It’s Throwback Thursday, so I’m resharing my review of Out of the Shadows, the first in The Tacket Secret series by Emma Carrie. It’s a fast-paced YA series that will appeal to thriller fans.
Teenager Emily Brelin’s adoptive mother has just died, and now Child Protective Services needs to find her a place to live. At least, that’s what they think. Emily needs to stay off the grid, to make sure her past doesn’t find her. That means staying out of the system.
Detective Victoria Tacket didn’t even know her friend Dr Jennifer Brelin was ill, let alone that she’d adopted a teenager. And why has Jen nominated her as guardian? She’s not fit to be a parent—which she tells CPS. But then Emily disappears, and Vick knows she has to find the missing teen.
Emily is a fascinating character, with more skills that people would expect for her age—including the ability to lip-read. She takes the lead in this game of hide and seek, and her willingness to run away and disappear introduce a lot of questions. Who is Emily? Why is it so important she stays out of the system? Who is looking for her … and what will happen if they find her?
This is the first book in a series—thank goodness, because I want to know what happens next! It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but the end definitely leaves some unanswered questions for future books. (Cliffhanger endings too often give me the impression the author didn’t know how to finish the book, which breaks the illusion that it’s real).
Out of the Shadows is a fast-paced read with plenty of suspense. The plot and writing are solid, and the characters are excellent. If there was a failing, it was that it was too quick to read (I read it in a single sitting, because I couldn’t put it down). Not a novel to start late in the evening …
Recommended for those looking for Young Adult suspense.
Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review (although it’s now permanently free on Kindle).
About Out of the Shadows
Emily won’t be a test specimen too.
After years of prolonged mental and physical abuse during combat training, Emily Brelin’s genetic structure changed. New abilities emerged, which she hid from her captor, a rogue general.
Fearing she’d be experimented on, Emily escaped and fled across the globe to New York’s largest metropolitan area, Golden City. There, she met a sympathetic professor who offered her a new home, a new identity, and a new start.
The professor protected Emily’s secrets, until cancer intervened. On her deathbed, she made Emily promise to meet her best friend, a female detective who could keep the teen safe.
Now, despite reservations, Emily is racing to complete her vow. But the general wants his prized teen weapon back. He’s hunting Emily–and her cover is unraveling.
Detective Vick Tacket is shocked when she learns her best friend has died. She’s more stunned to learn the professor had a hidden dependent and named Vick–a single woman with no maternal interest–as the teen’s guardian.
But when mysterious girl disappears, Vick scours the streets of Golden City searching for the missing teen.
What she discovers could get them both killed.
About Emma Carrie
When not writing, Emma enjoys her own adventures. She’s explored an active coal mine, fired a Gatling gun from a Humvee, and examined chromosomes with a scanning electron microscope. She’s also hitched a ride in a corporate jet and wiped out on stage while modeling. Unique moments like those fuel her stories.
Emma loves strong female characters who are driven by unconquerable determination–the encouragement she hopes readers take from her stories.
Broken-down walls and crumbling stones seemed to possess a secret language all their own.
Kristy Cambron has a background in art and design, but she fancies life as a vintage-inspired storyteller. Her debut novel, The Butterfly and the Violin, was named to Library Journal’s Best Books of 2014 and nominated for RT Book Reviews’ Choice Awards Best Inspirational Novel of 2014 and for the 2015 INSPY Awards for Best Debut Novel. Her second novel, A Sparrow in Terezin, was named Library Journal’s Pick of the Month (Christian Fiction) for February 2015 and a Top Pick for RT Book Reviews. Kristy holds a degree in Art History from Indiana University. She lives in Indiana with her husband and three young sons.
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