Reads & Reels Blog Tour: Search For Maylee by Didi Oviatt

The Book:

Book Title: Search For Maylee

Book Author: Didi Oviatt

Page Count: 273

Genre: Thriller/ Suspense-Thriller

Publishing Date: October 6th, 2017

Publisher: Self Published

Date Read: September 24th, 2017

Synopsis: Since Maylee was abducted from her high school the very month of graduation, her Aunt Autumn has never lost hope in finding her. It’s been three years. Autumn has finally reached inside herself and found the courage to track down an old lead. She moves across the country to find him. Will Autumn be able to pry Maylee’s case back open? More importantly, what will Autumn uncover in the process of searching for Maylee? It’s a cold dark world we live in, and she is about to find out just how cruel it can be. Strength and determination are on Autumn’s side and she will do whatever it takes to either bring Maylee home, or to deliver the justice she deserves.

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The Review:

Search For Maylee is an edge of your seat thrill ride full of hairpin turns! This one hold passion, danger, excitement, and sadness. For those in search of a crime novel with real depth and emotion, look no further than Didi Oviatt’s latest masterpiece!

The Plot: It’s been 3 years since Maylee was abducted the month she should have graduated high school. Her Aunt Autumn has always held out hope of finding her alive. When it feels like everyone has given up, Autumn decides to follow an old lead and take the search in to her own hands. Autumn must hold on to her strength and determination to enter the cold, cruel world of the city of Denver to keep up her investigation.

I was absolutely blown away by this one! Search For Maylee held everything I was looking for in a thriller! I can’t tell you how many times my heart was pounding while reading this one! And that ending had me in tears! My word, Didi did a fabulous job with this book!

The plot was incredibly well written! It was fast paced, very intricate, and held so many surprising twists! I could not have predicted any of those surprises! It was a quick read, but it held me captive until the very end! The world building was impeccable, and the characters were so well developed!

I truly admired and loved Autumn! What a brave, strong woman she was! She was so fiercely determined to find her niece, and was so incredibly kind, caring, moral, and powerful! But, she also had an emotional softness to her that made her feel real and had my rooting for her to find Maylee!

Jeremy was one of my favorite characters! He was so loyal to Autumn and to his own motivation. He was strong and caring, and a little bit humorous!

Chance was an amazing character! He brought so much to the story! He was passionate and loving, and insanely protective!

This is the best thriller I have read all year! Hands down, I was turning pages like crazy waiting on my heart to jump out of my chest! The emotion and suspense that Didi packed in this one is just astounding! Make sure you get your hands on a copy of this one because you do not want to miss this incredible thrill ride!

Thank you to Reads & Reels for providing me with this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Author Q & A:

Me: What was your inspiration for the story (TV, movie, book, true crime stories, etc.)?

Didi: I’ve always found cold cases captivating. I love the mystery in it. With Search For Maylee I wanted to take a different approach. Something other than the victim’s perspective, and something beyond your average police investigation tale. I wanted it to be fresh and compassionate yet still raw and hard to stomach. I was actually watching a cold case show on the Identification Discovery channel one day, when the entire concept of this book just kind of popped into my brain and never left. It hit me, that my favorite parts of these stories are always told by the victim’s families. It’s the parents and the loved ones who really tell a victims story the way it should be told. They’re emotional and dedicated, obsessed even. By giving Maylee’s Aunt Autumn the main role in this book I was able to produce a character who really loves the missing person, and I gave her all the power.

Me: How long did it take you to write Search For Maylee?

Didi: This question is a lot trickier than it should be! I actually wrote the entire book twice, and each time took me just over a year. The first time I had attempted to tell Autumn and Maylee’s story I was a “new novelist” and I hadn’t found my writing voice yet. I finished it and then put it away for a couple of months to clear my head before the edit… When I picked it back up, it actually made me sick… Literally! The story was great but the writing was awful. At the time I deemed it unfix-able and put it on the back burner for THREE years. When that irritating voice in the back of my head finally talked me into picking it back up (because I couldn’t NOT tell this story, it was eating me alive!) I actually ended up re-writing the entire thing, cover to cover. Time has a funny way of changing things for the better.

Me: Could you have done all that Autumn did?

Didi: I think everyone would like to assume they’d do certain things and take certain risks when they need to, but until the situation actually presents itself you never really know. I only hope I could be as strong as Autumn! The world needs more people like her!

Me: What are your favorite crime/thriller TV shows?

Didi: Hands down Criminal Minds! I absolutely love that show, I’ve seen every episode at least twice.

Me: Could you see yourself falling for Chance, Jeremy, or Lloyd?

Didi: It would probably be the smart thing for me to compare which of the three is most like my husband, which would be Chance. But, I’m going to be a rebel and say Jeremy, just because I love his fun loving spirit. His heart and priorities are in the right place, and hes just the right dose of uplifting. I wouldn’t quite deem him book boyfriend material, just because we don’t know how he is in the bedroom (YET hint hint…) But I think it’s definitely safe to say I have a little character crush for sure.

Me: Did you do any major research while writing the story (on the city or crime type)?

Didi: Not. A. Drop.

Me: Do you enjoy writing suspense scenes more or romance scenes?

Didi: I’m moody. Possibly borderline Bipolar, I guess it’s hard to tell. That said, I’ll go with this: I like writing them both equally as much, but it just depends on the day!

ME: What do you enjoy doing when not writing?

Didi: I love being outdoors, and sleeping under the stars! I spend a lot of time camping, fishing, hiking, ext. I have a real obsession with fire, I like to burn shit. I’m that weird girl that will get her nails done because I love to feel pretty and then once the weekend rolls around I’ll break every single one of them off playing in the mud on a four-wheeler, shooting guns or my compound bow, and building my own camp fires. I’m a beer drinker through and through. My friends call me a pretty redneck, or a prissy tom-boy… I just say I’m well rounded!! I’m definitely not a sit back and let the men do the driving kind of gal, and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I’d rather spend my time behind a campfire with good music and great friends, than at a mall shopping or a spa.

About The Author:

Didi Oviatt is an intuitive soul. She’s a wife and mother first, with one son and one daughter. She’s a suspense novelist, and magazine columnist second. Her thirst to write was developed at an early age, and she never looked back. After digging down deep and getting in touch with her literary self, she’s writing mystery/thrillers like Search For Maylee, Aggravated Momentum, The Stix, and New Age Lamians(a trilogy to be). Along with a six- piece short story collection called the Time Wasters. She’s also collaborated with Kim Knight in an ongoing interactive short story anthology The Suspenseful Collection. When Didi doesn’t have her nose buried in a book, she can found enjoying a laid back outdoorsy life. Time spent sleeping under the stars, hiking, fishing, and ATVing the back roads of beautiful mountain trails, and bathing in the desert heat plays an important part of her day to day lifestyle.