Head Start

By: Freya Barker

Narrated by: Tanya Eby, Noel Harrison

Nowadays Kendra Schmitt puts most of her time into the new clinic in Cedar Tree. Always the responsible one in her family, she has avoided any kind of entanglement. In particular with a persistent young investigator. With her schedule a bit more predictable, she is ready to explore a personal life and concedes to what turns out to be a disastrous blind date.

Junior member of the GFI team, Neil James, has seen and experienced more than most at his age. When his team becomes part of a task force investigating a series of murders in the area, his protective instincts kick into high gear. The victims' profiles closely match that of a certain physical therapist.

Neil has been trying unsuccessfully for over a year to get closer to Kendra. Now that she might be in danger, he's determined to break through her resistance and goes all out to win her trust.

Especially now that the killer's focus appears to have zeroed in on Kendra.

©2016 Margreet Asselbergs as Freya Barker (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Sad to say goodbye to GFI & Cedar Tree

I believe that this is the last book in the series...and Neil finally gets the appeal of kitchen antics! GFI technology specialist, Neil, has had his eye on physical therapist, Kendra, for quite some time. Except that Kendra keeps pushing Neil in the friend zone because she’s several years older. Now Kendra has a serial killer stalker and Neil and the GFI team must keep her safe. As the bodies like up and Neil deals with his PTSD, can he really protect Kendra before she becomes the next victim? Great story and narration.

Love these types of books

Love these types of books they show what real is in love and friendship hope they made more books like this

Very entertaining story and performance

This book has "everything." It has great characters with loyalty, strength, and depth along with various issues. I appreciate the way the humanity of the characters is written. The romance, suspense, and action are very entertaining. As always for me, I'm not a fan of the steamy sex scenes, but I can easily skip those. The performance is very good. I have really enjoyed the Cedar Tree series.

So good!!

This author is amazing! Head Start is only the second book I've read of Freya Barker but she has blown me away with both books. There is so much feeling in her stories and she does such an amazing job of writing the perspective a person who has suffered trauma. The Heros she writes are everything you can dream up. They are strong, protective and reliable men who take care of the people they love. The heroines are strong, independent women who have suffered a trauma and rise above it all. The emotions you get in these stories are intense. I love the way she writes her supporting characters as just that, supporting the H and h and becoming the non traditional family. And let me tell you, the dedication the author writes to her son in this book almost made me cry! You have to read it when you pick up this book.

Wonderful!

Audiobook: Narrators - Tanya Eby and Noel Harrison

Now that I’ve reached the end of this series, I’m going to definitely be missing not only all the amazing characters, but these narrators as well. They do such a great job of pulling me into the world this author has created. I feel like I’m a part of the community and I could reach out and touch each character they’ve brought to life.


I’ve been waiting for Neil’s story and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not a fan of older woman/younger man, but the age difference didn’t have a huge impact on this couple or their story so I was able to move on. Neil was all I wanted him to be and everything that Kendra needed. I did miss a bit of his humor but then again, he’s caught up in a lot of drama that has Kendra at its center for a good portion of the book.


This was a tad darker with a pretty rough villain which had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. As all of the books in this series, this was filled with action, friendship, family and most of all romance. The total loyalty and protectiveness all of these heroes have had are what I look for in my books and Neil was right up there with the rest.

Loved Neil and Kendra

Loved this age gap story. I liked the fact that the Neil was actually younger then Kendra. He has liked her for quite some time, but convincing her that age is just a number is proving difficult. Kendra is uneasy dating someone younger due to how her mom dates younger men. She also isn’t sure Neil would want to stay with her long term. I loved seeing him slowly show her he was all in with her. And of course the case going on around them was interesting and kept you on the edge to figure out what was going on. Narrators were great as well.

Kendra Was Special

This was book #7 in the series, and possibly the last, but who knows? I would not recommend this book be read as a standalone. There is so much history with not only Neil and Kendra, but the other couples in the book. I listened to the Audiobooks and enjoyed the narration.

I think Neil was the youngest character in this series at age 32. Kendra was 40, but the only times I thought about the age difference was in relation to Kendra or someone else mentioning her hangup about age.

I did enjoy this story for the most part. One thing that bothered me in this and any other story, was when the h's life was in danger. The killer/stalker had threatened someone close to her, and she acquiesced to the killer/stalker demands.

Forget the fact that she was not alone. She had friends and/or family that are SEAL's, Special Ops, Security specialists, FBI, Local LEO's, etc. WHY would someone take on a person that dangerous when she had trained professional at her fingertips? Drives me crazy.

There was romance and heat in this book. I think Neil exhibited a ton of patience in his quest for a relationship with Kendra. There was also danger and suspense. At one point in the book, the situation was intense.

Even with a couple of things that bothered me, I still enjoyed listening to this book.