Embittered Justice by Michaela Riley is a novel about corruption in the legal system and its effect on the innocent. I enjoyed the core of the story and its outcome, but the lack of consistency with side-stories left me a bit confused. The drama starts when the main character Jennifer moves into her new home. She moves in with two dogs, but later in the story she only has one. The surname Burtland was applied to a detective, but soon after, Burtland is the lawyer, who later had a different name in court. Even with the minor oversights the author tells a chilling story of suspense and corruption that could easily be the lead story on our local news.

The horror begins as Jennifer moves into her new home, when she has to kick out the previous owners the same day with the help of police. When she goes into the house it feels strange, almost like evil lives there.

The author had an opportunity for an interesting side-story with the strange events the characters claimed were almost supernatural and evil, but she never really explored it — other than having a friend go room to room with her praying. I feel the reference to evil was to support the biblical references and religious faith of the main character, rather than a solid subplot. Further exploration would have added to the suspense already present in the story.

Trouble for Jennifer snowballs after a package arrives to her house for the previous owners. Since it had her address on it, she decides to open it. What she sees scares her, so she calls her boyfriend for advice. She wants to call the FBI but he tells her to just put it away and wait for the owner to claim it. It was the worst advice she could have been given; Jennifer is soon arrested and becomes the victim of revenge and legal corruption that almost brings an end to her life, but instead of suicide, she turns to her faith and finds strength to go on.

The author describes Jennifer's time in jail in such vivid details, it gave me chills. The character's sense of desperation for not being believed, and her feelings of being violated were very palatable. Jennifer knows she is being put through hell by one person pulling the strings of the lawyers, police, and prosecutor, and wishes she never heard of Virginia.

On the day of her trial she enters the courtroom scared and unsure if she would go to jail for 20 years for a crime she didn't commit. Readers will feel Jennifer's fear as she sits at the defendant's table and the anxiety of her friends and family as they watch helplessly while things unfold. Michaela Riley has a talent for suspense and knows how to pluck the emotional strings of the audience, and readers will walk away feeling as if they had lived through Jennifer's ordeals.