Kathy Herman
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Multnomah (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590529227
ISBN-13: 978-1590529225
Publisher: Multnomah (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590529227
ISBN-13: 978-1590529225
After serving time for covering up the strangulation death of a high-school classmate ten years earlier, Ivy Griffith has paid her debt to society, kicked her drug habit, and she's making a fresh start. Problem is, everyone in her hometown of Jacob's Ear, Colorado, knows what she did. And her seven-year-old son, Montana, won't stop probing about the father he has never met -- the man Ivy was too stoned to even remember.
Plagued by her shame and her little boy's cries for male affirmation, Ivy is thrilled when Rue Kessler takes an interest in Montana and her. Maybe Rue's the answer to prayer she's been waiting for. But he has a shadow hanging over his past and is suspected in a rash of bizarre, brutal beatings. He denies any involvement, and Ivy believes him -- until she discovers he and Montanta have kept a secret from her.
Ivy's on the verge of despair and wonders if even God has given up on her. Or is something bigger at play here -- something being orchestrated outside her control that's about to bring down the curtain on everything, including her past?
My review:
Never Look Back ably and tensely handles some very delicate subjects, a "rehabilitated" drug user who valued getting high over her child, an alcoholic barely on the road to recovery, a town full of people who watch and wait for the town bad girl to mess up and a violent psychopath looking for kicks.
This is a great cold winter read unless you are very squeamish or sensitive to addictions. Several twists and secrets are revealed along the storyline, most of which I guessed early on, which I don't always do, but figuring things out didn't ruin the story for me at all.
If you are a Kathy Herman fan or want to continue reading about Ivy Griffith's road to recovery and healing, you are going to want to get a copy of Never Look Back. If you know someone who dabbled in a past that now haunts them as they see shameful junk in the new light of day, this could be a series that helps them begin to stop looking behind and start moving forward.
Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer
1 comment:
In for a penny, in for a pound!
Kelly, I'm obviously reading through my bookmarked blogs this morning, and this book review goes hand in glove with the prayer request I mentioned on your Scrambled Dregs site! Wow!! God is answering prayer before it is prayed! He loves us well, doesn't He? Thanks....again!! I'll need to get this book to some folks who could use it!
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