Hi there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Today, we're playing host to a TLC Book Tours promotion starring a work of Fiction that will keep you turning pages well into the night. It's a surprising read (for many reasons) with a cover that just makes you want to know more...and that's just what drives our leading lady to discoveries she may not have been ready for. Ready or not, here comes today's blog tour guest and book of choice...
by
Cat Winters
9780062440860
William Morrow
About the book....
From the author of The Uninvited comes a haunting historical novel with a compelling mystery at its core. A young child psychologist steps off a train, her destination a foggy seaside town. There, she begins a journey causing her to question everything she believes about life, death, memories, and reincarnation.
In 1925, Alice Lind steps off a train in the rain-soaked coastal hamlet of Gordon Bay, Oregon. There, she expects to do nothing more difficult than administer IQ tests to a group of rural schoolchildren. A trained psychologist, Alice believes mysteries of the mind can be unlocked scientifically, but now her views are about to be challenged by one curious child.
Seven-year-old Janie O’Daire is a mathematical genius, which is surprising. But what is disturbing are the stories she tells: that her name was once Violet, she grew up in Kansas decades earlier, and she drowned at age nineteen. Alice delves into these stories, at first believing they’re no more than the product of the girl’s vast imagination. But, slowly, Alice comes to the realization that Janie might indeed be telling a strange truth.
Alice knows the investigation may endanger her already shaky professional reputation, and as a woman in a field dominated by men she has no room for mistakes. But she is unprepared for the ways it will illuminate terrifying mysteries within her own past, and in the process, irrevocably change her life.
In 1925, Alice Lind steps off a train in the rain-soaked coastal hamlet of Gordon Bay, Oregon. There, she expects to do nothing more difficult than administer IQ tests to a group of rural schoolchildren. A trained psychologist, Alice believes mysteries of the mind can be unlocked scientifically, but now her views are about to be challenged by one curious child.
Seven-year-old Janie O’Daire is a mathematical genius, which is surprising. But what is disturbing are the stories she tells: that her name was once Violet, she grew up in Kansas decades earlier, and she drowned at age nineteen. Alice delves into these stories, at first believing they’re no more than the product of the girl’s vast imagination. But, slowly, Alice comes to the realization that Janie might indeed be telling a strange truth.
Alice knows the investigation may endanger her already shaky professional reputation, and as a woman in a field dominated by men she has no room for mistakes. But she is unprepared for the ways it will illuminate terrifying mysteries within her own past, and in the process, irrevocably change her life.
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People have asked me time and again what book I would consider actually SCARY, and truth be told, I've always had a hard time answering them. It's not that I don't read scary works from time to time, but there's not been anything that has really reached beyond the page to toy with my thoughts after the cover has closed...until now. I know what you're thinking....this doesn't look like the type of book to inspire fear in the hearts of anyone, let alone rate as a scary novel, but remember...looks can be deceiving.
Alice's character is rather complex. She presents this dignified front to the world so as not to be second guessed in her chosen role in life, while barely holding on internally. Don't get me wrong, she's a hella psychologist in any capacity, and her desire to help children everywhere is commendable to the umpteenth degree. She truly wishes to confirm or abolish Janie O'Daire's claims once and for all, and not simply for notoriety, but to help the girl. It's selfless...and yet, to a degree self serving. You see, there is one snagging point....she really should deal with her own demons first. Secrets always have a way of coming back around to bite us in the end, and some are WAY worse than others.
The author manages to create an atmosphere where belief and disbelief walk hand in hand. Though I'm not certain where I stand in real life about it, the chance of reincarnation being true, for both good and bad spirits, is curious. Ms. Winters had me walking the tightrope between what I should belief and what seems to be supported time and again, much like our Ms. Alice. There is nary a moment that I doubted the direction her beliefs were carrying us and the story, right up to the jaw dropping end. So sorry, but I must not reveal all the surprises...just suffice it to say that wherever your beliefs might lie, you'll be testing their limits.
To conclude, an addictive read from start to finish. Though the ends look nothing like I'd have imagined them from beginning, it worked and it worked well. When a book can give you chills, make you certain that the keyhole is more than a keyhole, and otherwise get your mind racing as to where we go from here, you know you've got something good. Recommended read for Fiction fans that like a few shades of mystery to their reading as well as those looking for strong female characters in times that they were not viewed as such.
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About the author...
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| Photo by Tara Kell |
Cat Winters’s debut novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds, was released to widespread critical acclaim. The novel has been named a finalist for the 2014 Morris Award, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2013, and a Booklist 2013 Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth. Winters lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.
Find out more about Cat at her website, and follow her on tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, andTwitter.
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Special thanks to the TLC Book Tours team for the chance to bring this tour to you as well as to the William Morrow marketing team for the ARC for review. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, THIS TOUR, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title just celebrated its BOOK BIRTHDAY yesterday via William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
3 comments:
Wow, this sounds awesome!
I would never have thought based on the cover that this book was scary, but even just reading your review is giving me the chills! This one is a must-read for me.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
This book sounds like the perfect Halloween read! Challenging our belief in the afterlife is a good thing to do as the days get shorter and the nights get longer and ghosts are popping up all around...
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