Her Best Friend's Keeper (Finley Creek, #1; Texas State… (2024)

I received this free e-book from Amazon and I am voluntarily writing a review. First let me say I am a huge fan of Calle J. Brooks, but I do not feel this was one of her better books. I felt the characters were jumbled and I had to keep going back into the book to figure out how they related, the book kept repeating monotonously, and never touched on why the family was murdered in the first place, and left me hanging up in the air at the end. Gabby works at the Texas state police as a forensic computer specialist. She witnessed the murder of her best friend and most of the family ten years ago while on her computer video chat and recorded the event. Elliot is the older brother of her deceased friend and has recently been appointed as the Chief of the Texas State police post where Gabby works. He and his younger brother were spared that night because they were not home at the time. recently there have been repeated attempts on Gabby's life.

Much improved editing.

I almost didn't start this series even though I love the characters and stories from the PAVAD series because I had gotten so frustrated with paying for the very poor editing. In the end, I decided to give this series a try, and I'm so glad I did. The editing was light years better. Granted, I still encountered an issue here or there like a missing word, but it was rare and not really distracting. The writing style is very similar to PAVAD, just a different agency (Texas State Police). For those who have read PAVAD, you will be happy with the pop ins from some favorite characters. It was just enough to make PAVAD fans happy, but not enough to leave new readers confused. It was a good story, and I am now hooked on the Finley Creek crew.

Thoughts: A great beginning to a really good trilogy, which I had to order and read right away. It was all good, except books 2 and 3 need proofreading. The individual and overarching stories were really good. The characters were awesome, handicaps were majors parts and handled well, the violence is scary. But there were times when the proofreading would have fixed things I simply couldn't read. I've heard this about this author's books in other reviews.

This was quite a quick read as it drew me in right away and kept me reading. It is not complete in and of itself but I was intrigued enough to go straight to book 2 in the series once I was done.

I did not enjoy reading this book. There was too much repeating phrases and far too many italicized words. I was so distracted by it that I actually began highlighting them in awe of how many there were. I felt that the writing was a bit immature and corny, like Lord I love this woman and how many times it was said about running fingers through her hair. 2 naive, odd girls and 2 rouge lonewolf brothers...it was not believable that the intensity of their feeling could have developed within the very short period they were interacting, even though there was a shared history. The story of the murders was never fully explained either. If the story had been better edited and proofread, maybe it could have been brought together and improved but for me, this was a disappointment.

Awesome

Fast paced, engaging, enervating, addicting, enjoyable, consuming, captivating, and so much else.

Called J Brooks has taken a strong storyline and created a novel one could not put down. Pulling the reader in through her characters, initially, she keeps the reader enthralled through the cold case that has come back to haunt many. And what they find is crushing and surprising. Yet, there is also good. Safety, lost demons, stronger bonds and love.

Rating: 4.5

Illogical to the point of nonsensical

I had to force myself to finish this one dimensional bit of nonsense. Little explanation of the cold case and a weak reason for the need to get rid of Gabby beyond the fact she's the most irritating character in the book -at one stage I found myself urging on the killer to get it right this time. I won't bother with this author again

A totally engrossing mixture of action and relationship driven romance. I will totally read this again.

The story focuses on an extended family and their close friends.
Decades ago, Now-Retired Detective Becks was a good cop. Then 10 years ago, one particular group of bad guys killed his best friend, fellow-Detective Marshall, and everyone else in the house... Marshalls wife and children, leaving 2 shattered older boys and lots of grieving friends. Including, most importantly, a little girl who witnessed (and recorded) the whole attack via webcam.
Fast forward. That little girl is now a fully fledged computer genius working with Detective Becks equally genius (autistic) daughter in the PD Computer Forensics Department. And they've been digging into what happened all those years ago.
The Marshall brothers are back as well, looking to reopen the investigation into their family's death.
Cue the nasty nasty bad guys.
Relationship sparks fly. Lots of violence and it turns out, at least one of the bad guys may have only been in it because of blackmail.

There are several family's intertwined in this series, you may want to make notes. The author has used the mess of characters in a really good way, and as part of the plot twists.

Make sure you read the books in order. This series is a spin-off of the DRAVAD series, and makes references to that story line.
Parts of the story gets repeated and re-stated lots of times, and I found myself skimming those. In part, this is probably because of the realistic speech style and thought processes of someone on the Autism Spectrum - but some of it is just bad editing. Similarly, there are places where you don't know who is talking to who; and sentences missing connecting words.

1.5* DNF. Sorry but the author gives away a lot of the plot in the beginning, and it ruined it. It was really boring as well.

It started off really well with Gabby as the only witness to her best friend and her family being murdered, ten years ago. Gabby spoke to Elliot (Who is one of two brothers that were out that night and survived,) at the funeral about what she had seen, and he was horrible to her. Ten years later Elliot is the new police chief and him and Gabby are soon in a very weird relationship. The sex scenes actually made me me cringe. It hints throughout the book that Gabby saw something that night and tried to tell Elliot st the funeral, but then nothing is made of it and it’s not mentioned again.

So the tension is ramping up and it was getting exciting. Gabby has severe ptsd from that night, and has a panic attacks, and feels like she’s being watched. When Gabby’s apartment is broken into and trashed, the author tells us who did it and why!! 😡😡 Completely ruined the book and it didn’t even make sense. The man who did it was someone who all the women looked up to and was a close friend. He looked at the ‘girls,’ as his daughters. So why would he slash her underwear? HE WOULDN’T!! 😡😡😡

Reading the plot for book two the murders still haven’t been resolved and I would rather it had been about Gabby and Elliot still.

I’m disappointed as I felt like it could have been a brilliant book. Sadly it’s not as nothing happens, their relationship is weird and it felt forced.

Ten years ago, a murder occurred killing two parents and two of four children. One best friend managed to see it all over her laptop and webcam. Nothing ever was solved in that crime. For five years someone kept sending that friend, Gabby, emails threatening her; then they just stopped. Gabby and several other families are intertwined with the family murdered. Gabby and Brynna work for the Texas State Police Department in Forensics. Gabby is experiencing PTSD from what occurred. Brynna, Gabby, and Brynna’s oldest sister, Carrie, developed new software that can enhance any video. This book is full of action from the get-go ~ The new Chief is none other than one of the surviving children, Elliot; he is the oldest. When he sees Gabby, he cannot believe how much she has changed~ When her life is threatened once again, he and his brother, Chance will step up to save her and all the others involved. The book is primarily about Elliot and Gabby, but so many others will be introduced from the families affected, and some others from doctors, police, security, P.I,’s, and others. This series has 12 books in it and I do not plan on missing ANY of them. So, for the first part of the journey, read their story and get to know the others. The storyline is well written and I cannot wait to dig into the rest~

Great read. This is about Gabby Kendall who witnessed the murder of her best friend's family right in front of her. Its been 10 years and hasn't been solved. This is number 1 in the trilogy and once I started I had a hard time putting it down. There is so much going on and someone is stalking Gabby. She meets the Sheriff in town, Elliott Marshall. Elliot also lost his family 10 years ago and it also hasn't been solved. The two family murders are intertwined. A lot of background into both families and how they were involved with each other. Now the killer or killers are back and they want Gabby. Sheriff Elliot remembers Gabby but Gabby barely remembers Elliott as she was just 12 when it all went down. They are very attracted to each other. Gabby is also a high functioning Autistic who works in the IT department and very very good at her job. The story line just grabs you and you don't want to put it down. Highly recommend.

Very disappointed

Why do author's think that having a full grown professional man act like a hormonal teenager is sexy or romantic? Elliot is the new chief of police for a large Texas department and he wants his employees to respect him. One of them was his sister's best friend who he hasn't seen in 10 years. He tells her to call him Elliot in private but Chief Marshall in front of everybody else. Then someone tried to kill her and he calls her honey and sweetheart in front of his other officers. Seriously??!!! Then to protect her, he takes her home with him but all he can think about is getting in her pants. I got a fourth of the way through the book before I quit. It could have been a good story if they had acted more professional. I won't be reading any more in the series.

This is the first book in a series and holy cow there was WAY too many characters introduced. I understand setting up for future books but this was overkill. It got confusing as to what was even happening with all the new people constantly being introduced. The main characters are Gabby and Elliot but they also got bogged down due to everything that was happening in this book. We don’t even really get any real answers as to why Elliot’s family was murdered years prior - we only learn about a couple of the killers and then are left on a cliffhanger. If I’d known the end was going to be like that I wouldn’t have read this. I have a bunch of other books in this series in my library but idk if I even want to read them now.

This was so suspenseful! I loved it! Loved that it tied the two series together. I have always enjoyed when authors write multiple series and tie them all together. I'm really excited to see how this story continues. There are still so many unanswered questions!
These characters were amazing! All of them have been threw so much pain, and yet they pushed through it and are the people that they are. I can't wait to get to know them better as the series continues! Definitely recommend this book. But you'll have to read her PAVAD series first to truly understand some of the characters that show up from St. Luis.

Two people, both determined to never have a long term relationship, find themselves thrust together by fate. Actually it started a long time ago, and that sets up the story. Now it is romance that they both resist. Then the fates take a hand. Their world goes to hell and they cling tightly to each other. The author explores their thoughts, and brings in their world to see how it all relates. Turns out their is lots of action and struggles and hope for the future.

The story does not finish, but leaves open the entry to this series. So frustrating that the author offers the reader the first chapter of the next book to attempt to pull you in.

5/5

I’m a nerd who typically reads alien romance (who sometimes reads thrillers and mystery’s) and when I happened to see the blurb for this- I thought I would give it a chance. Y’all- this is the first book I’ve stayed up all night reading a long time! (I gobbled this up in less than a day- I couldn’t put it down.) I’m a big fan of books written with multiple POVS and i love the way the author utilized it!

I loved the characters (some so swoon worthy), their connections, their chemistry- I mean, just so easy to feel connected with them myself! This is my first read from this author and I am really excited to read the rest of their work. 5/5 stars- loved it!

So intriguing

Calle writes stories that draw you into each of the characters. This one deals with a 10 year old murder mystery of a family. Only 2 of the children survived because they weren't home. But Gabby saw it all happen because she was web chatting with her friend in the web and saw it all. Elliot is back in his home town. He and his brother Chance have ghost of their families death to deal with. But each off the characters are strong in their own way with the help of friends.

Five plus stars

Romantic suspense and heart pounding action with originality in the wonderful characters! Part of a family was brutally murdered one night and changed the lives of two brothers and close friends forever. Ten years later out of fear of being found out the murderer decides to systematically kill those who could unmask him and his accomplices. That's when the terrors begin and when friends will stop at nothing to keep each other safe. One of the more gripping books I've read in a while.

Gabby and Elliot!

Wow, what a book! Another amazing story by Calle Brookes. Elliot is the new Division Chief for Finley Creek and Gabby works in the computer forensics lab. Gabby was once Elliot's sister, Sara's best friend, before her and 3 other members of Elliot's family were murdered. The case has gone cold but now that Elliot is back in his home town a decade later, it appears some are trying to keep him and Gabby from discovering who was responsible for the crime and trying to keep their tracks covered. Enjoy:)

Fantastic!

The plot is so complex it keeps you completely involved and by the end you are thrilled there are more books. You are not ready for the story to be over!!!!! At the same time the Romance has a wonderful conclusion that we will follow forward but one HEA is guarenteed and the beginnings of more have been seeded which I loved. I found this book absolutely fantastic. Wish 6 stars was a choice. Write On Calle. Bravo!! Davia

Wow, what a great book. I love that it is so closely attached to the PAVAD series and that secondary characters are getting their own series of books. This one is wonderfully full of mystery, tension and family. Gabby and Elliot are wonderful together. I can't wait to see how the mystery is finally solved.

Her Best Friends Keeper...

Awesome read! Awesome characters and storyline. Could not put down until finished. A murder from 10 years had never been solved but unknowingly it was taped by a young friend. Just have to read to get the whole details!! Definitely a recommend must read!!

Hard to get past TSP

I’m from Texas and was confused by the use of Texas State Police. Why not use the Texas Rangers or make up a group? It was hard for me to get past this reference to a long-defunct group. Plus I wish this had been a stand alone book that resolved the main issue. I was disappointed.

Do not put this book down!!

Law enforcement/computer forensics. Three girlfriends are looking into the murders of another friend and her entire family except two older brothers not there at time (ten years before) By computer technology. The new chief of Texas State Police is the older brother of the slain girl. Three ++ protagonists out to get all of them ten years later.

First in a series

Good story of a young girl who saw too much. Someone wants her dead because of it. This book needs a better editor. Thoughts and actions didn't always match. They would be sitting then standing in the same paragraph. Not cohesive. Hate it when you have to get the next book to see what happens!

Great!

The suspense and intrigue had me glued to this book. It's a wonder anything else got accomplished. The romance was clean so there was no need to skip pages/chapters. It was a stand alone story but left the option for the story to continue. I'm hoping book two does just that.

The most riveting book I've ever read.

This book was riveting , and loving. The friendship between the friends was masterful. The romance was sweet and wonderful. Abby turned from being afraid of her own shadow to being a hero and saving one of her two best friends and Deciding she was going to save Bryan's and live for today.

Miracles do happen

In this story, Calle is narrating about bravery of the women who survived death. Gabby and Brynne survived when Bennett Russell wanted to kill them. Gabby who was supposed to be timid and scared turned out to be brave and strong to save her friend. They both cheated death instead. I can't wait to read the second book.

An excellent thriller

A real page turner! Once started I could not put it down. Plenty of twists and turns with a background of romance. Only downside is having to purchase more books to get the ending. Would have made an excellent stand alone novel.

Fast paced read.....

Liked this fast paced read, the characters are all too real and complement each other. Just beware the crime is not fully solved at the end of this book hence book two....