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Don't Tell
Don't Tell
Don't Tell
Audiobook15 hours

Don't Tell

Written by Karen Rose

Narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

It was a desperate plan. But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake.

Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away. As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he's closing in on her-and everything and everyone she loves.

Contains mature themes.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 22, 2017
ISBN9781541476004
Don't Tell

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Reviews for Don't Tell

Rating: 4.067934733695652 out of 5 stars
4/5

184 ratings11 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story was very well done. The characters well developed. I loved that I felt drawn to the characters and felt as though I knew them. Very well done.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Terrible book. Seriously, if you could leave 0 stars, I would. I can't believe I listened to the entire thing, and only did so because previous reviews were fairly high. I will not be listening to anything else by this author in the future. The author clearly did not do much, if any, research into any of the subjects contained in the book (see, "Bambi's mom" (doe) hunting, ex parte personal protection orders, etc.), not to mention the entire book was so full of cliches and cringe-worthy "romance", that I was often physically rolling my eyes while listening (see line, "he stroked her head as if it were the finest mink"). No joke. Odd choice of a male narrator with a female lead, as well, but once I got used to it, it wasn't nearly as rough as the writing itself. Overall, very poorly written, and I found much of it distasteful with regards to the portrayal of a survivor of domestic abuse, although - to be fair, had it been better written and researched, I might not have felt the same way. I could continue, but it will likely not be read anyway. Just do yourself a favor, and skip this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Don't Tell
    4 Stars

    Synopsis:
    The victim of horrendous abuse at the hands of her police officer husband, Gracie Winters saved her own life and that of her young son by staging their deaths. Nine years later, Gracie has reinvented herself as Caroline Stewart and is on the verge of falling in love and trusting a man again. But Caroline’s past is about to catch up with her and the threat could cost not only her newfound relationship but her very life.

    Review:
    The suspense is excellent and makes this a worthwhile read. However, the romance is a little bland and the primary characters can be aggravating at times.

    Rose does an incredible job imparting the feelings of terror, anguish and shame associated with domestic abuse. While the scenes are brutally realistic and difficult to read about, they grab the reader by the throat and make it easy to empathize with the heroine and her amazing courage and determination. They also emphasize the danger posed by the villain, who is enough to make your skin crawl.

    In general, Max and Caroline are likeable characters with good chemistry but they also tended to rub me the wrong way. Max is too quick to anger and wallow in self-pity, and Caroline tends to jump to conclusions. Moreover, their arguments become tedious after a while and contribute nothing to their relationship. The secondary characters are far more engaging, especially Max’s brother, Caroline best friend and the agent investigating the case. All of these characters have books of their own in the series and I look forward to reading their stories.

    Rose’s writing is fast-paced and compelling, and the action sequence at the end is exciting. As mentioned in other reviews, the plot of is reminiscent of the film Sleeping with the Enemy with Julia Roberts. So if you are a fan of the movie you will definitely enjoy this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It wasn't really bad but I really didn't like the main characters and perhaps the author could had made a lot of scenes more interesting and briefer. But I loved Thatcher, David and Toni, a pity the third one doesn't seem to have a book where she is the heroine, I would read it for sure!

    I'm not sure, though, if I'll give this author another chance...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Battle-scarred Mary Grace Winters lies nearly dead in a hospital room after the latest brutal beating at the hands of his sadistic cop husband. After a two year recovery (which she keeps husband Rob in the dark about), she and her son escape, fake their deaths, and start new lives away from her abusive husband, and the corrupt police force that looked the other way. This is an edge of your seat thriller. You can probably guess what will happen, but the development of the plot is so well drawn that it is not your average battered wife in jeopardy story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A good face paced romantic suspense that kept my attention throughout. It really makes you think about spousal abuse and the affect it has on all relationships involved. Caroline has taken a new identity after running from abusive husband and she is attracted to her new boss Max.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For a two-week romance the pacing was painfully slow. Until about 300 pages in, the suspense was pretty light too. When the pace increased, the book was engrossing and gripping, but then it slowed to a crawl for the last 50 pages or so. The characters were well drawn and interesting, but the pacing was such that I almost gave up reading before it began to move. I’m glad I hung in there. I will try Karen Rose again as this was her debut. If the snippet that I read of her second book is any indication, the author improves her pacing dramatically. She also won the RITA award for romantic suspense in 2005 for her novel I’m Watching You (Warner Forever)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was my first Karen Rose and definitely will not be my last. This has been on my TBR list for over 6 months and I really don't know what took me so long to get to this, but I am glad that I finally did! I am so ecstatic to have found another favorite new author and series! This author is way up there with Lisa Gardner in my book!

    I don't know that I've read any other book with such complex characters. Each character was so unique and strong. They are realistic and believable. They seem like real characters with real feelings and real problems.

    The story is mysterious and romantic, chilling and realistic. It has such an intense story throughout the whole book that it's hard to stop reading. It generally takes me the greater part of a week to finish reading a book, but this particular story, I couldn't put down and managed to finish it in a few days time! I was thrilled with reading the story, finding myself not wanting to go to bed just to read a few more pages. I don't read romantic suspense books often, but absolutely loved reading the element of romance in this book! It managed to get pretty hot and steamy but it was a perfect offset to the sadistic feeling I felt after reading the sections about Rob.

    I can't wait to read #2 and many more in the series! I am overjoyed to have found a favorite new author with many more books to occupy my time! AMAZING READ!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For quite some time, my fellow romance readers have been telling me how good Karen Rose's novels are, and now that I've finally read my first one, I have to whole-heartedly agree. Don't Tell had everything I could have possibly asked for and more. There was a wonderful hero and heroine who are sure to take their place among some of my favorites, and an amazing cast of secondary characters to back them up that I couldn't help falling in love with too. The main couple share a tender, swoon-worthy romance against nearly impossible odds that had me rooting for them every step of the way. They were pitted against an evil, sadistic villain who was about the nastiest piece of work I've ever read. The story arc was a taut, suspense thriller that had me feeling just about every emotion possible. There was even a dash of humor to keep things from getting too intense. Don't Tell is quite simply one of the most well-crafted and engaging books I've ever read. I wanted to scream in frustration every time I had to put it down and couldn't wait to pick it back up again.Caroline Stewart (aka Mary Grace Winters) is one of the strongest heroines I have ever read, but also one of the most tortured. She was about as beaten down as a woman could possibly get, both physically and emotionally, after enduring years of abuse at the hands of her barbaric cop husband. The courage and determination she showed in getting herself well enough to leave him, and then faking her and her son's deaths to start a new life in secret, was absolutely inspiring. Once she was away from the people who tore her down (namely her husband), that innate strength grew and blossomed into something utterly beautiful. She was a fabulous mother too, with an extraordinary love for her son, Tom. What I loved and admired most about Caroline though, is that after all the years of torment she suffered, she still hadn't lost her sense of humor and perhaps more importantly, she hadn't given up on the notion of someday finding someone who would love her in the way she so richly deserved. Of course, her patience and persistence was rewarded with all that and more when she met Max.Max is a brainy history professor, but that wasn't his first choice for a career. He was a talented basketball player whose dreams were cut short by a tragic accident that left him severely injured. I admired his determination to walk again, although admittedly it took a lot of prodding from his brother, David, to make that happen. Initially, Max seems like the absolute perfect guy, but it soon becomes apparent that he still harbors a lot of guilt and self-pity over the loss of his career and the fact that he's now scarred and walks with a cane. I was almost taken aback by his angry outburst about all of this, but it turned out to be a good thing in that it gave Caroline a chance to show her mettle by standing up to him and calling him out on it. I also realized it was a way to build his trust with both Caroline and Tom by showing them that a man could get upset without resorting to violence. Other than that one character flaw, Max is a fabulous hero. He is a gentle, caring man who isn't afraid to express his feelings. He's confident without being cocky, and the man absolutely oozes sex appeal with a very controlled lust that I found irresistible. He also comes with a wonderfully loving family who embrace his relationship with Caroline without reservation.Max and Caroline together make a marvelous couple. Everything isn't always wine and roses between them, because they both bring a lot of baggage into the relationship. Caroline is understandably rather afraid to tell Max the truth about her past and because of his own past hurts, Max sometimes misconstrues her intentions. They occasionally say or do things that hurt each other which would normally not be my cup of tea, but here it works quite well. They always find their way back to communicating and apologizing in fairly short order, and I thought the tensions in their relationship were very realistically rendered. Mostly, I was very impressed with how often they take the time to observe each other's body language and are pretty intuitive of the other's feelings. The sexual tension is positively exquisite and so much more than I was expecting. Karen Rose is very talented at using simple things like smoldering looks and tender touches to convey so much meaning. This book is a great example of how an author can use only mildly to moderately descriptive love scenes, but make it feel much hotter by expressing such an intense emotional connection.Don't Tell also has an incredible cast of supporting characters who are loaded with depth and whom I fell in love with almost instantly. Many of them pop up again in later books and/or become the hero or heroine of their own book. Steven Thatcher is the special agent assigned to investigate the disappearance of Mary Grace Winters when her car is finally found in a lake. It only took a moment for me to start wondering if this guy was going to be a future hero, and I was thrilled to find out that he is in the very next book, Have You Seen Her?. I loved his determination to bring Rob Winters to justice and that he never wavered in his belief that the man was as guilty as sin even though others did. Caroline's son, Tom, is such a good kid. He's very protective of his mother, and understandably has a hard time trusting men, especially around her. I admired his strength and maturity in the face of everything that happened both in the past and the present. Once he ages and matures, I think he would make great hero material. Caroline's best friend, Dana, is another strong woman who has been through a lot in her life. I really enjoyed the banter between this pair and how Dana is always the voice of reason. She also becomes the heroine of Nothing to Fear. Max's brother, David, is an out-going charmer who would be nearly impossible not to like. His loyalty to Max is absolutely endearing, and what he did to get a predatory co-worker to leave Max alone was utterly hilarious as it was, but even more so because I wasn't expecting such a funny scene in an otherwise pretty serious book. David gets to be in a couple more books before finally becoming the hero of Silent Scream. Caroline's friend and Dana's roommate, Evie initially didn't win points with me because of some bad choices she made, but I couldn't help sympathizing with her anyway. It seems she had as bad of a life as Caroline and Dana but is still rather young and naïve and hasn't quite learned the lessons that the other two women have yet. She also paid for her mistakes in the worst way imaginable. I'll be looking forward to seeing her redemption in I Can See You. These and a whole host of other secondary characters, all of whom were very well-written, made this a tight and well-rounded story.I also have to give the author kudos for writing the best (read nastiest and vilest) villain I've ever read. I'm not sure how Karen Rose got inside the head of this animalistic psycho, but she somehow managed to portray him in a very real and frightening way. He's a classic abuser and sociopath who truly thinks he's right and has no conscience whatsoever. He's made everyone around him believe that he's the perfect husband and father even though nothing could possibly be further from the truth, and he gets crazier and crazier as the story goes on. I went back and forth between feeling the sheer terror that he instilled in his victims and wanting to jump into the story and kill him myself. In my opinion, it's the mark of a truly good writer when she can make me feel the bad emotions equally as intensely as the good.Don't Tell made me feel such a plethora of emotions I'm not sure I'm really doing it justice in my descriptions. My stomach turned and I felt anger and horror for all the victims sufferings. I cried for what they went though but was also joyous at the love Caroline found with Max. I read the climax with my heart in my throat and through a blur of tears, but rejoiced in Caroline's victory over her abuser, not only physically, but emotionally as well. I don't think the author could have chosen a better way to empower Caroline, Tom and Max than the way the suspense portion of the book wrapped up, and I thought she managed to perfectly tread the fine line between defending oneself and avoiding becoming what they despised. I've heard that some of Karen Rose's books can become rather descriptive of the violence, but in this one, I felt that she took the psychological thriller approach. While there were some violent scenes, in my opinion, it was more the anticipation and/or knowledge of what was happening off the canvas that made the story so intense. It was so good, I had a hard time believing this was the author's debut novel. My edition of Don't Tell was nearly 500 pages, but it never felt that long. In fact, I was quite sad when it ended, and think I may have a hard time moving on to another book. I'm so glad that I'll get to visit with these characters again, including Max and Caroline, as I work my way through the rest of Karen Rose's books. After a positively stellar first read like this, I am more than eager to pick up another of her books as soon as possible.Note: Karen Rose has a highly interconnected character web throughout all of her books, and they are considered something of an unofficial series. Although it appears that each book stands well on it's own story-wise, I think the reading experience would probably be enhanced by reading the books in the chronological order in which they were written, which is what I intend to do. A complete list including the recommended reading order and character connections can be found on Karen Rose's website.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Don’t Tell is the first of a fantastic romantic suspense series by Karen Rose. I absolutely love when a book can literally keep me on the edge of my seat through the entire reading, and Karen Rose has yet to let me down. Not only that, but she is one of the best of the best when it comes to characterization. If you tried to tell me that Caroline and her son Tom were only book characters, I would probably argue on reflex before remembering that they are actually fictional. I honestly do think of them as real people because Rose so expertly details their lives, thoughts and history. The first time I read this book, I remember thinking over and over that Tom Winters had to be the most well-written villain I had ever come across. Not necessarily the most cunning or the most evil, but the most fleshed out? Definitely. Rose gets inside his head in a way that is truly chilling. You don’t just know his thoughts. She makes you feel them. He all but steps right out of the book. It is uncomfortable, spine-tingling, creepy...it makes for delicious reading. Thinking about him actually makes me shiver and want to look over my shoulder...not to mention leaving lights on after dark! I have also never rooted for a character as much as I did for Caroline. Watching her growth and progression over the course of the book actually made me a little emotional – more than once. Seeing her start to believe in herself, stand up for herself and feel worthy of love was very empowering. I think psychiatrists should hand this book out to women that have suffered abuse as a testimony to overcoming the pain, fear and self-doubt that such relationships leave behind. I really can’t express how much this book means to me, or how much I love and recommend it. I have read the first ten books of the series and loved them all, but this one will always stand out. The eleventh of the series, Silent Scream, was just released and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Never a dull moment in this compelling story. Great story line, though the characters were a little flat, except for Max and Tom. Apart from that, I enjoyed this immensely.