Hollie OvertonCritiques

8 years ago Lily got up, went to school and never came home. Her twin sister never gave up hope that she would see her again, but most everyone else presumed she was dead. The police gave up on even finding her body.

This is the story of what happened when Lily's kidnapper finally got sloppy and forgot to bolt the door when he went back to his "other" life.

I actually planned to just take a quick glance at this book and set it aside for later, but once I started it I finished in a day. From the minute Lily dared to open that unlocked door and run like hell I was hooked.

I received an advance copy for review

My review of Baby Doll is now up on Fresh Fiction!

To say that I was blown away by this book is an understatement! I was hooked from the first page and I could hardly put down the book. You can read the whole review here!

The Walls is one of the hardest books this year for me to review because I've had a hard time fully accepting the storyline. But, at the same time was it awfully thrilling to read when everything started to happen. To be honest, did I right from the start feel some hesitancy towards this book. The blurb gives away way too much of the plot, and it was pretty obvious what would happen. And, I just didn't connect at first with the story and its characters. But, I loved Baby Doll, the author's debut novel so, despite not feeling the same intriguing feeling towards this book as I did when I read Baby Doll did I decide to carry on reading to see where the story would take me.

As I wrote previously is the blurb way too revealing. You know pretty much half the book just by reading it. And, that's why it took so long time for me to really get into the book. It got better when Kristy started to investigate Lance background and at the same time starting to plan a way out of her marriage. To be honest, was I amazed that she didn't try to tell anyone (besides the most unlikely person) about her situation or in some way try to gather evidence towards her husband. Instead, did she start to think of a way to get rid of him, permanently. Felt a bit drastic. However, I can't deny that it made the last book nail-biting thrilling to read. Would she, in the end, do it? Could she really do it? I will leave it there and just say that this part of the book was my favorite part, it felt like I breezed through the pages in my pursuit of knowing what would happen at the end.

The Walls prove that Hollie Overton is here to stay. With Doll baby did she spellbind me, and with The Walls did she prove that even though the plot is pretty obvious is the writing so good that I ended the book, not 100% sure if I liked the book or not (it was very, very late and my emotions were all over the place), but at the same time did it hook me completely. I mean, there are things that bothered, besides the issues I've written about, but darn it, I must admit that the thrilling aspects of the last half of the book overrule that. Now, I can't for Overton to write something else to spellbind me.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

Abducted as a teen and held captive for years, Lily Riser takes a risk when her captor forgets to lock the cellar door. This is one possibility of a young girl attempting to rebuild her life after someone attempted to snatch it away from her. Having to live in forced seclusion for so long, life on the outside isn't just an adjustment for Lily and the daughter she gave birth to in confinement, but to her family.

Baby Doll also gave us a glimpse of the most horrifying type of enemy. The enemy we know. The one we have long been deceived by, assuming it's a person we can trust. Even though this was a work of fiction, it's horrifying to know what a toll a crime like this takes on the victims, family, and neighborhood, even when the criminal has been revealed.

This story jumped right in and zoomed along, with even a great explosive court scene for the wrap up. I think it's great for people who don't like stories that drag on with a lot of filler in the pages.

I was immediately absorbed by Lily's story. The plot was a little different in that rather than following Lily through her abduction, the story begins with her escape and follows the family as they try to pick up the pieces. I was sad to see it end! At first I wasn't such a fan of the alternating POV but it did allow me to connect with each of the characters. I can't wait to read more from this author.

I had a hard time rating this book. I mean, it was well written, great audio narration, and I can't think of anything terribly wrong with it. However, nothing set it apart from every other domestic violence story. I felt like I was reading a lifetime movie. It was okay. Get it if that's the story you're looking for.

I had a hard time rating this book. I mean, it was well written, great audio narration, and I can't think of anything terribly wrong with it. However, nothing set it apart from every other domestic violence story. I felt like I was reading a lifetime movie. It was okay. Get it if that's the story you're looking for.

I was immediately absorbed by Lily's story. The plot was a little different in that rather than following Lily through her abduction, the story begins with her escape and follows the family as they try to pick up the pieces. I was sad to see it end! At first I wasn't such a fan of the alternating POV but it did allow me to connect with each of the characters. I can't wait to read more from this author.

"For fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, Baby Doll is the most tense thriller you will read this year."

Ummmmm what? This novel has zero similarities to either of these and it basically stops being a thriller after the first few chapters. Tense? Yeah, I guess if you call an idiotic love triangle tense, which this book put way too much emphasis on. It distracts from the rest of the story, which should just be about a young woman coping with and overcoming her years of sex slavery and physical abuse. Wes was a completely selfish asshole anyway. He had a serious male dominance complex, was emotionally abusive/controlling toward Abby and patronizing to Lily. I'm tired of all the books this year claiming to be thrillers when they are actually just psychological dramas. Not what I wanted to read at all.

WOW! This is a really good book! There are all kinds of twists and turns and you just keep wondering how this is all going to turn out. You really feel for the characters and everything they go through and you really want to just beat the tar out of the bad guy. Definitely a psychological THRILLER!! Hollie Overton is definitly going on my list as an author to watch because she NAILED this one!

I was given a copy for an honest review.

The plot was good but the writing and the execution of the book let it down

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Runaway by Hollie Overton in exchange for an honest review.
This novel begins with Ash getting a tattoo from a group of homeless people called The Tribe. Ash is in love with Nate, a member of the makeshift family that calls themselves The Tribe. Once a runaway, Ash is being fostered by Becca a therapist with the LAPD. Ash is still not quite sure if Becca’s love for her, as she is torn by her love for Nate and being with him. Becca has a complicated past herself, having lost several babies by miscarriage, a divorce from the love of her life Christian, and the death of her brother Robbie. She has a fractured relationship with her mother. Sometimes, Becca has a tough time keeping a grip on reality. As Ash and Nate become more involved, Ash witnesses a beating by a member of The Tribe on another member, Eli. When Ash is turned away, the tribe feels that they need to take care of Ash in a menacing manner. From here on, Ash realizes that Mo, the leader of The Tribe is dangerous.
The book is mainly about Becca’s race to find Ash after she and Nate ran away, and to take Mo into custody. Becca makes some very poor decisions, which causes her friends to question her ability to be rational.
I thought the book was a little long, and also had some very unlikely situations. However it does deal with a lot of issues, namely mental health, homelessness, and trouble with fertility, which are all important issues. I thought much of this was a bit far-fetched. For example, I don’t know If a doctor trained in mental health, would take as many chances as she did. I was also a little frustrated by the ending, but I do feel that it was pretty realistic that Mo still had a following.
#TheRunaway #HollieOverton

I didn't like this book and let me tell you why..I had such high hopes when I saw this book because from what I saw of reviews of this authors previous books they were good so I was excited, intrigued, anxious even. maybe I set the bar too high because I didn't get and to be honest I could not finish the book. There was too many characters that really had nothing to do with the storyline, so what was the point. We had too much inner dialogue that had me shaking my head and honestly just bored. And just too much stuff, I wont give it a 2 because I mean it wasn't that bad, but it was def not higher and as I mentioned I just couldn't finish.

Rcvd and ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) Voluntarily reviewed with my own thoughts and opinions

Hollie Overton wrote this...her first novel from actual experiences from her own childhood. Don't expect a "warm, fuzzy" story. You won't find any of the characters terribly sympathetic or very likable. They just weren't nice people at all and had a rather strange understanding of morality. Most books about kidnappings focus primarily on the captivity but very little... if at all... on the escape I liked that this book began with the escape and focused on the aftermath. It's hard to imagine a young woman escaping after 8 years in captivity and bringing her young daughter out with her. The main thing that I found difficult to believe was that they would return so quickly to a normal daily life. I wouldn't label this book a thriller or as a mystery & suspense... but I did enjoy it.

I loved The Walls! Hollie Overton's first novel, Baby Doll, was excellent and her second does not disappoint. The internal struggle the main character, Kristy, faces with her job and personal life can be felt by the reader throughout. I cannot recommend this novel enough for thriller fans! I couldn't put it down!

Riveting from the first line. The story goes with a breakneck speed, making you read it in one breath. I loved the different personalities of people and how the story was put together in the chapters. Wonderful book!

First of all, I would like to make it clear that I am not familiar with the conventions of the mystery/thriller genre.

Second of all, I would like to disclose in accordance with FTC guidelines that I received a review copy for free from the publisher.

Overall, I don't recommend this book.

The dialogue was wooden, and the characters were flat. The pacing was decent, and the plot was okay, but overly dramatic. The twist was surprising enough--I had formulated three (very good, I think) guesses, and none of them were right (though one was very close).

I think this is one of those situations where an author debuted too soon, and on the wrong book. There were glimmers of good writing and characterization--at points, Lily felt both incredibly young (as a child herself) and incredibly old (as the mother of a young child).

Will I read future books by this author? Hard to say. I'd like to give her a chance, and if I get more into the mystery/thriller genre, almost certainly. Would I recommend that anyone read this book? Absolutely not.

Riveting from the first line. The story goes with a breakneck speed, making you read it in one breath. I loved the different personalities of people and how the story was put together in the chapters. Wonderful book!

Meh. Another example of an author with more ambition than page count to satisfy it. When you choose to tell a story from four or more POVs, each of those POV characters needs to have a complete and satisfying story arc. Unfortunately, this book was not long enough to do this and the story suffered for it.

When single mother Kristy Tucker meets Lance Dobson, she thinks he is a great guy and quickly falls for him. Soon, the two get married and start their life together. But it doesn’t take long for Kristy to find out that Lance isn’t the man she thought he was. She begins living in her own personal hell and sees no way out.

Kristy works in a prison, scheduling press interviews and interviewing murderers herself on a daily basis. She begins to wonder just how far she may go to free herself from the evil inside her own home.

I was thoroughly satisfied with this novel. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I couldn’t put it down. It makes you question what you would do when faced with an impossible situation.

I received and advance copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After finishing this book, it become one of my absolute favorites! Lily Riser is a high school student that goes missing from school one day. Lily's parents, twin sister Abby, and her entire community search relentlessly for months. When all hope is lost, the search is terminated and everyone is left to wonder about what has happened to Lily. One day, Lily's captor makes a crucial mistake and Lily and her daughter Sky are able to escape the horrible nightmare they had been living for almost 8 years. When Lily returns home she must relive her torture over and over again in hopes of revealing who kidnapped, raped, and tortured her every day. Can Lily ever possibly have a normal life after this horrible nightmare?

I experienced several different emotions throughout this novel. There were points where I was so angry at the way Lily had been treated for so many years, and other times when I wanted to cry at the horror that this young girl experienced. In our world today, there are so many women, men, and children who are kidnapped. Some of them are found and some are not. This novel allows readers to see the aftermath of one girl's horrific experience at the hands of one man. We are able to get a sense of her torture, the joy of having her daughter, and her struggles to pick up her life and try to move on after her ordeal. This book not only shows the struggles of Lily herself, but also of her family and friends and how they must come to terms with what has happened. We come to find out that Lily's disappearance takes a horrible toll on her family as well. We find out if they are all able to come together and become a family again.

Baby Doll by Hollie Overton is a great debut novel!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book for review.

Just another abused woman thinks she has no options except to murder abuser to protect family story.

I've had Baby Doll by Hollie Overton on my TBR list for awhile now (I still don't know why I haven't read it yet), so I was truly stoked when I won a copy of her latest book The Walls in a recent Goodreads giveaway. Then, like so many books I have on my tablet, I kind of forgot about it until I received an email asking my thoughts on the books. I decided to put aside a few other books I needed to read and began reading The Walls. I wish I could say I read it in one sitting, but I can't (I was invited to a local reception for Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, so you know where I was yesterday afternoon). Then yesterday's migraine ramped up to killer migraine level and that was it. Fortunately, I woke up early today and finished reading The Walls in just a few hours.

OMG! What an amazing read. Ms. Overton takes us behind-the-scenes of prison life with Kristy Tucker Dobson as a Public Information Officer in the state prison system. We're then taken behind closed doors of a marriage filled with physical, mental, and emotional abuse. As with most cases of spousal abuse, there's no rhyme or reason to the abuse just the perceived slights in the mind of the abuser. This book was so aptly titled, because not only is one of the state's death-row prisons nicknamed "The Walls" but also because Kristy is stuck behind "the walls" or veneer of her seemingly picture-perfect marriage with her beloved husband. The Walls was an intense read and may not be suitable for everyone because of its themes. I, for one, am grateful to have received a copy of this book and oh-so-glad that I made time to read it. Now, I need to find time to read Baby Doll.

[I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.]

When I read the premise of this novel, it immediately reminded me of Room by Emma Donoghue, one of my favorite novels of all time. Like Room, this novel deals with a woman who was kidnapped and kept hidden by her abductor. But that's all that is similar between these two novels, as the author here took an entirely different approach.

For 8 years, Lily has been held captive in a basement cellar, and has gone from being a naive teenager to a scarred adult. Her daughter, Sky, has never set foot outside of this cellar and calls their captor Daddy. But one day, their captor makes a mistake: he leaves the door open. What happens next will change the lives of everyone - Lily, Sky, Lily's twin sister, and the man who caused this mess in the first place.

At first, I was intrigued by this novel. In Room, we only get a brief glimpse of what life is like for Bree and her son after they escape. This novel solely focuses on life after captivity. The first few chapters were interesting enough and I became excited for how the rest of the novel wold shape up. Unfortunately, it didn't continue as strongly as it began. Quite often, I felt like I was reading something from a soap opera scene, rather than reading about the aftermath of a terrible event. Lily didn't seem as disturbed as I would have expected for a victim, and the focus on relationships and affairs seemed to take the seriousness out of the story. I thought it would be grittier, more heart breaking. Instead, it just felt a bit blah. There was some excitement at times but not enough to make this novel a winner for me. So while the initial premise was good, the overall story let me down.

Kristy Tucker is a single mum who works as a public information officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It is her job to act as a go between to the prisoners on death row and the interest of the local media and press. Her work is relentless and as a single parent to Ryan and a carer for her dad "Pops" she has little free time. When Ryan has difficulties at school he receives encouragement and support from Lance Dobson his martial arts instructor. When Kristy is introduced to Lance she begins to believe that this strong handsome man may indeed become a future partner and a much needed stabilizing influence to Ryan. The relationship with Lance soon develops into one of terror, abuse and violence as this supposedly charming individual tries to influence and control every facet of Kristy's life.

This is superbly written story that attempts to show the reader what daily life is like in an abusive relationship. To everyone, apart from Kristy, Lance Dobson is charming and graceful but only she knows the truth and the question is what if anything can she do? The prisoners and inmates feel trapped behind "The Walls" and soon Kristy will come to realize that she, by meeting Lance, has unexpectedly built her own walls from which there appears no escape. Hollie Overton presents difficult issues in a fast and flowing writing style making a very addictive read and one that I completed in two sittings. Highly Recommended.