An Equal Measure

by Bliss Addison

JOURNALIST Josie Fox lives a solitary but enjoyable life. When her half-sister Amy crashes her beloved car and suffers severe head trauma, later lapsing into a coma, Josie rushes to her side. Amy's neurosurgeon is not optimistic in his prognosis. Josie is then faced with the more than likely possibility that Amy will never regain consciousness. Josie investigates the car accident and learns, much to her dismay, that Amy had tried to take her own life.


Josie employs her investigative skills and uncovers the reason for Amy choosing to commit suicide - her boyfriend reneged on his promise to marry her after his divorce became final.


While Josie sits at Amy's bedside, praying for her full recovery, she comes up with a plan to pay back Amy's boyfriend for his callous disposal of her sister.

124 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Without question this has to be the worst book I have ever read. From the very beginning, it seemed as if I had been dropped into the middle of a story at least 1/3 of the way in. I read it on my kindle so I thought maybe it had advanced me forward a couple of chapters without my realizing it. Nope, just a nonsensical story. The author had several ideas in mind and decided why not throw them all into the pot, without bothering to develop any of them fully. The description said this was a story of revenge, yet the so-called revenge plot began and ended within the first 20 or so pages and amounted to nothing more than a series of assumptions made by the main character, Josie. We are told Josie is an investigative journalist, yet every character in your average cozy mystery is better at investigating that she is. Josie makes one wild leap of logic after another, without taking one second to think anything through. She claims to know the original victim of the story, her sister Amy, so well, yet she immediately jumps to the conclusion that not only did Amy attempt suicide, but that she did so because she was led on by a man who promised to marry her, then dropped her, which led to Amy's despair. Forget that Amy had never mentioned being involved with anyone to Josie, but she also didn't seem the type to get so heartbroken as to want to take her own life. How do I know this? Because, later in the book, Josie tells us just how resilient Amy is. IF JOSIE KNOWS HER SISTER IS RESILIENT, WHY DID SHE IMMEDIATELY THINK SHE WANTED TO DIE OVER THE LOSS OF A RELATIONSHIP??
Even better, Amy nonsensically thinks that the man whose name is on a business card she finds lying around Amy's house MUST be the man who jilted Amy, which is why she decides to seduce him to enact revenge for Amy. WHAT?? Who thought this made sense?? Just mind boggling.

By the end of this (mercifully) short book, there are three murders and I suppose the last person found dead was responsible for the previous two murders, but if that is true, who killed the last person? No idea and the author didn't feel it was worth telling us. She was more interested in wrapping up the weirdest and lamest love story ever written.

I would have stopped reading, but I hate abandoning books and since it was so short, I felt I could tough it out and get through it, so I could be one book closer to meeting my reading challenge for the year. This one was truly terrible; if anyone is tempted to download it, please don't, even if you can get it for free. It looks as if this author has published several other books, they have to be self-published, I cannot imagine that any self-respecting publisher would go near anything Bliss puts out, but you never know. I can't be bothered to confirm my suspicions, which makes me no better than than the idiot characters in this book.

[Bette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short a quick read. Light-hearted and at times facetious. Josie who has always been rejected, possibly because of her appearance or her straight-forward speaking decides she must exact revenge on the cause of her half-sister's accident. What better way exact revenge than a complete makeover, some slutty clothes and a seduction. This just keeps going downhill from this point with a loosely tied together story, that tries to build a romance and a self-examination of sexual orientation. Then we are treated to the the third thread of this story as in this unknown town, in this unknown state, murder rears its ugly head. What is the reason? the perpetrator? of this murder, once again unknown. The murder appears to have been thrown in so we have a reason to watch the developing relationship between Amy and Jackson. I don't think (or care) that the murder was ever solved. Or, even that clues were thrown out so we could guess at the murderer. Disappointing if you are looking for a mystery. OK, if you are looking for a romance.