Promotions Manager, Ava Reese, has all she ever wanted: a fantastic husband, a great job, a good life. But her past haunts her. Although she thought she had left the darkness behind long ago, her dreams start to haunt her during the day, making her question everything she has.Ava hopes that meeting with her best friend, Paige, will help her find peace again. Can they put Ava’s dreams to rest, or … dreams to rest, or will the past destroy everything Ava has so carefully built?
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Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I purchased my copy of this book.
Imagine meeting your best friend for coffee and telling her something that happened ten years before, something that could possibly cost you her friendship.
Because, at it’s most basic, that’s what this is : two old friends, best friends, meeting for coffee and Ava has to tell Paige something that happened ten years ago, when they were estranged, something that she NEEDS to say, but knows that Paige might not, hell, she WON’T like it, but she needs to know.
At it’s most complex?? It’s the story of a woman who falls in love with an abusive partner and her fight to get out and away from that partner. The abuse is not physical, it’s emotional, it’s mental, it is total in it’s destruction of Ava of old. It is total in cutting Ava off from everything and everyone she knows. It reduces her to a woman who, while maybe at the back of her mind knows that what is happening to her is not right, this marriage is not how it should be, she cannot be anything else but his wife. She knows no one will want her, because James tells her so.
But Ava finds a friend at work who is not letting her wallow, is not letting go, and Jacob helps Ava. And Ava has been dreaming about Jacob, which is what prompted this coffee shop meeting, and it all coming tumbling out of Ava.
It is beautifully written, painful reading though. While not told in great detail, there is some reference to Ava’s abuse, to what James did, what he made her do. I had to keep putting it down, it made me cry in many places. It’s not very long, but because I had to keep putting it down, it took me all day to read the 67 pages here. But so beautifully written!
Cutting extremely close to home on two fronts.
Because someone close to me went through what Ava did, but her abuse was physical, as well as mental. I watched her cutting us off, one by one, those closest to her first, and then spreading out, just as his tentacles spread out. And there was nothing we could do to stop it. We tried, oh Lord we tried, but she was in love. We had to wait til she came to the same conclusion, and wait for her to act on her own. She did. It just took a bit of time.
And because I know Ava, because I AM Paige. Finding out a wonderful day spent in amazing company last October was the inspiration for this book made me cry. Made me feel incredibly proud to be part of this book, made me feel incredibly proud of Ms Sheppard.
I cannot express, not really, how much this book affected me. But you should know that…
IT
IS
AMAZING!
5 full and shiny stars
**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
This was a short story, but oh it packed a punch. Ava has had a painful history, one her friend Paige did not know the extent of until this day when she meets her for coffee, she also lets us the readers into her painful past and a tiny friendship spark that was her hope. I liked it.
Disjointed Lives is the first non-fantasy story from Morgan Sheppard. It is only a short story, based around two friends meeting for coffee, and one of them needing help. It does mention gas lighting and mental/emotional abuse, but without going into too much detail.
One of the things that is becoming clear is that Morgan Sheppard writes character based stories. The world building is very good, but what gives these stories the emotion behind them, is the characters. They are completely relate-able, with foibles and quirks that readers will recognise in themselves and those they know.
Whether you like fantasy or contemporary/women’s fiction, I would definitely recommend this book, and others by this author.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books!