In this fast-paced psychological thriller Catherine “Cathy” Bailey is a single girl, enjoying her life and time with her friends while she looks for her Prince Charming.  On Halloween she meets the gorgeous, and seeming perfect Lee Brightman.  However, it quickly turns into a tale of obsessive love and an abusive relationship.  Catherine begins to feel there is something not right with the mysterious Lee.  He has a job that keeps him away and that he can’t talk about, showing up at her home one night injured.  Her friends don’t see it, and think she is crazy for not being grateful for the great “catch” she has in Lee . . . flash forward four years and Cathrine, now “Cathy” is battered, broken, and ill.  Suffering from OCD and PTSD, she is not the same carefree single girl looking for love she once was.  Checking her locks and windows compulsively, living in almost utter seclusion except for going to work, her life is not her own.  Cathy is struggling to keep her sanity as she discovers Lee is set to be released soon, and she fears he is looking for her.

This was an intense read, that kept me, pardon the phrase, on the edge of my seat.  The story shifts chapter to chapter between two timelines.  In one there is Catherine’s relationship with Lee that starts with a simple Halloween outing and turns shockingly sinister.  The second is the paranoid, broken Cathy as she struggles for normalcy.  Somehow the two timelines blend well, and didn’t jar my concentration as much as  I thought they would.  Both follow a journey that is shocking, gripping, and suspenseful.  I could truly sense the dread and shift in Catherine as she endured a violent and painful relationship with Lee, becoming who she was in the second timeline.  In the end it was how she would survive that was the experience I found most intriguing, somehow finding her way back to the old Catherine to fight for her sanity and her very life.  I will say I was a bit shocked by the ending, but satisfied nonetheless with the journey this thriller, and suspense novel took me on.

K