Review (New Release): What Doesn't Kill Her by Christina Dodd

About the Book:

One secret, one nightmare, one lie. You guess which is which. 1. I have the scar of a gunshot on my forehead. 2. I have willfully misrepresented my identity to the US military. 3. I'm the new mother of a seven-year-old girl. Kellen Adams suffers from a yearlong gap in her memory. A bullet to the brain will cause that. But she's discovering the truth, and what she learns changes her life, her confidence, her very self. She finds herself in the wilderness, on the run, unprepared, her enemies unknown--and she is carrying a priceless burden she must protect at all costs. The consequences of failure would break her. And Kellen Adams does not break. What doesn't kill her...had better start running.

*What Doesn't Kill Her is book #2 in the Cape Charade Series.

My Thoughts:

What Doesn't Kill Her is book 2 in the Cape Charade Series, and the follow-up novel to Dead Girl Running. I would highly recommend reading these books in order so as not to miss out on any important details, facts, and revelations. This installment brings just as much action and drama as its predecessor. Kellen is back and we learn more about her past and missing year, while at the same time a new mystery is presented. Someone is out to get her. I enjoyed the fast pace of the story and the excitement it entailed, but like the first novel, I didn't get fully invested in the romantic aspect. I was more interested in the action than the romance. We learned at the end of the first novel that Kellen and Max have a daughter. In the beginning of this book, we find out how she came to be, and just why Kellen does not know or feel connected to her. Rae- their child- is a major secondary character in this story. There are a handful of stressful, over the top, and violent situations she witnesses along the way. It was very unrealistic to me how Rae reacted- like nothing scary was happening. Like seeing people shot at and stabbed wasn't traumatizing for a seven year old- versus how these things would really affect a child emotionally and psychologically. This is fiction, but I had trouble getting past the limited reactions from a small child. So, aside from a luke-warm romance and a few things that didn't read as believable, What Doesn't Kill Her was a satisfactory reading experience. The book ends with a cliffhanger, and it's one that has me wanting to see the series through to the end.