From Goodreads: For college student Emily Sheppard, the thought of spending a summer alone in New York is much more preferable than spending it in France with her parents. 

Just completing her freshman year at Callister University, Emily faces a quiet summer in the city slums, supporting herself by working at the campus library.During one of her jogs through the nearby cemetery while visiting her brother Bill’s grave, Emily witnesses a brutal killing—and then she blacks out. When Emily regains consciousness, she realizes she’s been kidnapped by a young crime boss and his gang. 

She is hurled into a secret underworld, wondering why she is still alive and for how long.

Held captive in rural Vermont, she tries to make sense of her situation and what it means. While uncovering secrets about her brother and his untimely death, Emily falls in love with her very rich and very dangerous captor, twenty- six-year-old Cameron. She understands it’s a forbidden love and one that won’t allow her to return to her previous life. 

But love may not be enough to save Emily when no one even knows she is missing.

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Hockley has written a truly riveting love story that captivated me from the very beginning! I loved every minute of this novel, even the ending, though it angered me and even made me cry.  Leaving my emotions raw, Hockley has created a very powerful novel, and though the male lead, Cameron, is a crime boss, making tough decisions that occasionally end in the death of someone, he’s hard not to like.

It felt like an entire lifetime passed as I read.  Hockley has really fleshed out her characters, giving the reader a glimpse into their very souls, and I too found myself falling in love with Cameron.  I loved the pacing of the novel, and Hockley’s ability to fit all the pieces of the story together in such a perfect way, though the ending… was like a knife in the gut.

It’s not a mystery novel, but there is much suspense within the pages of Crow’s Row.  Hockley presents different scenarios that made me feel as if the story would go one way, but then it went in an entirely different direction, causing me slight heart attacks as I feared for Emily, for Cameron, for Rocco… I had a lot of pent up fear as I read, sure that something terrible was about to happen.  And it eventually did.  Emily is, afterall, held captive by a crime boss, and though he’s a dreamy, sexy character, he’s also the head of a group of killers.  Bad things are going to happen to some of the characters, and while I think I knew this is the back of my mind, it still shocked me and left me flabbergasted when they did.

There isn’t a happy ending, per se, but it does work perfectly with the novel, though I hate to say it.  The ending just about killed me.  I wasn’t expecting it, and I spent the entire last portion of the novel on pins and needles, screaming and crying because I couldn’t believe the twist the novel took.  This beautiful love story ripped my heart out in the end, but at the same time, it’s worth all the pain.  Upon finishing the novel I felt a hole in my own heart, just like some of the characters, and any author that can make me feel this deeply about fictional characters is one worthy of praise.  Hockley is indeed a literary genius, one to watch, and I am really hoping that there will be a sequel to this novel someday soon.  My heart needs to repair, and I’m dying for things to change. Five stars.

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“I know you don’t believe anything I say, so there’s no point in me trying to defend myself to you anymore, even if it kills me to see you so disgusted with me.

But there’s one thing I do need you to know: I love you Emmy. I’ve loved you for a very long time.”

He turned his eyes to me for the briefest of moments, and I felt a crack in my newly erected armour.

“To have you here with me … I guess in some sick way, for a while, I thought that this could work. Hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do, but it looks like I managed to do that anyway.”

He took another breath. “This place is where I have to be, but it’s not a place where you can or should be. There’s nothing that I can do to change that. I won’t force this life on you.”

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About Julie Hockley:

A former germaphobe and clean-freak turned mother of two, Julie collects enough tears and snot in a month to recreate Slimer Monster from Ghostbusters. Other than playing devoted wife and mama, Julie is the funniest person in the room (according to the 3 year-old and 2 year-old in said room) and can build the most awesome Lego rocket ship you’ve ever set your eyes on (according to her). Oh, and she has a full time career and has also written a bestselling novel. Superhero, or just downright insane?

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