She was born with an extraordinary ability … and while she tries to hide it, others seek to control it. Who will win this deadly zero-sum game?Rock breaks scissors. Scissors cut paper. Paper covers rock. The rules are simple—except when it’s people’s lives at stake.When Lizzy’s parents discover the damage she can do with her mind, they hide her away, trying to save her from life as a human lab … as a human lab rat … and trying to save others from her power.
But they can’t hide her forever.
Little do they know that professed friends are actually enemies who will eliminate anyone who gets in the way of their goal of turning Lizzy’s power to their own ends.
As her protectors are picked off one by one, will Lizzy be able to escape from this deadly zero-sum game?
Find out now in this first installment of the Lizzy Ballard Thrillers Trilogy!
more
I received this book for free. I am voluntarily leaving this review and all opinions expressed herein are mine.
This is the first book in the Lizzie Ballard Thriller series. It is a standalone story with no cliffhanger ending but it does have a setup for the next book in the series.
Here, Patrick and Charlotte Ballard are trying to start a family but experiencing fertility issues. Upon the recommendation of a friend, they visit a fertility clinic. Soon, the Ballards have a daughter, Lizzie. However, Charlotte begins to experience headaches every time Lizzie gets angry. The headaches get more and more intense until Charlotte is diagnosed with having had several mini-strokes. They hire a housekeeper, who unbeknownst to the Ballards is being paid by the fertility clinic to watch and report on Lizzie. Charlotte figures out that Lizzie has a gift which has caused Charlotte’s health problems – so the Ballards determine they must keep Lizzie and society safe by isolating her and trying to teach her how to control her powers but it’s not that simple as there are those who want to use Lizzie’s powers and others who want to harm her.
This is a well-written gripping thriller, which slowly unfolds and reveals Lizzie’s true powers. The characters are well-developed and likeable. While Lizzie is incredibly bright, she is also very naive and innocent – which was a great dichotomy as Lizzie was trying to figure out her way in the world and who she could trust. Overall, an engaging and very entertaining story.
I listened to this book – that narrator did a very good job – she did voices for the various characters so you could easily differentiate them during conversations. I also liked as the suspense would increase in the story, the narrator’s voice would rachet up the tension and pace of her narration.
What if you could kill someone with just a thought? What if your anger held deadly consequences for those around you? This is the basis of Rock Paper Scissors, the first book in the Lizzy Ballard series from West Chester author, Matty Dalrymple.
Young Lizzy Ballard has the unique, and deadly, ability to kill with her mind. She doesn’t want to hurt people, but when Lizzy gets angry, she lacks control over who becomes the victim of her wrath. Her parents, fearing that she’ll become stolen away for scientific study, hide their daughter away from the rest of the world. But someone wants to control Lizzy’s ability and they’ll let no one stand between them and the young girl.
Rock Paper Scissors is a complex game of cat-and-mouse that is a fast-paced, gripping, and oh-so-delicious thriller. Dalrymple weaves a tale that is almost as heartbreaking as it is riveting. She is particularly adapt at bringing the world around her characters to life. The scenes in the book often leap from the page, giving the reader a vivid sense of being there.
Being the first book in the a series, Rock Paper Scissors ends with many threads left unresolved, which will send many readers scampering to get their hands on the second book in the series.
Love these books.
Dalrymple’s writing is fast-paced and compelling and her characters are human and easy to relate to. The main character, Lizzy, is both mature beyond her years but also sheltered and naive about much of life, which makes her even more interesting as she attempts to deal with the ability she has. I found her compelling, engaging, smart, and fascinating and can’t wait to read more of her story.
A paranormal themed book with touches of horror combined for a captivating thriller. The plot concerns a young girl who develops the psychic ability that causes a person to have a stroke when she gets angry and the fertility clinic that created her known as the Vivantem which seeks to control the genetically altered children.
The first half of the book is pretty fast tracked. We first met Patrick and Charlotte Ballard, a married couple who have had a hard time conceiving. Patrick goes to his best friend Owen McNally who is a Dr of Neurology at Penn University where Patrick also works in the IT department. Owen recommends Patrick to Gerald Bonnay who along with being a businessman with political aspirations also heads a fertility clinic with his wife Louise who runs the medical part of the clinic. Owen had no idea that Gerald and Louise were looking for test subjects to try and breed genetically altered children who in the future the could control for nefarious purposes.
Here is where the fast tracking comes in. For the first half of the book each chapter moves the story ahead a couple years. After Charlotte has one to many headaches and blackouts its determined she has had an extremely high volume of mini strokes. Charlotte is the first one to put together that it’s her young daughter that is causing them each time she has a temper tantrum (when she was a toddler) or gets angry as an adolescent. Lizzy is to young to control her emotions and isn’t quite aware yet of her abilities and the harm it causes..
By the middle of the book Lizzy is 16 and her life has been upended tragically multiple times. I will stop here as anything else would be to spoilerish. This is just the first book in the series and takes us through Lizzy’s life from preconception to 18 years old. It does have a bit of a cliffy ending but it won’t be long before the next book is out.
Rock Paper Scissors by Matty Dalrymple.
Great thriller and loved the original storyline. Kept me on the edge throughout.
Not too bad
This book was simply to violent for me. I could not finish it.