Kristen Heitzmann's The Edge of Recall ~ Reviewed

The Edge of Recall
By Kristen Heitzmann
Bethany House Publishers
ISBN#9780764228315
412 pages

Back Cover: She locked up the vision like a monster in her mind’s maze, but it lurked there, on the edge of recall.

Tess Young is a landscape architect who specializes in the design and creation of labyrinths. For years she has immersed herself in the healing aspects of these elaborate structures, searching for God and hoping to make sense of the nightmares that have plagues her since childhood.

When Smith Chandler, a colleague who once betrayed her, offers an opportunity to reconstruct a remarkable Colonial ear labyrinth, she can’t resist this project of a lifetime. But one evening, as dusk falls an assailant ambushes Tessa and Smith and the real nightmare begins

Review # 1:

Night terror! Tormenting dreams! Tess was afraid to go to sleep. The dream was usually the same with a few variations. This was real for Tess; she would wake up screaming, sweating and breathing hard from all the running she had been doing in her dream. She was being chased by monsters and couldn't run fast enough through the labyrinth. Funny thing about monsters though, they played by their own rules. She felt like she couldn't escape this torment. "She just had to get through the night, and she wasn't too proud to admit she couldn't do it alone." She made the call to Dr. Brenner for help. He had always been there for her. He helped her live with these dreams - always hoping for a cure.

These horrible dreams were just part of her life. She thought she was coping just fine until Smith Chandler called. He invited her to be part of his dream team on this amazing job. She hadn't heard from him in 6 years and now he calls wanting her help? She goes to check out the job; it's everything she has desired to work on and so much more. Things get complicated as old, painful feelings and memories start to stir with Smith around. Had Tess gotten more than she bargained for? She had to do this job no matter what the personal cost to her was. She had to make this work somehow; she felt her life depended on it. She felt hope that maybe she would get to the root of all these monster dreams - it was worth the risk.

I was mesmerized at how well Kristen Heitzmann described these dreams - it was so real. From the first page I had entered Tess's world hook, line and sinker. Once you start this book you can't stop. So forget what you had planned for the day; this story is so gripping you’ll keep reading like I did. I had to find out if Tess Young does unlock her night terrors. There are so many surprising things that happened along the way. I just couldn't put this book down - neither will you!

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent

Bonus Review:

This fascinating story centers around dreams, repression and fears. Symbolic of life, physical and eternal, the labyrinth is the playing field in a game of cat and mouse. Tessa, a prickly, wounded soul and Smith, a man who repeatedly wounds her, are pulled into an unwanted contest pitting them against the unknown, each other and those whom they trust.

Psychological aspects come into play often making the story feel frantic at times. I did have to suspend a healthy amount of disbelief and accept the neat sewing up of events in the end, but overall, the details made the trip an entertaining, suspenseful one.

By Kelly Klepfer