Originally Reviewed Bewitching Bibliophile**Trigger Warnings for those who need them: Discussion of childhood sexual abuse ***I really enjoyed going back into the Rachel De Luca world because she is such a fun character to get to know. Rachel is focused on moving her family into their new home, getting her office setup and hopefully getting Mason to move this relationship to the next level. When a nightmare wakes her, this one she's scared to discuss with Mason when he gets the call to go where Originally Reviewed Bewitching Bibliophile**Trigger Warnings for those who need them: Discussion of childhood sexual abuse ***I really enjoyed going back into the Rachel De Luca world because she is such a fun character to get to know. Rachel is focused on moving her family into their new home, getting her office setup and hopefully getting Mason to move this relationship to the next level. When a nightmare wakes her, this one she's scared to discuss with Mason when he gets the call to go where a new body has been found. They are jsut starting to get over what happened when Josh's friend went missing and now they are looking for a killer.As the story develops we re-visit a story that L have loved for years The Gingerbread Man, which is a haunting romantic thriller, about missing children and a child predator. To this day that story haunts me, so it was good to see old friends again even if it meant dragging their story out into the light. Rachel is still trying to get a handle on her new ability to tap into the NFP knowing she has going on when she ends up meeting Lily Newman. As she digs deeper into how her gift is working now she accidentally uncovers a small mystery.It appears a serial killer is on the loose and no one can figure out what the victims have in common. Until one of the men disappear, he just happens to be Jeremy's professor who called him a liar and Jeremy reacted by punching him in the nose. Now Jeremy is a suspect and Mason is losing it. He's trying to find a way to get Jeremy from under suspicion while finding the killer responsible before the missing man becomes a victim. Rachel is feeling the pressure to perform and quickly.As the story unfolds, Mason and Rachel find themselves moving slightly out of sync. Mason is aware Rachel tried to lie to him, and now he's wondering what it is about this case that her covering for someone who could clear Jeremy. Rachel knows what she has seen can't be admitted into court and while she's never willing to risk her new family in this one case she's willing to bend the truth to protect Mason. Jeremy is starting to ask questions that Mason can't answer and it's all coming out and Mason is struggling.It's awesome reading them struggling with getting it right as parents and lovers. They are in sync most of the time and this case, and what's happening with Jeremy is throwing them for a loop. They never seemed to have the growing pains of most relationships, but now they are working on it. I loved the tension between them forced them to get real clear about what they were looking for. I loved how they handled the growing pains they were having as a family as well with Jeremy admitting he was struggling with everything. They felt so real compared to how characters can be written sometimes. I loved that Rachel could turn to her sister when she needed advice but at the end relied on what she knew about Mason to help her make the right call for them.The whodunit part of the story was well done and when it all was revealed I was like "holy hell". I knew based on what happened to Lily that it would have to do with child abuse but to realize how far some would go to try to 'cure' themselves made me sad. And yet I wanted to know like how could someone go that far in life and not realize that their plan wouldn't work?? Then I realize it's a human failing and was kind of thrown when she mentioned that the medallions were given to certain people and wondered if they all knew what had happened to them. Then I wondered if the woman realized that she was just as bad as those she condemned?? I just was so addicted that I finished the story in one day.I highly recommend the story my loves, especially because we get an update on previous characters that we love. I love that they didn't have a perfect life but a good realistic one even all these years later. ★★★★☆
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