Hairpin Bridge

3.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
After reading No Exit back in February, I was so excited to hear that Taylor Adams new book was coming out in June. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year.

I do believe I compared it too much to No Exit and put way too much expectation on it. It's heavy on the action which makes the book super fast paced.

Unfortunately, I was confused along the way. I wasn't sure what I was reading was actually going on and who to believe? That's definitely the way it keeps you reading but I feel like I didn't get too much clarification at the end? Maybe I missed it. The emotions of the antagonist was soooo hot or cold. I didn't like his switch of emotions at all.

The book was heavy on the gun fights and a lot of gun talk that I wasn't really into.

I enjoyed the action but wasn't sold on the story.

After reading No Exit and finding it completely gripping, I was excited to read this new release by Taylor Adams. I was hoping for the fast paced, nonstop thrill ride I got from the previous book, but unfortunately, this one does not pack the same punch.

In this thriller, Lena is searching for answers in the death of her twin sister. The official report is that her sister Cambry killed herself by jumping off of Hairpin Bridge. Lena does not believe this version of events. She decides to confront the trooper that found her sisters body on the same bridge and get the answers she needs in order to move on from this event. Unfortunately, things do not go as Lena had planned, and she finds herself in a dangerous situation that could lead to her own demise.

Lena believes she is smart in her planning, but she is actually quite naïve, which is frustrating. I found myself shaking my head at several of her choices. The flashbacks to her blog from the previous day add some context, but they also involve a some overly emotional confessions. Her emotions about her sister seem a bit overdone considering they were not even close. As for the trooper, he is an annoying character who is completely untrustworthy. Some things that come to light toward the end just make him pathetic as a character.

The pacing of the first half of the book is stilted by the frequent flashbacks to the blog. The plot jumps from the current day with Lena and the trooper on the bridge to Lena's blog from the previous evening. Mingled in there is also Cambry's story from June, which is really being told by Lena after the fact. The reader cannot tell at times if the details are real or just Lena's fantasies about what happened. I suppose this is meant to add to the suspense. By the second half of the book, the pacing picks up substantially and barrels forward toward a climax.

Overall, I'd say the first half of the book is interesting, but a little choppy; the middle is quite suspenseful; and the end is very fast-paced and adrenaline-filled, but a bit far-fetched in its conclusion. It is hard for me as a reader to believe that things would have realistically ended as they did. I would recommend the book to fans of No Exit but with the warning that it is not as constantly thrilling as that one.

Between 2.5 and a 3. I was so hooked for 70% of the book. However the action scenes at the end were way too drawn out and dull for me. People running out of rounds of bullets and endless car racing and shootouts and people seeming to survive through close range bullet shots to the face. I was frustrated at the end by how many people seemed to come back from the dead or survive un survivable shots. The last 30% could have seriously been condensed and cut. I'm not a shoot out kind of girl, I find heavy action tedious. But I am excited now to read No Exit as this author can write a good thriller. Just her ending needed more work.