Review--The Killing Rules by Bree Despain

 

Seventeen-year-old Harper Westbrook isn’t afraid of monsters…she is one.

For the past three years, she’s been one of the Blood Bound―girls and women cursed with a bloodlust only satisfied by killing terrible men. Once every three months, she trades in her pom-poms for a lethal throwing axe. Her life is led by a strict set of rules to keep her dark secret as hidden as the bodies she buries.

And her number one rule? Stay away from Grayson Jones.

The boy she was totally falling for until the night her curse manifested, everything went horribly wrong, and she killed his father. It was self-defense. Or at least that’s what she keeps telling herself.

Grayson is an investigative reporter for their school paper, and he’ll stop at nothing to find the truth behind his father’s gruesome death.

As he follows new clues down darker and darker paths―to an unbelievable world of mythical beasts and the men who hunt them―Grayson doesn’t realize he’s on a collision course with Harper’s biggest secrets. Now, she must stop him before he exposes her family to the Hunters, even if it means risking her life and heart.

Because who could ever love a monster like her?

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Bree Despain is back with a brand new supernatural thriller, The Killing Rules and it was most exciting ride indeed! I've been a fan of Bree's books since the early days and I was psyched to hear she was releasing a new novel! This is a standalone supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Harper is cursed, she's a monster of some type. There really was never a name for it, other than Blood Bound, but her grandmother says its in their bloodline for she had it and Harper's mother had it too before she died. Once every three months Harper is overtaken by the need to kill. She becomes beast like and the cravings become overpowering, so she and her grandmother do meticulous research to find some bad guy who needs to die, such as murderers, sexual offenders, or any other man who has committed a heinous offense and has gotten away from it. She only targets men as I guess that's in some way part of the curse? It was never really mentioned why Harper might have killed a woman who would've committed such nefarious and dark crimes, but some kind of justice is still justice I suppose.

Harper's grandmother was somehow cured by this curse and she has been holding out on hope for years that she could find some way to end her own curse as it can cause quite the problem in her social life more than you would think. But lately, her "curse" has been acting up and not in the usual way. She harbors a terrible secret regarding her former friend, Grayson's father's terrible death as well.

Then we have Grayson Jones, who for the past few years has been researching his father's death and trying to find answers. But the deeper he digs, the more secrets he uncovers and everything he thought he knew is about to be challenged.

Naturally, Grayson and Harper have some chemistry and a history too! You can probably guess what happened through the blurb but there's always more to learn about every situation same as this! We get both Grayson and Harper's point of views in this one which gives us a broader perspective of what's happening with this mystery.

This was a fairly fast paced read! I was eating up the pages and trying to sneak in as much reading time as possible to see where things would go with this one. As Harper tries to subtly thwart Grayson's attempts to research a recent murder that happened in town. There's a lot of tension to this one! You kept wondering if Grayson would figure out Harper's secrets, or one of her many secrets. But Harper also learns that there are quite a few secrets in her family history as well that will change everything!

This book was just awesome! It has been too long since I read a book from Bree Despain and I truly hope there is more to come from her! This reads as a standalone, but I've said that before about many a book and we end up getting some other stories out of it. But essentially this book ends with a sense of finality with the potential for more, which is honestly the best way to end a series! 

If you're looking for a book filled with some vigilante justice with a supernatural twist, then The Killing Rules is the read for you! It's a fun and fast paced novel with murder, mystery, and twists galore! The story is heartfelt and exciting as well! An all around GREAT read!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars