Bound in Shallows by Stephanie Black - ADVISABLE

Bound in Shallows by Stephanie Black, 320 pages. Covenant Communications, 2020. $17.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Looking forward to their wedding, Natalie and Gideon are doing their best to keep it as stress-free as possible, despite old family drama and new tensions with friends. With secrets and ulterior motives at every turn, eloping sounds like a much better plan -- Natalie and Gideon can’t even make it through their wedding weekend before getting the police involved.

While the context of the previous books is nice, readers can still build rapport with the characters and feel the suspense without the prequels. I love how open and trusting Natalie and Gideon are in their relationship, especially with all the crazy going on around them. Reading about a solid couple is refreshing and allows more focus on the mystery at hand rather than trying to improve relationship troubles. The mature content rating is for drug abuse and other illegal activity; the violence rating is for blood, mentions of suicide, and murder.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen