Hanover House (The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles 0.5) by Brenda Novak

Published: September 1st 2015 by Brenda Novak, Inc.
Read Date: July 17th 2017
Star: 3.5/5

Blurb (in my words)-

Dr. Evelyn Talbot, Psychiatrist, has experienced worst at age 16- Kidnapped, raped and left to die by a psycho boyfriend she once trusted. The experienced has shaken her so much that she dedicated her life to study psychopaths. Why they act like this? How they can kill and never feel remorse? She wants to stop them by studying their behavior. She thinks knowledge can save her and more women like her from these rarely detectable psychos. And so she has established a center at remote town of Hilltop, Alaska that is opening in few months. Not everyone is happy about it especially serial killers and also an Alaskan state trooper, Sergeant Amarok, handsome, reputable officer, who is attracted to Evelyn. He is aware of the danger she was bringing to his town and in her life.
On the way of achieving goal little Evelyn knew her nightmare is following her steps.

My view:

 
‘Hanover House’ is the prequel to “Her Darkest Nightmare”, first in The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles.
When I saw the post on Facebook group of this book, the cover of the book and blurb drew me to this book and I’m glad I read this book. I so enjoyed it that I want to continue this series.
First Warning: This book is definitely not for faint-hearted. It’s hard boiled thriller. You will face murders, torture and rape in this book. So be prepared. You’re going to deal with worst psychopath here.
Character– Evelyn was beautiful, determined, resilient woman who has wore hard shell over her fragile and scared soul. I so liked this character from the very beginning. The change in her after that horrible experience when she was16 was indescribable. I really liked how she approached life, and remained strong. Amarok was amazing in the book and so careful and gentle with Evelyn that I fell in love with him. Antagonist- don’t even ask me. He was so creepy that I wanted to shoot him right at his mention in the book. He scared the hell out of me. All characters were just brilliant.
My favorite lines from the book:

“Hanover House, home to some of the worst serial killers on earth!”

These lines were actually in the beginning of the book. Isn’t that creepy enough?
What I liked? The opening of the book with introduction to Hanover House was amazing. I liked the idea of this facility. The concept was different. And then in first chapter only Evelyn’s talk with her mother gave overview of the past and present life of Evelyn. I liked her motive behind the center and it made me curious, I wanted to see what Evelyn was going to do with all psychopaths and how she was going to analyze them and what she was going to face. It cleared in the starting only that this was damn dangerous and scary thing. First 5 chapters of the book ignited all kind of emotions in me – I was scared, angry, curious, sorry for Evelyn, and amazed at strength of her. Her pain and fear was heart felt and well written by author, which covered most part of the book.

Alternative view of Evelyn, Amarok and Antagonist made this book exciting to read. This book had on and off thrilling effect. At one moment it drew me to the edge, I was prepared something will happen and whoosh! It’s not there. Gone. As I started to relax in tense free part of the book suddenly all the exciting thrilling part is back. It was perfectly balanced. Made me keep reading. Romance between Evelyn and Amarok was clean and was a relaxing part of the book. It was not like hero came to heroine and fight villain kind of cliché here that I liked.
End– I was like wait, what! Am I reading correctly ‘Epilogue’. I cleaned my glasses twice. Seriously! I was expecting it to end here. It was not rushed but wanted to read more and the same time wanted some twist right at this point. This little disappointed me.
Why 3.5? First- I thought there will be dealing with lot of psychopath here but it was not there not at least in this prequel. But after reading the snippet of next book it’s there what I was expecting in the beginning of the book. Second- Protagonist was playing with death. She didn’t change her identity after she was terrorized at 16, she was famous because of the facility and knew that psycho boyfriend is still out there. Though she knew she was constantly going to face danger, she didn’t have personal security guard. She was too vulnerable. This was totally foolish. And the End as I said.
I was constantly changing the stars as I progressed the book. First I thought I will give 5, then 4 then I settled for 3.5. I loved this book and concept and everything was perfect but these points made me cut the stars. Book was good and snippet of next book is so exciting that I want to read the next book.
Overall, it’s dark thrilling and chilling book.
Who should read it? If you like psychopaths, serial killers and strong well written characters, you would like to read this book.

Buy Here: Amazon.com |Amazon.in

Author: Brenda Novak

to know more about author click HERE.

*** Note: I received review copy of this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. I am glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

What do you think about the book and my review? Have you read this book or any other book by Brenda Novak? Share your thoughts in the comment-box below.
Happy Reading! 🙂

–BT&R