(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
It was interesting to read a book that’s normally outside of the realm of genres I normally read. When I entered to win this book on a giveaway, I thought the concept was a really interesting one. As someone who had a parent who was an alcoholic, I could recognise the signs of Kate being one. I felt the author showed she had a problem particularly well… and not just in that she showed up to an interview drunk. I did think her friends didn’t try hard enough to help at the beginning, though.
I felt that, for a lot of the first part of the book, Kate was kind of a blank slate when it came to her family and history. I learned more about her as the book went on, which I felt was a really good way of doing it. In a way, it felt like I was becoming friends with Kate… despite her problems and how insistent she was that she really didn’t have any problems.
I felt the author did a good job of showing the moral struggle Kate went through when she was trying to decide what the right thing to do was. I didn’t think I would like Amber as a character… but I felt she grew along with Kate. There wasn’t a perfect resolution for her story arc by the end of the book, but I felt hopeful that things would pick up.
It was interesting to see the different people who were also in rehab and how their fame had affected them in certain cases. It struck me as quite compelling that one of them was a heroin addict who had become addicted because of research she was trying to do for her book.
I didn’t really like Saundra as a character. I felt that she was a bit too close to harsh – and I felt that she didn’t really respect her patients’ wishes. Yes, having a support system is important. Not everyone has a family who cares about them. And not everyone becomes addicted because of things in their past.
That was really the only thing about this book that I didn’t like. I liked Kate’s relationship with Henry and I enjoyed the atmosphere of this book. I’d be interested in checking out more books by this author in the future.
Ink of Blood 