I received this book and a small payment through Online Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
Neither Debra or Julie have lived easy lives. So when Debra and her husband move into the decrepit house down the road from Julie and her husband's place, their friendship may be the one thing that can keep them sane - especially since strange things are beginning to happen to both of them. Debra is seeing things that may not truly be there - or at least, can't be proven. With her mother already in a mental ward, Debra is scared that she'll end up going the same way. Julie has begun to receive letters from an anonymous man, declaring his love for her. The intensity of the letters is frightening, and Julie is worried that the man may act upon his desires. When the women's lives are turned upside down, they turn to each other for strength. But will their friendship be enough to save them both?
By the time I'd finished this book, I found that I'd enjoyed it. However, it did take me a while to really get into it. This was partially due to the number of errors in the writing. That is not to say that the writing wasn't good, because it was; rather, it just really needed to be edited. There were several cases of misplaced semi-colons, using the incorrect homonym, and some sentences that at first didn't make sense, and had to be read over very carefully several times to be sure of the intended meaning. Lack of editing drives me crazy when I'm reading, because I always notice every mistake, which then takes me out of the story and places me back into the real world. If this book had been edited more carefully, I would likely have finished it much more quickly.
As I already mentioned, the writing itself isn't bad; despite this, I had to read at least a third of the novel before I found that I was actually interested in continuing to read, and probably half before I wanted to finish it. The beginning of the novel wasn't dry, exactly, because there were events occurring; rather, it just wasn't interesting. I was hoping for a scary story, but the only part that I found got my pulse up in the least was at the very end, when the big finale action was happening. I didn't really find myself connecting with any of the main characters, either. I could understand what was happening, why it was happening, and why the characters were reacting in the ways that they did, but there was some missing element. Until the point where I was actually invested in finishing the story, I truly didn't care about what happened to the characters.
There were a lot of characters, and each had their own storyline. Sometimes their stories would overlap, but I still found that there were so many that it did sometimes become confusing. Debra and Julie were the two main characters; however, the story also sometimes switched between Julie's adoptive parents, and the main antagonist. One chapter also went back in time, then for the next chapter the reader had to infer that we were now back in the present. There were several other characters who were interacted with whose backstories the readers were also to learn and remember. I just found that the number of events, past and present, that we were to remember, was too high. I think that the only reason I managed was because I took longer than I usually do to read a book, so the information had more time to soak in. Even so, I had some difficulty keeping everything in place, and remembering who was connected to what was connected to whom.
Overall, this really wasn't a bad book. The issues I had with it were easy enough to overcome, although annoying. I would give it a rating of three stars, because the middle and ending were enjoyable, even though the beginning wasn't. With proper editing, I would have enjoyed it even more. I don't think I would read anything else by Christine Benedict in the future, but I am happy that I read this novel. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys mysteries, real-life drama, and possibly-haunted houses.
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