Cross Her Heart

Bree Taggert, Book 1

By: Melinda Leigh

Narrated by: Christina Traister

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

A homicide detective’s violent family history repeats itself in #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s novel of murder, secrets, and retribution.

For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide.... Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.

Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.

©2020 by Melinda Leigh. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Had potential, but...

Narration was bad for Matt. "He" sounded severely depressed no matter what was taking place. I couldn't respect him. Also, there wasn't any chemistry between Bree and Matt. Disappointed.

A good procedural drama with a hint of romance

Cross Her Heart by Malinda Leigh is the first book in the Bree Taggart Series, and it's the first book I've read by this author. I listened to the audiobook.

The book is a cop/procedural drama with romantic undertones. The story follows Bree Taggart, a Philadelphia detective who returns to her hometown in New York after the death of her sister. Her sister's husband goes missing, and he becomes a suspect in her murder. Bree joins forces with her sister's husband's best friend Matt to investigate what happened to them.

The Highlights

The story is well written; Ms. Leigh has a way of writing that makes it easy to follow the story. She adds enough description without being too flowery with the language. Straight forward without being scarce. The story has good pacing throughout the first half of the book, although it loses a little steam in the second half; it does pick up towards the end.

The characterization was alright; this is a story-driven book rather than a character-driven book. We do get moments of vulnerability from Bree, and we delve a little into her background. I should mention that the prologue of the story takes place when Bree is a child. She has a very traumatizing childhood, and we get plenty of information about that period, but everything that happened after the traumatic event that gets the story rolling is very light on the details. We don't need that information anyway, but had this been a character-driven story, we would have gotten that information.

I liked the characterization of Bree's nephew Luke and her best friend Dana; they were both very likable and believable.

As for the mystery, trying to figure out who was the killer, I didn't figure it out until close to the end, which I'm happy about because once we figure it out, it makes a lot of sense, given other parts of the story. It's a nice tie-in with the themes of the book.

The Lowlight

My biggest gripe was the narrator, but I'll deal with that in the narrator section.

Aside from that, the two things I wish had been better done or developed were the characterizations for Matt and Bree's nieve Keila. Matt was not very well developed, we get very little from home, and his even tho part of the story is told from his PoV. His character development just wasn't there, which is too bad as he's the romantic pairing for the protagonist. I did not like the characterization of the niece, Keila. Even though she's supposed to be 8-year's old, she acts like a 5-year old, at one point asking what souls were? Really, in the age of the internet even if you're parents aren't religious, you would know that.

Also, there were a few instances were Bree just annoyed me. For example, there's a scene between her and Luke, where they are discussing the possibility that his biological father might take custody of him and his sister. The poor boy is freaking out, and she's like, oh, you don't want that. Even though we know from her internal monologue that she doesn't want it either, it was just really weird. This happened a couple of times, where she acts robotic.

Narrator

The narrator was very perplexing to me. She had a lovely voice, easy to listen to, and a good cadence to her voice. I have no complaints with most of the voices she did; however, I do take issue with the voices she decided to do for both main characters Bree and Matt. For some unknown reason, she chose to voice them as monotone and unfeeling as possible. There was barely any inflection, and it got worse, and the story continues. The voice for Bree had been okay at the beginning, but Matt was always monotone, and Bree became more monotoned as the story continues. It was a bad choice because choosing to voice them that way created an emotional distance between the listener/reader and the character. SMH

Overall

It's was a good procedural drama with the right amount of romantic tension. The romance did not take away from the story, which I appreciate. Finding the right balance between the two is really key if you choose to incorporate these two genres into one story.

Remove the F’s to get an A

A good storyline, reader’s performance very good but my wife and I are looking for quality entertainment without all the F bombs. Otherwise I’d probably give it a 4 and a half.

Another Strong Series Start from Melinda!

Overall opinion: 4.25 Stars

Starts out a bit slow but picks up quickly. Tangled Webs abound and a new series is born! The ending will keep you guessing although I found a few hints towards the beginning.

Brief Summary: No need to expand on the author's summary.

Narrator(s) - good

POV: multiple

Overall Pace: moderate

Instalove: no

H Rating: 8/10

h Rating: 7/10

Sad/happy/thrill/Angst/TSTL -mostly thrill

Heat Level: 2/10

Descriptive Sex: 0/10

OW/OM Drama: no

Sex with OW/OM: no

Cheating: no

Separation: no

Triggers:

Closure (HEA/HFN/Cliffhanger): HFN

Additional Thoughts?

Good read and narration..

Good murder mystery and I was surprised at who the killer was. The time spent in the 2-story salon was very exciting. The players were good, too: Matt and Bree, Bree’s niece and nephew Luke and Kayla, and Bree’s partner Dana. And I was really happy about what happened to Craig.

Even though Bree and Matt had some chemistry and were going to date there was not a single kiss. That was a bummer. BUT the F-bomb was used 13 times.

As to the narration: I like Christina Traister reading abilities, her men’s voices are great. BUT when Matt spoke it was droll and boring sounding, no feelings whatsoever. BUT at least it sounded like a man.

Worth the listen

This is a new series so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Set in upstate NY and hours away from Philadelphia, PA, where Detective Bree Taggert lives and works. She gets a frantic vm from her sister and, after not being able to reach her...heads to her hometown of Grey’s Hollow. Bree arrives at her sister’s house only to learn that she’s been murdered...and her husband is a person of interest...and he’s missing. Bree teams up with her brother-in-law’s best friend, a former sheriff’s deputy, to get to the truth. Throw in some kids, an eccentric artist brother, and a preacher and you have quite the drama. Not to mention the traumatic events from Bree’s childhood.
Good start to this series.

Excellent

I am so glad I ignored the less then stellar reviews. This is my first time with this author, I am so excited to dig in to the next book and all her other series. Definitely worth the read.

No thank you

There was no indication that the language was so atrocious I will not order another book in the series I’m going to return this one you need to tell people the language is bad before they buy the book. I was a little disappointed as a storyline is great but not the language thank you very much

Cross this off your list

I don’t leave too many reviews, choosing to comment only when a book is excellent so I can recommend it highly or when a book is terrible so I can warn others to avoid it.

The story was okay, but the writing and narration made it nearly unbearable to finish. The narrator did not do a good job in changing her voice to get into different characters. The pace was uneven, and the voices she used for different characters were almost laughable.

The writing itself was dull and rudimentary. There were several times I laughed out loud at the absurdity of the wording. A phrase like “her pulse scrambled…“ is a good example of the writing in this book. It’s a shame editors did not fix some of these problems and strengthen the writing.

I definitely do not recommend this book. Save your credit for something better.

Ready for a sequel

I've not read this author before but I will be checking out her other works. Good story, good characters, now we need a sequel.

Absolutely brilliant

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the book it held me intently right to the end