Usually I am nonplussed by new releases and interviews touting a new book... I am after all, one of "those" people who hate hype.

However, the premise of the book was just too good for me to NOT add to my TBR after reading an interview with Henderson in a Barnes & Noble newsletter a few months back. I was in the mood for a cozy-set thriller over my long weekend, and opted to give this a try.

I literally zoomed through it in three days, binging the last half of it in about 2 hours before bed (pro-tip, not exactly the greatest idea!). It is truly a fast-paced, edge of your seat thriller, with a seemingly outrageous but perfectly plausible twist. The conservation aspect was a tad bit hammered in via repetition, but that is Alex's (and Henderson's) job after all. Henderson drew from her own experiences as a conservationist and honestly, I wonder how she can still work in the field after writing something this terrifying!

Alex definitely is going to have some PTSD to deal with down the series line... she shrugs off the (multiple) traumatic experiences when she's talking to friends and family afterwards, and while I admire the tenacity, it's a bit unbelievable to have experienced all that she has in the span of a few weeks/months, and NOT have some serious PTSD. However, all the better for future character development!

Definitely going to be continuing the series, I think we've found a new favorite! I love the series naming convention as well, titling them after the names for groups of animals... one of my favorite random types of trivia.

What a fun book! Part mystery, part environmental message, all with a strong female protagonist. I went into this book with pretty mild expectations, and it was exactly what I was hoping for. A captivating (yet scientific) mystery with twists I would never expect because wildlife refuge is not my area of expertise. All in all I really enjoyed reading this.

3 Stars

This book got a little bit ridiculous, but I still enjoyed it. I love a good survival thriller and I was surprised how much the main character being a vegetarian, wildlife activist affected my reading. It's just really nice not having to be on guard against sporadic animal death and cruelty, especially in a book set in a wilderness-y setting, with animals involved. It was nice that instead of killing the mountain lion that attacked her, she was sympathetic to the animal's condition and was able to get her rescued. Instead of going to the butcher to buy bait for her camera traps, she found and repurposed road kill. It's the little things. I'll read the next one, just hope it doesn't get too romance-y.

2.50