Hi all! I’m joining the lovefest for a newly-released contemporary romance/thriller, STATISTIC, from best-selling author Dawn Robertson. I nabbed this one early, and it kept me up too late at night.

Love.
Betrayal.
Deception.
Attempted Murder.
Aurora Alexander is everything headlines are made of.Newly divorced single mother Aurora Alexander is trying to move on with her life.
After a string of unsuccessful blind dates, she turns to internet dating.
Everyone does it, so it has to be safe. Right?Wrong.

Aurora has been unlucky in love. Colin, her high school sweetheart is now her ex-husband. She’s never had another lover, and now she’s online looking for either the RIGHT man, or the Man for RIGHT NOW.

She finds a great new friend (Brent), a suave lady’s man (Wesley), and the guy she thinks could be The One (Jackson)–but in the background there’s odd happenings. Men are finding her home. Packages arrive, in the guise of kindness, but Aurora is rattled. Especially when her home is invaded and the gift she received from one suitor, Wesley, was destroyed.

Was it retribution because she won’t go out with him again? How did he gain access to her home? Aurora is terrorized by thoughts that someone could harm herself, or worse–her four year old son. Unwilling to take chances, she leans on both Brent and Jackson–cutting Wesley out of her contacts.

Attempting to find some normalcy, Aurora begins building a relationship with Jackson, which shuts down her friendship with Brent–someone with whom she has become close. That is, until the latest gal Brent was dating turns up dead. She was also a member of the same online dating community that Aurora, Brent, Jackson, and Wesley belong to. And, now Aurora starts to wonder if the strange incidents in her life means she’s being targeted by a killer.

We learn pretty quickly that Jackson isn’t who he claims to be–and Aurora nearly can’t forgive his deception–one that lands Aurora in the hospital, with a dead serial killer upping the conflict.

The book moves pretty quickly. At first I was put off by how timid Aurora was–she seemed to barely be able to tie her own shoes after being jilted by Colin, but I relished her awakening and empowerment. Her ability to “throw caution to the wind” was refreshing, though we (both Aurora and I) clearly recognize that she has NO TASTE when it comes to men. Again, it harkens to her lack of experience in the men department. Still, the amount of growth Aurora makes was significant. She and Colin actually reach some understandings regarding the care of their child, and that’s to the good. Aurora was, throughout, very mature and grounded. She was a good mother and a cautious woman. I liked seeing her step out of her comfort zones, and was so glad to see her succeed in rebuilding her life twice; once after the divorce and again after her attack. She is a woman who makes sorbet out of her basket of lemons, and the book is all the more refreshing for it.

The final plot twist was, for me, unnecessary. But, then, I’m not a huge horror fan and it smacked (a bit) of that last gasp cut at the end of a screamer flick where you think the villain is dead only for the bloody corpse to make one last desperate stab at the MC. In short, I’d had enough tension to keep me awake and engaged late into the night and that confession didn’t help me any. Mostly, it made me wish Aurora had just closed her laptop on Page 2 and had a nice celibate life. But, that’s me, and I’m the Queen of Wishing For HEA…

Interested? You can find STATISTIC on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.