#BookReview Isolation by Mary Anna Evans

Isolation by Mary Anna Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Faye Longchamp-Mantooth has dug herself a deep hole and she can't make her way out of it. As she struggles to recover from a shattering personal loss, she sees that everyone she loves is trying to reach out to her, but she just can't manage to reach back. 

Joe Wolf Mantooth has never felt so alone, despite living in his house with the wife he loves, the son he adores, and the father who hasn't got around to telling him how long he's been out of prison or what he did to get sent there. When one of their close friends is brutally murdered, Joe begins to wonder whether Faye will ever be herself again, and he knows he needs to help her. As crimes against women rock Micco County, one after another, he realizes that Faye is in danger from both her inner demons and an outside evil. This evil has intruded on their island home and violated the isolation that they had always believed would protect them. 

Faye and Joe can only fight this evil if they work together, but first they have to remember how. And all the while, the danger snakes further into their lives, threatening the people they love, the very ground beneath their feet, and even their home and the island where it stands. No man is an island, and no woman. Faye and Joe must break open the isolation that grips them, or they will lose everything.

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Confession, I wasn't sure I would finish this book. Actually, when I stopped listening to the audio version of the book had I decided to not finish it. The blurb made the book sound very intriguing, but I had a hard time getting into the story so I decided to put it aside. Then, I got an eARC of Undercurrents by Mary Anna Evans, which meant that I had now two more books after this one to read. So, I decided to give it one more chance. And this time did I found the book to be better. It could be I was just in the right mood when I started it or that the story got better towards the end. Could be both. All I know is that I ended up, enjoying the last half and now I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Isolation is the first book I read in this series and if you have read my lengthy explanation of my reading experience above then you know that I had some problems with the story. Perhaps it would have been better to read from the beginning. However, I do think, looking back to this book that the main characters (Faye Longchamp-Mantooth and her husband and father-in-law) were not hard to get the grips about, it was more that I found myself not completely captivated, but the story and remember who all the other characters were. It got better as the story progressed.

As for the story, I do love a historical angle to stories and I liked learning more about Faye ancestors. That is actually the thing I truly enjoyed about this book, how the impact of a deed done many years ago have an impact on Faye's life. I don't want to give away too much of the story, so I'm trying to be as vague as possible. I will just say that Faye is dealing with a lot, a personal loss and now problems with her estate. No to mention the killings...yup there is a killer loose...

It will be interesting to read the next book and see how I like that one!