{"id":30642,"date":"2023-10-02T08:54:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=30642"},"modified":"2023-10-02T09:02:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T13:02:20","slug":"review-blessings-of-the-lost-girls-by-j-a-jance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/02\/review-blessings-of-the-lost-girls-by-j-a-jance\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \ud83d\udd0d Blessings of the Lost Girls by J.A. Jance"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-30642\" data-postid=\"30642\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-30642 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_j73g211 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_ru7g212 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_b7z4212 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"966\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?resize=640%2C966&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-30643\" title=\"blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance\" alt=\"blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?w=994&amp;ssl=1 994w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?resize=679%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 679w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?resize=768%2C1159&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg?resize=400%2C603&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_8tb0212 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. He chooses those he believes are the most vulnerable, wandering alone and distracted, before he strikes. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing of his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes\u2014or their identities\u2014behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement\u2019s history of ignoring their disappearances.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">A cold case has just been assigned to Dan Pardee, a field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People\u2019s Task Force. Rosa Rios, a young woman of Apache descent and one-time rodeo star, vanished three years ago. Human remains, a homicide victim burned beyond recognition, were discovered in Cochise County around the time she went missing. They have finally been confirmed to be Rosa. With Sheriff Joanna Brady\u2019s help, Dan is determined to reopen the case and bring long-awaited justice to Rosa\u2019s family. As the orphaned son of a murdered indigenous woman, he feels an even greater, personal obligation to capture this killer.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Joanna\u2019s daughter Jennifer is also taking a personal interest in this case, having known Rosa from her own amateur rodeo days. Now a criminal justice major, she\u2019s unofficially joining the investigation. And as it becomes clear that Rosa was just one victim of a serial killer, both Jennifer and Dan know they\u2019re running out of time to catch an elusive predator who\u2019s proven capable of getting away with murder.<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_eqjj212 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_2fjf212  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25881 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png?resize=296%2C72\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Sep 19, 2023<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong> <em>Joanna Brady Mysteries<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>20<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> William Morrow<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $14.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">Human remains have been found in Cochise County, Arizona, which means it\u2019s a case for <strong>Sheriff Joanna Brady<\/strong>. It takes a while, but the remains are eventually identified as those of a missing Apache woman. Dan Pardee, the son-in-law of retired Sheriff Brandon Walker, is assigned to investigate the cause of death. Dan is a member of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People\u2019s Task Force and is determined to get justice for this young woman. He could never have predicted how complex this case would get and how so many people would come together to help solve it.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Blessing of the Lost Girls<\/strong> combines characters from two of the author&#8217;s series, the Sheriff Joanna Brady series and the Walker Family Novels. I&#8217;ve read almost all of the Joanna Brady books but have only read one book in the Walker series, so it took me a bit to get caught up on who was who among the characters from that series. Otherwise, it works well as a standalone. In this book, Joanna actually plays less of a role than her daughter, Jenny, who is about to graduate from college with a degree in criminal justice. It was nice seeing the valuable contributions Jenny makes to the investigation, even if it was somewhat unrealistic that a student could outthink all of the seasoned members of law enforcement involved with the case.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">I enjoyed the character of Dan Pardee, who is smart and dedicated to both his job and his family. It is refreshing that Dan has a supportive boss who backs his decisions and requests so the case can progress. The plot is interesting, seeing how the investigation unfolds. There are chapters told from the killer&#8217;s point-of-view, and his name is given near the beginning, so this isn&#8217;t a &#8220;whodunnit&#8221; but instead a cat-and-mouse chase between a predator and law enforcement. I also enjoyed the Arizona setting. I was familiar with some of the places, but the author\u2019s descriptions are so vivid I could clearly picture even those I have never seen.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">The author took a unique approach to the book by including some ancient stories from Arizona\u2019s Tohono O\u2019odham (translated as Desert People) Nation at the beginning of some of the chapters. The author gives interesting background information about these stories in the back of the book.\u00a0 She said she hoped readers wouldn&#8217;t skip over them to get to the main story, and I am glad I didn&#8217;t. In fact, one of the stories about \u201cBeautiful Girl\u201d and her brother \u201cHunter\u201d was so good I actually wanted the chapters with only the main plot to move faster so I could find out what happened next with Beautiful Girl. The book as a whole comes to a satisfying conclusion, and I would be interested in reading more books featuring Dan Pardee.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_17kf212 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3PD0c7d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3F1oVgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/blessing-of-the-lost-girls-j-a-jance\/1143366356?ean=9780063010116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/blessing-of-the-lost-girls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/J_A_Jance_Blessing_of_the_Lost_Girls?id=8vubEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. He chooses those he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,106,48,72],"tags":[152,367,404,405,463],"class_list":["post-30642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christine","category-harpercollins","category-reviews","category-william-morrow","tag-4-stars","tag-mystery","tag-recommend","tag-recommended-reads","tag-suspense-thriller"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \ud83d\udd0d Blessings of the Lost Girls by J.A. 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He chooses those he [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/02\/review-blessings-of-the-lost-girls-by-j-a-jance\/","og_site_name":"Smitten by Books","article_published_time":"2023-10-02T12:54:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-02T13:02:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":994,"height":1500,"url":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/blessings-of-the-lost-girls-ja-jance.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"beverley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"beverley"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/02\/review-blessings-of-the-lost-girls-by-j-a-jance\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/02\/review-blessings-of-the-lost-girls-by-j-a-jance\/"},"author":{"name":"beverley","@id":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a4181aeb9cd5641e30023b9b4d3e00d"},"headline":"Review \ud83d\udd0d Blessings of the Lost Girls by J.A. 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He chooses those he believes are the most vulnerable, wandering alone and distracted, before he strikes. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing of his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes\u2014or their identities\u2014behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement\u2019s history of ignoring their disappearances.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A cold case has just been assigned to Dan Pardee, a field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People\u2019s Task Force. Rosa Rios, a young woman of Apache descent and one-time rodeo star, vanished three years ago. Human remains, a homicide victim burned beyond recognition, were discovered in Cochise County around the time she went missing. They have finally been confirmed to be Rosa. With Sheriff Joanna Brady\u2019s help, Dan is determined to reopen the case and bring long-awaited justice to Rosa\u2019s family. As the orphaned son of a murdered indigenous woman, he feels an even greater, personal obligation to capture this killer.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Joanna\u2019s daughter Jennifer is also taking a personal interest in this case, having known Rosa from her own amateur rodeo days. Now a criminal justice major, she\u2019s unofficially joining the investigation. And as it becomes clear that Rosa was just one victim of a serial killer, both Jennifer and Dan know they\u2019re running out of time to catch an elusive predator who\u2019s proven capable of getting away with murder.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smitten-recommends-banner-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"72\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Sep 19, 2023<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong> <em>Joanna Brady Mysteries<br \/><\/em><strong>Book:\u00a0<\/strong>20<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong> William Morrow<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $14.99<\/p><hr \/><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">Human remains have been found in Cochise County, Arizona, which means it\u2019s a case for <strong>Sheriff Joanna Brady<\/strong>. It takes a while, but the remains are eventually identified as those of a missing Apache woman. Dan Pardee, the son-in-law of retired Sheriff Brandon Walker, is assigned to investigate the cause of death. Dan is a member of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People\u2019s Task Force and is determined to get justice for this young woman. He could never have predicted how complex this case would get and how so many people would come together to help solve it.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><strong>Blessing of the Lost Girls<\/strong> combines characters from two of the author's series, the Sheriff Joanna Brady series and the Walker Family Novels. I've read almost all of the Joanna Brady books but have only read one book in the Walker series, so it took me a bit to get caught up on who was who among the characters from that series. Otherwise, it works well as a standalone. In this book, Joanna actually plays less of a role than her daughter, Jenny, who is about to graduate from college with a degree in criminal justice. It was nice seeing the valuable contributions Jenny makes to the investigation, even if it was somewhat unrealistic that a student could outthink all of the seasoned members of law enforcement involved with the case.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">I enjoyed the character of Dan Pardee, who is smart and dedicated to both his job and his family. It is refreshing that Dan has a supportive boss who backs his decisions and requests so the case can progress. The plot is interesting, seeing how the investigation unfolds. There are chapters told from the killer's point-of-view, and his name is given near the beginning, so this isn't a \"whodunnit\" but instead a cat-and-mouse chase between a predator and law enforcement. I also enjoyed the Arizona setting. I was familiar with some of the places, but the author\u2019s descriptions are so vivid I could clearly picture even those I have never seen.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\">The author took a unique approach to the book by including some ancient stories from Arizona\u2019s Tohono O\u2019odham (translated as Desert People) Nation at the beginning of some of the chapters. The author gives interesting background information about these stories in the back of the book.\u00a0 She said she hoped readers wouldn't skip over them to get to the main story, and I am glad I didn't. In fact, one of the stories about \u201cBeautiful Girl\u201d and her brother \u201cHunter\u201d was so good I actually wanted the chapters with only the main plot to move faster so I could find out what happened next with Beautiful Girl. The book as a whole comes to a satisfying conclusion, and I would be interested in reading more books featuring Dan Pardee.<\/p><p style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\"><em>~ Christine<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3PD0c7d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/3F1oVgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/blessing-of-the-lost-girls-j-a-jance\/1143366356?ean=9780063010116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/blessing-of-the-lost-girls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/J_A_Jance_Blessing_of_the_Lost_Girls?id=8vubEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30642"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30648,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30642\/revisions\/30648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}