OPAL (GEM #1) by Frey Barker-review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 22, 2023

GEM: A PRIVATELY-FUNDED ORGANIZATION OPERATING INDEPENDENTLY IN THE SEARCH FOR—AND THE RESCUE AND RECOVERY OF—MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN. ALTHOUGH, AT TIMES WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, GEM AIMS TO ENSURE THE VICTIMS RECEIVE JUSTICE…BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY.
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GEM Operator Opal; multifaceted, versatile, a chameleon.

She hides in plain sight, adapts, and infiltrates.

When Opal goes undercover in a youth center several teenagers have disappeared from, she’s shocked to find a ghost of her own traumatic past at the helm. However, her worry for the missing kids is greater than her concern being recognized and she risks her own safety to discover the truth.

To complicate matters, a familiar FBI agent shows up conducting his own investigation and almost blows the whistle on her. It takes some doing to convince him to join forces with her but as it turns out, they work well together.

In the course of uncovering an organized group of child molesters, they find themselves falling—for each other.

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REVIEW: OPAL is the first instalment in Freya Barker’s contemporary, adult GEM romantics suspense series focusing on three GEM agents and friends Opal, Pearl and Onyx. This is forty year old, marksmanship trainer for the US army, GEM Agent Katherine ‘Kate’ Jones aka Opal Berry, and FBI Agent Mitch Kenny’s story line.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

GEM stands for Gather, Evaluate, Mobilize

Told from dual first person perspectives (Opal and Mitch) OPAL follows the search for several missing teens from a group home in the city of Lanark, Kentucky. Twenty years earlier, our heroine Kate, along with Janey and Raj, were abducted from a teen youth centre, held captive and abused by a madman who would eventually die in a fire at the same centre. Fast forward to present day wherein, several more teens would go missing, under similar circumstances to what happened years before, a similarity that brought with it ghosts from the past. Going undercover as part of the GEM investigation, Opal would come face to face with FBI Agent Mitch Kenny, a man determined to stop Opal before it’s too late but as the search turns dangerous, the investigation hits too close to home for the man with whom Opal is falling in love. What ensues is the search for, and rescue of the missing teens, and the potential fall-out the investigation becomes personal, pushing Opal out of Mitch’s life.

The relationship between Mitch and Opal begins when Mitch and Opal must work together in an effort to uncover the truth. A number of at risk teens are missing, pointing to a possible organized group of child molesters, a group of well connected and well known men in positions of power but as the names and faces are revealed, Opal finds herself facing down a ghost from the past. Mitch and Opal struggle in the face of work-place involvement but when the time comes to run, Mitch pushes Opal out of his life. The $ex scenes are passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful , powerful and energetic secondary and supporting characters. We are introduced to Pearl aka Janey, Onxy aka Raj, their handler and GEM founder Jacob Branch, FBI Agent Matt Driver, as well as Mitch’s daughter Sawyer, his ex-wife Becky, and her new husband Chad Miller, as well as several teens and volunteers at the Youth Centre. The requisite evil has many faces.

OPAL is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, abuse and obsession, acceptance and love. The premise is gritty and captivating; the romance is subtle and seductive; the characters are desperate, determined and dynamic.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.

Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!

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