Name: Secrets in a Small Town
ISBN: 9781635554366

Nicole Stiling

Deputy Chief Mackenzie Blake has one mission: find the person harassing Savannah Castillo and her daughter before they cause real harm.

Secrets in a Small Town

Izza

4.5 stars | Was this a SQ fanfic? I dig it.

Lucia Correa

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 stars for this debut novel by Nicole Stiling.

Savannah Castillo, a town manager, is an ice queen extraordinaire who likes to be in control of everything and everyone around her. Her one soft spot is for her 7 year old daughter, Eliana. The Deputy Chief of Police, Mackenzie (Micki) Blake regularly clashes with Savannah as her requests for her office renovation to be finished and updates to the police equipment and cars are repeatedly denied by Savannah. (Question: why isn’t Micki the “Chief of Police” instead of Deputy since there is no one above her position?)

Savanna begins to receive anonymous love letters and gifts from an admirer that quickly escalates to stalker. When the stalker starts leaving messages inside of Savanna’s house, Micki moves in to protect Savanna and Eliana. Savanna and Micki’s relationship goes from adversaries to lovers very quickly. My preference is slow burn romances but I didn’t mind this fast burn (hot) romance.

One quibble I had is I felt there are standard police procedures that Micki could have done that would have aided in identifying the stalker quicker. I had in my mind who the stalker was, but alas I was wrong. A good mystery keeps you guessing. 

I was wondering if this story was originally a Once Upon a Time (OUAT) fan fiction or inspired by OUAT. OUAT was a TV show with ice queen Regina, who was a mayor of a small town with a young son and Emma was the Chief of Police. They too regularly clash and resemble Savanna and Micki. No matter. I enjoy fanfic so I’m thrilled when a fanfic author becomes a successful published author. 

This is an enjoyable debut novel and I’m looking forward to Stiling’s next book.

 An ARC of this book was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review.

Jude Silberfeld

I read this book in one sitting, it was a very nice and enjoyable read, part romance, part mystery. The mystery part was actually quite scary at times but not overwhelmingly so. The romance was an enemies to lovers one, and I liked how the characters themselves were surprised by it, how fast and how easily it happened. 

I’m always amazed at the quality of some debut novels, and while this one is not perfect, it makes me look forward to the author’s next one. 

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Cooper

This was a unexpected but very pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed this book. Overall, this is light read - not a hard core or bloody mystery/crime drama or an angst-ridden romance - but Stiling manages to balance the mystery and the romance quite well to make it a great book to while away (wile away) a dreary afternoon. 

The mystery was plausible without going over the top - there's something just inherently creepy about stalkers and Stiling used it well to stir up the suspense. She also managed to include a decent set of suspects, alibis and red herrings to keep me guessing. Best of all, she didn't include the big bad's POV - I hate it when a book includes the bad guy/gal's POV in the narration - it ruins the flow and, honestly, it always seems cheesy to try to explain or demonstrate how batshit crazy they are. 

The dynamic between Micki and Savannah worked particularly well - gotta love the ice queen melts trope - with a great chemistry and some amusing dialogue. The love/hate dynamic works well in place of the "instalove" you sometimes find in lesfic novels - the idea that the attraction was there, but masked by the sniping/one-upmanship of the MCs. Both characters were engaging and believable and the evolution of their relationship worked. Even the secondary characters seemed three dimensional. 

I'm surprised this is Stiling's first novel and I will be looking for her next one. 

By the way - I do agree with the stalker, asparagus is better when it's steamed.

Secrets in a Small Town

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