The Devil's Daughter by Katee Robert Pages: 301
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also by this author: The Marriage Contract, The Wedding Pact, Fool Me Once, An Indecent Proposal, A Fool For You, The Hunting Grounds, Neon Gods (Dark Olympus, #1), Electric Idol , Wicked Beauty, Court of the Vampire Queen, Hunt on Dark Waters
Goodreads
Growing up in a small town isn’t easy, especially when you’re the daughter of a local cult leader. Ten years ago, Eden Collins left Clear Springs, Montana, and never once looked back. But when the bodies of murdered young women surface, their corpses violated and marked with tattoos worn by her mother’s followers, Eden, now an FBI agent, can’t turn a blind eye. To catch the killer, she’s going to have to return to the fold.
Sheriff Zach Owens isn’t comfortable putting Eden in danger, even if she is an elite agent. And he certainly wasn’t expecting to be so attracted to her. As calm and cool as she appears, he knows this can’t be a happy homecoming. Zach wants to protect her—from her mother, the cult, and the evil that lurks behind its locked gates. But Eden is his only key to the tight-lipped group, and she may just be closer to the killer than either one of them suspects…
Reasons I loved The Devil’s Daughter:
- Eden works for the BAU and that is hella cool.
- I find cults fascinating!
- While I did guess the killer, I didn’t quite get it right either.
The Devil’s Daughter is honestly a unique read. When you read 300 books a year like I do, you don’t often get to say that! Eden grew up the daughter of a cult leader and left as soon as she turned 18. Now she specializes in understanding cults and their leaders while working for the FBI. There is the murder mystery aspect to the plot, and there is a romance aspect as well (but this is secondary). As a reader, you are constantly wondering who would do such a heinous thing in this tiny town? Could it be the obvious cult leader? Is it possible its a total stranger? Eden’s mother is manipulative and conniving on a whole different level so you know that even if she isn’t the killer, she is by no means innocent of crimes! You get the sense that even when Eden and Zack figure out who the killer is, the cult will still exist and that it will still be dangerous. What made this book chilling is you get to see the psychological influence of a cult.
If you want romance, this story is a bit light on that. While there is romance and sex, it is certainly the secondary story. If you like psychological thriller type stories, The Devil’s Daughter is a great pick.
- POV: 3rd
- Tears: no
- Trope: FBI/Police
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: stand alone
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
Hunt the Dawn by Abbie Roads, Kill without Mercy by Alexandra Ivy, Taken by Cynthia Eden…then you will probably like The Devil’s Daughter!
The Devil’s Daughter
From The Devil’s Daughter:
By the time she made it back to the courtyard, it was empty, everyone having gone off to their varying duties. Martha might be a monster of a particular variety, but she had a well-run establishment. But then, she would. Keep her people too busy to stop and wonder about some of the insane shit she preaches. That saying about idle hands didn’t originate with the Greeks, but her mother had never been shy about incorporating whatever dogma she found most useful. No one questioned it.
No one but Eden.
And she’d paid for every question she’d asked.
She stopped next to her car, slowing her movements, because if she didn’t exert total control, she was going to fling herself into the driver’s seat and tear out of here as fast as the car could go. She wouldn’t stop in Clear Springs. She’d just keep driving until she put a few states between her and Elysia.
Not an option. You made damn sure of that.
She noticed the door was unlocked and frowned. Had she locked it when she got here? Eden couldn’t be sure. She’d been so rattled and practically bursting with adrenaline and dread that it was entirely possible she’d headed for her mother’s house without pausing to lock the door.
But she didn’t think so.
She opened the driver’s door cautiously, half expecting something to explode. She only had cursory bomb training, so even if she swept the vehicle, she couldn’t be sure she’d find something. If there was even something to find. Hello, paranoia, my old friend. She turned a slow circle, trying to figure out if someone would have had enough time to plant something. If a person had the know-how, setting up a bomb in a half hour was cake.
Way to be reassuring.
She leaned back into the car, a flash of white and yellow catching her eye. Frowning, she leaned in farther and used the pen in her cup holder to hook the circular wreath of daisies lying on the floorboard of the passenger side. It looked like the kind of thing she’d made when she was a kid and bored out of her ever-loving mind during the summer. She’d weave together the flowers that grew in the fields of Elysia into something very similar to this and wear it while she pretended she was Persephone, just waiting for her Hades to appear and whisk her away to be his queen. Eden dropped it like it’d caught fire. She’d completely forgotten about playing that game. Hell, no one knew she’d done it. She’d always been alone out there.
Or so she’d thought.
She wanted to throw the flowers away, to rip the wreath apart and grind it beneath her boots. But it was most definitely some kind of evidence. Even if there was no trace on there to find whoever had left it, it was proof that someone had been watching her when she got here.
Apparently my instincts aren’t as ravaged as I thought.
She wasn’t sure if that was comforting or terrifying.
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