I've waited for so long to read Liza and Tom's story! I enjoyed this so much, I'm actually sad I've finished. Karen Rose is a writer who I never tire of, I always look forward to the next book! Excellent story, I've loved the Eden series so much.

Thank you to Netgalley, publisher and author for a copy of this book.

I always love Karen Rose's books, and I did with this one too. Great story and character's, although to be honest Tom is not my favourite. I found him to be a bit annoying at times! Barring that, the bad guys were great, and the story was fast paced up until the end.

A fab summer read 5/5

I love all of Karen Rose’s books and can’t believe that this is number 25! But be prepared this is a big book 600+ pages, but it is also a big story, lovely to meet Tom Hunter again as an adult when he was only 7 in the first book where we met him. Lots going on in the book with lots of twists and turns – it was a hard book to put down. Now the wait for the next book.

Absolutely loved this book & didn't want to put it down. If you have read the previous books in this series you will recognise some of the beloved characters but if you read as a stand alone then you won't be missing out. Had my heart in my mouth rooting for some of the characters (don't like to give the story away). Great storyline, just love the way this author writes.

I think I’ve been reading Karen Rose’s books since I was 18; the mix of a mystery and a romance story is the perfect book for me. A story where you don’t know if the killer will be caught or it will escape till the next story but always with a happy ending for the main characters. Sometimes you just want an adventure, something to have fun and disconnect, not a book to think and to make you cry; and that’s what Karen Rose books do for me, they make me dream and enjoy the action, “Say Goodbye” is not an exception.
And I have to admit that from this series “Sacramento”, this is my favorite book; the difficult situation from our old and new characters are involved at least have a closure, it was time!
This is a story about a cult and their evil leaders, how they manipulate and force their society to do horrible things to children and women. I have to say that it’s not an easy read if you think about the difficult situations the members of the cult had to live, horrible would be a better word to describe it.
The main characters of this story are Tom, an ex-basketball player but now an FBI agent and Liza, his old friend, who is planning to put her life in order while helping her friends. They’ll both be included in this case, mainly for the need to help their friends to have the closure they need and the reverend has to be stopped.
This is a long book, but it will pass like a short story, once you enter it’s impossible to let go. Also, don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous books of the story, there’s a small resume to put bring everyone up to speed at the beginning and you’ll not feel lost.
Are you ready for closure at “Say Goodbye”?

This book was not as good as I thought it would be from the premise. I usually love this author. It was slow paced and did not grip me until over half way through when the pace picked up. Could not bond the the main character at all. Far fetched in parts. Not terrible but not great.. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

My Thoughts: This is the first Karen Rose book I’ve read, a lot of my friends love her writing and now I know why! – who’d have thought crime fiction with a little bit of romance thrown in could work so well?!

The book opens with Hayley, who after falling pregnant at a young age out of wedlock is taken to a place called Eden by her mum. Eden is a cult where any sin is punished in whatever way their leader ‘Pastor’ sees fit!

Eden is completely off the grid, no phones, no internet which means no way of contacting the outside world so imagine Hayley’s surprise when she stumbles across a computer, with the help of her younger brother Graham she manages to send an email to her boyfriend as a last ditch attempt to get out! – unfortunately just after the that Eden moves location so now Cameron won’t know where to find them!

FBI Agent Tom Hunter has been looking for Eden for a while, so when an acquaintance of his gets in contact saying that they have someone who has had contact from someone inside Eden, could this be the breakthrough he needs?!

The book is told from two different locations, inside Eden and outside Eden, the chapters from inside Eden felt so real that I felt I could’ve been there myself, it made me uncomfortable whilst reading in the best way possible, I really felt for Hayley, Graham and Tamar, you could tell that they hadn’t been sucked in by the other Edenites, they still remember the outside world and still haven’t given up hope that they will get back there someday.

Outside Eden we’re following Tom Hunter whilst he’s using all the people and technology he has at his disposal to find Eden, which has now become even more important because Brother DJ has left Eden and is determined to kill all the people who have escaped to keep them quiet… this includes a few people that Tom considers family! – can he find him as well as locate Eden and save everyone he cares about before it’s too late?

This was a really long book, a lot longer than any crime novel I would normally pick up which worried me a little going in, but the action started quite quickly and just didn’t stop so I couldn’t put it down.

There is obviously a LOT more that happens, but I couldn’t give it all away 😉 if you’re a fan of crime or romance pick it up, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Say Goodbye is the third and final instalment in The Sacramento trilogy featuring basketball player turned FBI Special Agent Tom Hunter and his best friend, Army Medic Liza Barkley. For decades, Eden has remained hidden in the remote wilds of the Pacific Northwest, “Pastor” keeping his cult's followers in thrall for his personal profit and sexual pleasures. But the Founding Elders are splintering, and Pastor's surrogate son DJ Belmont is scheming to make it all his own. Tom is determined to close down Eden, the violent, corrupt and wealthy religious cult that victimised his friends FBI Special Agent Gideon Reynolds and his sister Mercy Callahan as children. So when two of the cults latest members want out and sent out a cry for help, who better than to aid them than the previous escapees. But they must be careful not to bring attention to the case as the Founding Elders are holding the disillusioned pair - pregnant teenager Hayley Gibbs and her 12-year-old brother, Graham - hostage at their compound in northern California; unfortunately thanks to the secrecy of the group no one actually knows exactly where the headquarters is located.

Gideon, Mercy and Tom, as well as Liza, have vowed to find the cult and bring it down, and now, they finally have a solid lead. They decide that the way forward is for Liza to use her medical skill to go undercover as a nursing assistant in a private hospital as it'll not raise any suspicion given her knowledge of that field. A current patient at the hospital is Eden’s leader, the Pastor, who is recuperating with his second in command DJ, the one with a penchant for murder. As DJ slaughters those he deems slanderous and to be putting the cult he will inherit at risk, Tom and Liza realise the situation has just become a whole lot more perilous than they initially thought and they come to understand that the spark between them has just ignited right in time for them to fight for their survival together. This is compulsive and enthralling romantic suspense and a race against time to save the hostages, all wrapped up in a wickedly twisty, edge of your seat thrill ride. It never lets up from beginning to end and Rose knows how to bring the drama, the danger and a hint of romance and weave it into a spectacular finale to the series. Highly recommended.

This is the 3rd of Karen’s Roses’ Sacramento series featuring Tom Hunter, ex Basketball player turned FBI Agent, and his best friend, Liza Barkley, ex Army Medic. Both have the same agenda even if it doesn’t always dovetail easily, to track down the Eden Cults latest location and shut them down, and to try to stop the feelings they have for each other spoiling their friendship.

Whilst this can be read as a stand-alone novel, it’s really better to have read the 2 previous books in the series. There are a lot of characters to get to grips with, some from other books from this author. The pace is fast and well plotted, the body count is high and the tension at times made me forget to breath. The Cult is believable and all the scarier for that. At the end of the book all the answers to any questions you might have had from all 3 books are answered, and in such a way that it doesn’t feel as though the author is rushing to round everything off. My only slight niggle is that Tom at times is a bit too naive where Lisa’s feelings for him are concerned. However it’s such a really good read that he is easily forgiven. 4 1/2*. A definite recommendation.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Say Goodbye is an entertaining mystery crime thriller. That has a good dose of romance.

Karen Rose storytelling is dangerous for me, as all I want to do is read Say Goodbye and ignore the list of job I have to do.



Say Goodbye follows Tom and Liza. I liked both Tom and Liza and how dedicated they are to helping their new friends. I also liked that Karen went in a different direction regarding the romance in this book. As it deals with should you risk a friendship for romance.

I didn't realise that Tom and Liza had connections to the Chicago group of Karen Rose Books. I love how she has connected books world is really a world of six degrees of separation.

As Say Goodbye finishes the Eden story, we finally find out more about the history of Eden and that it's still accepting new members. (Some that aren't willing) It was especially interesting seeing the evil woman of the group.

Say Goodbye is another great book and I am sad I am not to be visiting the Sokolov home again.

You can read Say Goodbye as a stand-alone but you will get more enjoyment if you read the other two books first.

My rating for Say Goodbye is 5 out of 5.

Would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

It’s all you ever want in a book high action from the first page with added tension and a bit of murder all adds to the experience of reading a karen rose book

This one continues the Sacramento series hunting for Eden and all the followers with the evil dj still trying to kill mercy and Gideon

But this book is so much more and you are guaranteed to lose sleep and hours when you start this book

Cannot wait to see what’s next for karen rose but whatever it is it’s going to be a cliff hanger

Say Goodbye by Karen Rose is the third book in the Sacramento Series. This is a series I have followed from the start and even had the honour to join the blog tour for the second book, you can find that review on my blog also. A series that has, for me kept the same level of quality I expect from Karen Rose.
This is a book that had me from the moment I opened it. I must say though that to fully enjoy and understand everything you should read books one and two first as the amount of characters and the plot may go right over your head.
I will include the synopsis here as I am very aware of spoilers and wouldn't want to ruin any part of your reading.

The closer you get to the truth, the more dangerous it gets as FBI Agent Tom Hunter who has been chasing down leads to find the brutal cult that damaged some of his closest friends, is about to discover. They managed to escape to tell their stories, but Eden's location has always remained a mystery.
Liza Barkley is struggling with her feelings for Tom and wonders if their friendship can survive the secrets they've kept from one another. But they may be forced to confront the truth when a chance to help the investigation puts Liza directly in the line of fire.
When the perpetrator of an attempted sniper attack on Liza and her friends is discovered to be one of the cult's leaders, DJ Belmont, it becomes clear that he is out to get revenge on the victims who escaped Eden's clutches.
But there is one person who has always had control over DJ, and who no one outside of Eden has ever glimpsed: cult leader Pastor. When a serious injury forces Pastor to seek help outside the confines of the Eden, Tom and his team finally have a chance to bring the cult down. But DJ Belmont has his own plan, and is not going to stop until he gets what he wants...
Karen Rose is an author that has that knack of bringing a story that always has that little bit extra. That hook that gets you and reels you into the world she has magically woven together. Her characters are always created to resonate in some way. I have travelled three 'worlds' with Mercy and her story along with Gideon her brother and now Tom too. They are all so real to the point that I really wanted to read this book to catch up with Mercy and Gideon. I hate 'The Pastor' with a passion and this book saw no change in my opinion. As with all the unlikeable people that Karen Rose has managed to craft, there are no redeemable qualities that I could find. She has the skill to fine tune them while skilfully spinning her stories and series webs together and make such intricate and enthralling stories for her readers to marvel over.
A book that manages to pull every thread from the full three books together and give us the answers we didn't even really realise we needed. This is why Karen Rose is onr of the major authors of today and I thank Anne Cater of Random Things Tours, NetGalley and Headline for my copy of the book.

I was drawn to reading this book when I saw it was about a cult. I thought this was an interesting premise for a crime novel and I wasn't disappointed.

FBI agent Tom Hunter has been trying to locate the cult named 'Eden' for a long time. They keep changing their location making it impossible to find.
The leader of the cult 'Pastor' has a serious injury meaning he is forced to leave to receive medical care. Will his trail of medical care and expenses help lead Tom to discover the cults location?
Meanwhile cult member and killer DJ Belmont is determined to find the escaped cult members Mercy and Abigail. Tom's best friend (and love interest) Liza is determined to protect them but she is increasingly putting herself in danger in the process. Can Tom and Liza locate the cult and rescue the latest victimsa before it's too late?
This was a gripping and exciting read with so many twists and turns and a build up of tension as it goes on.
I really wish I'd read the first two books in the series first as although this is a stand alone novel there are quite a lot of characters and I would have liked to have known their 'back story.' It did take me a while to work out what was happening.

I loved the two main characters Tom and Liza although their slow burning romance was a bit frustrating. I just wanted them to get together!
There are some extremely evil cult members in the story too who you really want to stop!

This was a long book (at 600 pages) but I raced through it and found it an engrossing read.
Overall a great crime novel that I would recommend!
Thank you NetGalley and Headline for this eARC.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Headline for allowing me to read #SayGoodbye by #KarenRose

This is a must read book, the best in the series.
Karen Rose is a wonderful writer and keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens firs5.
But, (there is always a but) I really would recommend reading the first two books in the series first.
There are a lot of characters in the book and you do need to read them in order.
I would advise anyone to read all of the Karen Rose books, they are soooooo good.
FBI agent Tom Hunter is struggling to find the mysterious cult hiding in the mountains of California, but they keep moving around and it has been impossible so far to catch them before they move on to another site.
One of the leaders of the cult is trying to trace the ones who have escaped to silence them for good.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of Say Goodbye, the third novel in the Sacramento series, this one featuring FBI agent Tom Hunter and nursing aide Liza Barkley.

DJ Belmont, one of the leaders of the Eden cult, is hunting down cult members who have escaped. FBI agent Tom Hunter is hunting Belmont and the location of the elusive cult. Liza Barkley sees a way to help her friend Tom and protect her other friends from Belmont.

I thoroughly enjoyed Say Goodbye, which is a heart pounding thriller with plenty of twists and turns. First of all I should say that I think it works as a stand-alone, but I’m saying this having read the two previous novels so maybe I’m wrong. Whatever, I would recommend reading the series in order to get the full picture.

This is a long novel so be prepared, because it is engrossing and difficult to put down. It is told mostly from Tom, Liza and DJ Belmont’s points of view so there is plenty to mull over, like the budding romance between Tom and Liza and Belmont’s psychopathic personality and actions. He is on a rampage in this novel, so the good guys are on the defensive until Tom, with Lisa’s help, gets enough information to turn the tables. It is interesting to watch the tide turn and Belmont decompensate as his plans go awry. The switch between points of view works extremely well in this situation, offering the reader a compare and contrast opportunity and it ramps up the tension with neither side knowing what the other is up to.

I’m never particularly interested in the romance side of things, but I didn’t find Tom and Liza’s either engrossing or all that credible. His behaviour and attitude are poor, so it’s just as well she’s fit for him.

Say Goodbye is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

So … I started reading this and was a few chapters in and floundering a bit. I loved the premise – I don’t know what it is about cults, but there’s just something about them that I find more than a little intriguing. But I just couldn’t get all the characters straight, and there seemed to be so, so many characters. I was finding it really difficult to figure them all out though. They all seemed to be connected somehow and I felt I was missing the point. It was then that I realised, after doing some nifty research, that this is in fact, the third and final book in a trilogy!! So I was coming in rather late to the party, having not read the first two books!

Anyhow, I persevered, and although I think my enjoyment may have been somewhat muted due to not having the introduction I probably needed, there is no doubt that the book is a good one. Well, it is Karen Rose, after all!

I’m doubtful as to whether this should actually be read as a standalone though. There are a lot of characters, and if you don’t have that initial background it can get confusing. The good news is that it’s a hefty read, so you do have time to figure them all out!

There’s this cult called Eden and very cleverly, over the years, its ‘Elders’ have managed to keep its whereabouts hidden from prying eyes. So, even if they need to move from place to place, they have methods that they use to ensure that nobody from the outside has a clue where they are. This comes in handy when they realise that two of their newer, younger, unhappy members have managed to send out a cry for help. FBI Special Agent Tom Hunter needs to get to them in time, especially as one of them is due to give birth within weeks and Eden’s facilities are primitive to say the least. The young, desperate soon-to-be father who received the SOS from his pregnant girlfriend, just wants her back safe and sound and wants their baby to be born safely. But when they investigate the co-ordinates that were sent to him, Eden has disappeared once again and left no trace!

It’s a race against the clock to find Eden’s hideout, but it’s not that simple. The Elders are restless and their leader, a man known only as ‘Pastor’ doesn’t realise that one of his trusted circle has evil intentions and is keeping secrets from him that could cost Eden its safety and security, things that Pastor values purely for his own selfish reasons.

Tom, together with fellow FBI Special Agent Gideon Hunter (who just happens to be an ex-Eden escapees) and Gideon’s sister Mercy team up with Tom’s long-time friend Liz an ex Army medic, now training to become a nurse. Complicating things even further are Tom and Liz’s feelings towards each other and their inability to express how they feel, even though it’s blatantly clear to absolutely everyone around them! This adds a softer edge to a nail-biting, gut-wrenching story that had me holding my breath most of the time without even realising it!

Karen Rose, never fails to disappoint. Some may say that her books are formulaic but I think that she always manages to add a little bit extra and different to avoid that tedium that might come from something that could be viewed as ‘routine’. There’s always that unexpected flair that’s thrown in, just when you’re thinking that the plot might be plodding along just a little too much, then BAM! Her ability to constantly weave her storylines and characters between books and series both past and present is quite astonishing. And that’s the sign of an author who’s truly gifted at their craft like Karen Rose is, so don’t get too comfortable!!

So … while I do recommend reading the first two books in the Sacramento series before reading this third, final book in the trilogy, I’d say that this one probably wraps things up rather satisfactorily. It’s a 4 star read.

This the 3rd book in the Author's Sacramento series - culminating in the discovery of Eden and the remaining cult leaders . Reading the previous books is really essential , in my opinion , to fully understand the characters and their place in the story .

The book follows on soon after 'Say No More ' leaves off - Two young cult members manage to get a message out crying for help - will the message reach anyone who can help them , time is of the essence .
FBI Special Agent Tom Hunter and his friends fellow FBI Agent Gideon Reynolds and his sister Mercy are hard on the hunt for Eden - as escapees from Eden , Gideon and Mercy must find it first before the the Cult Elders find and silence them once and for all .
Events proceed at a fast paced , and when Tom's best friend , Army Medic , Liza Berkley joins the case its not just her life that is on the line but also their growing love - can she survive long enough to realise that her Tom is more than just a friend ?
What will it take to finally take the Cult down - the Pastor and DJ will do anything to protect their way of life , even murder anyone in their way , even their own - ALL it takes is family , friends and colleagues all working together , to love and protect each other to finally bring an end Evil !!

This is another fast paced romantic thriller by the Author , full of twist and turns - who will survive ? will evil be finally defeated ?

I look forward to reading more from this entertaining Author

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, Headline and Karen Rose for my arc of Say Goodbye in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing 5th August 2021

This is the 3rd book in the Sacramento series and the 25th book in the romantic suspense series!

It picks up more or less where Say No More left off so beware of spoilers past this point.

The search for Eden is still ongoing but with the founding elders splintering and DJ still scheming the foundations are starting to crack. Now FBI agent Tom Hunter finally has a solid lead and together with Mercy and Gideon Reynolds he’s determined to shut the cult down forever. But when his long time friend and potential lover Liza gets involved and puts herself in harms way everything feels way more dangerous.

As always Rose writes an excellent thriller and an excellent romance all barrelled into one. It was an exciting trip to be back in the cat and mouse game with Eden and particularly DJ who is an excellent villain, one you can really get on board with hating and find yourself screaming at the book HOW IS HE STILL GETTING AWAY WITH THIS?!!

I’ve never read a Karen Rose book that I haven’t loved and I can’t wait to see where the romantic suspense books go next.

The Hunt is On 🥸

Say Goodbye is told from a few different perspectives. Number three in the Sacramento series, whilst I haven't read the first, I have read the second in addition to this one. If you've read either of the earlier ones, you should enjoy this, if this is your first in the series, there's a lot going on, so you may not enjoy quite as much. A great read that'll keep you on your toes, the hunt to find Eden is on...

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of Say Goodbye. The final book of this series did not disappoint, it has everything, a great plot, interesting and believable characters and a totally satisfactory conclusion.