You Can Run

  In this blog post, I reviewed Karen Cleveland’s You Can Run. This adult psychological thriller is outstanding and heart-pounding at the same time. It all started for Jill Smith, who worked for the CIA as a case operations officer, when she received a mysterious phone about her son Owen. If she didn’t put in a request to approve Falcon as a confidential source, they would take her son. When she did, they returned him to her. But that turn of events made Jill leery and wary about who’s watching her son at day care. So drastic times goes for drastic measures: she resigned from the dream job and moved to Florida with her husband Drew and her son Owen. Fast forward four years later, she never told anyone about that phone call, but she couldn’t help looking over her shoulder. Now until Alex Charles, a reporter for the newspaper, had tracked her down after she received anonymous tip about a news-breaking story. Together, they teamed up to find the truth on who’s behind the ransoming demands to publish the story and influencing fake information about a potential war. When they kidnap her children, it becomes personal for Jill and discovers the culprits which hits close to home for her and a fight for survival with an earth-shattering ending.  

This was an amazing and exciting thriller that deals with timely events that you might hear about in the news someday. It makes you second guess and question everything you hear about the media concerning “fake news” reports. I cared about Jill, who would do anything to protect her children, and would stop to nothing to get the truth and the heart of the matter. No matter what it takes, even if it might cause concern in her marriage to Drew. I also adored Alex who wanted to make her late mother proud by following her dreams to receive a Pulitizer award in journalism, even if it cost her marriage to Miles who wanted children. She learned to move and helped Jill in any way possible and also did the right thing by keeping her family out of the press and protecting her sources too.  I loved the D.C. area and the Florida locations—both places had compelling and mesmerizing scenic settings. The theme of the story is no matter what you say or do, you can’t run from your past because it would catch up to you later on.

I loved how it dealt with the timely issue of fake news and the concept of a war from an unlikely source who’s been spewing the truth. Since Karen Cleveland used to work as a CIA analyst, everything appeared realistic and matter-of-factly to read this type of thriller. I loved how she had a diverse cast with Alex being African-American, and how they make a dynamic truth-seeking duo when they teamed up with each other. I couldn’t find anything negative to say about it since this was a heart-stopping jaw-dropping thriller. I rate this book, four out of five stars for no specific reason. 

 If you love heart-stopping thrillers with non-stop action, plenty of suspense, lots of jaw-dropping drama, You Can Run has it all. This is recommended to everyone who loves to  read all types of thrillers, especially those deals with spies/espionage.