Review: Never Let You Go by Chevy Stevens (audio)

Yesterday, Never Let You
by Chevy Stevens, was released in paperback – it was first released in hardcover last year. I am a big fan of Chevy’s books and tend to listen to them on audio – in fact I had listened to this one a few months back but just hadn’t gotten around to writing my review, so here it is. Let me know if you have read this one or any of her other books. 

Title: Never Let You Go

Author: Chevy Stevens

Narrator: Rachel Fulginiti, Caitlin Davies

Published: Audio – March 2017, Blackstone Audio; Paperback – March 2018, St. Martin’s Griffin

Length: Audio – 11 hours 56 minutes / Paperback – 416 pages

Source: Audio – Library / Paperback via Publisher

Summary: 

A stunning and thrilling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Still Missing.Eleven
years ago, Lindsey Nash escaped into the night with her young daughter
and left an abusive relationship. Her ex-husband, Andrew, was sent to
jail and Lindsey started over with a new life.

Now, Lindsey is
older and wiser, with her own business and a teenage daughter who needs
her more than ever. When Andrew is finally released from prison, Lindsey
believes she has cut all ties and left the past behind her. But she
gets the sense that someone is watching her, tracking her every move.
Her new boyfriend is threatened. Her home is invaded, and her daughter
is shadowed. Lindsey is convinced it’s her ex-husband, even though he
claims he’s a different person. But has he really changed? Is the one
who wants her dead closer to home than she thought?

With Never Let You Go,
Chevy Stevens delivers a chilling, twisting thriller that crackles with
suspense as it explores the darkest heart of love and obsession. 

My thoughts: Chevy Stevens is one of my must-read authors…whenever she has a book coming out, I add it to the list of books I know I am going to be reading at some point. I just love her books and this one was no exception. They are equal blends of emotional and chilling, suspenseful and at times disturbing reads, and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

What I love most about Chevy Stevens’ books is that she usually takes a social topic to address in her books – this one being about domestic abuse. We find out right away that Lindsay has escaped from her abusive husband, Andrew, and has created a new life for her and her daughter, Sophie. It’s ten years later, Andrew has been to prison for vehicular manslaughter and has just been released, and Lindsay finds herself once again being stalked…is it coincidence?

I loved the way this story is told. Little by little, we get the whole story of what happened in Lindsay’s marriage to make her escape with her daughter in the middle of the night. These parts are told in flashback, as most the of story is told in the present day. We see how charming Lindsay’s ex-husband, Andrew was initially and then how he eventually exerted control over her until it was too much and she knew she had to get out or she would never survive. 

The story alternates between Lindsay’s point of view, who is trying to keep her and her daughter safe, and Sophie’s, who is now a teenager and curious about the father she really doesn’t know or remember. She wants to believe her father wouldn’t hurt her and is really too young to understand anything about obsession or betrayal. This is really where the tension starts to build ever so slowly because you have Lindsay knowing what her husband is capable of doing, whereas Sophie has this burning desire to find the good in her dad. 

If you think you know where this story is going to go…think again. This story is full of surprises, and takes you on quite a ride. It’s chock-full of tension, twists and is at times quite chilling. It’s an intense read and a very realistic portrayal of domestic abuse with believable characters that just jump off the pages.

I am always in awe with the way Chevy Stevens tells a story…she gets my heart rate up and I am left speechless. This one kept me hooked from start to finish…and that ending…it definitely caught me by surprise!

Audio thoughts: I love listening to Chevy Stevens’ books – they engage you right from the start and keep you hooked all the way through. The narrators in this book, Rachel Fulginiti and Caitlin Davies were great – I liked that there were different narrators for the mom and daughter. Sometimes it’s nice to have different narrators for the different parts – it makes the story really come alive. 

And let me tell you – listening to Chevy Stevens’ books on audio is in fact like when you are reading those books with very short chapters…in this case it becomes an instance of  “I’ll just listen for a few more minutes” because you just cannot pull yourself away. I find myself flying through her books in the course of a day because I simply cannot walk away – I just become so absorbed in them and just need to keep listening!