Name: Kayla Smith's review of No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez
Item: No Bad Deed
Rating: 1
Author: Kayla Smith

Heather Chavez

“A twisty, jet-fueled thriller… Don’t miss it!” – Lisa Gardner Packed with the electrifying pacing and pulse-pounding suspense of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner, a thrilling debut about a mother desperate to find the connections between her missing husband and a deadly stalker who knows too much about her own dark family history. Driving home one rainy night, Cassie Larkin sees a man and woman fighting on the side of the road. After calling 911, the veterinarian makes a split-second decision that will throw her sedate suburban life into chaos. Against all reason and advice, she gets out of her minivan and chases after the violent man, trying to help his victim. When Cassie physically tries to stop him, he suddenly turns on her and spits out an ominous threat: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” A veterinarian trained to heal, Cassie can’t let the woman die. But while she’s examining the unconscious victim, the attacker steals her car. Now he has her name. Her address. And he knows about her children. Though they warn her to be careful, the police assure her that the perpetrator—a criminal named Carver Sweet—won’t get near her. Cassie isn’t so sure. The next day—Halloween—her husband disappears while trick-or-treating with their six-year-old daughter. Are these disturbing events a coincidence or the beginning of a horrifying nightmare? Her husband has been growing distant—is it possible he’s become involved with another woman? Is Cassie’s confrontation with the road-side attacker connected to her husband’s disappearance? With all these questions swirling in her mind Cassie can trust no one, maybe not even herself. The only thing she knows for sure is that she can’t sit back while the people she loves are in danger. As she desperately searches for answers, Cassie discovers that nothing is as random as it seems, and that she is more than willing to fight—to go the most terrifying extremes—to save her family and her marriage.

A Novel

No Bad Deed

Kayla Smith

"For fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner, a ... debut about a mother desperate to find the connections between her husband who's just gone missing and a stalker who knows way too much about her own dark family history"--

Lacey Feigl

On her way home from work, Cassie witnesses an altercation on the side of the road between a man and a woman. She stops to help when she sees the man throw the woman down an embankment. She rushes to help the woman and is confronted by the man. ”Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” Cassie hears the police sirens and the man takes off with her purse and car. Now Cassie is constantly looking over her shoulder. Did she make the right decision by helping this woman she didn’t know or should she have let her die?

No Bad Deed is 309 pages long and took me three days to read.

I loved this book and am giving it a 4 out of 5! No Bad Deed is a page-turner of a thriller with a big dose of mystery and you’ll be absolutely hooked!

Thank you, William Morrow, for sending me this copy!

Here’s to the adventure of finding a novel novel!

Lacey

Jeff Brown 

This was a heck of a psychological thriller for a debut novel. Because it is presented in short, crisp chapters, you can read 20 pages in 10 minutes or less and have a couple of new twists introduced.**

The unpredictable, fast paced book keeps you on your toes throughout with surprise twists at every turn. Highly recommended.

**(The reason it took me so long to read it is that I started it as a CD book from out-of-state. The condition of the CDs prevented me from continuing, so I got the physical book. I had to finish another book first before continuing this one -- it was a quick read after that. When I was done with the book, I handed it too my wife and she read it in two days)

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 


This was..........not great. In fact, this was the worst thriller I've ever read. Think of every thriller trope you've ever heard of. It doesn't even have to be a trope you've read personally. Just a trope you've heard of or know about. Now, put those all together and they were all probably somehow integrated into the plot of this novel. It was just utter ridiculousness and I had to skim the last 30% of this novel because I couldn't care less about what happened to these characters. In that last 30% of this story, we had another five tropes pop up and it seemed another five characters. That's another gripe I have about this story, there were just way too many characters to keep straight. I felt like we needed a glossary at the back of the book to remind us who was who.

I read a lot of fantasy and I regularly read thrillers. I'd say that means I've found ways to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy these stories. However, I could not suspend my disbelief enough to believe any of this was happening to our main character. None of it felt real and when of course something new that's completely horrible happened to her, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I woke up with a headache this morning from how often I rolled my eyes last night forcing myself through this. Somehow, our main character took all of the bad karma in the world for herself. The big reveal at the end was completely unsatisfactory too, at least in my opinion. Maybe at that point I just couldn't find it in myself to care enough who was behind all of this ridiculousness because it just didn't seem real. The ending was also completely unrealistic and so cheesy, especially after everything that happened.

I don't usually give books a one-star rating but I had to stay true to my rating system listed on the side of my blog. I absolutely didn't enjoy anything about this and I won't be picking any future books up from this author, unless she chooses to write in a different genre. The writing wasn't bad, but all of the plot points were.

Kayla Smith &
No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez

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Kayla Smith &No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez

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Kayla Smith &
No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez