You Can Hide is Melissa Roos debut novel. She has written several novels since this one, and though they are all stand alone stories, I like to at least read an author’s first book before reading later ones. Ms. Roos books are Mystery/Romance stories.

Back Cover Blurb:

Jayde Walker is left for dead. Somehow she survives, and is the only witness to the murder of her best friend, Carrie. Fighting amnesia, she tries to get on with her life with the killer still on the loose. Then one night she remembers. The truth terrifies her and breaks her heart. She has to run. She has to hide. Leave behind everything. And everyone.

She runs with no clear direction in mind. Halfway across the country, lost in the Midwest, she makes a wrong turn, down a dead end road. She ends up in a ditch, unable to remember how or why she got there. The only thing she knows is she needs to disappear. The tall, lush green cornstalks of the vast fields call to her. Without hesitation Jayde steps in and disappears.

She’s lost, but found. Who can save her? Her fiance she left behind? The detective she trusted, or the farmer that found her? Who can she trust with her life? And her heart?

NOTE: I have made some punctuation corrections in the Back Cover Blurb. However, I have left the writing as written, even though as an editor, I see things I would suggest be corrected.

My Thoughts on the Book:

I like the characters in You Can Hide. Miss Roos did a great job creating and developing her characters. The plot is filled with tension and suspense. It’s one of those stories that made me want to keep turning the pages, but not because I wanted to find out who the murderer was. I was more interesed in finding out how the romance in the story was going to turn out because I really liked the relationship between Jayde and the farmer who found her, and I was fairly certain I knew who the murderer was.

For me, I felt like the murderer was revealed near the beginning of the story. There was one point in the story that I thought it might be someone else, but as I looked back to the beginning of the book, there wasn’t any other character identified that it could have been. However, the way that the murderer sought after Jayde and all the tension that caused and built to the climax definitely kept me on the edge of my seat.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be reading any more books written by Melissa Roos because I wasn’t expecting a lot of profanity in this book, and when it first started appearing, it was mild and the words were few and far between. However, when I reached page 175 and found the Lord’s name taken in vain, I was shocked and taken aback. Then on page 176 the “f” word was used. There were only a few mild words up until that point, and even after those two pages, there weren’t too many profane words. However, in the last fourth of the books, the profanity became something that regularly came out of the characters’ mouths.

To me, that’s very sad. I don’t think those words are necessary to make a book realistic nor do I think they add anything to the story.

The other thing I found that distracted me from the story were the things that should have been taken care of in the editing process prior to publishing the book. I know that most professional editors charge a lot of money that most authors cannot afford, but there are some that will edit for a reasonable price. Even participating in a good critique group can help help with a lot of the errors I saw throughout this book.

I can only give this book 3 stars, and I’m not going to post it anywhere but here, (which will also post on my Facebook page), because I know book reviews are important to an author, but they don’t help it they can’t give lots of praise and at least 4 stars.