With You Always by Rena Olsen #renaolsen #penguingroupputmangp putnamssons #generalfiction #netgalley @absltmom

On this sunny Saturday morning, I am reviewing the very dark 

When one is hurt and suffering, it is easy to fall into traps, places that you know you shouldn’t be, relationships that can make you wonder if this is just too good to be true. Oftentimes, your gut feeling is right and you know eventually you have tumbled into something you need to get away from, something threatening, something evil.

Julia is adrift coming off of a bad relationship when into her life strolls the handsome, charismatic Byrce. He is beyond wonderful, a successful lawyer, a respectful man, and Julia finds herself being swept off her feet. Their relationship goes forward in record breaking speed because you know when something is right, and one does sometimes fall  madly in love.

Byrce does have a few tiny idiosyncrasies though. He refuses to speak of his parents and he adores his church having latched onto the Reverend and his wife as surrogate parents. Byrce encourages Julia to join his church and originally she is put off by the goings on, but she loves Byrce and wants to please him so she climbs aboard for this religious experience. Julia embraces the church and its followers and all seems destined to be a bit of heaven on earth.

However, that little bit of heaven becomes a large piece of hell as Julia descends down a road she never thought she would be traveling. As always, all is not what it seems and Julia is in for a very rude awakening.

This was a well done story that kept this reader actively involved in the scenario it depicted.. Rena Olsen did an admirable job with developing her characters and created a mysterious, ominous and chilling moodiness.

Thank you to Rena Olsen, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and NetGalley for a copy of this chilling book.

Rena Olsen is a writer, therapist, teacher, sometimes singer, and eternal optimist. By day she tries to save the world as a school therapist, and at night she creates new worlds in her writing.