After barely escaping from a toxic relationship with a drug dealer, emotionally codependent Leigh decides to start her life over somewhere far from the hills of Kentucky. She feels inexplicably drawn to Hawaii, where she manages to land a job in an exclusive resort.
At first, it almost seems too good to be true, and of course, it is. Supernatural horrors start manifesting all around Leigh and her new co-workers, and soon she starts having disturbing nightmares of impossible creatures calling out to her. To make matters worse, Leighâs violent ex-boyfriend is close on her tail, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
"An edge of your seat page-turner."
"An intriguing supernatural thriller with lots of horror elements, keeping THIS reader flipping pages till the very end."
Now trapped in the midst of all these dangers, Leigh can't help but fall back on old habits. She finds comfort in the arms of her new boss, an upbeat hospitality manager who seems almost too perfect. In order to survive paradise, Leigh will need to learn from her past mistakes or she will be doomed to repeat them.
After barely escaping from a toxic relationship with a drug dealer, emotionally codependent Leigh decides to start her life over somewhere far from the hills of Kentucky. She feels inexplicably drawn to Hawaii, where she manages to land a job in an exclusive resort.
At first, it almost seems too good to be true, and of course, it is. Supernatural horrors start manifesting all around Leigh and her new co-workers, and soon she starts having disturbing nightmares of impossible creatures calling out to her. To make matters worse, Leighâs violent ex-boyfriend is close on her tail, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
"An edge of your seat page-turner."
"An intriguing supernatural thriller with lots of horror elements, keeping THIS reader flipping pages till the very end."
Now trapped in the midst of all these dangers, Leigh can't help but fall back on old habits. She finds comfort in the arms of her new boss, an upbeat hospitality manager who seems almost too perfect. In order to survive paradise, Leigh will need to learn from her past mistakes or she will be doomed to repeat them.
I RUSH OUT OF THE rusty trailer after Jesse. Heâs already climbing into his truck, and I kick up a cloud of dust trying to reach him. Itâs barely spring, but everything feels hotter when youâre stuck in rural Kentucky. Aside from the Peacock familyâs cluster of trailers in this stretch of country, there is nothing within five miles but hills of dirt.
âJesse, wait.â
He slams the door shut just as I reach him. Panic cracks across my chest. My knees threaten to buckle. I look him in the eyes, rapping my fist against the side window until he finally rolls it down.
âI canât have you making this any worse than it needs to be, Leigh. Not today,â Jesse says. âWe all need to do our part, and that donât mean you can get out of it just because youâre my gal.â I can barely see his dark eyes under his heavy brows.
âCanât I just come with you, and then weâll both
make the drop-off together?â
He looks down at me, his expression as flat as his other features. Only his eyes show any sign of hurt or worry that nobody else can catch but me.
âLook sweetheart, you know I wouldnât have you doing this on your own if thereâs any way around it. I promise, nothingâs gonna go wrong. The Gorch brothers are no different than Mackie, Slim Jim, or any other boys youâve delivered to before.â
âBut these guys are all the way out in Owsley,â I say. âThatâs at least a four-hour drive from here. Iâve never even heard of the Gorches before. Do you even know anyone that can vouch for them?â
âTheyâre decent enough folk from what I hear. A little squirrely, but nothing dangerous. Whatâs more important is theyâre willing to take everything we got ASAP,â he says.
âBut Mackieâs seen you make deliveries with me before. He knows what would happen to him if he tried to lay a finger on me. And hell, even I could take down Slim Jim. We donât know anything about these guys. Doesnât that make you nervous?â My words make about as much impact on Jesse as the dust settling on my feet.
âWe donât got any choice,â he says, his voice rising in frustration. He promised not to take that tone with me anymore, though it wouldnât do me any good to call him on it. Especially now, when his day has already been so rough. The way Jesse stares at me makes me feel like heâs probing inside my head, figuring out what to say to get what he wants. He finds it, just like he always does. âI need you to do this for the family. Everyoneâs depending on you. Me and Uncle Mel, weâve been good to you, right?â
âYeah, I guess so.â He aims for guilt, a surefire way to the heart. And whatâs worse, heâs not wrong. Well, at least not totally. As shit of a situation Iâm in right now, I canât imagine how much worse off Iâd be if it hadnât been for Jesse and his uncle. Of course, that was before they manipulated me into becoming a delivery person for their trailer park meth lab.
âWhen you didnât have nowhere else to go, we took you in and treated you like one of our own, right? Got you fixed up and put a roof over your head?â
He smiles as he watches the fight go out of my eyes.
âYeah.â
âThe family needs you to step up today just like the rest of us are. We all got shit we donât want to do, but itâs got to be done, and itâs got to be done now.â Heâs not lying. Todayâs been an absolute shitshow for the Peacock family, and without some damage control, it could mean serious jail time for Jesse and Mel. Maybe even for me too, depending on how this turns out.
âCan I at least borrow a gun, just in case?â I ask.
Jesse sighs. His already thin patience is worn to its
last strands. âIn case of what?â
âIn case they try to rob me, or rape and murder me.â
He laughs in my face. âRape and murder you? Youâve seen too many movies. Nobody around here gets ideas like that. Most of them already got permanent limp-dick from being on that shit too long anyways.â
âThatâs easy to say when youâre six-foot-three and built like a redwood. Itâs a little different as a girl showing up at a strangerâs house, all alone, with thirty thousand dollarsâ worth of meth hidden in the back of a van. Iâm serious, Jesse. You already made it clear I canât bring a phone with me because of government tracking or whatever.â
âNot this again.â
âIâm not trying to fight you. Iâm just saying if I canât have a phone to call for help, I need to have at least something for security. Christ, you donât even let me carry pepper spray.â
Jesse gives me an impatient look and then checks his wristwatch. âFine, you can take one of the nine millimeters in my bedside drawer.â I turn toward the trailer, but his massive hand grips my forearm like a vice and tugs me to face him. âDonât lose it. I already got enough shit to deal with today.â
âI wonât. Whatâs the combination to your ammo safe?â
He gives me a pitying look, making me feel small and stupid for asking. âAinât no way Iâm telling you that, sugar. You can take the gun for your peace of mind, but the last thing I need is you getting hysterical and putting bullets into some good folk because youâre feeling twitchy.â He checks his watch for the second time in the past minute. âI gotta get moving, Leigh. I wrote down directions from MapQuest on a sticky note. Just relax about the whole thing, and youâll get through it just fine.â
I plant my feet and try to yank my arm out of Jesseâs hand, putting all hundred and nothing pounds of my weight into it. I might as well be trying to pull a brick out of a wall. Eventually, he lets go, and the sudden release makes me stumble back a few steps. A glimmer of petty amusement flashes across his eyes, but itâs gone just as quickly as it appears.
âFine,â I say, biting my tongue. Pushing this conversation any further would only end in us being even more upset. I turn and start heading back to the trailer.
âHey, hold up a second. I love you.â He only says that to me when heâs in trouble or needs me to do something rotten for him. Right now, itâs both. I pretend not to hear him as I climb back into the crappy trailer Iâve been calling home for the past year.
Iâm starting to get the itch. Itâs a feeling I get when Iâve been in a situation long enough to know that things are falling apart. Itâs a crawling, prickling sensation just under the skin, constantly drawing my attention. Itâs an itch thatâs next to impossible to satisfy. The longer I spend scratching at it, the more damage I end up doing to myself. I know this pattern well, yet I keep standing there silently screaming to myself as I dig deeper and deeper until it becomes this infection in my heart that has to be cut out entirely before I rip myself apart.
I grab my black duffel bag from under the bed and toss in all my clothes from the closet. I pack up my makeup supplies from the tiny cupboard above the sink and drop them in, too. Most of my worldly possessions donât add up to much more than basic clothes and makeup, nothing special. The only exceptions lie wrapped in tissue paper at the bottom of the bagâa series of souvenir snow globes from places like Miami, Yellowstone, Chicago, and Alberta. Sixteen in total. Some of the places I donât even remember, others just a few bits and pieces. Theyâre the only mementos I have of my parents. The only proof that at some point in the last twenty-four years, I had people who actually cared about me. Most of the snow globes are dried out now, their white plastic flakes permanently glued to the models inside, slowly fading like the memories of the people who gave them to me.
Thereâs some catharsis in just going through the motionsâloading up everything I own into one bag and pretending like thatâs all it takes to leave. Most times, itâs enough to soothe the itch for a while, like a cortisone cream for the soul.
This is the third time Iâve packed up since living with Jesse. My record was with Tyler, the âentrepreneur.â I packed up five times with him, and we werenât even together a full year. With Jesse, Iâd always ended up putting everything back in its place before he came home, but this time, I think Iâll take the bag to keep me company. Jesse is so preoccupied trying to hide his little meth empire from the cops that Iâm guessing he wonât even notice my things are gone. If he does, Iâll just tell him when I get back that it serves him right for guilting me into risking my life for his stupid family business.
In Jesseâs bedside drawer, I find several small black pistols. I grab one and inspect it. The damn thing doesnât even come with an unloaded clipâjust an empty promise that practically advertises that itâs incomplete without something inside of it. I slip the piece into the duffel bag anyway.
Outside of the trailer thereâs a VW bus, a rusted green monstrosity from the seventies that belongs to Uncle Mel. Jesseâs managed to keep it limping along with what mechanics skills he has. I toss my bag in the van and lift the rug off the false floor in the back corner. Inside the secret compartment are brick-shaped packets covered in cling wrap. Even though Iâve made over half a dozen deliveries by now, Iâm always shocked to see the stuff in person. It never quite feels real, more like something out of a movie. Still, part of me must recognize it for what it is, as my arms prickle with gooseflesh.
According to the sticky note on the dashboard, the Gorches are even further than I thoughtâalmost a six-hour drive to where the exchange is supposed to happen. I check the clock on the dashboard; itâs just past nine in the morning. If Iâm lucky, Iâll make it back alive. If Iâm really lucky, Iâll make it back before dark.
Leigh is the stereotypical troubled young lady who keeps getting caught up in relationships with bad boys. We join Leigh and Jesse - the latest bad boy - as they discuss and argue over, a meth deal Leigh is about to go on. Of course, itâs the bad boyâs drug deal, and Leigh is the willing participant.
She tries to be firm and get the deal done quickly, but as soon as she gave them the slightest hint of the upper hand, she knew this could turn troublesome. It doesn't take long for the deal to go downhill, and Leigh finds herself fighting for what appears to be her life against a couple of methhead brothers.
At the conclusion of this incident, Leigh freaks out and decides to do a runner. Turns out Leigh is no stranger to running away when problems, or rather, her decisions, make life turbulent. She reminisces about the ghosts of boyfriends and situations past. In which one of these past scenarios, Jesse saved her.
She runs to Hawaii and reinvents herself as Lani Kouihu, working in a resort as a pool attendant. Jesse turns into Columbo and heads off in her trail, carrying out his own investigation into the not-so-mysterious yet still puzzling disappearance of Leigh. Jesse is a violent, scary dude. Will he catch up with her? Will he find out the truth about what happened?
Each chapter begins from the perspective of one of our three lead characters. I like it when a story jumps back and forth from person to person. Not only that but the story is narrated in the first person. This is a format that always keeps me engaged and wanting to continue reading each time a chapter comes to an end.
Now and again, the story hints at who The Island Mother is. After the first few spooky and strange goings-on, you may become sure who this person is. However, all may not be as it seems. Are the new people in Leigh's life really trustworthy?
You canât help but feel for Leigh. You can tell sheâs been battle-hardened from years of dealing with the consequences of rough relationships and life struggles. Sheâs tough and can take care of herself, but part of you just wants her to find peace.
On that note, a word of caution must go out that there could be potentially triggering material contained within for those who have experienced or are recovering from abusive relationships. Not that Leigh experiences any in the book, per se, but one of the themes of the story is that of the tragic past relationships, and the violent boyfriend.
Having said that, The Island Mother will entertain. For the most part, it has somewhat of a familiar feeling to it. It feels like a movie youâve seen before about the runaway girlfriend, chased by a concerned but psychopathic boyfriend.
Donât get too comfortable, though, because just when you think you know where this story is going, it takes a series of creepy, curious, and unexpected turns.