Susan Allison-Dean is now on tour with CLP Book Tours with her book, I Know You're There. Please visit her tour page for more blog stops.
by Susan Allison-Dean
Genre: Chick Lit
Publication: October 2013
Source: ARC, CLP Blog Tours
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Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Jill Bradley is a twenty-four-year-old nurse whose life is going great; she has established herself in her new career and she’s looking forward to getting engaged to her high school sweetheart. But faced with a watershed moment, she has to deal with simultaneous family tragedy, injury, and betrayal, and feels it’s way too much to cope with. In a moment of despair, Jill books a trip to a Caribbean island in an effort to escape. While she finds respite and romance, her problems have also packed their own suitcase.
Helen Bradley, Jill’s mother dedicated her entire life to her family like many mothers in the 1970’s and 80’s. Despite her best efforts, however, she hasn’t always been able to be the type of mother she wished she could be. She has a secret she was hoping would just go away, but it won’t. If she doesn’t share it with Jill it might bring her daughter more harm.
I Know You’re There is a mother-daughter journey, celebrating the highs and delving into the lows of family life. Can the power of love heal all things?
I received a copy of I Know You're There by Susan Allison-Dean from the author/CLP Blog Tours as part of the blog tour.
Jill Bradley had a great life. She’s had her career as a nurse and looking forward to getting engaged to her high school sweetheart. Her life changed forever after one night working a double shift. She was involved in an accident that killed a couple traveling to the hospital to deliver their unborn child. The two parents are killed and the baby survived.
At first, I felt like the book was a bit heavy with emotion as Jill faced with lots of difficulty and tragedies at the same time. She was involved in an accident and was about to lose her job and boyfriend. Then she found out about the secret that her parents were keeping from her. At first, I thought that the story was going to feature the baby that survived in the car crash, but no. And I was a bit disappointed on how the author ended the mother, Helen’s point of view in the story. I wished that she had stayed with Jill until the end so that she can see how her daughter recover.
The second part of the book was a bit more fun. It felt like reading a different book with Jill as she escaped to the Caribbean island to start anew. I love some of the scenes in the island, especially when Jill went to explore the island. They were beautiful.I Know You're There was definitely a great mother-daughter read with bits of drama, tragedy, romance and other things.
Book Excerpt
It was a long day and I was looking forward to going home as we prepared our reports to give to the second shift in the nurse’s conference room.
“I need someone to stay for the evening shift; Barb called in sick.” Marie leaned on the door entryway, rubbed the back of her neck, as she broke the news in a tone deeper than usual. This was the third time this month Barb called in sick.
“Can’t nursing administration send us a float nurse?” Natasha moaned.
“No, the floats are already assigned.”
We each looked anywhere but at our nurse manager. We were all tired. Mrs. Swanson’s death, two new admissions from the ER, four fresh patients from the Operating Room, and one more coming, a fresh total hip replacement. It would be a busy evening monitoring all these new patients, getting to know them, getting them settled in. Not to mention the regular patients we had on what would now be a full unit. At least there would be no more patients to admit, but the evening would add visiting family members. Most of them required care and explanations sometimes more than the patients did.
The silence was unnerving. Marie just stood in the door, feet planted firmly, and waited for someone to volunteer. We knew she didn’t want to do it, but she had no choice. An inner voice warned me, “Let someone else do it,” but my mouth opened and the words came out, “OK, I’ll stay.”
Author Bio:
Sue Allison-Dean is a nurse who retired from traditional practice in 1999, after working 13 years as a Wound, Ostomy, Continence Clinical Nurse Specialist. She found a second career in gardening after working in a garden center and completing an organic gardening internship at Highgrove Garden in England. She now co-owns Naturescapes with her landscape designer husband, Robert. She has authored several clinical and horticulture articles and was a contributing author to the bestselling book, Touched By A Nurse. She is passionate about the sea and loves exploring tropical islands. She extends this passion by doing volunteer work benefitting dolphins and whales. Sue splits her time between Armonk, New York and Cary, North Carolina, with her husband and English bulldog, Bubba.
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