A review by jazmin
Where the Truth Lives by Mia Sheridan

5.0

Sometimes an evil man acted as a hero, and sometimes a victim became a tormenter. Criminals exhibited unexpected grace, and honest men had moments of great weakness. There was a strange, terrible, beautiful, complicated universe inside them all where nothing was simply black or white.

Reread #2 Update:
I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH Y’ALL DON’T UNDERSTAND. GO READ IT IF YOU LIKE SUSPENSE/ROMANCE.

Original Review:

⇢The Plot
This book was on a whole new level than the last one. The case and the murders were far more complex, and multiple crimes were solved in the end.

⇢The Ending
Let’s start with the ending because I’m still reeling. It was honestly perfect how both this book and the open strings from the last one were tied up in a perfect bow. All of my unanswered questions from book one were answered in a way that made sense and felt… peaceful, almost.

⇢The Plot pt.2
The whole plot was fantastic. The romance wasn’t as focused upon as with Josie and Zach, but I didn’t mind because what was lacking in that genre was made up for in the thriller aspect. The cases were a lot more gruesome, and the best part was that because this time the main character was the detective not the civilian, we got a lot more scenes actually depicting the deaths and the cases being solved, which was one of my commentaries for the last book.

⇢Reed
Let’s talk about Reed, because despite the fact that I think Liza’s character was actually more developed, he was the main character and is the tie between the two novels. I was so excited to meet him. When I read that it was Josie’s son who would be taking on the case this time around, I knew that her own past would somehow tie in and I was not let down. Once again, I wish we knew more about him outside of his job (I had the same comment for Zach in book 1). Even though it made sense because he was, in his own words, married to his work, I wish we got to see a little more of how his childhood influenced him.

“Whoever this woman is, whatever her fight and whatever she faces it with, you’ll have to let her come to you. She’ll need that, and you will too, Reed. You can fight with her, but you can’t fight for her.”

⇢Liza
As for Liza, I loved her character just as much if not more than Josie. Her experiences were obviously different, but she was just as brave and as strong. I wish we got more scenes of her at work and with her patients because they were so well written and you could really see how much she empathized with them. That was the downside to the increase in police scenes; there were a lot less scenes with Liza in the present.

It was the journey of a warrior. It was the passage of a woman whose heart was so filled with love that it billowed over and suffocated all those other voices, the ones who’d told her she was weak and without power. The ones who’d deemed her unlovable. Soiled. Ruined. She was not ruined. She was not.

⇢Characters
Finally, this book had a much better side character cast! Of course we saw Josie, Zach and Arryn (and her brothers), and I loved that the scene of when they were first introduced to Reed was included. There were also a lot more people involved in the Tribulation murders that we actually spent time with, which made for a very interesting cast :) And of course, Charles played a role…

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ❦ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

MY LINKTREE ❦