Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I love the fabulous cover for The Deadening by Kerry Peresta. Everything about the book appealed to me. I got so much more than I expected, from the Prologue that set the hook until the final page I read.

Olivia Callahan ‘claws at the bars of her paralysis.’

I screamed and screamed, but my useless lips refused to utter a sound.

Super creepy. Her mind is screaming, but no one can hear her. She can’t move a muscle, not a finger, not an eyelid, to let them know she can hear them. I can’t imagine how terrifying that would be, but Kerry Peresta made me feel her confusion and terror.

As Olivia talks to her friends about her divorce from Monty and her lawyers suggestions, they question her decisions to buckle under to his demands. As I learn about Monty, I question who her lawyer is really working for. She is meek and mild, worse than a doormat, telling everyone her life is hunky dory. I can only hope she becomes rabid at some point.

When Olivia awakens from her coma, she doesn’t remember how she came to be there…or anything else for that matter. Who are the people in her room? Even worse, who is she?

Even though it is terrible how she came to be there, I love the changes the brain injury caused in her. The brain is amazing. Even a smell could bring back a memory, and it would crush her. Maybe some memories are better off forgotten, but I too would want to know.

Mom leaned over and whispered, “See? If you faint occasionally, they’ll do whatever you want without arguing about it.”

Olivia Callhan’s changes have a ripple affect, changing everyone else’s life along with it. There are moments of levity along with the devastation wreaked on her friends and family.

“You’re coming back to life, and we are so excited for you.”

“I never even knew I was dead.”

Niles, I wondered how the author would handle that whole situation. Is he deserving of a second chance? I was afraid that Kerry Peresta would use a trite solution, but no, she surprised me and I loved how she dealt with him.

There is the beginning of a romance between Olivia and Hunter, the detective that handled her investigation, and I love that there was no instalove, but a mutual attraction. Of course, I might have felt different if I didn’t know there was another book on my Kindle so I can find out what happens next in, The Rising.

I loved the ending!

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Deadening by Kerry Peresta.

GOODREADS BLURB

Olivia Callahan’s quiet, orderly life is shattered when she regains consciousness in a hospital and discovers she is paralyzed and cannot remember a thing. The fragmented voices she hears around her help her piece together that an apparent assault landed her in the hospital, but nobody knows who attacked her, or why. After a chilling struggle to survive, she awakens from a coma unable to remember what happened to her or anything at all, except she has been told she is an entirely different person. Or is she?

Now, in spite of a brain injury that has rewired her personality, Olivia is on a mission to reclaim her life. As clarity surfaces and she starts to understand who she was, she is shocked. Had she really been that person? And if so, does she want her old life back?

• Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

310 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2021 by Level Best Books

ABOUT KERRY PERESTA

Kerry Peresta’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” and short stories in the published anthology, “That One Left Shoe,” and her first novel released in 2013 by Pen-L Publishing, “The Hunting,” contemporary women’s fiction. She spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, and copywriter before deciding to devote more of her time to writing. She is currently working on her next novel, and the most current one, The Deadening, fiction, suspense; releases Feb. 23, 2021 and will be available for pre-order mid-January. Kerry has been published in several local magazines, including Local Life, Island Events, Bluffton Breeze, and Lady Lowcountry. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Island Writers Network of Hilton Head. She enjoys participating in writing conferences, and has served as chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association. Learn more about Kerry at www.kerryperesta.net, https://www.facebook.com/klperesta or https://www.instagram.com/kerryperesta

• You can see my Giveaways HERE.
• You can see my Reviews HERE.
• If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
• Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
• Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
• I am an Amazon affiliate/product images are linked.
• Thanks for visiting fundinmental!