Title: You Can Tell Me (Olivia Cruz #1)
Author: Melinda Leigh
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Format: eARC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4★)
Synopsis
On the anniversary of her own traumatic kidnapping, true crime writer Olivia Cruz is supposed to meet her friend Zoe March to revisit the crime scene for Zoe’s podcast. But Zoe never shows up.
When Zoe’s husband reports her missing, the police suspect she may have left voluntarily. Olivia disagrees and begins investigating on her own. As she digs deeper into Zoe’s life, it becomes clear that Zoe may have uncovered something dangerous through her true crime work.
My Thoughts
I requested this one for a very specific reason: it’s connected to Save Your Breath (book six in the Morgan Dane series), which I absolutely binged last year and loved. I was really excited to see Olivia Cruz finally getting her own story.
And for anyone wondering, yes, you can absolutely read this without reading the Morgan Dane series first. The author gives enough context from the previous case without spoiling too much.
Now, onto the book itself.
The pacing was overall okay, but I did find myself taking a few breaks here and there. At times, it felt like the investigation was spinning in circles a little before moving things forward again, which made parts of the story drag for me.
The plot surrounding Zoe’s disappearance didn’t fully grab me either, mostly because I never really connected with Zoe herself. Between her messy house and some questionable decisions, she just wasn’t a character I became invested in.
On the other hand, seeing familiar faces from the Morgan Dane series was honestly one of my favorite parts of the book.
Olivia continues to be a strong and determined character, and I loved that she never gave up on finding Zoe no matter what. I also unexpectedly adored Nicki, Olivia’s niece. There was one moment where I genuinely thought something terrible was about to happen, so I was VERY relieved with how things turned out.
And of course, I was so happy seeing Olivia and Lincoln finally taking another step in their relationship.
At this point, I’m honestly not even sure if I’m rating the mystery itself or simply my happiness at seeing these characters again 😅 But either way, the returning cast easily carried this book for me more than the actual investigation did.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was a solid suspense read with familiar characters I already loved spending time with.
While the mystery itself wasn’t my favorite, the character dynamics and connections were more than enough to keep me engaged, and longtime Morgan Dane readers will probably appreciate this one even more.
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
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