Taryn Moore is young, beautiful and brilliant...so why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl's fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there's more to the story, especially after the autopsy reveals that the college senior was pregnant. It could be reason enough for suicide-or a motive for murder.
To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring, and completely off limits.
But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those she turned her affections to--including Jack. And now that she's dead, his problems are just beginning.
After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth. He is guilty of deception, but is he capable of cold-blooded murder?
My Review of Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver.
After reading Life Support by Tess Gerritsen, I knew I had found another incredible author I would happily binge read their works.
And when I found out she co-authored this book with Gary Braver, I knew at once it would be what I'd love to read.
Do you know what trauma does to you? It makes you believe that you're going to end up in the exact same situation that traumatized you.
And most of the time, the victim is immersed in that belief and doesn't know they have to wriggle out, they can wriggle out of that self-sabotaging belief. It continues till history sadly repeats itself, and they lose their minds.
For Taryn, all men do is lie to their wives, break their hearts and leave them shattered, helpless. Because her father leaves her mother when she was a child, to start a fresh life with another woman.
So Taryn views all men as wicked liars who take advantage of the women that love them wholeheartedly, only to dump them when they must have sapped the unfortunate woman dry.
And when her boyfriend Liam starts acting up, she believes she is not good enough, and that is why everyone eventually leaves her, everyone she loves.
Her father leaves, and now Liam is also about to leave her, because there must be something in her repelling these men, making her unlovable, miserable. And she does not know how to handle another rejection, another departure.
Her hopeless need to be seen, to be chosen for once, makes her go all out in her Star-crossed lovers seminar in English language taught by one of her professors, Jack.
In the seminar, they talk about the tragic ancient Greek love stories of The Aenid, The romance of Tristan and Iseult, Abelard and Heloise, Medea and Romeo and Juliet.
These stories reveal the tragic end of relationships and exult the men for being brave and for suffering for what they love. But Taryn has a diverse opinion. According to her, the women suffer more blows, but they're shoved aside to focus on the men.
She doesn't believe the women merit the punishments meted out on them, and she's fully immersed in defending the women that the other seminar members have to remind her it's just fiction and not reality.
She goes on to have an ill-fated relationship with Jack, her seminar professor. And when she dies, the police would try everything within her power to bring the truth to life, and offer her justice.
I had fun reading this book, but I had high expectations. It was easily predictable for me. Even if the ending has a bit of a twist, still it isn't perfectly unpredictable.
I thought I already knew what would happen, how the events would turn out, and they most definitely turned out as predicted.
I enjoyed reading the book, and I hated Taryn for being a crazy lover and trying to make Jack's life complicated. But Jack asked for it.
In life, we are all responsible for every single choice we make, and we should be prepared to shoulder the responsibilities and face the consequences of our actions and inactions.
Taryn's desperate need to be chosen, costs her her life. Because even if she's very beautiful and bright academically, she doesn't see herself beyond someone who needs the approval of a man to be, to exist, to live.
She doesn't ever imagine a life that isn't revolved around Liam, her boyfriend. And so when Liam breaks up with her, her whole world crumbles.
The book juggles between the before and after, and is being narrated from the perspective of Taryn, Jack, and Frankie, the police officer in charge of Taryn's murder.
Frankie and Mac are the two police officers who would not rest till their uncover the truth behind Taryn's murder, and they did, at last.
The book centers on themes like betrayal, trauma, murder, love, revenge, mystery, history. And I rate it as 4/5.
Have you read the book? What do you think about it? Please share your thoughts with me in the comment section.
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