Gillette Park

4.25 Stars. It’s a Gerri Hill book. Just saying that sentence should be enough to get most of us to read this:) Hill is one of the OG’s of lesfic and it’s so impressive how she just keeps putting out hit after hit. While I will happily read anything Hill writes, her crime and paranormal books are by far my favorite. So to hear her new book was both crime and paranormal… I was like a kid waiting for an ice-cream cone, “gimmie, gimmie”. This book was just what I was hoping for and wickedly entertaining. <br /><br />In a small mountain town, a serial killer has been hunting for over 20 years. The same time each year a few kids are murdered, and no suspect has ever been found. The amount of kids/teenagers killed has become so numerous that the sheriff’s office has asked the FBI to help them bring in a qualified psychic. Dr. Grace Jennings is that person and as a psychic medium she just might be able to find the clues to help break the case wide open. But that will all depend on if Deputy Mason Cooper can trust Grace enough to believe in things that she can’t see with her own eyes. <br /><br />The premise of this book is really well done. Parts are hard to read of course. This book is about a serial killer who targets mostly young teenagers. The book isn’t very graphic, but it still breaks your heart in places. But there is also a sweet romance that helps to give the book a sense of hope. Mix that with some strong women, and the creepiness of the paranormal factors, the book just balances out really well. <br /><br />This book has a real quality of just hooking you in. It’s very hard to stop reading once you start. It’s one of those books that you just need to know what is on the next page. There are the mystery aspects of course, the clues unfold bringing you closer and closer to answers. Then there are parts that are pretty exciting and thrilling. I was definitely on the edge of my seat a lot while reading this book. It was completely entertaining and took my mind off of everything bad that is happening right now. <br /><br />One of my slight teeny-tiny issues with this book is it feels like the story isn’t finished. Now let me make clear that Hill wraps up the loose ends very well, she didn’t leave things hanging. The problem is these characters have complicated backgrounds and lives. Family issues on top of their jobs, so I feel like their story is really just beginning. I really hope if this book does as well as it should, that Hill will write a sequel. Just like she did for Ross and Sullivan (<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/9506401.Devil_s_Rock" title="Devil's Rock by Gerri Hill" rel="noopener">Devil's Rock</a>) and Johnston and Riley (<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/13236357.Keepers_of_the_Cave" title="Keepers of the Cave by Gerri Hill" rel="noopener">Keepers of the Cave</a>) those characters got a second book like they deserved and I hope Grace and Mason do too. There is also a young character that could make a great potential spin-off book if her character is fast-forwarded to a bit older. There is just a lot of potential with these characters and I’d love to see their stories continue. <br /><br />If you are a hill fan, grab this. If you are a crime and or paranormal fan, grab this. This book is just really well done that I believe it will appeal to many different types of readers. This book was very entertaining and the perfect distraction for right now. I can only hope we don’t have to wait too much longer for another Hill book. <br /><br /><i>A copy was given to me for a honest review.</i>

Whoa!! Damn that was such a good read! If you know me by now I’m a person that writes reviews the second I’m done with the book because I always write how I feel about the book vs giving a review on the story itself .. <br /><br />This read was BRILLIANT! I did however have to read it in the mornings never at night because I’m scared of my shadow and this has some paranormal/ghosts/thriller and mystery elements that freaked me out but so nicely :) <br /><br />Gerri Hill in my humble opinion rarely goes wrong, but I have to say on this one specifically she outdid herself! Her writing is soooo good.. the way she describes the settings was unbelievable.. scary and freaky but yet so nicely done.. <br />I loved the mystery and I was so entertained and and loved the characters.. Grace the psychic and Mason the deputy were very interesting characters.. <br /><br />I mean this book just ticked all the right boxes, entertained me from beginning to end.. The romance was very slow burn though.. <br /><br />I highly recommend this book to everyone and my rating is a solid 5! <br /><br />“I received an ARC for an honest review.”

Stellar book!<br /><br />I haven't read a ton of Gerri Hill books, but this is the best one that I have read.<br /><br />Mason is a deputy in a small mountain town in Colorado, Gillette Park. The town has a 20+ year history of 3-5 children going missing and then later showing up dead. Her uncle is the Sheriff. She convinces him, as a last ditch effort, to hire a psychic to help solve this long time mystery that continues to plague its residents.<br /><br />Grace has been burdened with psychic gifts. She has lived a mostly solitary life because nobody can understand her abilities. She is called to Gillette to help find the serial killer that has evaded detection for over two decades.<br /><br />First of all, I never wanted to stop reading this. It was written so well that there was some new event or clue that would keep me intrigued and consuming. Second, I loved the main characters. Both Mason and Grace were realistic characters with fractured pasts. Their histories play a part in who they are and grow to become throughout the book. Third, it had a supernatural spin that felt believable to me because of the story behind it. <br /><br />I'm not sure why I decided to number things in that previous paragraph. I suppose it is my attempt at carefully organizing thoughts to match the carefully crafted sequence of events that made up this story.<br /><br />The abductions and deaths were creepy and sometimes difficult to read about. But that is to be expected in a book about a serial killer. I had a lot of different emotions while reading this. I was intrigued and tried to solve the crimes along with Mason and Grace. Disturbed and sad as details of the abductions were revealed. Giddy for them to develop an attraction and slowly witness them develop feelings for one another. Spooked out by several encounters they have with things outside their current realm. And scared for the climatic ending that you know we were building toward. <br /><br />I could have read this book forever. <br /><br />I recommend this to people who like to read slow burn romance, crime solving, mystery, suspense, supernatural, psychics, small towns, nature, and birds.<br /><br /><i>I received an ARC from Bella Books for an honest review.</i>

I truly believe that Gillette Park by Gerri Hill is one of her best novels so far. Considering Ms. Hill has thirty-seven published works, several of them award winners, that is saying something.<br />The story is set in a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains that has lived under a curse for the last twenty-three years. The town has a serial killer who has been kidnapping and murdering the town’s children since 1997. Sometimes only two children are murdered in a year, though there have been as many as five in one year. During all that time, no one has been able to catch the murderer or stop the killings. Finally the FBI has asked a psychic (Dr. Grace Jennings) to come to the town of Gillette Park to aid in their search for the killer. Mason Cooper, who works in the Sherriff’s Department, is tasked with helping Grace as she tries to find the killer. Thus begins a terrifying time for the two of them.<br /><br />The town’s reactions in the story actually remind me of the characters in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. One of the characters in the story even mentions this so it could be a plot device. It makes the tale even more scary. This is one of those novels that seems to have it all. There is action and adventure, mystery, murder and paranormal activity. It has a psychopathic murderer/evil entity that will send chills up your spine as you read. This is also a psychological thriller that will have you riding a roller-coaster of emotions. And on top of all this, there is a slow-burn romance that runs through this tale. <br /><br />The setting of the book is gorgeous as well as creepy. The characters are well-developed, both main and secondary. The story itself will have you on the edge of your seat, turning pages as quickly as you can. I know it did for me.<br /><br />I must give a trigger warning here. In this book there is talk of children being murdered, and also talk about some being sexually assaulted. The reader does not see this happening, but it is a part of the story. If this would cause you distress, then I would suggest you read another of Ms. Hill’s novels instead.<br /><br />I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bella Books for an honest review.<br /><br />Rainbow Reflections: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://rainbowreflections.home.com/">http://rainbowreflections.home.com/</a><br />

Well that was fun. A town with multiple child abductions and deaths every year for over twenty years and people still live here? No evidence has ever been found to link a serial killer to the crimes and the locals have reached the "don't talk about it or it might hit my family" stage of denial. <br /><br />Mason Cooper left town at eighteen and returned to Gillette Park after a breakup leaving LA to work in the Sheriff's office. When the local FBI office enlists the help of psychic Dr. Grace Jennings, Mason gets handed the job of shadowing, babysitting and very quickly protecting the psychic from things that go bump in the night, in broad daylight and in every stream and forest trail. Gillette Park is one spooky place. <br /><br />I'm not a paranormal fan but I got a kick out of this mystery/romance with a dash of Woo Woo. I found the story dragged at the beginning. Too much hand wringing and not enough speculation on what or who was causing all the mayhem in town. Once Grace gets a chance to flex her formidable skills and Mason steps back and lets her roll the story picks up and the clues and connections begin falling into place. I liked the scary bits so clearly I've grown up enough not to be afraid of what is hiding in my closet but only just. The evil was plenty scary and it added to this fun read. I'm always a fan of an action packed ending and we get that too. <br /><br />I'll be screening the birds who visit my feeders next winter. Hard to know who to trust anymore.

Gillette Park is my 4th Hill read and all of her books hit me in a personal way. This one is no exception. <br /><br />Mason Cooper is a deputy in her hometown up in the Rocky Mountains, a place that’s both preternaturally beautiful and also haunted by a long history of gruesome child murders. After all this time, law enforcement still cannot find the killer. This, in spite of security cameras and a large police force more suitable to a small city. For only the second time, a psychic is secretly summoned to help in the search. <br /><br />Dr. Grace Jennings ordinarily doesn’t do this sort of thing anymore but she “hears” a plea emanating from Gillette Park that she cannot ignore and accepts the job. <br /><br />The book feels dangerous and is a genuine nightmare generator. Any time the murder of children is involved, it creates high stakes in a narrative. There’s urgency and a gut twisting on the part of a reader. With each new death in Gillette Park, the tension heightens and Hill reels us in until we’re wholly invested. The only relief comes from the tender relationship that develops between Mason and Grace. One of the things that I appreciate from this author is that the pieces in her puzzles are never haphazardly thrown in just to make the story work. Everything moves along organically.<br /><br />Another high level thriller from Gerri Hill.

I’ve been a big Gerri Hill fan for a very long time now, but unlike most reviewers I know, I like her romance novels best. At Seventeen is one of my all-time favourites. I don’t remember when or why I stopped reading her thrillers, whether that happened when I took a break from anything violent (<a href="https://judeinthestars.wordpress.com/2019/08/01/killer-instinct-a-lesbian-thriller-barbara-winkes-tj-richards-narrator/" rel="nofollow noopener">I mentioned that here a little</a>) or if it was before. I don’t remember if the style was the problem – I can’t imagine how that would be since I love it in romance – or if they were too gruesome for me.<br /><br />Either way, Gillette Park is my first Hill thriller in many many years. And I loved it. I had to shut my mind at times against what the victims went through, but once I had managed to distance myself from that part, it allowed me to enjoy everything else.<br /><br />For the last twenty-three years, children have been disappearing from the small town – now small city – of Gillette Park. Between May and October every year, at least two kids, sometimes as many as five. Most are found dead a few days later, a couple never showed up.<br /><br />Mason Cooper was ten when the first victim, one of her school friends, was killed. That same year, Mason’s father left. Mason’s mother turned to alcohol and the young girl found a family at her uncle Alan’s. Today Alan is the Sheriff of Gillette Park, and both Mason (after a few years in Los Angeles) and her cousin Brady are deputies. This year, the chief of police and the FBI have convinced Sheriff Cooper to bring a psychic in. And the task of keeping an eye on her falls to Mason.<br /><br />The mystery itself is gripping, the paranormal elements simply make sense. As much as Mason tries to not believe at first, they’re undeniable. Gerri Hill ties up all the loose ends and the few questions I have been left with have more to do with human nature than with the plot she conceived.<br /><br />If you’ve read my reviews before, you know I’m very character-driven. Which is probably why I enjoy romance novels so much, I love when an author makes me care about their characters, their well-being, their happiness. Mason and Grace, and to a lesser extent little Faith, are an enormous part of why I enjoyed this book so much.<br /><br />Mason is both no-nonsense and open-minded. She’s thorough and considerate. Despite her parents’ desertions, she never lacked love as a child but every family has its secrets. Grace’s experience of life is very different. Almost as soon as she became aware of her “gift”, she learnt to hide it. From her own family at first, lest they thought her crazy. Later from would-be friends or lovers. Anytime she tried to let anyone close (with one very notable exception), it backfired and she’s now convinced she’ll never be seen as anything other than a freak.<br /><br />One of the things I enjoyed the most is the way Grace and Mason interact and how that changes as they learn to see beyond each other’s façade. That Mason isn’t as laidback and together as she seems, and how that might explain why she’s not completely closed to the idea of… something other than reality as she knows it. That Grace is not only able to talk to dead people but is also witty and funny. How natural they feel together, be it fate or just life doing its job.<br /><br />I’m not shying away from Hill’s thrillers anymore after this excellent one. I might even go back in time and see what I’ve missed.

I don’t read stories with ghosts. I’m a wimp so I avoid those types of books at all costs. Gerri Hill’s name was enough to pick up this book, that, and the fact that Bella Books classifies this novel as a mystery/thriller and doesn’t mention ghosts in the book blurb. If I’d known that part of ‘Gillette Park’ featured apparitions of dead people I wouldn’t have read it. But without proper warning, I’ve started reading it and then I couldn’t put it down. I’m happy that I did because this is a fantastic book.<br /><br />Gillette Park is a small town in the Rocky Mountains haunted by a serial killer for more than 20 years. Mason Cooper is a sheriff’s deputy who’s been struggling to solve the crimes. When her uncle, the sheriff, decides to call a psychic for help, Mason is less than convinced that it’s a good idea. After she meets Dr. Grace Jennings, an attractive woman with an inexplicable gift, Mason will start to doubt everything she believed in. As both women come closer to the truth and deal with their mutual attraction, they’ll have to trust each other to fight an evil force.<br /><br />Gerri Hill is an accomplished author of dozens of lesbian books in romance, mystery and paranormal genres. I’ve read most of them and even though I like her romances, I think she excels at writing mysteries. In this genre, she tends to combine beautiful nature descriptions, great romance chemistry, and a page-turner mystery. ‘Gillette Park’ has all of these ingredients which makes it such an amazing and entertaining read.<br /><br />What I love about Ms. Hill’s mysteries is that she doesn’t disregard the romance in order to move the mystery forward, she always finds the perfect balance. Maybe it’s because the author can write really endearing characters and get them together in a way that they just cannot help falling for each other. Both main characters show their strengths and shortcomings which make them human and realistic. Grace’s vulnerability and Mason’s compassion is a pleasure to read about and those attributes make them perfect together.<br /><br />Regarding the mystery itself, it’s well written and keeps the reader guessing until almost the end. Even though there were a few frightening parts, it’s nothing that a wimp like me couldn’t handle so don’t let this put you off. And the ghosts? Well, most of them weren’t that scary after all.<br /><br />Overall, a superb lesbian mystery thriller book that will keep the reader turning pages. 5 stars.<br /><br />See all my reviews at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.lezreviewbooks.com">www.lezreviewbooks.com</a>

With <b>Gilette Park</b>, <b>Gerri Hill</b> is taking the dark route for sure. With themes as ghosts, an evil presence lurking, and the kidnapping and killing of children, there is plenty to sink your teeth into. But even though the subject matter is pretty menacing, Hill kept it from tipping over the edge.<br /><br />Both main characters come with their baggage. <b>Mason Cooper</b> left Gilette Park right after school to live, love, and work in LA but was inexplicably drawn back. Now she’s just coasting through life, not really living it. Like she is waiting for something or someone to change it all around. <br /><br /><b>Dr. Grace Jennings</b> has a gift of seeing (and hearing) the dead that results in her failing to form connections with the living. They all think her a freak. As an FBI liaison she comes to Gilette Park to assist in putting a stop to the serial killing that has been going on for over twenty-three years. It’s a last ditch effort really. The people of this little town don’t put their trust in psychics and the local cops she has to work with are no different. It’s like they have come to accept the inevitable. Mason gets the reluctant task in assisting Grace.<br /><br />The mystery was engrossing, with plenty of ghostly interactions and creepy goings on. <br />I felt the sting was taken out of the final confrontation because the reader is in the know of certain prophetic dreams and visions both Grace and Mason have during the story. I would have preferred to know less. I was hoping for a bit more spark between the soul mates. The slow burn (with Mason having to do a 180 in her assessment of Grace) did not work in their favor I guess. <br /><br />f/f slow burn, somewhat explicit towards the end.<br /><br />Themes: Rocky Mountains, FBI liaison, I see dead people, I’m a freak, serial killer, something dark lurks in the woods, I hated that bird, daddy issues, mommy issues, many ghost convos, had expected a bit more drama with the villain.<br /><br />4.4 Stars<br /><br />* A free copy was provided by Netgalley and Bella Books for an honest review.

Something is not as it should be in Gillette Park, a small town with a large number of people killed by a serial killer, and that’s why cop Mason and Grace, a psychic who can contact lost souls, are brought together to solve the mystery. <br /><br />Mason and Grace are a great team. I love how they get to know each other, not really rushed, but step by step. The two characters are believable, and it was great to see their relationship evolve and see them work against something rather sinister (no spoilers here!).<br /><br />Plot, characters and setting are as well-written as readers have come to expect from high quality author Gerri Hill, and simply make Gillette Park a great book, definitely a page turner.<br />5 out of 5 stars <br />