Truly Unfortunate (Welcome to Knollville Book 1) by C.A. King – Review by Tara Johnson Barnes

Truly Unfortunate by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Truly Unfortunate is Book One in the Welcome to Knollville Series. It is a superbly written supernatural crime book with twists and turns that will hook you and keep you reading to the end. The story centers around Truly who is seeing a doctor in the hopes of regaining her childhood memories. Her doctor feels that something terrible must have happened to Truly as a child that she has repressed for all these years. Truly’s life at present is not going well and she is struggling to make ends meet even while working three jobs. Her landlord has just increased her rent, will not do necessary repairs in her apartment, and is trying to blackmail her into sleeping with him to help pay her rent. Then, of course, she is having visions that she is unsure whether are suppressed memories coming back to her or if she is hallucinating. Each vision has her blacking out for small amounts of time and leaves her feeling like she was in a fog. To make matters worse people around her seem to be dying at an alarming rate and she was the last one to have had contact with each of the victims.

Jeff is the other character that the story focuses heavily around. He is a member of the Knoll police who is determined to solve the mysterious deaths in Knollville. He does not believe that these deaths were accidents and suspects that these are all linked. Jeff suspects that they might even be linked to when he was a child and his nine-year-old classmate died in an accident. He always felt her death was suspicious and that is what compelled him to join the police force. Jeff strongly feels that the other girl who was present during the accident of his classmate was somehow involved but he has never been able to prove it. Not only was this young girl present when the classmate, a notorious bully, died but the young girl’s stepfather and mother also died when she was young. Now this young girl, Truly, just happens to be the last person to have seen each of the victims in a recent string of mysterious deaths. Jeff is determined to prove that Truly is involved in all the deaths and that they were not accidents but were instead murders.

This book was entertaining and had me captivated from the first few pages. The author’s writing style is unique, brilliant, and masterful. The storyline was a bit dark and twisted at times as Truly’s story took center stage. The characters were engaging, lovable, and relatable. As I was introduced to Truly, I immediately felt sympathy for her because of her horrific childhood. It was obvious that she had been horribly abused and therefore her mind suppressed the memories for her to cope. Yet, at the same time, I could not help wondering if she was involved somehow in all the deaths, even those going back to her childhood. Was that the real reason behind her suppressing the memories of her childhood for so long? I also wondered about the current visions that left Truly feeling as though she had lost chunks of time. How long were these lapses and what else was going on at the time? These mysterious little tidbits kept me reading to learn more. I was intrigued by the mysterious undertones, the links between past and present, and whether Truly was involved, or if it was coincidental. The twists and turns the book took had me on the edge of my seat, well done! I cannot wait for the next book in this superbly written series. This is a great read and I highly recommend it!

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