All the Bridges Burning

Davies Groves #1

by Neliza Drew

Sisters bound by tragedy. Davis Groves grew up in a volatile environment. With a dead father and an addict mother, Davis learned early to do whatever it took to fight, lie, steal…even sell her body for money to get by. Above all, she knew it was her job to protect her sisters —always. Now, she’s settled into a somewhat normal life away from her family, complete with a respectable job, apartment and boyfriend. Her demons have been put to rest, mostly, her old obligations abandoned. So when her mother calls for help, Davis is all too willing to ignore her…until she says Davis’s little sister has been arrested for murder. There’s no question Davis will go back, that she’ll try to save her sister any way she can. It’s what she was trained to do. As she investigates, the events surrounding her sister’s arrest begin to unravel, the past Davis thought she’d buried and her sister’s present collide, and Davis is forced to question if she can ever forgive herself for leaving her sister behind. She may not live long enough to try.

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2016

Reviews

[Amanda NEVER MANDY · Rating 3 out of 5]

**I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.**

I leaned hard towards giving this book a two star rating for the amount of times I had to mentally try to go back and figure out who was what character and if I had already read about them or not. And for also all of the times I wanted to smack the main character for making everything about her and her emotional and physically scarring. BUT I did enjoy the basic skeleton structure buried under the character issues so I brought it up to a three.

This story was quite complex with all the unknown back story mixed in with the main character’s current predicament. A predicament that consisted of bandaged over past issues that had been allowed to fester and rot. I was way more intrigued by everything that had happened versus what was currently happening. This feeling strongly connected to my supporting character wants. I needed more on what happened to a particular character in the past to help me better understand why they were acting or responding in a certain way in the present. That one line or paragraph summing up a rather huge moment in the past just didn’t quite cut it.

If there was a prequel minus the obsessive scar talk I would totally be in.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this a lot. ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING is a domestic saga/crime drama with a powerful sense of realism. Davis Groves is a tremendous heroine because she's overcame a lot only to survive and she has to overcome and endure so much hostility and adversity throughout the novel. I'm not the most patient guy with art that celebrates the resilience of human nature, but this is done right. Neliza Drew understands what makes human beings beautiful.

There's a couple issues of a mechanical nature with this novel that I chalked to ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING being a first novel (they are issues you'll find in first novels over and over again). For example, it starts strong but never really changes speed. It's a 300 pages investigation, which is nice but it gets quite complicated and doesn't really have an atmosphere or a sense of place. Neliza Drew also tends to feed you what to think about certain scenes, which is a bad habit most writers overcome with experience. It's a pet peeve of mine, but it's not overbearing in this novel.

But I'm being nit-picky here. ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING is a very good mystery and Neliza Drew has a LOT of potential. She certainly has landed on my radar.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neliza Drew is a new author with her first published work, All the Bridges Burning. The setting is a gun range where she is shooting with Tom, a practice they share once a week. She hits the bull's eye more often then he does. She had once been a champion in competitions with her uncle, who really wasn't her uncle. Davis leads a complicated life with a mother who is psychotic and a sister she left behind in North Carolina when she moved to Arizona for her job. She is settled into a somewhat normal life away from her family, complete with a respectable job and boyfriend. She had tried everything to help her family including selling her body. While at the gun range, she gets a call from a friend telling her sister had been arrested for murder in Beaufort. Now, she is pulled back into the maelstrom. On arriving at home, she discovers her sister Charley trying to commit suicide. The house is filthy and Davis can't control and dials 911. As she investigates, the events surrounding her sister's arrest begin to unravel. What Davis had thought was buried and forgotten collides with her life she had thought was buried and forgotten, forces her to question if she can ever be forgiven for leaving her sister behind. This first novel is so good I am looking forward to more of Neliza Drew.

[Josh Stallings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neliza Drew's debut novel All the Bridges Burning is a damn fine piece of work. I felt like I'd been kicked in the teeth by a loving friend in combat boots. Bathing my wits I started write this by comparing her protagonist Davis Groves to Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor or even my own Moses McGuire, but that was wrong. Yes Davis lives in a similarly dark world, she is undeniably herself.

Davis has solid steel ovaries. To protect her sisters, she battles curpt and mean hearted peckerwood dragons. Her suit of armor isn't only rusted it's tore all to hell.

This is one raging speed demon of novel. It is also heartbreakingly real. Neliza Drew understands pain and alienation. She sees the scars we inflict on ourselves and the ones the world gifts us with for daring to live outside their nine dots.

I will miss having Davis in my life and can only hope she can survive a sequel.

[Joshua Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davis Groves is damaged. Mentally and physically, she's been beaten and battered to within an inch of her life time and time again. But when her younger sister is arrested for murder, Davis returns home and puts all of herself on the line once again to try and save her.

Neliza Drew's debut novel will bruise you, it will batter you, and it will make you stand up and ask for more Davis Groves.

[Bobby McCue · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars (I will constantly bitch about GR's rating sys)
Davis is a physically & emotionally scarred woman who is a fierce protector of her sisters. She had to had to leave them at a point where she was sure she gave them enough tools to survive the adversity of their mother and the town where they lived. Had she not left, she would be dead. Her youngest sister being thrown in jail and accused of murder shattered that hope.
I love books where the main character battles devastating adversity in her upbringing and has a grounded sense of justice. This is hard-boiled wonderfulness...okay, that's not a word, but you get the idea