NetGalley Review: Hanover House (Hanover House Chronicles 0.5) by Brenda Novak

Brenda Novak’s Online Auction for Diabetes Research
Published Sept. 1, 2015
198 Pages Kindle

*Prequel*

Psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot self proclaimed mission in life is to understand why murders and rapists do what they do. Evelyn hopes that by discovering this then she would be able to stop them from committing another crime.  After being kidnapped and left for dead by her boyfriend as a teenager, Evelyn feels that this is the best way to live her life. 

But when she begins building a new health center in a small town called Hilltop in Alaska, the townspeople openly oppose having murders live so close to their town.

Even Alaskan State Trooper, Sergeant Amarok has been vocal about the center despite his attraction to Evelyn. But due to her horrible past, Amarok has to tread lightly or everything can go wrong.

*Short Review*

Because this is a prequel, the book was only 16 chapters long; which was fine with me because I don’t believe I liked Evelyn. I don’t have a issue with the author choosing to make Evelyn be solely defined by the unfortunate events in her life. I guess my issue is she has no personality or a true sense of who she is.  And for a person that swore off men, she was pretty fast to attach herself to Amarok, whom I loved.  I thought Amarok was sweet and a no BS type of guy but even then his personality doesn’t completely shine through either once he attaches himself to Evelyn.

I understand that this is supposed to be a introduction but things happened pretty fast and not as climatic as the book appeared to be. The whole drama of the book (minus the romance) came and went as if it really didn’t exist. Prequel or not that bother me.

This book did its duty by making me curious and intrigued enough to read the first official book. I.e. I like this prequel enough to give it a good rating and read the first book when it comes out. I am hoping for more dramatics, a more secured woman who knows who she is, a deeper relationship between Evelyn and Amarok and most importantly character development.

I liked the premise of the book, although it wasn’t extremely original.

3 Pickles