The Lacey Aniston storyline is one of the most emotionally sophisticated things Dawn Merriman has done in this entire series — and Message in the Blood is where it reaches its full, complicated, beautiful potential.
Lacey has been the antagonist. The mean girl. The reporter who made Gabby's life harder at every turn. And now she is standing at Gabby's door with nowhere else to go — because her sister is missing and the only person in River Bend who can actually help her is the woman she spent years making miserable.
What Gabby does with that moment is everything. The grace she extends despite the history. The way her gift will not let her look away from someone in need even when every part of her wants to. This is Gabby McAllister at her most human and her most heroic — and it is deeply moving to read.
The mystery itself is twisting and genuinely surprising. The revelations in this book ripple forward into Book 7 and Book 8 in ways readers will not see coming. And the Gabby and Lucas dynamic reaches a point in this book that will have you absolutely gripping the pages.
Six books in and the series is still escalating. Still surprising. Still completely impossible to put down. That is an extraordinary achievement and Dawn Merriman makes it look effortless.