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October Snow #2
An Early Frost
They say that love doesn't hurt.
Sure it does. Love hurts like hell.
Will Remmond is finding that out.
A high-powered Family Law attorney, he’s the one that battered mothers and abused kids turn to for help. Will’s the best at what he does, and he wins.
He’s also fed up, burned out, and ready to walk away from fighting the insanity of the Family Court system.
But there are two abused children left to rescue. One of them is five-year-old Alexa Reynolds. She and her mother are being stalked by a criminal sociopath.
Her mom calls the guy “demonic.”
Alexa calls him “Daddy.”
And Alexa’s daddy calls Will a walking dead man.
The other abused child lives inside of Maxine Allen, the woman who Will waited decades to find. Max is becoming more and more withdrawn. Increasingly hostile. She’s turning abusive, striking out at him - and he knows only that it has something to do with her father. Unable to learn the secrets from her childhood, he’s watching as the woman he loves descends into her own private hell.
But Will waited half his life to find her, and he’s not about to abandon her there. He intends to get to the truth of what happened to her. Between saving Alexa from her murderous father, and Maxine from her demons, he’s walking into the fight of his life. One that he intends to win.
Or die trying.
Will Remmond is about to learn that the most terrifying battles don’t take place in the courtroom. They are waged within the darkest places of the human mind: in the abyss where the force of love confronts the power of evil.Head-on.
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An Early Frost is the continuation of the story of October Snow.
Sure it does. Love hurts like hell.
Will Remmond is finding that out.
A high-powered Family Law attorney, he’s the one that battered mothers and abused kids turn to for help. Will’s the best at what he does, and he wins.
He’s also fed up, burned out, and ready to walk away from fighting the insanity of the Family Court system.
But there are two abused children left to rescue. One of them is five-year-old Alexa Reynolds. She and her mother are being stalked by a criminal sociopath.
Her mom calls the guy “demonic.”
Alexa calls him “Daddy.”
And Alexa’s daddy calls Will a walking dead man.
The other abused child lives inside of Maxine Allen, the woman who Will waited decades to find. Max is becoming more and more withdrawn. Increasingly hostile. She’s turning abusive, striking out at him - and he knows only that it has something to do with her father. Unable to learn the secrets from her childhood, he’s watching as the woman he loves descends into her own private hell.
But Will waited half his life to find her, and he’s not about to abandon her there. He intends to get to the truth of what happened to her. Between saving Alexa from her murderous father, and Maxine from her demons, he’s walking into the fight of his life. One that he intends to win.
Or die trying.
Will Remmond is about to learn that the most terrifying battles don’t take place in the courtroom. They are waged within the darkest places of the human mind: in the abyss where the force of love confronts the power of evil.Head-on.
-----------------
An Early Frost is the continuation of the story of October Snow.
356 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2014
10 people are currently reading
1121 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 6, 2014
Early Frost was so involving and so real that I put everything else on hold to read it cover to cover. It is a profound romance, a riveting suspense novel, a compelling drama…so captivating that the high educational value is absorbed rather than ingested! This is not a light, fluffy story, yet it's smooth reading. It is deeper, and for something that makes you a bigger person for reading it, this is a good choice. Ms. Brooks invites the reader into healthy, funny, and highly communicative friendships, touching because we all need this kind of friendship. Once a part of the group, the reader is included in realistic subtleties of behavior that reveal what is going on under the surface the characters’ minds/emotions as victims, survivors, and friends. The reader experiences the complexity of guilt affecting each differently, the push/pull of surfacing trauma, the peculiar (to one who hasn't been there) way traumatic memories and lack of memories affect one, the ways that former abusers can still affect a survivor’s present relationships, and the poignant dilemmas of one who loves a survivor, wants to help and is ready to learn how but finds it a hard road.
For anyone, this is a deeply interesting story. For abuse survivors, Ms. Brooks establishes that she knows what she is talking about because identification is REAL, then she portrays intelligent responses and hope for them to go there too. She takes non-survivors where their experience doesn't, subtly, as PARTICIPANTS in a riveting story, and shows them what is inside. She gives an inside view of the effects of so many issues, like the courts, pornography, questions of choice vs conditioning, male recovery, church culture, and legal strategies, abuser retribution and safety – without being preachy or teachy. Fascinating.
For anyone, this is a deeply interesting story. For abuse survivors, Ms. Brooks establishes that she knows what she is talking about because identification is REAL, then she portrays intelligent responses and hope for them to go there too. She takes non-survivors where their experience doesn't, subtly, as PARTICIPANTS in a riveting story, and shows them what is inside. She gives an inside view of the effects of so many issues, like the courts, pornography, questions of choice vs conditioning, male recovery, church culture, and legal strategies, abuser retribution and safety – without being preachy or teachy. Fascinating.
December 27, 2014
An Early Frost by Jenna Brooks is the sequel to October Snow. While October Snow is more about how three women's friendship is challenged and grows once two discover the other is being abused, An Early Frost is a love story where domestic violence is a subplot. Ms. Brooks artfully continues the story of Dave and Sammie and develops the newly formed relationship between Will and Maxine.
Sammie and Dave must eventually face that they have been avoiding discussions of the death of a dear friend and how that has impacted their relationship. Without coming to terms with their roles and the reasons for this death, Sammie and Dave are in danger of losing their love, resulting in their friend's death being in vain.
And Will, who was raised in a loving home, must learn how to love Maxine, a woman fractured by her abusive father. By loving Maxine too much, he begins to drive her away. Will's dilemma is that he must give Maxine the time to learn to trust him without feeling resentful that she doesn't trust him although he's never given her cause for distrust.
I highly recommend both books, whether you've been touched by domestic violence or not. But, if you have been exposed to domestic violence, An Early Frost provides hope that there is an escape and that one can have a loving and healthy relationship. However, it does not gloss over the fact that it takes effort to overcome a broken past. The characters experience tremendous personal growth before they reach "and they lived happily ever after" at the end of the book.
I loved October Snow, but it left me wanting to know more about the characters and what happened to them. I wondered this for several weeks after I'd read the first book. I'm happy to say that An Early Frost provides the reader with closure.
Note: I received a free copy of An Early Frost in exchange for an honest review.
Sammie and Dave must eventually face that they have been avoiding discussions of the death of a dear friend and how that has impacted their relationship. Without coming to terms with their roles and the reasons for this death, Sammie and Dave are in danger of losing their love, resulting in their friend's death being in vain.
And Will, who was raised in a loving home, must learn how to love Maxine, a woman fractured by her abusive father. By loving Maxine too much, he begins to drive her away. Will's dilemma is that he must give Maxine the time to learn to trust him without feeling resentful that she doesn't trust him although he's never given her cause for distrust.
I highly recommend both books, whether you've been touched by domestic violence or not. But, if you have been exposed to domestic violence, An Early Frost provides hope that there is an escape and that one can have a loving and healthy relationship. However, it does not gloss over the fact that it takes effort to overcome a broken past. The characters experience tremendous personal growth before they reach "and they lived happily ever after" at the end of the book.
I loved October Snow, but it left me wanting to know more about the characters and what happened to them. I wondered this for several weeks after I'd read the first book. I'm happy to say that An Early Frost provides the reader with closure.
Note: I received a free copy of An Early Frost in exchange for an honest review.
August 23, 2014
"An Early Frost: October Snow, Part Two" by Jenna Brooks is another emotional and powerful story about domestic abuse.
This time the focus is not only on the different perceptions of an abuse situation by the victims but we also get to see teh damaging long time effects of abuse in an adult woman. On top of that there is the perspective of a successful Family Law Attorney.
With great psychological insights, emotional understanding, empathy and solid knowledge about the legal system in the US the author has done all of her homework and written another superb heart-breaking and heart-warming drama.
An amazing accomplishment.
This time the focus is not only on the different perceptions of an abuse situation by the victims but we also get to see teh damaging long time effects of abuse in an adult woman. On top of that there is the perspective of a successful Family Law Attorney.
With great psychological insights, emotional understanding, empathy and solid knowledge about the legal system in the US the author has done all of her homework and written another superb heart-breaking and heart-warming drama.
An amazing accomplishment.
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September 8, 2020Goodreads' description" Will Remmond is finding that out.
A high-powered Family Law attorney, he’s the one that battered mothers and abused kids turn to for help. Will’s the best at what he does, and he wins.
He’s also fed up, burned out, and ready to walk away from fighting the insanity of the Family Court system.
But there are two abused children left to rescue. One of them is five-year-old Alexa Reynolds. She and her mother are being stalked by a criminal sociopath.
Her mom calls the guy “demonic.”
Alexa calls him “Daddy.”
And Alexa’s daddy calls Will a walking dead man.
The other abused child lives inside of Maxine Allen, the woman who Will waited decades to find. Max is becoming more and more withdrawn. Increasingly hostile. She’s turning abusive, striking out at him - and he knows only that it has something to do with her father. Unable to learn the secrets from her childhood, he’s watching as the woman he loves descends into her own private hell.
But Will waited half his life to find her, and he’s not about to abandon her there. He intends to get to the truth of what happened to her. Between saving Alexa from her murderous father, and Maxine from her demons, he’s walking into the fight of his life. One that he intends to win.
Or die trying.
A high-powered Family Law attorney, he’s the one that battered mothers and abused kids turn to for help. Will’s the best at what he does, and he wins.
He’s also fed up, burned out, and ready to walk away from fighting the insanity of the Family Court system.
But there are two abused children left to rescue. One of them is five-year-old Alexa Reynolds. She and her mother are being stalked by a criminal sociopath.
Her mom calls the guy “demonic.”
Alexa calls him “Daddy.”
And Alexa’s daddy calls Will a walking dead man.
The other abused child lives inside of Maxine Allen, the woman who Will waited decades to find. Max is becoming more and more withdrawn. Increasingly hostile. She’s turning abusive, striking out at him - and he knows only that it has something to do with her father. Unable to learn the secrets from her childhood, he’s watching as the woman he loves descends into her own private hell.
But Will waited half his life to find her, and he’s not about to abandon her there. He intends to get to the truth of what happened to her. Between saving Alexa from her murderous father, and Maxine from her demons, he’s walking into the fight of his life. One that he intends to win.
Or die trying.
August 11, 2015
Compassionate and Fearless Will Remmond is a high-powered Family Law attorney who’s fed up, burnt out, and ready to walk, but two cases of child abuse keep his hand in the game: 5-year-old Alexa, whose abusive father wants Remmond dead, and Maxine Allen, the woman he’s waited half his life to find. But Maxine is a mess: Trying to recover from the shocking death of her friend stirs up old wounds from childhood, and she becomes withdrawn, even abusive. Whip-smart and angry, she falling deeper into her own personal hell even as she's falling in love with him. Remmond is determined to help her and Alexa - or die trying.Maxine and Will’s relationship shows the long-term damage done to a abused child, playing out along-side of custody battle for Alexa, a sweet little girl who seems to be just another victim in a long and continuing line. Brooks (a former victim’s counselor) creates compelling drama, educating the reader in Family Law while exposing weaknesses in the current justice system. In doing so, however, she never fails to remind you that there is hope, even when the proverbial deck is stacked. A compassionate and fearless look at the long-term damage caused by domestic violence, An Early Frostis fast-paced, energetic, and insightful, deftly blending romance, drama, and danger. Like its prequel, the award-winning October Snow (review coming soon), An Early Frost dares to ask the question: Who is willing to stand up and stop the cycle of abuse?
July 29, 2016
Readers had a lot of questions after October Snow, and the two most common ones were: 1. "What became of Maxine?" and 2. "Did the truth about what happened to Jo ever come out?"
And the comments I received most frequently reflected readers' shock and outrage at the truth of the Family Court industry.
An Early Frost answers the questions about the characters in October Snow through an exploration of the aftereffects of child abuse and child sexual assault, while further addressing the harm done to women and children by the Fathers Rights movement and its power within the Family Court.
Some of the scenes may be upsetting to abuse survivors, and it was difficult to write this story; however, I wanted to raise awareness of issues that are overlooked in this culture - not the least of which is the lack of compassion and understanding for battered women and adult survivors of abuse.
Naturally, I give An Early Frost five stars. So did Readers Favorite, calling it "fantastic" and "riveting" - and Midwest Book Review awarded it a rare "Very Highly Recommended."
But as is the case with October Snow, the comments that I most cherish are from readers who tell me that An Early Frost changed how they respond to difficult people, even those who seem ugly at times... Because you can't know the road that someone else has traveled.
But if you love them anyway, you can lead them onto a better path.
And the comments I received most frequently reflected readers' shock and outrage at the truth of the Family Court industry.
An Early Frost answers the questions about the characters in October Snow through an exploration of the aftereffects of child abuse and child sexual assault, while further addressing the harm done to women and children by the Fathers Rights movement and its power within the Family Court.
Some of the scenes may be upsetting to abuse survivors, and it was difficult to write this story; however, I wanted to raise awareness of issues that are overlooked in this culture - not the least of which is the lack of compassion and understanding for battered women and adult survivors of abuse.
Naturally, I give An Early Frost five stars. So did Readers Favorite, calling it "fantastic" and "riveting" - and Midwest Book Review awarded it a rare "Very Highly Recommended."
But as is the case with October Snow, the comments that I most cherish are from readers who tell me that An Early Frost changed how they respond to difficult people, even those who seem ugly at times... Because you can't know the road that someone else has traveled.
But if you love them anyway, you can lead them onto a better path.
June 20, 2016
When reading "An Early Frost," I realized I had not read book number one. It didn't impede my understanding of the story. However, I can't find anything more than lack-luster adjectives to describe how I felt when turning the pages. 'It was okay, oh, that was nice.' I can't remember reading a book where a character requested another character "tell me what happened, what you're thinking, how do you feel," so many times. Is he the boyfriend or the therapist? There were interesting elements of the book, but the romance didn't work for me. I found the underlying story more compelling than the main characters.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews