Search for the Truth (Choc Lit)

From the sadness of her mothers sudden death, this follows the story of Tess as she begins working in the Pharmaceutical industry at Helix, the company whose drug has now featured in a number of cancer sufferers deaths from a heart attack.

When she steps into the industry she already has her mind made up that they are to blame, but once she starts working alongside the George Clooney lookalike president, Jim, she soon realises that her initial fears may be unfounded as he begins a quest to clean up the industry he has worked in for many years and make it more transparent.

This is a really pacy, enthralling story that has the romance angle pitched perfectly! Jim is a little bit swoonworthy!! And the fact that they both show so many vulnerabilities despite being seemingly so assured at their jobs, it just adds to their appeal. Really enjoyed seeing their relationship grow naturally and the dilemmas both face as to whether or not to act on their initial attractions. They do say never mix business with pleasure and here is where this is shown to perfection!

Highly recommended and looking forward to reading more of Kathryn Freemans books as her style of writing is so easy to read and immediately has you turning the pages for more!

Wow! This was a brilliant book! Full of love, doubt, suspicion and quite a lot of humour!

The basic premise is journalist Tess gets a job with Helix Pharmaceuticals to try and found out if their product for cancer caused her mother's heart attack. There she meets Jim, the new, dynamic R&D President and fireworks happen.
The balance between her desire to find the truth and her fear that Jim knew about the risk and took it anyway runs like a river through the book.

I loved Tess and Jim was praying that he knew nothing about the drug complications. Kathryn is a very clever writer. I was cheering and depressed alternatively all the way through! The suspense and tension was kept up all the way through and I was quite exhausted by the time I reached the end. No spoilers so I won't even say if I was happy with the end or not!

Loved it - in fact I have yet to find a Choc Lit book I don't love!

I loved Tess! This was a really really good book! Full review coming to the blog in 2 weeks

Great Book!
This is a great book by Kathryn Freeman. This is the first book I have read by this author and really enjoyed it. Tess Johnson is a journalist, her boss sends her undercover at Helix pharmaceuticals. Tess takes a job at Helix pharmaceuticals to see if there is truth to the rumors of them producing a potentially harmful drug. Jim Knight is the president of research and development at Helix. After a disastrous office affair Jim is determined that nothing will ever distract him from his vision for the company. The more time Jim and Tess spend together the stronger attraction they feel for each other. If you are looking for a great romance with suspense then you need to read this book. I am looking forward to reading more books by this author. A Review copy was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. The free book held no determination on my personal review.

I believe that many of us who depend on prescription drugs for ourselves or our loved ones have a love/hate relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. The seemingly excessive cost for medicine often leaves those most in need of the drug unable to afford something that may save their lives. On the other hand, the cost for research and development, plus the cost to hire the best scientists and doctors to find those cures and treatments is also high. So when it appears that a drug or the side effects of that medicine harms or takes the life of a loved one, the enemy is the drug company that manufactured that drug. An industry that not many outside of it’s walls understand becomes an easy scapegoat when medicine goes wrong.

While the above is my personal opinion – it also ties in to this story on so many levels. Tessa’s mother was fighting cancer, when shortly after receiving a new treatment drug she died from a heart attack, Tessa and her family were devastated. When a stranger approached her during her mother’s memorial service stating that her family member had also died of a heart attack shortly after taking the same drug, Tessa’s journalistic radar went off the charts.

It was decided between Tessa and her newspaper boss that she would go undercover at the company who manufactured the drug that Tessa believes killed her mother. Tessa wants the truth and to make the company that took her mother from her to pay for their disregard for human life in lieu of profits. She entered into the job convinced that the company was at fault, all she needed now was solid proof that she intended to uncover once she had access to people and files.

Jim has returned to Helix as it’s president of research and development. After being betrayed in the worst way by the woman he loved and who also worked for Helix, Jim had immediately left the company. Now, two years later he is back and in a position to make changes that not only help the company but will benefit the patients who need their product. Heads will roll, he will not be the most popular man in the company, but change will happen – on that front he is determined.

Tessa feels that the heavens are on her side as she is in a position to work closely with the man who had ties directly to the drug she is researching. What she didn’t count on was finding out that the changes he wanted would make the medicines developed by Helix much safer and better presented to the doctors who would ultimately prescribe them. She hadn’t considered the rules and regulations within the industry, the safeguards nor the long line of testing and research involved before drugs were made available to the public. She also hadn’t counted on becoming attracted to her co-worker, but her path was set no matter what her emotions were.

Search for the Truth is an intricate novel that exposes the industry to us, brings out information that the average person on the street doesn’t have access to. That thread of truth flows through the story, highlighting information and situations that outsiders would rarely know about. The fact that Ms Freeman has worked in this industry comes through loud and clear – and helps to make the faceless industry more approachable even more human.

I enjoyed Search for the Truth on many levels, it is a story that is exposed layer by layer as the characters become more involved and more attracted to each other. Tessa and Jim were complex people. Each had their reasons for fighting the attraction they felt, but eventually emotion wins over logic. Tessa’s internal battle with the need to know what happened to her mother against knowing what the discovery of her ultimate betrayal will mean to Jim is a painful joy to read. It is an intense story that I read in one sitting as the emotions and the tension became great enough that I simply had to know what the end would be without a break.

I would recommend this novel for any reader who enjoys a good love story, wants a richly detailed story that draws you in and won’t let you go until the final sentence.

*I received an e-ARC of Search for the Truth from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

This is the second Kathryn Freeman book I've read and she really knows how to make the chemistry work between the two main characters. I very much enjoyed this story and the author's knowledge of the industry is obvious which makes for a very believable and plausible read. Search for the Truth is romantic and touching with an uber sexy hero and a sensitive yet strong heroine.

Another solid romantic read from experienced writer, Kathryn Freeman. This is the second book I've read by her and her characters bring the story to life. This time the writer has drawn on her own experiences as a Pharmacist and this part of the book is of most interest to me, and another reason I chose to read it. Tess and Jim's contrived meeting following the death of her mother from a possible drug related complication during palliative care for cancer was a serious, but genuine start to this tale. The shoes added the lighter tone......

Great book I was hooked from the start. I really enjoyed this book.

I love this feel-good romance!

I am discovering that every single Choc Lit book goes in the re-readable category. This is another hit from Kathryn Freeman that provides laughter, tears (GOD, the tears! There is a spot in the book where it states that Tess is not crying, but *I* was! This book causes serious leaking of the eyes, which then rain down your face.), spontaneous grinning from ear to ear, and a continuing education for this American in British slang and other words different than over here. Seriously…HOMELY, in this book does not mean ugly. I thought it was a typo, but NO! The British definition of homely is the American word homey.

After coming out of the crying haze, I was so hungover from this book, I couldn’t write my review. So, here I am today, several days out, still feeling like I just read this romance novel with an alpha male, but a really strong heroine who holds her own with him. I will read this book again. And maybe again.

In all honesty I didn't think I would enjoy Search for the Truth by Kathryn Freeman, simply because it sounded like so many I have read before, but I put my hands up and joyfully admit I was wrong, as I truly loved it.

Tess’s mom loses her life to a heart attack, but they discover she also unknowingly had cancer. Sounds suspicious and strange doesn't it? Tess finds out at the funeral from a patient’s daughter that was on the same ward as Tess’s mom that her mom also died from a heart attack and her mom also had cancer. Say what?!

Did the cancer drug they were both using cause their deaths? Tess is on a quest to find out the answer to that very question.

Fast forward 18 months and with the valued support of her family she infiltrates Helix, the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug trial and she makes it her mission to find out the truth. What they don't know is that she is also a journalist and when the truth comes out she intends to bring them down.

In the process of reaching her goal she didn't expect to encounter Jim Knight, the gorgeous research and develop manager whom she has to work very close with. He's already had a relationship with a colleague in the past and got horribly hurt but sparks fly between them and the banter is sweet and funny.

Will she uncover the truth? You’re going to have read it yourself .

Love, loyalty, truth, justice, suspense, romance and suspicions it's all here in this book one I highly recommend it. 4.5 Stars

Very enjoyable book, was another one I didn't want to put down. Very emotional from Tess's point of view with the death of her mother and searching for the truth to see if the drug she had taken caused her death as it hadn't been trialled correctly. She went undercover to work with the drug company to find the truth and ended up falling in love which didn't go smoothly but in the end it was happy ever after for Tess and Jim.

Tess Johnson goes undercover and enters the mysterious world of the pharmaceutical industry in the hope of discovering if the medicine her mother took for breast cancer contributed to her death. Hell bent on a mission to search for the truth, she is focused and determined. However her plans run awry when she meets Jim Knight, her new boss. The attraction and sexual chemistry between them is instant and more tempting than a new pair of shoes (you will have to read it to know what I mean).

I loved Tess. She is brave, yet insecure, and often speaks her mind to the point of bluntness. This character trait instantly gains the respect of her driven boss, Jim, who sees a kindred spirit in his new employee. Search For The Truth lifts the lid on what lengths a pharmaceutical company will go to if those at the top have no moral code. Your jaw will drop with each discovery Tess makes, whilst at the same time the romance (which inevitably unfolds and sizzles with passion), provides a soothing balm. You will keep turning the pages to find out what happens as the truth is bound to come out and threaten everything they have worked hard to achieve.

If you like to read romances, but have grown weary of the lack of actual story in them, I suggest you try some of the offerings from the publisher CHOC LIT .

I just finished Search for the Truth by Kathryn Freeman and I'm very happy to say that, although the subject matter is quite different from Freeman's Before You, which I reviewed a few weeks back, this is still an extremely good story.

Journalist Tessa Johnson's mother has just died from a heart attack after being treated for cancer. The daughter of another patient who died of a heart attack at nearly the same time as Tessa's mum, believes that the cancer drug both were being treated with was to blame. In order to determine if there is any validity, Tessa goes to work for Helix Corporation, in their PR department to dig up dirt.

After several years away from Helix, Jim Knight has returned as President of R&D and is determined to bring Helix into this century as he believes that too many of it's practices are out-of-date. He's determined and reputedly cold and resembles George Clooney.

Tessa and Jim are immediately attracted to each other and both know that pursuing an "office romance" is out of the question, but for very different reasons.

Just as in Before You, Freeman has done quite a bit of research but this time into the pharmaceutical world so that her story rings true. And, again, as in Before You, I found it an interesting read because of the research since I knew little about what goes on in companies that make prescription drugs.

Also, Jim and Tessa take a business trip that leads them through several countries. Freeman writes of cultural practices that ring true.

It's just so refreshing to read a romance by a writer who cares about making a good and interesting story and actually performing the research required to make it believable. Lately it's become apparent that some writers are using their tv viewing as their entire means of research. So, kudos to Ms. Freeman for again providing us with an intelligent romance with enough substance.

I found the characters of Tessa and Jim to be well done and I almost found Jim's character to be more credible than Tessa's, which rarely happens since. Also, their reactions seemed to be mostly spot on. The "forces" that kept them from immediately getting together were plausible.

I recommend Search for the Truth for anyone wanting to read a romance with substance.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.