Precise: Rebecca Berto
Katie Anselin is a newlywed and hubby, Paul, is her life. He’s the only one who knows her family’s history and makes her finally feel happy—until the day she discovers she’s fallen pregnant.
By the time Katie started school, she’d been taught that she was the cause of her mother, Rochelle’s miscarriages. See, Katie has grown up knowing she shouldn’t be happy when she’s caused her mom so much pain.
Still, Katie can’t imagine killing the life growing inside her, which occurs at the same time Rochelle starts skipping her medication. Hell hath no fury like Rochelle with a vengeance to make Katie pay for ruining her life.
In Rochelle’s quest for power, Katie and Paul’s baby is the pawn.
Tammy's Rating:
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Tammy's Review:
First, I want to state if abuse is a trigger for you or bothers you on any level than this is not the book for you. Emotional and mental abuse is very prevalent in this story.
"Someone as defiant as you are would surely raise a bratty child; I'd have to step in to prevent you ruining your poor child's life."
When we become parents, we must base our decisions and our actions on the best interest of our child. Those decisions and actions are made even harder when you have been mentally and emotionally abused every day of your life. When you are lead to believe that you are worthless and nothing better than the dirt on the ground, you begin to believe that you are not worthy of being a decent mother and you second-guess everything you do or say. I just pretty much summed up the description of this book. The basis of this story revolves around a mother who mentally and emotionally abuses her daughter by controlling her with words. She blames Kates for the loss of all of her babies and is not ecstatic when she learns her 22-year-old daughter is having her own baby. Throughout the story, we see her try to control Kates' every action by using her love of her daughter, Ellie and her feelings of worthlessness against her.
Kates' mother was a piece of work. She was vile, and she was abusive. Although her abuse usually only occurred when there was never anyone else around. In public, she tried to keep up appearances. Then again, that is how it is for most abusers. Appearance is everything while they deal out their blows. No one else saw, her mother's abuse of her. No one believed her when she tried to tell him or her about it, except for her husband, Paul. She was alone in the dark with no one for support. Even her father turned a blind eye to all that goes on in that house.
"Because appearances matter, not me. Never me."
The atmosphere Rebecca creates in this world is intense. There is a major trigger of emotional and mental abuse. I also felt like it leads you to believe that there was physical abuse at one point. As I said, the mother is vile with the slaying of her words. She blames Kates for the loss of her other children. After she had Kathryn she miscarried six or seven times. Rochelle made sure to control her daughter's life by telling her she was worthless, that she would ruin her own child, and that she was responsible for the deaths of her brothers and sisters. The list goes on. Kates doubted her worth, felt as though she would fail at parenting. My heart broke over and over again for her. The more I read the story the more I wanted to reach in my Nook and rip her mother's voice cords out.
"You need to wait until you are worthy of having a child of your own."
I felt the power of the story. I felt the abuse and the emotions that came from it, but what I did not get was a lot of development and detail. I sometimes felt lost due to this. I needed the characters to have a little more background; I wanted Rebecca to dive into building them up and a more detailed time line. The meat of the story is there, I just needed a bit more filled in the cracks to round out the read. Sometimes the characters acted out of character and no explanation was given. For example, Pauly would say and ask some of the strangest things. The whole time I would think why did he asked that. Why would he doubt that his wife loved him and wanted to be with him? She gave no indication otherwise.
I adored the fact that this was a darker tale, and the author nailed it in that sense. Coming from an abusive home with abusive parents, I can say that she was spot on. No over dramatizing it just for the shock value. Sadly, the things that were said in this book happen more often than not. The emotions the characters felt and the actions that stemmed from these behaviors were also spot on. I really liked that towards the end Kates realized that her daughter had to come first. That she had to push past her fears and what she has known all her life and break the cycle of control that her mother had over her.
I will definitely read book 2 in this series, as I want to continue to see Kates grow in her confidence of herself while breaking the viscous cycle.
Thank you Rebecca Berto for allowing me the opportunity to read your book for an honest review.
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Tammy's Review:
First, I want to state if abuse is a trigger for you or bothers you on any level than this is not the book for you. Emotional and mental abuse is very prevalent in this story.
"Someone as defiant as you are would surely raise a bratty child; I'd have to step in to prevent you ruining your poor child's life."
When we become parents, we must base our decisions and our actions on the best interest of our child. Those decisions and actions are made even harder when you have been mentally and emotionally abused every day of your life. When you are lead to believe that you are worthless and nothing better than the dirt on the ground, you begin to believe that you are not worthy of being a decent mother and you second-guess everything you do or say. I just pretty much summed up the description of this book. The basis of this story revolves around a mother who mentally and emotionally abuses her daughter by controlling her with words. She blames Kates for the loss of all of her babies and is not ecstatic when she learns her 22-year-old daughter is having her own baby. Throughout the story, we see her try to control Kates' every action by using her love of her daughter, Ellie and her feelings of worthlessness against her.
Kates' mother was a piece of work. She was vile, and she was abusive. Although her abuse usually only occurred when there was never anyone else around. In public, she tried to keep up appearances. Then again, that is how it is for most abusers. Appearance is everything while they deal out their blows. No one else saw, her mother's abuse of her. No one believed her when she tried to tell him or her about it, except for her husband, Paul. She was alone in the dark with no one for support. Even her father turned a blind eye to all that goes on in that house.
"Because appearances matter, not me. Never me."
The atmosphere Rebecca creates in this world is intense. There is a major trigger of emotional and mental abuse. I also felt like it leads you to believe that there was physical abuse at one point. As I said, the mother is vile with the slaying of her words. She blames Kates for the loss of her other children. After she had Kathryn she miscarried six or seven times. Rochelle made sure to control her daughter's life by telling her she was worthless, that she would ruin her own child, and that she was responsible for the deaths of her brothers and sisters. The list goes on. Kates doubted her worth, felt as though she would fail at parenting. My heart broke over and over again for her. The more I read the story the more I wanted to reach in my Nook and rip her mother's voice cords out.
"You need to wait until you are worthy of having a child of your own."
I felt the power of the story. I felt the abuse and the emotions that came from it, but what I did not get was a lot of development and detail. I sometimes felt lost due to this. I needed the characters to have a little more background; I wanted Rebecca to dive into building them up and a more detailed time line. The meat of the story is there, I just needed a bit more filled in the cracks to round out the read. Sometimes the characters acted out of character and no explanation was given. For example, Pauly would say and ask some of the strangest things. The whole time I would think why did he asked that. Why would he doubt that his wife loved him and wanted to be with him? She gave no indication otherwise.
I adored the fact that this was a darker tale, and the author nailed it in that sense. Coming from an abusive home with abusive parents, I can say that she was spot on. No over dramatizing it just for the shock value. Sadly, the things that were said in this book happen more often than not. The emotions the characters felt and the actions that stemmed from these behaviors were also spot on. I really liked that towards the end Kates realized that her daughter had to come first. That she had to push past her fears and what she has known all her life and break the cycle of control that her mother had over her.
I will definitely read book 2 in this series, as I want to continue to see Kates grow in her confidence of herself while breaking the viscous cycle.
Thank you Rebecca Berto for allowing me the opportunity to read your book for an honest review.
1 comments
Sorry for not commenting sooner. I read your review as soon as it was posted and want to say thank you, Tammy!
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