TEAR ME APART BY J.T. ELLISON BOOK REVIEW
I am utterly wrecked from Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison. You know that expression, “all the feelings”, right? As I finished this book, I cried & my heart ached.

THRILLER CHICK TURNS ROYAL
We already know J.T. Ellison is a thriller chick. Although I didn’t give her the name, it makes sense to me. Thriller Chick is J.T.’s social media handle, and once you read one of her books, you’ll get it. She writes these type of mysteries that are gritty & smart. I’ve read several of her books. I believe her writing style continues to evolve, her characters deepen & the storylines are more irresistible. Honestly, J.T. outdid herself with Tear Me Apart. She may not like this, but I think she needs to change her social media handles. After Tear Me Apart, I think she is more suited for Thriller Queen.

SHE’S KEEPING ME IN SUSPENSE
I could not & would not put this book down. We had a kid-free 4-hour block & I couldn’t even enjoy dinner because I needed to get back home & finish this story. Now you’re warned – you too may skirt all responsibilities until you reach the end of this story!

One thing I love about J.T. is she doesn’t take the easy way out. Her storylines are deep & complex. So, when the opportunity arises for things to work out so easy for the characters, she could easily take the bait. BUT SHE DOESN’T! She keeps the story & the mystery moving which adds layer after layer of suspense & the tension continues to build.

LET’S GET REAL ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS
Tear Me Apart has a character suffering from a mental illness. The way J.T. writes about this character’s struggles are raw, emotional & so real to me that I felt physically ill after reading one particular part towards the end. I began to cry & my stomach ached. For me, this portrayal is spot on.

Similar to this character, I’ve struggled with depression that at times is so crippling it is near impossible to see outside of the darkness. J.T. explores this issue delicately & in an impactful way. Mental illness plays a small but pivotal role in this novel. I believe it’s impossible to read Tear Me Apart & not think of those around us who struggle with mental health.

THE VERDICT
I am Really Into This book! Tear Me Apart is a stellar thriller with a gritty & real portrayal of a mental illness. It’s also a tale of family, loss, sacrifice & forgiveness. J.T. Ellison broke my heart into a thousand pieces with this story. But, in the end, my heart soared, my tears dried & there was light.

Check out my review for Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison

Special thanks to J.T. Ellison, Harlequin/MIRA Books & NetGalley for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Wow! This was intense and well written from the very beginning. Mindy is a competitive skier who gets hurt during one of her competitions. During her time at the hospital a whirlwind of events take place that completely changes Mindy’s life and the lives of those around her. I don’t want to give too much away with the events that unfold but I could not put this one down at all. Ellison does an excellent job of creating suspense and drama throughout this whole book. Definitely recommend this one!

A compelling story from the first page, this novel treads into some delicate territory regarding mental illness and suicide.

Teenager Mindy Wright is a rising superstar in competitive downhill skiing when a dramatic crash during a race changes her life, and those of everyone who loves her, forever. During surgery to repair her broken leg, doctors discover she has an aggressive leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope for survival. When her parents and aunt are tested, the truth emerges that Mindy is not biologically related to any of them.

This revelation begins a fast paced search for Mindy's biological family. As the mystery begins to unravel, more and more questions arise. The story moves back and forth in time, and across the country, as we learn about both of Mindy's families and how she came to be the daughter of the parents who raised her in the Colorado mountains and nourished her career.

Although the plot seemed unbelievable at times, I still found myself caring about the characters and desperate for the resolution of the mystery. I especially like the exploration into what makes a family other than biology.

Many thanks to NetGalley, MIRA Books, and JT Ellison for the opportunity to read her latest book - 5 glowing stars amazing!

Mindy is a skiing phenom on the verge of the Olympics when a fall and a broken leg land her in the hospital. The doctors soon discover that what Mindy and her family brushed off as symptoms of training were really leukemia. When blood tests are done to find a familial match for a transplant that could save her life, her parents and aunt all come up as not related to her. This opens up a very twisty can of worms - who is lying? What would parents do for their child?

I don't want to give anything away but this is definitely a must read. Don't fail to read the author's note at the end too - a heartfelt note. As someone who has lost someone and could have a semicolon tattoo, strong words and feelings to end this book. Bravo!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! whoo I did not expect the conclusion to this story at all!!!!!! J.T. Ellison has definitely done it again with her newest thriller. Lauren Wright has the perfect life. Perfect marriage, perfect kid. Until her kid gets into a skiing accident and they find out she has cancer. Now the doctors are saying her beautiful daughter is not hers. Was Monday switched at birth?? Read to find out but I promise you won't see this coming!!!!! Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Publishing for my opportunity to read this amazing novel

In my opinion, if medical jargon is being used as a major plot point, I think it's important to have feedback from a medical professional to catch inconsistencies and misuses, which are really distracting. In Tear Me Apart, a main character breaks her leg and discovers she has cancer while receiving surgery to repair the fracture. The reader must suspend disbelief a lot in order to enjoy this book. For example, a world class athlete wins a major competition with an advanced form of leukemia and has no idea. She blithely brushes it off as a little fatigue and then wins a major competition at the elite level. Then we're supposed to believe that a few weeks later she's at death's door. I'm not terribly familiar with the stem cell transplant process, but I'm pretty sure the process takes more than a few weeks to complete. I guess all of this is necessary in order to move the whole kidnapped at birth story line along.

A fetal death at six months gestation is not a miscarriage, but a stillbirth. A hospital midwife would not attend a planned home birth in the US, especially not in Tennessee. And a midwife attending a planned home birth would not leave a newly postpartum mom and baby unattended within the first 24 hours of birth.

Medical inconsistencies aside, I predicted the ending within the first couple of chapters. I kept waiting for an unexpected ending, but the author gave it all away too early.

The book is not a mystery. I wasn't clear on that from the get-go, and what at first I thought was predictable plotting turned out to be deliberate as you wanted to tell the "why". Basically, I was reading the book wrong.
There was an "aha!" moment and after calibrating my angle I enjoyed it.
The idea is similar to the Star Wars prequel, in the sense that we know Anakin will turn into Darth Vader, Palpatine is plotting to become the Emperor, and Obi-Wan ends up in desert planet negating previous contact with R2D2. The difference here is that this book is better written than the Prequels (Sorry, George), and while one can figure the culprits out early, the real journey of the book is to learn why and how that happened. And it's quite a dark journey.
The story also carries enough twists that it keeps you hooked.

I enjoyed how Ellison’s second psychological thriller Tear Me Apart provides a glimpse into the world of Olympic level competitive skiing as well as a glimpse into life on an adolescent psychiatric unit. However, I found it awkward going back and forth between the stories as they were tied together and new plot lines were revealed. It reminded me a little of television shows like Law & Order that try to cram in multiple plot lines into one hour show. Fans of books with twists should enjoy this one.
Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin-Mira, and author J.T. Ellison for the advanced reader’s copy.

I’ve always been in awe of Olympic-level athletes and this story about a young skier that’s close to landing a spot on the US team grabbed my interest. Add in mysterious deaths, decades of lies, and an illness that brings it all to life makes for an amazing story!

Vail, Colorado - 2018

Mindy Wright, age 17, is hoping to become the newest and youngest Alpine Downhill Champion. Racing down the mountain, she hits a flag, flipping her, and breaking her leg. She is devastated with disappointment. Mindy’s parents, Lauren and Jasper, are so afraid for her injury. They know how driven Mindy is to become an Olympic skier.

During the surgery to set her broken leg, the doctors learn Mindy has a severe form of leukemia and will need to immediately start chemo treatment to try and save her life. In addition, they need to test Mindy’s family members' DNA to find a stem cell donor for a transplant because that is the only way they may be able to save her life.

Lauren’s sister, Juliet, works with an organization that keeps a database on DNA on people. Juliet adores Mindy and promises to help in any way she can. When they find that none of the family members match Mindy’s DNA, they are shocked. Who are Mindy’s parents? Someone is keeping a secret and time is running out for Mindy.

The story then digs into Lauren and Jasper’s backgrounds in a desperate attempt to find the truth and a donor for Mindy.

This is a intricately woven mystery/thriller that I think readers will really get into. The characters are well created to pull the reader right into the story. I cannot give out too many spoilers here but suffice to say, this book is a keeper.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Tear Me Apart, like many psychological suspense novels, switches back and forth through time and different narrators. I like that narrative style. Because I find it's interesting to form a relationship with a narrator and start to understand their motivations and story, without knowing their identity. Then working back and forth through time to figure out who that narrator is before its revealed. It's that big aha moment, it can be so satisfying!

There is a lot going on in this book. We meet two deeply troubled girls in a psychiatric hospital, then we shift to present day and meet a teenage ski champion--two very different teenage experiences. And we wonder how they are connected.

Then as we get deeper into the story, we also meet a sister who appears to be a loving aunt and sister, but is kept at arm's length by her sister and we don't know why. Then, about halfway through the book, we meet Zach, a handsome single guy who, after suffering a devastating loss years before has never recovered.

And they are all connected. At times it seems like the book was going off on a tangent, but Ellison does bring it all back together. And it's a long book, but I read it mostly in an afternoon because I was invested in the characters and the pages kept turning themselves.

This one was a psychological thriller, but one with a little bit more meat than others. And one that tells a bigger and more involved story than a lot of others. This is not woman meets man, man is abusive, women kills man, we figure it all out at the end--and that's not even the plot, just an example. The thriller part of the book, for me, didn't even start playing into my interest in the book until the second half.

Tear Me Apart is a story that spans two generations and the reader can see firsthand how a single act can set off a chain reaction that has long lingering effects. It's Megan Abbott meets B.A. Paris. It's a good one! It even got a Publisher's Weekly starred review.

Don't want to take my word for it? Check out this excerpt on the author's website.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Mira for providing a free e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This review will be publishing on my blog, WomeninTroubleBookBlog on August 28, 2018.

What a fantastic book!! I couldn't put it down. I love the way J.T. writes because you are involved with her books right from page 1. Thank you for writing such intense books

'Tear Me Apart' is the follow-up novel to 'Lie To Me' written by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.T. Ellison, and having loved 'Lie To Me' I was so excited to read this. It didn't disappoint!

Mindy is a professional skier and superstar of tomorrow, who whilst on the slopes injures herself and is taken to hospital. But a broken bone is not the only thing they discover, she also has an aggressive form of Leukemia. Whilst the doctors work out what are the best forms of treatment for her she is asked to give some blood for analysis, little do the doctors know they are setting into motion a chain of devastating revelations when it is discovered that her parents aren't actually her biological parents. Why would they lie to her about such important details? Who are they really? How did they come to be her family?

This is rather a slow-burn in terms of pace, but I didn't have any issues with this as the story had me in a chokehold from early on, and I was so engaged I hadn't realised I had almost finished! I liked the originality of the plot especially as most stories have been done to death in the crime genre s0 finding something unique is quite a feat these days. The standout feature for me has to be the writing though, it gave the whole book a real authentic feel to it which I loved. You really sympathise with the characters, especially Mindy, and they are all really likeable and realistic people. Ellison also infuses the plot with elements that tug on the old heartstrings and could melt even the coldest of hearts. At its heart, this is a tale of family, secrets, lies, deception and the question of whether family ties can survive and endure when important truths are kept from the from someone. Can something ever be kept from someone for the greater good or is it always preferable that that person knows the truth no matter how ugly it may be?

Many thanks to Harlequin - MIRA for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Tear Me Apart is a well-plotted character-driven family drama filled with secrets and lies. It also deals compassionately with mental health issues, DNA, depression, adoption, cancer, suicide and cutting.

Mindy, a 17-year-old downhill skier, is on the fast track to the Olympics when a sudden snow flurry makes her clip a flag and break her leg horrendously. While in surgery to fix her leg, it is discovered that she has the most virulent form of leukemia. DNA is taken from her mother, father and aunt. Mindy is not a blood relation to any of them. The story of Mindy’s birth is slowly revealed, along with exposing many family secrets and lies.

I liked this twisty family drama even though I guessed the ending early. Tear Me Apart is recommended to both thriller and psychological suspense fans. 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Mira, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Tear Me Apart by J. T. Ellison is a very highly recommended domestic psychological thriller.

Competitive skier and Olympic hopeful Mindy Wright breaks her leg during a competition and during surgery the doctors discover she has a form of leukemia. Mindy needs a stem cell transplant, but, shockingly, her parents, Jasper and Lauren Wright, and her Aunt Juliet (Lauren's younger sister) are not DNA matches - and it is clear that Mindy is not the daughter of either of them. Apparently Mindy was adopted, but no one ever told her. In fact, her mother told no one about it, not even Jasper. Lauren and Jasper married when Mindy was an infant. Juliet was so much younger than Lauren that she never suspected it.

Juliet is now at the crime lab for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, so she secretly starts an investigation and asks a few favors trying to figure out if Mindy was switched at birth. Finding a match as soon as possible could mean life or death for Mindy. Now that the truth is out, Lauren needs to explain what happened, but can she be trusted? And why has she never told anyone about the adoption? This is the ultimate story of a mother willing to do anything to protect her daughter.

Tear Me Apart is a well-written, spellbinding, engrossing thriller that held my attention throughout. While some astute readers may guess the truth early on (and Ellison leaves plenty of clues for the reader to do so) the suspense is created by the slow reveal of the truth and additional information to the characters in the novel. I found the plot mesmerizing and the pages flew by while reading. I appreciated the pacing of the novel and how Ellison divulged additional information while developing the characters. The characters are all well developed and complex individuals

I don't want to give away any more of the plot, but I really enjoyed this novel. The disclosure of information along the way lends an intensity to the plot and the old letters slowly shared along the way clearly point to important additional information. This is a thriller that is well worth reading. Even if you think you know what is going on, it is well worth reading to the end for a few surprises you won't guess.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Mira Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/08/tear-me-apart.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2509375086
https://www.librarything.com/work/21688072/book/159830029
https://twitter.com/SheTreadsSoftly/status/1034145268986466305
Amazon and Barnes&Noble after publication

I like putting the puzzle pieces of a suspense book together as much as the next person. In Tear Me Apart, though, I felt that the puzzle pieces didn't quite fit. Multiple timelines tried to help provide the clues without giving away too much, but they were a bit too obvious. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the Black Diamond course that Ms. Ellison sent us on to get to the ending, but I suppose I felt the course should have been a bit less clear and the ending more like Mindy' fateful downhill run instead of a victory lap.

Tear Me Apart has been high on my list of fall releases after reading and loving Lie to Me last year. I started this only knowing that it was about a competitive skier who crashes and finds out one shocking truth after another about her life. That's really all you need to know and I'd avoid reading lengthy reviews and any more of the blurb before diving in. The skier is Mindy Wright whose very attentive parents have devoted their entire lives to making sure she has every advantage in the ski world. Mindy is set to qualify for the Olympic Team when she crashes on the slopes, followed shortly by everything else in her world crashing down around her. 

I was pulled into this story quickly as all of the above happens in the first few pages. J.T. Ellison knows how to draw readers in with a fast pace. She doles out just enough initial secrets to make you wonder what's going on and what else is to come. The overriding questions are...who's lying and why? Mindy's mom Lauren is at the center of the family drama and what she's been hiding, as well as why, kept me quickly turning the pages. There's also quite a bit of tension between Lauren and her sister Juliet who's a DNA expert for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (and my favorite character in the book) which also created more questions for me. 

This psychological thriller is structured with alternating timelines and perspectives which I have to say did leave me feeling a little confused at times. It shifts between the family in present day Colorado and 2 teenage girls in the past at a psychiatric hospital in Nashville.  This is always a tricky structure for me and in this case I found the back and forth tedious at times. It felt like it dragged out in places and I found myself feeling impatient with the way the story was unfolding. Without giving anything away, I was also surprised that, for me, the story felt predictable in the end.

Perhaps my expectations were too high after Lie to Me . I would say, however, that if you like the idea of family secrets, many lies, and a couple surprising betrayals then I'd recommend giving this one a try. There is definitely much to like with J. T. Ellison's writing and I look forward to reading her next book!

Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison is a psychological thriller about identity and the lack there of. Mindy Wright who is a competitive skier crashes and needs surgery to repair the damage. While hospitalized, the drs find out that she will need a stem cell transplant if she wants to survive a severe form of leukemia. Her parents are tested and find out the worst news of all. They could not be Mindys parents. What has happened? Was she switched with another baby at birth? The problem is that someone is going to great lengths to hide those questions. The writer has done a great job of weaving the story line together at a great pace so that one can read this fast. The charachters are well formed and the reader is informed of the history of the POV. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to read a great thriller.

5 out of 5

This is my second book by J.T. Ellison and I loved it! We begin with Mindy Wright, a young competitive skier who is preparing for an important qualifying race. You cannot help but get sucked in as she goes through her pre-start ritual, and then takes off, only to end the race breaking her leg. As she is rushed to the hospital for surgery to repair it, Mindy learns she has an aggressive form of cancer, and needs a stem cell treatment to save her life. It should be easy enough to test her parents and Aunt Juliet for compatibility. However, Juliet, a DNA investigations specialist, quickly learns that her sister Lauren, Mindy's perfect, overbearing mother, has been keeping secrets from everyone. This book starts with the intense race mentioned above and does not stop the rest of the way through. You don't know whom to believe, Lauren is hiding so many things but yet is still trying to control the situation (which is quickly spiraling out of control), and everyone is trying to find the truth. Who are Mindy's real parents? What are her current ones hiding? What exactly does Lauren know and why is she acting different? Why do people keep dying? Oh, and just when you think you can relax and it has been solved, Ellison throws another twist and here we go again. The story also deals with difficult subjects such as mental illness and suicide in such a great way. I enjoyed that this kept me guessing, I did not figure everything out, and it did not have a clean resolution which was great for this book. Also, the use of the dog in here was excellent, and that's all I will say on that, you have to read it to understand!

Thanks to NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this book to review. All above opinions are my own. Pub date is August 28, 2018, thank goodness you do not have to wait long, run out and get it as soon as you can!

Mindy is a competitive skier who crashes down the slopes and is rushed to the hospital. What should have been a recovery from a broken bone turns into more - blood work reveals she has cancer. The twists don't end there, she needs a stem cell transplant and her parents are tested for donor suitability but her parents aren't a match. In fact, there is no genetic similarities with the family that she thought was her family! I thought the concept for this book was genius, one discovery leads to another more confusing discovery that kept me wanting to read more to figure out what was going on!