Blurb:
When
a new student arrives at Mansfield High School, Grace Evans feels an
inexplicable kinship with the boy. Strange feelings are not new to Grace, who
has experienced lapses in time accompanied by injuries that defy logical
explanation. As much as she tries to ignore this latest mystery, Grace cannot
deny her already-troubled life is getting darker and more dangerous and wonders
if this new boy knows her secret.
Jack
Elliott has always known what he is and believes his life is one of destiny and
fate because of one person: Grace Evans, a young woman who has haunted him
since the day she was born. Everything…his education, training, sacrifices…has
led to this moment, but Jack‘s skills are about to be tested beyond his wildest
imagination.
Review:
Jack Elliott is an Amalgamate. He is a person who most psychologists would
diagnose as having Dissociative Identity Disorder. In his world, however, it is not a disorder;
it is an asset. It is not the result of
extreme abuse or trauma. His personality
did not fracture to protect him. He was
born with his alternate personalities, or “alters”, and they are assets, not
liabilities. His job is to guide people
through Integration, but again in his world that means something different from
ours. His job is not to help people
subdue and absorb their alters. His job
is to guard people and keep them from getting injured during their black-outs
and when the time is right, introduce them to their alters, stay conscious when
their alters come out, learn to lead their alters, and work with them. In his world, some alters have special
abilities such as ESP, enhanced strength and speed, or higher
intelligence. And, in his world, guys work
with guys and girls work with girls. But
he’s been connected to Grace Evans since the day she was born. And he just has to be her Guardian—despite the
rules.
Grace doesn’t know she’s an Amalgamate. She just knows she wakes up in strange
places, or finds herself in her room but with leaves and twigs in her hair and
bruises she can’t account for. Oddly,
the new boy in school seems interested in her and he seems to turn up at the
strangest times. She could swear he’s
sleeping in her room. He has a unique
scent and she smells it in her room when she wakes up, especially if she wakes
up with twigs and leaves in her hair.
Susan Fairchild knows exactly who Jack is, what his mission is, and what’s
going on when Grace blacks out. And she
doesn’t want him to succeed in integrating Grace. She has her own Guardian—Phineas. He’s the alter of Peter, a friend of Grace’s. Of course Grace has no idea Peter is an
Amalgamate. Phineas has told Susan that
the host does not have to lead the alters in a body. He’s convinced her she can become strong
enough to eventually subjugate Grace and take over as the leader of Grace and
the rest of her alters. Even Jack doesn’t
know how much danger Grace is in. Oh,
and then there’s Clare. She’s another
one of Grace’s alters, and her talent could get them all killed.
Ms. Leppert has added a paranormal twist to an already
fascinating psychological disorder that is so rare, not everyone in the
psychiatric community believes in it even when they see it. I have a good friend with whom I shared a
psychologist at the VA in Chicago. Our
doc did not believe in DID even though my friend suffered from it. “John” was a fifty-plus year-old man when “Joan”
manifested herself. She was in her early
teens when she first showed up. “Dr. F.”
thought she was just an excuse for John to dress in drag. I’m not sure whether it was John or his wife
who convinced Dr. F. that Joan was real, but John does not remember what goes
on when Joan controls their body. The
two of them have different food allergies.
One can cook but not bake; the other can bake but not cook. They communicate via e-mail. I spent the night with them, and stayed up
late chatting with John’s wife. The next morning Joan woke up and wanted to
know what John had for supper the night before.
She also started to tell me some news John had already imparted the
night before.
Back to the book.
The characters are well-drawn, three/four/five… dimensional people you
can root for. There is action and
emotion. It’s a really good book.
Length: 413 Pages
Price:
$5.95
Buy Link:
https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/new-releases/series/reguarding-grace-detail
You’ll
notice I always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors usually receive 40% of
the book price from the publisher.
Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes &
Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author,
editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left. So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book
Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author
will receive about $0.83.
Downloading
the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file
from your computer to a USB flash drive.
Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and
simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books
directory. I actually download my books
using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my
publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle
from there. That way, if there’s a
glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer. Your author will be happy you did when he/she
sees his/her royalty statement.
Thanks
for visiting. RIW
Sounds like a different story! Nice review!
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