Review: Never Speak Of It (Jenna Wyatt #2) by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

                                                                  

Print Length: 272 pages

Publisher: Severn River Publishing (November 18, 2025) 

From Goodreads.com: Jenna Wyatt never expected to see Riley Chatsworth again—not after the betrayal that shattered their friendship at Harvard. But when Riley, now a top executive at a powerful insurance company, is charged with murdering her agency’s biggest client, she pleads with Jenna to clear her name. Torn between distrust and duty, Jenna reluctantly agrees to investigate, wary of the woman who nearly destroyed her life years ago.

As Jenna probes into Riley’s company and the victim’s health system, she begins uncovering a dark web of insurance fraud, medical malpractice, and whistleblowers who were silenced for knowing too much. Strange break-ins and cryptic threats soon reveal that this case is far more dangerous than Jenna imagined. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more she begins to question Riley’s innocence—wondering if her former friend is still lying, or worse, manipulating her all over again.

Teaming up with seasoned PI Jack Parks, Jenna races against time to expose the deadly conspiracy. But in a world where everyone has secrets, trust could be her deadliest mistake.

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Let’s start with the positives, because there actually were quite a few things I enjoyed about this one. The biggest being Jenna’s character progression. Not only do we see her slowly (and very reluctantly) accepting Parks as her partner, but there’s also noticeable emotional growth when it comes to the way she handles her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. It added a layer of maturity to her that was definitely missing in the first book and made her feel far more rounded as a character this time around. I also appreciated getting more of Parks’ backstory. He played a major role in book one, but despite that, I never really felt like we knew him all that well. This installment does a much better job of fleshing him out, which helped strengthen the partnership dynamic between the two of them.

Another thing this book handled well was the references to the previous installment. There was just enough recap to refresh your memory without overshadowing the current storyline, although I do think this could be read and enjoyed without having picked up the first book.

Now… that being said, I did roll my eyes a little when Jenna takes on a new case and is almost immediately followed by yet another black SUV with heavily tinted windows. The description felt almost copied and pasted from the first book, and unless this is part of some larger overarching storyline that hasn’t fully come into play yet, it’s starting to feel a little ridiculous. Especially considering how quickly these mysterious people always seem to find her (it seems like literally moments after she officially takes a case she notices the tail).

Where the book really starts to lose points for me, though, is in the way Jenna and Parks conduct their investigations. At times, I genuinely forgot they weren’t still active law enforcement officers because they act like they still have full authority to work cases however they want. I understand private investigators can be useful for tracking people down or gathering outside information, but this went far beyond that.

Jenna constantly relies on resources from the GBI (her former employer), and it’s brushed aside because her old boss apparently has a soft spot for her. And then when major information comes to light, she and Parks are the ones personally following leads instead of passing them along to the detective actually assigned to the case. Granted, said detective often seems spectacularly incompetent, but still. There were multiple moments where I found myself wondering whether any evidence they uncovered would even hold up in court considering the questionable ways it was obtained.

Despite all of that, though, I’m not quite ready to give up on this series yet. Yes, there are definitely technical flaws, and yes, there are moments where I need these characters to remember they are not actual cops anymore. But I do genuinely enjoy the author’s writing style, and I’m curious to see whether the characters continue to grow or if they eventually start falling into the same repetitive patterns that so many long-running series do. So while I’ll probably take a short break before diving back in, I do think I’ll be picking up at least one more book from this series before I call it quits.