LOVE LIES BLEEDING: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
 LOVE LIES BLEEDING

BY JESS McCONKEY

ABOUT THE BOOK:

To what lengths would you go to keep a past buried?

Samantha Moore is the golden girl—with a perfect job, a perfect man, a perfect life—until a random act of violence changes everything. Unconscious for two months, Sam awakens from her coma a different person—bitter, in constant pain, and forced to endure medications that leave her nauseous, paranoid, and struggling to keep a grip on reality.

Furious with her family for sending her away to a small, remote town to recuperate—placed completely under a physical therapist’s care and robbed of what little freedom she has left—Sam lashes out at the “nice people” all around her who claim to have only her best interests in mind. But are her violent outbursts the by-product of her condition . . . or something else entirely? Strange things are happening here—and either Samantha Moore is losing her mind or her friendly new neighbors are far more dangerous than they appear to be. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jess McConkey is an award-winning writer of short fiction. She lives in a small Iowa town and is currently working on her next novel. You can find out more about Jess by checking out her website HERE. 

PRAISE FOR LOVE LIES BLEEDING:

In the vein of Jennifer McMahon’s Promise Not to Tell and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold  comes Love Lies Bleeding, a haunting story about the lengths to which people will go to keep their pasts buried. Jess McConkey (aka award-winning author Shirley Damsgaard) enthralls with her ingenious blending of family drama and gripping mystery. Suspenseful and absolutely chilling, Love Lies Bleeding grabs hold of the reader from page one, as a young woman whose golden life is shattered by unexpected violence is sent to a small, secluded lake town in Northern Minnesota to recover—and soon suspects the town’s eccentric residents are hiding more than one truly frightening secret.

--Harper Collins

“A riveting ride that will start your blood racing from the first line and keep you guessing until the last.”

— Kris Neri, author of Revenge for Old Time's Sake

 “Part mystery, part ghost story, Love Lies Bleeding takes readers on a spin-tingling trip into a disturbed mind and the lives of two women who must face their greatest fears--or die trying.”— Casey Daniels, author of A Hard Day's Fright  “Haunting, mysterious, and subtly romantic, this debut under Shirley Damsgaard’s psuedonym is inspirational and full of hope.”— RTBookreviews.com
MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW:
Jess McConkey’s LOVE LIES BLEEDING is a thriller that illustrates that even if you seem to have the perfect life, one thing can happen and all that can change. Main character Samantha is the girl everyone else wanted to be. She had it all as far as looks, love, and life. But nobody is immune to danger if it happens to be aimed at you. When Samantha is attacked by a gang and beaten over the head, she becomes an innocent victim just like anyone else can be. This is bad enough as it throws her into a coma for two months but gets worse as when she awakes and begins to recover, it is evident she will need full-time care.

Being very independent and liking to call the shots, Samantha is livid that everyone seems to be making decisions for her and since she is used to being in control, she lashes out. Her family and her fiancé set it up so that she will be taken to an out of the way, remote facility to recover. At this lake house center, Sam should be able to get the best of care, spend her time doing her painting as she is very artistic and loves that, and make a full recovery. However, this isn’t how things turn out. Sam doesn’t feel she can trust anyone as she become suspicious and filled with anxiety. At this point, one might say it is understandable as she recovers to feel these emotions.

BUT, with Sam feeling that she is unable to trust anyone, this could be more than her recovery. She may have a really good reason for this as odd things begin to happen. The community she has been placed in to recover seems to have a lot of people with a lot of secrets. Samantha comes to realize that she isn’t the only one who isn’t safe here. She does have Anne who is an interesting supporting character that is, let’s say, Samantha’s nurse. She is strong willed and sticks to her guns to help Sam get better and after a while, even Sam begins to like her. However, I am not sure anyone could like Sam’s fiancé Jackson. He seemed to have a very conceited attitude and treated everyone like he was better than them. He was a plastic surgeon and I felt like he was the kind of doctor who really did think he could play God with people’s life. I didn’t trust or like him.

The other supporting characters like Greg and Blanche all play a part in Samantha’s “recovery attempts” as well as in the mystery of what is really happening here. I was intrigued by the aura of some paranormal type activities in the story and found that the mystery in the book would unravel slowly and then suddenly hit you with a different turn. It was the kind of book I hated to put down mostly because it wasn’t a typical mystery and I wanted to know just what in the world was going on. I think fans of mystery and even paranormal (although there isn’t that much) will enjoy LOVE LIES BLEEDING.

 GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO MEGAN AND THE GOOD 

FOLKS AT HARPER COLLINS, I HAVE 

TWO COPIES OF THIS THRILLER TO

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