Fault Lines by Rebecca Rogers Maher

Sarah Murphy plans other people’s weddings. She’s gorgeous and successful, but she also carries a dark secret.

At one of her events, she meets Joe Sullivan, a sexy photographer with a difficult past of his own. When he snaps a rare unguarded photograph of her and captures the real person hiding behind the facade, she feels exposed. To restore the upper hand, she tries to do what she always does: use sex to defuse the situation.

While Joe is eager to deepen his relationship with Sarah, he’s aware of her emotional shield and the way she disconnects from her body. Seeing her at her most vulnerable doesn’t scare him off, but he needs to know what she’s hiding.

Sarah has a tough decision to make. Does she want to go on living a lonely, emotionally frozen life? Or can she finally risk revealing the truth and move forward with Joe?

Read Your Writes Review

****This book deals with sexual abuse of a minor and how that abuse has affected the abusee years later.****

Before I start, I need to point out this book isn’t your typical romance.  The main character, Sarah, has serious issues.

This is the first story I’ve read by Rebecca Rogers Maher.  In fact, before this book, I’ve never heard of her.  I went to her website and looked her up.  I will say that it was quite a treat to find an author who made a conscience decision to write about real people in real situations.

I’m going to do what I don’t like to do with reviews and actually tell you what happened with the book.  I generally HATE giving away too much about a book, because then why would you buy it.

Like most victims of sexual abuse, Sarah knew her abuser.  She was even very close to him and loved him with all her heart.  The abuse occurred when Sarah was fourteen.  She feels that she was old enough to have said no and thus feels in some ways she encouraged it and that it was fine.  She finds relief from her demons by cutting herself.  Throughout the book Sarah is a nurturer and protector.  She protects her abuser by making excuses for him and she protects her mother by not telling her about the abuse and talking about her feelings for all of these years, and talking about all the sacrifices her mother made for her and feeling she has to be with her mother, when she’s going through a horrible loss.  To a certain extent, it would appear that Sarah’s mother unbeknownst to her encouraged the abuse.

I don’t want to say that Sarah is your typical sexual abuse survivor, because there isn’t anything typical about this sort of thing.  Sarah continues to abuse her body by hooking up with guys she doesn’t care about and know will never care about her, until she made a mistake and mis-read Joe.  Sarah likes to be in control and after one night, Joe turned the tables on her.

I found Joe to be a remarkable man in that at the first sign of trouble he didn’t run.  Through photography, Joe has learned to read people.  He immediately knows that Sarah is hiding something.  He just doesn’t know what and how bad it actually is.  Joe isn’t a perfect man and he doesn’t pretend to be.  He has his own past that he works hard to overcome every single day.  Joe is a strong man and he fights for Sarah every single day.

What I like about this book is that it shows Sarah as a survivor.  She doesn’t see herself as that, but she is.  She’s conflicted about a lot of things in her life and she tries for perfection.  "Sarah", like so many other women in the world is REAL.

When I got this book, I had absolutely no idea what it was really about.  You don’t see a happily ever after ending.  Part of me wants to say that this isn’t even a romance book.  What you do get is a story that’s real.  I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of “Sarahs” out there.  For those “Sarahs:, I think this book lets them know there is hope.

The book is rather short.  It’s only 126 pages.  I found the ending to be very abrupt.  You can only assume that Sarah and Joe were actually able to overcome all the demons from their past and realize that it’s okay to be happy and in love with someone who truly loves you and would never ever hurt you.

I don’t usually recommend books which I haven’t read.  However, Fault Lines is part of a trilogy written by Rebecca.  The first book in the series is I’ll Become The Sea.  This book showcases the story of Jane, Sarah’s best friend.  Fault Lines vaguely mentions Jane having a tattered past.  I am curious to see what it was and how she truly managed to overcome her demons to find her happy ending.  I am definitely adding it to my to read list.

I was provided an Advanced Readers Copy via NetGalley in order to review this book.

Please visit Rebecca’s website to learn more about her and her Recovery Trilogy series.

Purchase Fault Lines at Amazon