Jenna Kernan

Just out of nursing school and struggling financially, main character Emily is thrilled when a wealthy psychiatrist wants her to care for his wife. What seems like a dream job turns out to be anything but when Emily sees what’s going on behind closed doors. Clearly, something odd is going on with his wife. Is she in danger from her husband? Emily wants to help, but after signing a strict NDA, what can she do?

THE NURSE is a simmering domestic thriller that put me on edge wondering who could be trusted. The first half of the book was a slow burn with lots of details about the workings of the Roths’ bizarre life and their expectations of Emily. Maybe a bit too slow for my taste, but the mystery about what’s really going on kept me reading as secrets are revealed.

The last third of the book was very exciting and super twisty. While I loved the final outcome, I felt like much of the ending was just an explanation of how things fit together, instead of showing. Still, I thought that the conclusion was wildly entertaining and satisfying.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. Opinions are my own.… (mais)

I enjoyed this collection quite a bit. I'm not usually one who reads westerns honestly, I prefer my historicals set in England, so this was an entirely new genre for me to read about, but I found the stories to be enjoyable.

I didn't have one story I preferred above the others; mostly pieces of the stories that I thought were refreshing and different. I had minor problems with each story as well (a plot thread in Christmas Day Family for instance was a burden to the plot, a contrivance almost to extend the story), but overall they were fun quick reads about the holiday season.… (mais)

Domestic thriller fails to thrill.

Emily is an LPN hired to care for a wealthy woman whose psychiatrist husband claims that his wife, Sabrina, has a lot of mental health issues. Emily is less nurse and more babysitter as the days go by. Emily is suspicious that Dr. Roth is overmedicating his wife. Eventually Mrs. Roth is found in a hotel, dead by apparent suicide. But was it?

I had a lot of problems with this very slow moving and somewhat boring book. As a nurse myself, I had a real issue with Emily being an LPN but supposedly graduating with an associate degree. In the USA, a practical nursing program is a one-year certificate and not an ADN which would result in the graduate being eligible to sit for the RN exam. That aside, I didn't buy into Emily being any sort of nurse at all. She sure flouted confidentiality convention and would be a disgrace to her profession. Ah, but I digress, really. Just didn't like the story, the characters, or this silly twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-book ARC to read and review. I should have just put it down, but I felt forced to follow it through. Don't recommend.… (mais)