Three Rules

Summary:

Hope Wellman has a childhood full of horrific memories, a bone chilling recurring nightmare, and a persistent paranoid sense of being followed that she would rather keep repressed. Is evil reaching from beyond the grave to capture the tattered remnants of her soul once and for all, is it only a machination of her disturbed mind, or is there something happening more sinister than even she can imagine? 

Attending the funeral of her abuser is the first step in putting her life back together as she is about to turn twenty-one. She struggles with the fact she never told anyone what happened to her, and that the grave they are mourning over is empty. She'd find it a lot easier to move on and believe in the future if he were in the box, ready to be covered with dirt. She fears the last thread of her sanity has snapped when she sees Lucas everywhere she turns, and can't escape a recurring nightmare. Is her tormentor alive, or is she imagining it? Is her dream triggered by past fears or is it a prediction of the future? (Summary and book cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Please note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review courtesy of the author.

Review:

Initially I was a little leery as to what I’d think about this read considering the content, but as promised Mare Drake did an impressive job avoiding graphic scenes without avoiding the difficult topics.  I didn’t relate to Hope at the beginning, but over time I warmed up to her as I understood her situation better and got to know her personality.  It’s interesting how people can encourage others to do precisely what it is what they struggle to try to do the most.

Until eighty percent of the book was over I thought it was solid, but hadn’t impressed me with the ambiguous something that makes a book stand out.  When I got to the climax however, I was completely caught off-guard.  The whole book, I was convinced I knew how it was going to end, but boy was I wrong!  I’d say this was a book that had a slow build, but paid off in the end.

Warning: Contains sensitive topics, but there are not graphic scenes.

Rating: 4 stars!

Who should read it? Folks looking for a mystery read that doesn’t shy away from difficult topics.