When John Beller breaks through the chaos of Mary's life, offering all the fruits of lust and love, she desperately wants to partake. On the verge of a mental break where footsteps echo from empty rooms and constant phone calls have no one on the other end, she craves the peaceful embrace of Johnās arms. But heās a demanding stranger she's only recently met, one who digs into all her secrets. And she has no intention of letting anyone find out about her paranoid delusions.
Convinced she can control her descent into madness, Maryās plan crashes around her when an insane driver forces her car off the road. Left for dead at the bottom of a ravine, she wakes to find herself hospitalized, then forced into confinement to recover at Johnās house.
While police search for the driver who nearly killed her, one detective questions whether or not John is isolating Mary for her protection or using her insanity against her. Sheās sure itās the former, and John insists it is.
One thing is certaināher nightmares are real. And the more John kisses her, the closer the threat looms. He may protect her, but who will protect him?
When John Beller breaks through the chaos of Mary's life, offering all the fruits of lust and love, she desperately wants to partake. On the verge of a mental break where footsteps echo from empty rooms and constant phone calls have no one on the other end, she craves the peaceful embrace of Johnās arms. But heās a demanding stranger she's only recently met, one who digs into all her secrets. And she has no intention of letting anyone find out about her paranoid delusions.
Convinced she can control her descent into madness, Maryās plan crashes around her when an insane driver forces her car off the road. Left for dead at the bottom of a ravine, she wakes to find herself hospitalized, then forced into confinement to recover at Johnās house.
While police search for the driver who nearly killed her, one detective questions whether or not John is isolating Mary for her protection or using her insanity against her. Sheās sure itās the former, and John insists it is.
One thing is certaināher nightmares are real. And the more John kisses her, the closer the threat looms. He may protect her, but who will protect him?
The worst parts of our lives are the things we never see coming. The things we canāt prepare for because our nightmares arenāt made of them. Like my mother dying when I was nine and my father abandoning me six months later. Or being widowed by thirty. I never imagined any of those things, yet they all happened.
Then thereās the insanity. I never saw it coming. Never planned for it. And not once dreamed of it. Yet, here I am. Mary Williams. Thirty-two years old and slipping slowly into madness.
Probably. I feel sane. But the noises in my head say otherwise. Ones that sound like the old screen door on the back of my house creaking open when the hook is tightly latched. Or the echoes of footsteps crossing empty rooms. Iāve stopped running from those. My house is small enough that even with rubbery legs I can check all eight hundred square feet faster than dragging my wobbly legs to a neighborās house. The only thing I canāt seem to do is force away this fear. Itās always here. Scratching at the edges of my mind. Clawing my spine. It writhes against my intuition until running is all I can think of. And I would run. If I knew which way to go. Itās kind of hard to get away from yourself.
I havenāt always been a mass of paranoid delusions. Kim, my best friend since fourth grade, used to call me strong. A survivor. Capable of finding a way to cope with anything. Now, she and her husband Kevin have decided Iām having a grief-stricken mental break. And they arenāt holding their tongues about the opinion. Hence the reason I get pamphlets about mental institutions slipped to me when Iām walking the floor of my store. Itās already hard enough being the manager of a top clothing retailer without customers who happen to distantly know Kim reaching out as if itās their duty to aid the poor grieving widow whoās slowly going mad. Itās embarrassing. Especially if my employees ever find out what the whispered conversations are about. Or were about. Kim isnāt exactly promoting her theory anymore. Not since I stopped talking about how I feel inside. Since I started smiling and saying everything is fine. Instead, sheās filling the vacancy in our standing Wednesday lunch with something equally disturbing.
The bulk of our midweek rendezvous has been spent listening to her babble about a blind date like itās the best idea sheās ever had. Not surprising. She thinks all her ideas are Pulitzer-worthy. But after all these years and everything weāve been through, she could at least pretend to hear me when I say Iām not interested.
Two can play this game. Iāll just ignore her. āHow is Kevin adjusting to his new job?ā
āHe loves it.ā Her bright blue eyes sparkle, hands rubbing so wildly together her blonde bob bounces over her shoulders. āJust like he loves me setting you up with his friend, John. The four of us are going to have so much fun this weekend!ā
One surefire way to pump her brakes is telling her about the noises still plaguing me at night. Casually mentioning the footprints in the soft earth under my window, the random flowers on my porch, or maybe even my jittery repulsion to the darkly twisted words of a poem I found plastered on my windshield yesterday. But Iām not the only person at a busy mall driving a silver car, and Iām sure neighborhood kids are responsible for the flowers. Probably the footprints, too.
Iām not stirring up trouble for myself or putting her through worrying about me again just to get out of a date. She may have broken my trust and embarrassed me, but it was done out of love. āIām glad Kevin likes his job and that he made a new friend. Didnāt you tell me Jenny isnāt seeing Rob anymore? I bet sheād love to double-date with you.ā
āShe can triple with us. But only after our double, because this weekend is a special occasion.ā Stars dance in her eyes. āWait until you meet John. Heās this six-foot-tall god! Body chiseled from pure stone. And Iām telling you, bring a bib. Because the first time I met him, I nearly choked on my drool!ā
āIām sure Kevin appreciated that. Andā¦ā
This time itās me whoās checking out, words trailing off as my attention is drawn to the old wooden windows of LaTerra. Today, the yellow brick building with its glass front feels like a jail cell. A jail cell inside a display case. Me the bauble on exhibit. Intuition screaming. Bleating. Someone is watching. Cataloguing my every move. All the usual ridiculous nonsense.
Tremors scrape my spine. The hair on my neck rises, telling my every fiber to be afraid. But no one would waste time putting my boring life under a microscope. I barely socialize enough to have friends. Outside of Kim and her family, customers and co-workers during business hours are the extent of my connection to the world. Still, what I feel seems so real. It has for years. While cancer ravaged my husband, I began looking over my shoulder. Only occasionally then. Now that Mike is gone, itās constant. Even when Iām visiting his grave.Ā
Something So Beautiful is a romantic thriller where Mary Williams, a widower, struggles with finding normalcy in her everyday life even though she is tormented with silent phone calls and car horns blaring into the night. Mary swears sheās going insane, living in fear of the icy, murderous fingers creeping out from the shadows. That is, until she meets John Beller, a carpenter who immediately becomes enamored with Mary, and she him. He makes her feel safe, but she fears her delusions may drive him away.Ā
Personally, I love a good stalker thriller. Those footsteps you think you hear but couldnāt possibly be there, the whispering breaths you feel on the back of your neck even though youāre alone, theyāre so compelling! A good writer can make the tiny hairs on your arms stand up asĀ the main character questions, āDid I imagine that?ā Lee Dawna is just as skillful as Lisa Jackson in that regard.Ā
As effective as the suspenseful scenes were, however, there were aspects of the development that I thought could have used more time. First was the progression of John and Maryās relationship. This is just my opinion, not everyone may feel this way, but I thought the intensity and speed at which their relationship moved was a bit jarring and came off as not believable. That said, it was addressed in the novel several times, so the shock could be what the author was going for. So Iāll leave it up to the individual reader to decide.
Another drawback was the imbalance of description and action versus dialogue. Most of the story seems to be a back and forth of arguments between John and Mary. He wants to do something for her, she wants to do it herself, he insists, and then they make up. In my opinion, a lot of the dialogue could have been stripped down and more action could have taken place.Ā
Despite these oversights, I found this to be a very enjoyable read with a quick pace and a gripping story line that keeps the reader glued to their seat. I would recommend it to lovers of romance and suspenseful thrillers.