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Heavenly Blues

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In this powerful narrative, bestselling author Sarah Price takes us on the dark road to addiction. Laura Reese is losing control. Compassionate and conscientious, she excels as a post-op nurse, but her new supervisor doesn’t care how much she needs time off. Although she’s a selfless wife and mother, news of her husband’s promotion only fills her with anxiety. The country-club lifestyle he craves triggers memories of the dysfunctional family she came from, and of her own mother’s single-minded ambition to climb the social ladder. Laura has reached a breaking point. For her, there’s only one way to pull it all together, to balance the demands of her family and job, and to keep pleasing everyone she loves. But her little blue pills are pushing her closer to the edge…

302 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2017

40 people are currently reading
363 people want to read

About the author

Sarah Price

135 books648 followers
ECPA Christian Fiction Bestseller (June 2014, July 2014)

Amazon Top 100 Author for Books & eBooks (January 2016, September 2013, August 2013, May 2013, April 2013, February 2013, January 2013, December 2012)
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The author of over 30 novels, Sarah Price publishes with Realms, an imprint of Charisma House and Waterfall, an imprint of Brilliance Audio.

Her book, An Empty Cup, was #3 on Amazon Top 100 eBooks in January 2016.

Follow her on social media:
Blog:http://www.sarahpriceauthor.com.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/fansofsarahprice.
Instagram: @SarahPriceAuthor
Twitter: @SarahPriceAuthr
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/SarahPrice

FAMILY HERITAGE

During the early 1700s, the Preiss family arrived in America aboard an old sailing vessel called the Patience. The family left Europe, escaping Catholic persecution for their Anabaptist beliefs. Sarah Price comes from a long line of devout Mennonites, including numerous church leaders and ministers throughout the years.

In 1969, Sarah Price was born in Pennsylvania and lived on the land of her ancestors, Johannes Preiss and "King Tammany", otherwise known as Tamanend, a chief of the Lenni Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley.

In the early 1970s, her family moved to Morristown, New Jersey where she still resides with her husband, two children, and assortment of animals.

Ms. Price has advanced degrees in Communication (MA), Marketing (MBA), and Educational Leadership (PhD).

Ms. Price was a former full-time college professor. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she now writes full-time.

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5 stars
62 (47%)
4 stars
37 (28%)
3 stars
24 (18%)
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6 (4%)
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2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for DianFlow.
438 reviews42 followers
October 9, 2017
Once again author Sarah Price blew me away with her unique ability to not only tell an amazing story, but to touch the very heart and soul of her readers. As I devoured this heartbreaking narrative of a beautiful young mother, wife, and nurse who faces the pain of addiction to prescription meds, my emotions were all over the page—literally.

I loved Laura's character...that of a compassionate nurse, loving mother, and devoted wife who becomes overwhelmed and begins to suffer from anxiety attacks. With finesse and sensitivity, Ms. Price touches on a subject where few dare to tread, but where many have painfully traveled. Overuse and over prescribing anti-anxiety, pain, and antidepressant medications is a major problem in every walk of life. A beautifully written and well-researched novel of hope and healing I couldn't put down. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Janet Tran.
14 reviews1 follower
April 28, 2025
Some of the content was somewhat relatable - the pressure of balancing work and home life, the pressures at work and the responsibility of caring for patients, etc. I just felt like the book was a bit repetitive, and I didn’t think all the nursing content was accurate.
Profile Image for Erica Eblin.
81 reviews
May 2, 2019
Real life in a book!

Heavenly Blues by Sarah Price

This book wasn't quite what I expected. In a good way. Nursing IS indeed a tough career. One that is demanding. Crazy work schedules. Being responsible for others. Nurses are definitely not paid as good as they should be! I remember in my 20's when I went back to school for nursing. I remember looking through a nursing magazine for my state. There were pages and pages of nurses names that had their licenses suspended or revoke due to stealing narcotics from patients. There were hundreds of names. I was shocked. This book brought it all back for me. As sad as it is, there are lots of nurses that do become addicted to things like Vicodin, Percocet, Valium, and Xanax. So this book actually was about a hidden secret that many people are unaware of - addicted nurses. Having been prescribed anti-anxiety medication myself I know just how easy it is to depend on those pills for panic attacks. Many people don't think it's that bad because doctors just keep writing prescriptions. This book shows that even if a doctor prescribes medication it IS still possible to get addicted to them. My only issue with how everything went down in the book is that Laura's doctor just instantly started her out on Xanax. Typically a doctor will start you on something not quite as strong, or will start with referring you to a psychiatrist. Maybe it helped push the story along faster? Or maybe considering Laura had gone to college with her doctor it was handled differently.

The book was really well written. I loved her multifaceted, flawed characters. I loved the way the story unfolded. Getting to know Laura and her family was great. I really liked how Ms. Price threw in flashbacks to let the reader get inside Laura's head. It helped in understanding how she was raised, which shows why Laura is the way she is now. I was so into the character of Laura that when she got frustrated with Eric, about the country club, the Weaver's, and his promotion, I was right there with her being mad at him! The descriptions of her anxiety attacks were triggering for me. Just reading about them and how well they were described had me borderline experiencing it with Laura. The author either has her own experience with panic attacks or did some good research, because she hit the nail on the head. It built up to one heck of a climax, then was tied up neatly. Everything worked out in the end...just not quite how Laura expected, but better!
Profile Image for Sarah.
1,115 reviews9 followers
September 30, 2017
Laura is starting to feel overwhelmed by life. It seems everyone wants something from her and now the holidays on upon her and she just can't seem to get a break. Her new boss seems to want to make everything that much harder and she is not about to make this transition easy. All she needs is a little something to get through it all and she knows it will give her a break, I mean it can't be that bad right?
Just like other books I have read of Sarah’s this one does not hold back and will not disappoint at all. Sarah’s not afraid to write/talk about some tough subjects in her books and that was very much the case with Heavenly Blues. I loved how she held nothing back in this book. Addiction weather legal or illegal is facing our nation and this book was a total eye opener to that. Addiction doesn’t have a face it can effect anyone. This book is so worth the read and is so so amazing. Once you start the book you will not want to put it down the author did an amazing job at sucking you in to the story and leaving you wanting more with every page.
Profile Image for Pamela Pavkov.
1,263 reviews24 followers
December 23, 2021
Heavenly Blues is truly a moving story written by Sarah Price. In this story the author demonstrates her creative writing talents. She Laura Reist finds herself at a crossroads between her job and balancing it with her family she is torn in which way to go. While her husband is given a great promotion and wants to live the lavish lifestyle at a county club it brings back memories of Laura's childhood. She watch her mother climb the high society ladder and is determined not to be like her. When Laura becomes overwhelmed with life she turns to her little blue pills. What happens next is not only heartbreaking but heartwarming as well.

I was not given a complimentary copy of this book to read and review. I was not approached to post a favorable response and all opinions are my own. I have rated this story with five stars for meeting my expectations of a wonderful story that I can highly recommend to others.
Profile Image for Lori.
1,666 reviews
October 6, 2017
I was a goodreads giveaway winner of this book. Laura is a nurse at a hospital. She works in the ward that is post-op. Laura is under a great deal of stress. she is trying to handle 12 hour shifts and being a mother to two small girls. She also had had a rough relationship with her disapproving over bearing mother. While trying to cope with her stressful life, she starts taking highly addictive prescription drugs. When she runs out and the doctor will not refill the prescription, she resorts to other ways to get at the pills she feels she needs. A good story about a person and her addictions and what becomes of her. Won't give away spoilers but this is a good read about this subject.
Profile Image for Deb.
464 reviews128 followers
October 19, 2017
I won this book for my honest review. This was the most boring, slowest to the point book I have ever tried to read. It is the first book I could not go very far in and have to quit reading as it took too long to get started to the addiction part and more focused on the family careers and how it affected the lives of her parents and the careers of her and her husband. I cannot recommend it for anyone to read.
Profile Image for Jamie.
229 reviews9 followers
November 8, 2017
This book was so true to live it was scary but in a really good way. Loved the storyline and the repeatability especially being a nurse myself. Addiction is unfortunately all too real in the nursing profession and Sara wonderfully portrayed the profession and dealing with this difficult subject.
90 reviews1 follower
January 21, 2018
I could not put this book down. This is an amazing story of how a once happy wife, mother of two, becomes addicted to Xanex in a short period of time. This is a very well written story that can happen to anyone. I would highly recommend this book!
Profile Image for Kimberly.
164 reviews7 followers
February 2, 2018
Am incredible journey of a woman who became a nurse, yet struggles with her past and current pressures. She deeply cares for her family and patients, yet deals with anxiety which leads to a dependency. Then suspicious things begin to happen at the hospital.
Profile Image for Joni Greenwell Bycroft.
738 reviews11 followers
December 30, 2021
This is like Nurse Jackie. A hard working nurse (Laura), married, 2 daughters, a stressful job with a demanding administrator begins taking anti anxiety medication, but ultimately becomes addicted. It was a decent read. Short (290 pages), and quick.
Profile Image for Martha.
1,944 reviews63 followers
April 15, 2022
Addresses a hard topic…

Issues that are generational, how we let stress and panic drive us to do things we never would have otherwise. But also I felt it had a few cliches that made me almost stop too. I think it was good, but wish it could have been tweaked to be great.
Profile Image for Linda Bennicoff.
84 reviews
October 4, 2017
Heaven

This was an amazing book by an excellent author. It talked about addiction in a way
we can all learn from, even if we’re only addicted to food.
23 reviews1 follower
October 7, 2017
This is an amazing book written by a talented author.
394 reviews
October 14, 2017
Enjoyed this fictional account exploring an absolutely real and critical problem in the medical profession-that of narcotic/opoid abuse. This book is a great discussion starter.
Profile Image for Jill Adcock.
28 reviews
October 19, 2017
A little contrived - you knew exactly where this was heading from the start. But a decent, quick read.
14 reviews
October 24, 2017
Awesome!!!

I loved every moment in this book. It was definitely one of those "I just can't put this book down" kind of story. Loved it!
Profile Image for Sylvia.
1,578 reviews74 followers
November 19, 2017
i really loved this book i am glad the book delt with real life problems..
Profile Image for Debbie.
663 reviews
March 3, 2018
Compelling read!

I received an e-version of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
Profile Image for Donna.
42 reviews
January 10, 2019
Great book

Laura had so much going on in her life: nursing, mother, wife, her mother? That she couldn’t cope without pills.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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