Tuesday 26 June 2018

Review: Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer

The 2:00 a.m. call is the first time Lexie Vidler has heard her sister’s voice in years. Annie is a drug addict, a thief, a liar—and in trouble, again. Lexie has always bailed Annie out, given her money, a place to sleep, sent her to every kind of rehab. But this time, she’s not just strung out—she’s pregnant and in premature labor. If she goes to the hospital, she’ll lose custody of her baby—maybe even go to prison. But the alternative is unthinkable.

As the weeks unfold, Lexie finds herself caring for her fragile newborn niece while her carefully ordered life is collapsing around her. She’s in danger of losing her job, and her fiancé only has so much patience for Annie’s drama. In court-ordered rehab, Annie attempts to halt her downward spiral by confronting long-buried secrets from the sisters’ childhoods, ghosts that Lexie doesn’t want to face. But will the journey heal Annie, or lead her down a darker path?

Both candid and compassionate, Before I Let You Go explores a hotly divisive topic and asks how far the ties of family love can be stretched before they finally break.


Kindle Edition, 384 pages
Published April 1st 2018 by Graydon House 
Genre: Fiction/Contemporary/Adult Fiction
Kristine's Thoughts:
** I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

I suffered the loss of my mother a couple of months ago and I have had a difficult time getting back to the things that I love to do like reading. I picked this book up many times with the intention of getting through it but couldn't manage to get past the first couple of words. It was no fault of the book or the story it was telling but it was my frame of mind as a struggled through my grief. When I finally allowed myself to indulge in something that brings me great joy I was extremely glad that Before I Let You Go was the book I had waiting for me. Although the kind of grief that was inside the pages of this book were different from what I experienced I had the empathy to relate and understand the characters and the their own internal battles.

Lexie and Annie had a normal childhood experience until the day they lost their father and their mother fell into a deep depression. Lexie, although still young, became the primary caregiver for her younger sister until their mother married a new man and moved them to an isolated religious community with strict rules and regulations. As soon as Lexie was old enough she left the community leaving a struggling Annie behind to fend for herself. This was the beginning of Annie's problems.

As the years went on, Lexie found herself caring for Annie again but she was a much different person. She spend more time getting her out of trouble, into rehab and trying to fix her problems than anything else at the risk of her own future. Everything changed when Lexie got a middle of the night call from Annie saying that she was in trouble, high, and pregnant.

I'll stop here. I don't want to give away too much of the story but I will say that this was the point where the story really began. It was the difficult, heart wrenching and frustrating story of addiction, love and a very flawed system. To say that I was on an emotion roller coaster would be an understatement. This book showcased some of the many sides of addiction and the people affected by it in a raw and honest light. As the reader I got to hear both Lexie and Annie's voice which painted a large and thorough picture of both sides of their story. I experienced frustration, anger, sadness throughout most of the pages but I also saw a few moments of beauty.

Addiction is not an easy topic and this story wasn't easy but it was exactly what I needed when I needed it most. It reminded me of how much I love reading and that it is OK to find the joy in the little things. It was a very worthy read!


 

 
 About the Author
Kelly Rimmer is the USA Today bestselling women’s fiction author of five novels, including Me Without You and The Secret Daughter. Her most recent release is Before I Let You Go. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, 2 children and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.  
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