Gracie Boone’s small-town life has always felt safe and comfortable. She has a doting father, a steady relationship, and a promising future at university. But the illusion of security begins to crumble the moment she moves into her new dorm room.
Before long, a motionless figure looms in the darkness outside Gracie’s window, silent and watching her in the night. But no one else sees it, and no one else believes her. Gracie’s world further unravels when she faces evidence suggesting she may have been abducted as a child by her hometown’s police chief, the man she calls Dad.
Driven by her rising paranoia, Gracie must unearth the truth about herself and determine who keeps watching her in the dark. But she has to tread lightly, as alerting her father could ruin their relationship forever, or even put her in danger.
Most of all, Gracie fears uncovering her darkest reality, that she’s been manipulated for years, and that her life is nothing more than a carefully constructed façade.
Gracie is so excited to finally leave her small-town life and start college. Make new friends and learn to be independent. But choices made and unexplained happenings turns Gracie's life into confusion and uncertainty. As the only life she has ever known starts to unravel around her, she doesn't know who she can trust anymore. Will her choices reveal exactly what is happening and what will she do when all the secrets are uncovered?
Gracie is the kind of character that I wanted to protect. She is young, a bit naive in her choices, and just starting to experience life outside of the safety of her home. All the strange occurrences that are happening to her are concerning and also frightening. There is a dark sense of foreboding and danger, and it only gets more intense as the story unfolds.
The wonderful thing is that as she learns more and more about herself, she begins to become stronger, and she starts to trust herself and her own instincts. It was great to see her grow in her strengths.
Her father was such a frustrating character, very overprotective and something about him just didn't seem right. I guess he comes across as very loving at first, but something was always just off, and holy smokes, when all is revealed, it's crazy. What a plot twist!
There were many moments that created that sense of not knowing exactly what was going on and there were also moments of what the hell just happened. Keeps one wanting to continue reading because you just have to know. Especially as the chapters become more intense, things are revealed, and plot twists are thrown in.
The ending was left a bit open to interpretation; I can only hope that Gracie finds what she is looking for.
This is a very well written debut, and it shows the authors talent as a writer. One to watch for in the future!
Format: eBook ARC received from the author
Song Pairing: Despair by Liubomyr Prask
