Jennifer Hillier’s debut novel about Dr. Sheila Tao and her young lover/stalker is a pretty good read; although I wasn’t as blown away as the reviews by others would indicate.

Sheila Tao is a psychology professor at a local college and engaged to Morris, the potential love of her life; however, she is a semi-recovering sex addict and having a steamy affair with Ethan, one of her teaching assistants. When Morris proposes to Sheila (totally unaware of her addiction or affair), she happily accepts and breaks it off with Ethan. Unfortunately, Ethan is not amenable to bad news and does everything he can to stay a part of her life, including kidnapping and torture.

Don’t get me wrong, the suspense was there, but it took awhile and it wasn’t until I was about two-thirds of the way through that I actually felt that “can’t put it down feeling.” The last 10-20 pages did it for me and as I was devouring the last few words, it was at that point that I couldn’t wait for more.

Luckily, I started the sequel – “Freak” a few days ago so we’ll see if the momentum can keep up.

SB/2014