she saw, people don’t see her as crazy—they see her as a suspect.
Now, in order to help a desperate single father save his child, Gilly must first clear her own name. But as the nightmares of the past catch up to her, Gilly’s only chance for salvation might be the dreams she’s spent so long trying to ignore.

PRAISE FOR WHAT LIES BELOW:
“Infused with heart-stopping suspense, emotional resonance, and startling imagery, What Lies Below swept me along a river of urgency and dread. Barbara Taylor Sissel effortlessly weaves together prescience, regret, grief, love, and revenge—all wrapped in the mystery of a young girl’s abduction. Beneath the breathless immediacy of the story lie deeper questions: How do we forgive ourselves—and others—for remembered transgressions, and can we ever break free of the past?” —A. J. Banner, #1 Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of The Good Neighbor and The Twilight Wife

 “Barbara Taylor Sissel’s What Lies Below is suspense at its finest—heartrending, compelling, and beautifully written. If you’re looking for your next up-all-night read, look no further.” —Jessica Strawser, author of Almost Missed You and Not That I Could Tell

 “I cannot emphasize this enough: you must read What Lies Below. Barbara Taylor Sissel manages to combine an unreliable narrator, twisting plot, and well imagined characters to create a world where nothing is as it seems and secrets abound. I had intended to savor the novel’s lovely prose but wound up devouring the book in a day. Simply fantastic.” —Karen McQuestion, bestselling author of Hello Love

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Barbara Taylor Sissel writes issue oriented, upmarket women’s fiction that is threaded with elements of suspense and defined by its particular emphasis on how crime affects the family. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, she was raised in various locations across the US and once lived with her family on the grounds of a first offender prison facility. The experience, interacting with the inmates and staff, provided a unique insight into the inmate’s lives, the circumstances behind the crimes they committed, and the impact on the families that were affected. The bestselling author of nine novels, her stories focus on the family at the heart of the crime. An avid gardener and the mother of two grown sons, Barbara lives in the Texas Hill Country. She’s represented by Barbara Poelle at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.
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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
1st PRIZE:
SIGNED COPY OF BOOK + BOOKMARK + $15 AMAZON GIFT CARD 
2nd PRIZE: 
SIGNED COPY OF BOOK + BOOKMARK
MAY 15-24, 2018
(US ONLY)

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:
5/15/18 Excerpt Texas Book Lover
5/16/18 Review Dressed to Read
5/17/18 Author Interview That’s What She’s Reading
5/18/18 Review The Clueless Gent
5/19/18 Notable Quotable/Bonus Review The Love of a Bibliophile
5/20/18 Notable Quotable Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
5/21/18 Review A Page Before Bedtime
5/22/18 Guest Post Part 1 Reading by Moonlight
5/23/18 Guest Post Part 2 Books in the Garden
5/24/18 Review Book Fidelity 
  

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9 comments

  6. Thank you so much for your lovely review, Holly! I love that you connected emotionally to Gilly. (I did too!) and also that you didn’t see the ending coming! That thrills me no end … no kidding!

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