A chance encounter with a stranger traps Tessa within the mind of a madman. Tessa was born with a gift. Through a simple touch she picks up pieces of others. A “flash” of color devours her—the only indication that she’s gained something new from another person. Red equals pain; purple, a talent; yellow, a premonition; orange, a painful memory; and blue, a pleasant one. Each flash blurs the lines … flash blurs the lines between her inherent traits and those she’s acquired from others. Whenever she gains bits of something new, she loses more pieces of herself. While assisting in search efforts for a local missing college student, Tessa is paralyzed by a flash that rips through her like a lightning bolt, slicing apart her soul. A blinding light takes away her vision. A buzzing louder than any noise she’s ever heard overwhelms her, penetrates her mind. As the bolt works its way through her body, images and feelings from someone else take over. Women’s dead eyes stare at her as her hands encircle their throats. Their screams consume her mind. Memories of the brutal murders of five women invade her. Will she be able to find the killer and help save the next victim? Can she do so without completely losing herself? Bits & Pieces is a fast-paced, riveting Psychological Suspense with supernatural elements that leaves the reader guessing until the end.
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Everything about this book is beautiful. From the cover, to the characters, to the story line. It’s all absolutely brilliant! Dawn Hosmer has struck gold with this debut psychological thriller. She has jumped up into my top 5 favorite authors with one expertly crafted story. I can only hope that she has many more like it for us in the future!
Bits and Pieces by Dawn Elick Hosmer is a roller coaster ride for your psyche. I typically read mainstream mysteries or cozy mysteries, but this book is a suspenseful psychological thriller. The overall topic of the book dealt with self-identity and how family, environment, and society contribute to defining who we are as humans. The book was mostly plot driven which keeps the reader wanting to read more. There was a focus on characterization, especially with the protagonist and the antagonist in an unusual way, which added to a desire to want to keep reading. The author structured her argument for self-identity in clever ways by taking the reader back and forward in time and moving in and out of the physical and mental realms. While I’m not sure how many different readers will agree or disagree with the overall resolution, I do believe readers will enjoy the ride. When reading beyond the surface of this book, a reader will have an opportunity to create their own arguments about sympathy and empathy and what/who define a person. I do believe this book should have an age restriction due to graphic language and violence in certain scenes. I would recommend this book to those readers who love psychological thrillers, suspense, and crime novels.
This is an incredible book and it drew me in right from the first page! It’s a psychological thriller and so much more. I loved the characters and I was intrigued by everything that happened and surprised at the end! Highly recommend!
This book was just…INCREDIBLE! Once I started it I just couldn’t stop. It wasn’t like anything I have ever read before and I especially loved that it didn’t even feel like I was reading it. I was transported instantly into Tessa and her complicated and terrifying world. This was an emotional roller-coaster of family drama, loss, self-discovery, and personal growth. Not only does the book cover tie in perfectly, but the story as whole leaves zero loose ends. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers, mysteries, or contemporary reads.
Author Hosmer takes on a suspenseful paranormal journey with main character, Tessa. She is gifted with a power that gives insights to a person simply by touch—and she can feel physical pains, mental anguish, joys, never knowing what to expect. Tessa isolates herself from an ordinary life after being branded different, mental, attention seeking—her parents and siblings won’t acknowledge her gift and distance themselves from her, except for her brother Cyle.
As a young woman, Tessa struggles to maintain her sanity as she tries to deal with her gift as an adult. She longs for relationships, but is afraid of what might be revealed if she dares to expose herself, going to the extremes of wearing gloves and avoiding crowds to minimize physical contact with others. Tessa’s one escape is her paintings where she tries to bring to life through colors the experiences and emotions she experiences by touch. Her therapist challenges her to take small social steps into the outside world, and when she does, Tessa experiences the first pangs of love and desire, and the evil mind of a serial killer.
As her mental world collapses, Tessa fights to understand her feelings and insights, and put an end to the serial killer’s demented acts–even if it turns out to be the man she loves. Will she get the break through needed to bring justice in time? Or will she end up a victim of an evil killer who wants to dominate her mind and body? A thrilling read with many unexpected twists!
I’m a bit overwhelmed writing this review because, well, I just absolutely loved this book. This seems like an understatement, considering the amazing journey I just experienced through Tessa’s eyes.
Let me start by saying that I’m a voracious reader. Always have been; always will be. I love getting lost in a book and experiencing the world through someone else’s POV. I think it’s an incredible way to broaden one’s perspective and evolve in our world view. Although I love and enjoy many books, there are few that I connect with so viscerally that I actually FEEL it in my bones, on my skin and in the veins that pound a bit harder as I read. Since that is quite rare, when I find it, I’m a bit in awe. As I am now.
From the first page, I got that tingly feeling on my skin and my heartbeat sped up a bit. I got excited and did an internal fist pump because I knew I’d found a book that was going to give me that visceral reaction. Our heroine, Tessa, has a terrible curse, or a wonderful gift, depending on how you look at it. That dichotomy pretty much defines the entire book. The reader is always torn in half, wrestling with the brilliance of Tessa’s strengths and the dark underside of her unwanted abilities. The battle within her spills out into the world, to her fractured relationships and heartbreaking attempts at being “normal”. The story pulls at those fears that live inside of each of us: the desire to hide from the world; the false beliefs we learned as children; the inability to form fully functional adult relationships. The reader feels such a connection with Tessa or, at least, this reader did.
Discovering this book reminded me of the first time I discovered Nora Roberts. Or, to be more specific, the first time Nora branched out into writing romantic suspense, with all those awesome heroines who have psychic abilities and whatnot. I was terrified I wouldn’t like those books but ended up loving them. Bits and Pieces is on par with any Nora Roberts book and fans of hers should add it to their TBR immediately. As a huge NR fan, that’s a high compliment.
I believe this is the author’s debut novel and look forward to hopefully reading more from her in the future. If there were 6 stars, I’d go with that, but since I can give only 5, I’ll just say add this one to your list ASAP!
Once you start reading, you will be unable to out the book down! Strong characters and the story line was great and never rushed!!
This novel was introduced to me via Twitter at my first #writerslift, I asked for #darkfiction and, I certainly got it with this one.
Tessa was born with the ability to see flashes at a simple touch of another person. Different colours represent different things, e.g. red = pain, yellow = a premonition, blue = a pleasant memory. As you can imagine, life for Tessa isn’t peachy and she wears gloves when she goes out in public to avoid flashes as the memories and emotions can take a lot out of her. She lives near Cardell University where she takes part in a search party for a missing student. Tessa receives a lightning bolt flash and begins to see images of murdered women, then she starts to envision herself in the killer’s shoes. The hunter is close. Will Tessa be able to find the killer before they strike again? Can she save herself?
This is an independent published work. I was really impressed with the writing, the editing, the book cover art, the pacing and the story kept me guessing.
Five stars Well done Ms Hosmer!
A few years back, I ran a short-lived book subscription box called Indie Book Box. As part of running that service, I had to sort through a ton of independent books to find some diamonds in the rough to feature for our readers. Of course, it wasn’t possible to read every single book … so I relied a lot on recommendations, reader reviews, and reading snippets of the writing myself in choosing what books we featured.
Dawn Hosmer’s ‘Bits & Pieces’ is one of the first books we featured … though up until recently, I had never personally read it.
And now, I feel like an idiot. Not because I should have read it before featuring it, but because I missed out on an AMAZING read for far too long.
If you’re any sort of fan of domestic thrillers, suspense, or murder mysteries (think Girl on the Train, I Am Watching You, or even Silence of the Lambs), this book is an absolute must-read. The main character possesses a “gift” of being able to see colors related to the personalities of people she touches … and sometimes that includes picking up pieces of their personalities or memories as well.
I’m sure you can already see how this uninvited intrusion of someone else’s inner being into your own could be … problematic. Well, it’s a hell of a lot worse when you come in contact with a serial killer.
And that’s what Bits & Pieces is. It’s a pretty intense whodunit starring everyday people (albeit gifted), who are thrown into extraordinary and unwelcome circumstances.
It’s remarkably well-written and kept me reading pretty much nonstop since I picked it up. And, although something like the 35th book I’ve read in 2021, it was absolutely the fastest as well. I tore through this thing – including staying up late to read, which is something I’ve done less and less of as I get older.
The only negative I can possibly come up with from reading Bits & Pieces is that Dawn engrossed me so completely that I basically took a few days off from writing my own books. I just so badly wanted to see what would happen next and how it would all end that I put my own writing aside, and used that time for extra reading.
Anyway, if you skipped all the way to the end to see how I close this review, here’s the takeaway: just go buy it and read it (but be ready for some intense scenes, including sexual assault).
Absolutely five stars from me.
Bits and Pieces is a thriller that will captivate any audience!
Featuring Tessa, a woman with a unique ability to take something from someone when she touches them, whether it’s a talent, a memory, or an addiction, Tessa no longer knows who she is, and this struggle becomes much more intense when she accidentally touches a serial killer.
Desperate to regain some part of herself, Tessa tries to find the murderer while resisting the urge to hurt people herself. Focusing on themes of self-doubt, insecurities, and fear, Bits and Pieces is a relatable read, even though Tessa’s ability is very unique.
I adored this story. I’ve never read anything quite like it! Tessa is a unique and likable heroine, and her struggle between finding herself and letting others in was something I feel that a lot of us can understand.
Filled with twists and turns that I never saw coming, Bits and Pieces is reminiscing of an M. Night Shyamalan film. The ending caught me entirely by surprise! I never saw it coming!
Although I didn’t love the narrator for the Audible version of this book, I will definitely be reading more by this author very soon!
Tessa’s gift appears more like a curse. When she comes in contact with someone, a part of them could
become a part of her. For most of her life this is overwhelming but not unbearable. It isn’t until she bumps into a torturous murderer that she questions her sanity like never before.
Let me start by saying this book is dark. Trigger warning alert. That being said, I felt the dark and
descriptive scenes were very necessary in order to understand the intensity of being in Tessa’s head as she began to lose herself. The vivid imagery throughout the whole novel kept me pulled in and reading on. I loved the connection Tessa had with the secondary characters. The ending totally threw me for a loop in some ways, but in others I felt it was too easy. Rumor of a sequel has me anxious for a continuation of this roller coaster of emotions.
Overall, I really did enjoy this book. I dove in without knowing much about the story line and was
pleasantly surprised. Kudos to the author! I’m ready for more!
An inventive, dark, and well crafted thriller. I highly recommend it.
I didn’t know much about this before diving into it, I was sold by the beautiful cover and everyone else raving about it. What I knew was that there was some person who received flashes of color when they got close to other people, so they had some kind of ability. And I wasn’t far off! From the official blurb:
Tessa was born with a gift. Through a simple touch she picks up pieces of others. A “flash” of color devours her—the only indication that she’s gained something new from another person. Red equals pain; purple, a talent; yellow, a premonition; orange, a painful memory; and blue, a pleasant one. Each flash blurs the lines between her inherent traits and those she’s acquired from others. Whenever she gains bits of something new, she loses more pieces of herself.
As you can probably guess, Tessa struggles with this gift. She avoids interacting with other people, she distances herself from her family, she goes to therapy. It’s hard to make a life for yourself and know who you are, when half of it is stuff you’ve picked up from others. And it gets especially hard when you can’t remember which is which.
I was hooked from the beginning. The plot is intriguing and Hosmer’s writing is captivating. It’s beautiful and playful, but also so incredibly real and brutal (damn, Dawn!) I usually struggle with reading 1st person for a little while, like for every book that has it, I have to adapt for a few chapters, but that wasn’t the case here at all. I was hooked immediately. For a little while, I was worried the book was going to be a bit slow. I felt like maybe we were getting a bit too far into the book without getting into the story, but I was still turning page after page, so it wasn’t that it was boring!
For a while I thought I had figured it all out, then I thought I’d be disappointed, and then I was just utterly impressed. This book is so superb, I think I actually had a stunned “Oh my God”-look on my face while I read certain parts. It’s incredible.
I am so glad I read Bits & Pieces by Dawn Hosmer. I love a good psychological suspense and Hosmer did not disappoint. The story stayed in my head and took over my dreams. I loved all the characters, minus the one tormenting her. If you’re looking for a book to suck you in and make you feel, this is the one. I even cried.
Did not see that one coming– Wow!
Because I’m a sucker for most psychological thrillers, my standards for what makes a great one is pretty high, and Bits and Pieces delivered in spades! It kept me guessing, kept my heart pulsing, and my finger moving those pages along. It was crushing, heartbreaking, and hopeful in all the right places. It’s the kind of story you read, and when you’re interrupted, you shoot the death glare at whatever or whomever interrupted you.
Something else I really enjoyed was that the main character was perfectly flawed but still likeable, and I was completely intrigued by her special gift… especially when it throws her a most mind-boggling mental curve ball. Petrifying. It blew my mind, and I just wanted her to find out who was guilty. I want to say more, but I can’t because I don’t want to give away parts of the story. So instead, I’m just going to say, if you’re a psychological thriller fan, read this! You won’t be disappointed.
This was a genre bending book with thriller, crime, mystery, suspense and paranormal flavors with a dash of romance. It was well plotted, paced and written. The idea is quite unique and unlike anything I’ve read before. There is a twist near the end that I didn’t see coming. *MIND BLOWN.* Many times I felt sad for the main character and I’m interested to see if she’ll pop up in any of Hosmer’s other books (hint, hint, wink.)
What Did I Just Listen to? Bits & Pieces: a Mind-Numbingly Brilliant Thriller
Hopefully that review title intrigued you. Because we’re about to explore Bits & Pieces, a novel written by Dawn Hosmer.
I listened to it on audiobook (though I also own the paperback), and WOW. What a novel.
Let’s start with a clear CONTENT WARNING. Bits & Pieces contains incredibly graphic scenes of sexual violence. Read (or listen to) this novel at your own risk.
Bits & Pieces follows Tessa, a young woman with an extraordinary gift. This is one of those novels where reviews really shouldn’t give away specific details, because this book’s narrative relies on its twists and turns. But I’ll do my best. The story begins with Tessa’s ordinary life, complicated by her insane gift. She wants love and companionship, but her mind won’t let her experience those to their fullest extent.
And through Tessa’s gift, she’s thrown into a whirlwind of an adventure where she uncovers the truth about particular crimes throughout her community… but will it destroy her in the process?
Listening to Bits & Pieces on audiobook, I enjoyed the witty writing and focused first-person POV, all from Tessa’s perspective. However, the narrator’s pacing was inconsistent throughout (though one particular chapter stands out as significantly better than the rest). The narrator was good at giving Tessa personality, but sometimes she lacked in giving voice to other characters. And sometimes, words would cut in and out at different volumes.
The critiques of the narrator aside, Dawn Hosmer’s words draw you in through every chapter. Just enough suspense, just enough characterization, just enough style to keep the words moving at a pace deserving of the story.
If you’re looking for a psychological thriller exploring the human condition through a novel lens, Bits & Pieces is for you. I usually don’t like thrillers of this style, so the fact I enjoyed Bits & Pieces should say quite a bit about its gripping and compelling nature.
Writing: 9/10. Excellent voice and POV.
Characters: 8/10. Loved Tessa. Other characters were good, but they were overshadowed by Tessa.
Setting: 7/10. Typical small university town, nothing special. It worked well for the story.
Plot: 10/10. Every word mattered, every word drove the story, every character fit in perfectly.
Overall: 8.5/10. Round that up to 9 and we’ve got a clear 5 stars!
Tessa’s story was incredible to listen to on audio. As a character she was so different from any that I’ve read and I found that quite refreshing. Growing up with a gift that no one understands or believes would be difficult to say the least. While some parts of her gift would be considered an added perk (becoming fluent in French over night) the darker parts were very much a burden. Seeing flashes of a killer’s mind is one thing but living through the horror they create in what appears to be real-time is intense. The details were gut wrenching but made the story feel real and created a full picture of what Tessa was battling. Uexpected twists throughout the book were an added bonus. The idea of our loved one’s always being with us in our time of need was touching and seeing Tessa’s gift which had driven her away from people bring people into her life was the icing on top for me. An excellent thriller to say the least!
I really wanted to make time to read this, so bought both the paperback and audiobook so I could switch between. This is the first time I’ve tried something like that, but for me it heightened the experience.
Straight off the bat Dawn’s cover ensnared my attention. Beautifully executed, and so gorgeous I’m glad I can have this on my shelf.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I took the leap into Tess’s world, but I was immediately drawn in by how lived-in the world felt.
The author did an incredible job at explaining the impossible abilities Tess was cursed with. And just like a proton pack or DeLorean it was a joy not to need to know how it worked, just that it did.
It never, not once, felt hokey or false. And as the mystery unravelled I found myself falling down the rabbit hole with Tess. The sheer ferocity of the protagonist’s shift between personality traits both innate and absorbed was at times hilarious, but mostly chilling and horrifying.
This is where the audiobook came into its own. The narrator has remarkable talent. And I found myself switching to the audio version just to hear her rendition of Tess going absolutely batshit. Because it was deliciously portrayed.
Several times I found myself rubber-banding over who the big bad was, and I was wrong each time.
Dawn’s approach to drawing the reader into the mind of a killer was incredible. There’s a kinetic flow to the insanity as it builds into a crescendo. It made me uncomfortable in the best possible way. Because deep down I wanted to know more, about what drives a person to do the unspeakable. Tess’s internal battle with staying true to herself and allowing the thoughts of another to take the wheel was fascinating.
Every character was a delight to spend time with, well rounded with wonderful back stories. I can’t wait to dive in to Dawn’s next book, The End of Echoes.
Well written, well structured, Dawn is a writer to keep your eye on.
Wow. Just, wow. That’s the first word that came to mind when I finished reading Bits and Pieces by Dawn Hosmer. Dawn has a fantastic way of pulling you into this story and making you feel like you are a part of each scene. I found myself rooting for the main character, Tessa, from the very begging. The story is unique and has enough twists and turns to hold your interest without having the story be convoluted or choppy.
This book was quite a departure from my regular genre choice, but it didn’t let me down. It reminded me of the novel The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn with all the suspense and the “whodunit” style, but had one significant difference, Bits and Pieces didn’t drag for me. I never wanted to put it down. Dawn was able to tell a very compelling and dark story without being redundant. The flow was superb. I was on the edge of my seat, so to speak, the entire read.
The only negative, (and I don’t see it as a negative but some might) is the sexual violence necessary to tell this story. There is a trigger warning for the book and rightly so.
This book has something for everyone: supernatural, intrigue, romance, action, family issues…the list goes on and on. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are in a book club and have friends, you can discuss all the intricacies of the story.