Justice Delayed by Sarah Hamaker Review

 

Oh wow, what an awesome romantic suspense novel. Justice Delayed was my first book by Sarah Hamaker and I just loved it. I was drawn in from the first page and was completely engrossed in the story. I've learned that I am a huge fan of books where there has been a miscarriage of justice. I have such sympathy for the character and want to see justice prevail. This is one of those books.

Melender Harman recently finished a 17 year prison sentence, accused of murdering her one year old cousin. However, she has maintained her innocence from the very beginning. Brogan Gilmore is a journalist who made some really bad decisions in the past, but is determined to do the right thing and become a respected jounalist. He and Melender meet when he is working on a story where she had helped stop a robbery in a convenience store she was cleaning. Due to various circumstances they end up working together to find the truth of what happened to her cousin.

We see the story mainly from Melender and Brogan's points of view; however those aren't the only points of view. And being able to see from other points of view helps the reader to realize there was definitely something else going on, though the mystery of what exactly happens remains til almost the end of the story. There were definitely a bunch of twists I didn't see coming, even though I had suspicions about other details.

There was also quite a bit of suspense as Melender and Brogan are targetted because they are digging up stuff from the past that certain people are determined remain hidden.

And I loved seeing their relationship change as they worked together.

The author did a wonderful job making me fall in love with these main characters. Melender's situation really tugged at my heart as she had gone through so much. But still, she held on to the faith her great-grandmother instilled in her. Speaking of her great-grandmother, I loved the little glimpses into her simple past life on the mountain and the way the author brought folk music into the story.

This was an awesome first book of the series and I can't wait to read more. But don't worry, even though this is the beginning of a series, this story had a satisfying conclusion with no cliffhanger. This is definitely a book I highly recommend.

I received an ARC of this book as a member of the launch team and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.