"Electrifying and steamy novel of psychological suspense."
Really? Where? What's so electrifying and suspenseful? Nothing as far as I'm concerned. In fact, if anything, the novel should be titled "Nothing Makes Sense" because nothing did.
Like the synopsis reads,
"At first Fairfax Mental Health Institute seems like a safe place for Victoria to heal with her baby, Evelyn, and to hide from Wes, presumed dead by everyone except Victoria."
Heal? Heal like in getting better? Really? I don't see it as it looks like everyone around her is trying to keep her at Fairfax, thereby letting her get worse and worse. There were so many aspects of this novel that didn't make any sense to me at all. Like is Victoria taking "a colorful array of meds? You would think the doctor would tell her why she's taking them or at least let the reader in on it. If nothing else, does her doctor not notice her behaviour to be different since she stopped taking them a month ago (without permission)? What has the doctor done in the six months she's been in her care? It would've been nice if we were told exactly what she was suffering from but I guess that's part of the mystery. Why wouldn't the doctor help her when she first arrived? It's not like she's suffering from schizophrenia. Then there's Wes who torments her every night. Has no one even seen him once in all the months he's been dropping by secretly each night? Has no one ever heard him talking to her? Seen him walk the grounds? How is it possible that Sinclair hasn't been able to see her in months? It's Sinclair's sister Renea (her best friend) who took her to the hospital. I would think she would tell them who they are and their connection to her, that they should be allowed to visit her. Instead, Victoria's mother places Sinclair and Renea on the list of those who cannot visit her. Renea was the one who admitted her to the hospital. Secondly, and this is huge, Sinclair's the father of her child. Since her mind has broken from reality, she doesn't recognize faces or names. You would think that to help her recollect what happened, family, her friends, and at least the doctor, would tell her the truth, but no. Instead her mother lies and tells her "I know this man is nothing but bad news." WTF?! This makes absolutely no sense.
"All the progress that you have made at Fairfax will disappear if you continue to see him" "He was and is your trigger point. The root of all your problems."
Excuse me? What fucking progress? She wants her daughter to get better yet she feeds her lies after lies? But it's okay that she was excited about the baby Victoria and Sinclair were going to have. Instead of blaming the real culprit (Victoria's husband who stabbed her), she blames Sinclair.
I do and I don't understand exactly why Victoria broke from reality. I get that she didn't want to deal with the loss of her baby; however, and this is big - the baby survived. What's unbelievable is that no one told her.
"I pulled down my blankets to my hips and pulled up my hospital gown and saw a hideous scar on my abdomen."
"And then I knew the truth."
"My baby. The one good thing in my life was gone."
"I'm so sorry…." The doctor patted my arm. I felt numb. "I really am."
"My mother wiped away my tears."
Gee, is it any wonder she thought she lost the baby and started to lose her grip on reality? Perhaps during her four day stay at the hospital someone like the nurse, the doctor, her mother, Sinclair or Renea would tell her that her baby was very much alive which in turn would help her get better instead of instead of worse. The actions of her doctor and nurse are deplorable. Weeks go by and still she thinks her baby is gone. Not even when they visit her at home, where she's holding a doll and treating it like her baby, do they tell her the truth. Seriously, WTF!? Perhaps when her mother wiped her eyes she could've mentioned how beautiful the baby was. Did she not hear the baby cry when she was born? Am I missing something here?? This isn't something that doesn't make sense. This is what I'm reading is , asinine, ridiculous and stupid, very stupid. Why her therapist didn't tell her the truth even when she was getting better is something I don't get. So much of the story made no sense, and worse, it was so predictable. Even with the twist thrown in at the end (which was so stupid), you could already see the direction the story was going. By the way, the ending sucked the big one. The whole I love my wife but would rather work and let my twin (Nathan) step into my shoes was absolutely pathetic. It reads like a really bad soap opera. The fact that Nathan set the stage to make it look like that Victoria killed him and then turned the knife around and stabbed her in the stomach (with baby) was ridiculous and did not make sense. Not only that, Melanie, the girl Nathan was having an affair with, was found alive the night Victoria went to the hospital. I don't know about you but I would think Melanie would've told the police what happened; how a twin killed his own brother, took his place and then tried to kill her. Yet we're supposed to believe that Victoria is visited by her husband every night. This isn't a simple case of lack of communication, it's a case of nothing makes sense!!! This story is riddled with so many holes. Why authors think that their readers will accept whatever they write and stay blind to the inadequacies is not only insulting, it's disrespectful.
Other questions I have is why did Nathan slit cuts into his forearm? He took her shoes. Why? Well I guess everyone in the story is an idiot and we should believe the cops are too. No one told her she never killed her husband like she believed she did. No wonder this woman jumped off the deep end. No one is telling her anything. It's like everyone wants her to get worse, not better. By the way, it's hinted that perhaps she may have killed her husband but we know she didn't. If the author was trying to create some mystery and suspense, it didn't work (at least not for me).
What also doesn't make sense is that Nathan grew up at Fairfax as his mother has worked there as a nurse and still does. Everyone knew him from a young boy to an adult. You'd think someone would've seen him sneaking around; or perhaps someone would probably have heard or read about Wes' death in the news and converse with his mother, Alice, "hey, this dead guy looks like your son."
This novel did nothing for me except piss me off to no end. I've never read so many convoluted scenarios like the ones found here. Without a doubt, I have no plans to read any other works by her Callia Read in the future. For me, this was a complete waste of time and money.