Review: An intimate look at trauma and redemption...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2014
This is a pretty dark romance/mystery, with amazing characters and a very believable look at trauma and some of its effects, even years and years after the traumatic incident takes place.Jayden Mitchell is a counselor at her local church, St. Jude's, one who does fantastic work for her clients, but who is haunted by her own past, and the unresolved traumas and fears that make it pretty much impossible for her to move on with her life. Instead, she lives in fear and guilt and almost total seclusion, apart from her best friend, Raff, a gay gym owner Jayden befriends and who makes her feel safe. Even so, she's really only experiencing half of her life and rejecting a lot of her own needs and wants, hiding behind Raff instead of looking for love of her own. Fighting in every way she can to keep her veneer intact, and convince everyone (and herself) that she's all right, Jayden finds her whole world turned upside down when Raff's handsome brother comes to town, and forces her to face feelings she's avoided for the past nine years.Then, to complicate things more, a horrible crime is committed at the parish where she works, and once again, everything in Jayden's life is thrown up into the air when Raff's brother might be a suspect.The book is really chilling in some ways, and affected me a lot in its accuracy in terms of the some of the ways the trauma and its effects are dealt with. The characters are really three-dimensional and very "real" feeling, as I've found with all of KT Bowes work. There's a pretty strong religious thread that runs throughout the book, so FYI to those who have difficulty with that, but the overall message is self-forgiveness, in all of its forms, freedom, acceptance for who you really are, and living in the light, however you need to make your way there.Highly recommend for both the quiet romance, the amazing character arcs and the drama of the main character's healing and self-discovery. The mystery element is very well done, too!