Review--Till Death by Jennifer L. Armentrout

In New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s gripping new novel, a young woman comes home to reclaim her life—even as a murderer plots to end it. . .

It’s been ten years since Sasha Keaton left her West Virginia hometown . . . since she escaped the twisted serial killer known as the Groom. Returning to help run her family inn means being whole again, except for one missing piece. The piece that falls into place when Sasha’s threatened—and FBI agent Cole Landis vows to protect her the way he couldn’t a decade ago.

First one woman disappears; then another, and all the while, disturbing calling cards are left for the sole survivor of the Groom’s reign of terror. Cole’s never forgiven himself for not being there when Sasha was taken, but he intends to make up for it now . . . because under the quirky sexiness Cole first fell for is a steely strength that only makes him love Sasha more.

But someone is watching. Waiting. And Sasha’s first mistake could be her last.

It never ceases to amaze me what Jennifer L. Armentrout can do when you put her in front of a keyboard! She’s one of my most favorite authors for a reason, she’s a master storyteller and the books only keep getting better! Till Death was her first adult thriller/mystery and it was positively one of the best reads I’ve read this year! It has that right amount of tension and mystery buildup, I couldn’t get enough of it!

Jennifer takes a very serious kind of topic amidst the mystery and handles it so well! Kudos for that too! Sasha was a victim of a serial killer when she was nineteen, but managed to be the only one to ever escape. She since left her home in attempts to start over. Now ten years later, she’s back home to help her mom run the family inn and from the moment she returns, everything turns into chaos.

There are perks to being back though, she gets to be reunited with her best friends, be with her mom, and then of course, there’s Cole Landis, her old college boyfriend. When Cole hears she’s back in town, he comes over to the inn right away. Sasha was dating Cole at the time of her kidnapping and she never really said a proper goodbye to him when she left town. So there’s a lot of things left unsaid between them, plus the decade apart.

I think it’s safe to say that this book is both mystery and romance. And if you’ve read any Jennifer Armentrout book, you know she does romance right! And I gotta admit, rekindled romances are another weakness of mine! I guess because in a way, it’s also rekindled friendships! The romance was pretty spot on! It comes at all the right parts and is perfectly swoony, sweet, and a little bit hot too! Lol!

The mystery itself was pretty chilling too! There are sudden disappearances of young woman, all who resemble Sasha in terms of hair color and whatnot, because that is what the Groom preferred even back then. But the Groom was killed as soon as Sasha was able to get away. Yet all these disappearances and the bodies that eventually follow seem to follow the ritualistic tortures of the Groom. The police are convinced it’s a copycat, but there are really no leads.

What I love about mysteries is playing detective right alongside of the characters! I had about three suspects going while reading this, one I pegged randomly as he was first to appear at a critical point, one I made as a leap, and one who just seemed ultra-suspicious! I was pretty convinced that another wasn’t it, because it’d be too obvious! This is what watching Scooby Doo as a kid will get you! And I thank Scooby for that, because while my final guess was wrong, one of my suspects was it! I like to think that in a way I was sorta right, because it was literally my second guess of whodunit that was right!

There were some pretty creepy times to this one too! Nothing in the terms of paranormal creepy, but just general creepy. I’ve always said that thrillers were a favorite of mine because they were like my paranormal reads in that you still have bad guys doing bad things, it’s just that these bad guys are always human and that’s even scarier in my opinion! There were even sporadic moments where we get the killer’s point of view. It was truly sporadic in a sense and never lasted more than a page, but I found these to be interesting segments! It reminded me of Kimberly Derting’s Body Finder series where she would do this for chapters too! It’s twisted seeing what these bad guys think and what not. It can get pretty dark.

Till Death was an epically creepy thriller! The sweet little romance that was also happening throughout the story helped to make it not as dark. I think I would’ve been fine with it either way, but since this is Jennifer Armentrout we’re talking about, I’m kind of glad for the romance! LOL! This is a read that will likely keep you guessing as to who the killer is and all the shocks and twists that come with it will have you at the edge of your seat reading this one well into the night! It’s a most definitely a great read!

 
Overall Rating 5/5 stars