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Book Review: Hell to Pay by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Good day people !
Rise & Shine ;) coz there is Hell to Pay to live this Life :D



I completed reading #HTP 3 days ago & the story still keeps running in my head. It has crime, mystery, thrilling plots, horse riding + rodeo scenes, religion(extremist), love, court rooms, animals, sports, ... lot of things going on in this one book. So I loved it very much. Its a seventh book in the series.
Check out the story blurb at: Spotlight: Hell to Pay by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

Story:
Emily is a paralegal(not a lawyer but trained in legal matters, in layman terms) and employed with Jack who is a lawyer. They both are engaged, make a good couple, have a great time in the sack, love horses and dogs, want to fight for victims whose case no one wants to touch. Emily has lost a baby in her previous marriage and wants to adopt a girl named Betsy but the foster parents from an extremist christian church are creating opposition. Jack was married with two kids who died in a car blast that was meant for him, so carries that emotional baggage while the culprit is still at large. He hasn't confessed his love to Emily in words yet and she wants a guy who loves and wants her, so she keeps avoiding setting a date for their marriage. Their friend Nadine is getting married to Phil who has opened an adult novelty store which is again the cause of ire for the extremist church. Emily's father is back from ten years of prison but she finds it difficult to bond with him with his criminal history always taking precedence in her mind. Phil's best friend Dennis gets murdered on the night of the party celebrating Phil's store opening and engagement. The police find Phil guilty and the opposition has an easy case with Phil's recent burglary sentence. Emily loses the chance to adopt Betsy due to her foster parents. Jack is acting uncommunicative, being secretive, lying to her. Phil goes into diabetic coma during the trial making Nadine and her boys loose their chance at happiness. Now Emily has to get to the bottom of the murder of Dennis to prove Phil innocent and help her best friend Nadine. Will she succeed? What about her own happiness?

What I liked:
The story at the beginning is confusing with too many characters coming from all the 6 books in this series and little aversive with the description of adult cakes + sex toys + murders + swingers + extremist church and their doings. But after a few chapter you are hooked and cheering for Emily and Jack.

The language is good. The plot captivating. Story flow smooth. The situations and locations well described that will make you feel you are watching an old cowboy movie.

Like I said in the intro there are too many things happening in the story. So it never gets dull and most of these things are informative too.

The action scenes bring you on the edge of your seats. With Emily there is always action :D from stinking cars to rattle snake capturing to going undercover as a devout christian girl in need of the Lords assistance. 

The mushy and emotional scenes pull at your heart. Be it Emily having the worst day. Losing chance at adopting Betsy. Nadine and Emily's friendship. Clyde's life and his son. Rapport of Emily and Wallace. Jack's notes and wedding gifts. Emily and her dad's talks, Melinda and her pure jealousy for Emily,....

The numerous characters are well etched out. You will visualize a Phil and a Wallace immediately to Clyde and Emily's mom. Jack as the Perfect Guy who goes mum when he needs to put in words his love, in short a Basic male :D

I loved the names Emily has been given and are spot on for her impulsive behavior and her braces. Calamity Jane, Rodeo Queen, Seabiscuit,  

Also the phrases Emily uses for cuss words Son of a biscuit... Mother of pearl... Spit in well bucket... I was going ROFL with these :D :)

I loved the horse & riding descriptions, made me remember the dozens of cowboy novels I read in teenage from our colony library. Also the recently read Black Beauty.


What I wanted more:
Closure for Betsy's foster parent's opposition and the church. The ending seemed rushed up.

End to the mission of the skin crawling description of the Church and their agenda. If such extremist beliefs are still around God save us and this world. Taking into today's shooting of 50 people in Orlando's gay nightclub.



Putting the entire Book Series of "What doesn't Kill you" on my To Be Read list immediately.
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Read the book and let us know your review.

Till the next book comes by Have a fantastic week ahead.

Bye. Take care

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