ARC REVIEW: Don’t Let Her Go – by Willow Rose

Title: Don’t Let Her Go
(Detective Billie Ann Wilde #1)
Author: Willow Rose
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Detective
First published: February 2nd 2024
Publisher: Bookouture
Finished reading: January 16th 2024
Pages: 316

“I couldn’t help but feel like something was off about the whole situation. Very off.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: it’s time for another unpopular opinion review!!

I’ve been meaning to try this author for quite some time now… While I already had other books on my kindle, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try the first book of this newest series. I do always love a good serial killer angle in my detective thrillers, and the marshland Florida setting sounded like a great backdrop as well. I’ve been looking forward to pick up Don’t Let You Go, fully expecting to have an excellent time with it, but sadly it wasn’t ment to be in the end.

I can’t deny that Don’t Let You Go has an intriguing premise, even though the blurb doesn’t exactly match the story itself (the events described with that connection to the main character’s past only happen in the final part of the story). Initially, things went well enough, and with its fast pace I found it really easy to keep turning those pages. I did start to wonder about certain side plots and POVs popping up only to never be seen again… They felt too much like fillers and only muddled the story instead of adding dept.

And here is were it went wrong for me: it seemed like the author looked at a list of negative behavior and crimes, and tried to include every single one of them in this book. No more space in the main plot? No worries, let’s just add yet another random scene or side plot so I can add another trigger warning worthy event. Seriously, things are bad enough with the active child abuse scenes going on in Kitty’s POV, but then the domestic abuse, rape, addiction, lesbophobia, religious bigotry, sexism just decide to hit you while you are down. And then there are even more elements I’ve forgotten to mention because there were simply so many of them… Seriously, every time yet another element was forced into the plot, my eyebrows started to climb higher and higher until I felt like I was climbing a skyscraper.

The worst part is that most of the side plots weren’t even properly tied up, and there were so many loose threads that the whole story just started to unravel for me. Especially since the murders themselves don’t seem to get the attention they deserve, and instead other elements take over the plot. I also saw the big twist coming from a mile away, and there were so many red herrings that it just wasn’t believable that the main character didn’t see it coming. More fleshing out of the main plot and more viable suspects probably would have helped… Although by then the story wasn’t really salvageable for me.

I wasn’t sure what to think about the writing itself. Sure, it read fast enough and I still managed to get through this story quickly despite my issues. BUT. For example with Kitty’s POV: she just sounded SO young, basically like a six-year-old, and then we are supposed to believe she got pregnant? While she kept talking like a young child? Just no. The tone in Billie Ann’s POV wasn’t consistent either, and there was something about her character that I just never could warm up to. Especially since her life choices only seem to have been chosen to generate even more conflict in the story rather than giving her an authentic feel.

All in all it’s no surprise when I say that Don’t Let Her Go and me definitely didn’t get along, and I won’t be continuing this series. I might try one of her other series since I already have copies on my kindle… That said, I seem to be in the minority when it comes to this book, so if you don’t mind graphic child abuse, sexual abuse and other heavy topics, Don’t Let Her Go might just be the book for you. It’s a fast read at least either way!