Captivating and chilling. Another great psychological thriller by J.T. Ellison. As in previous works by the author I do not want to give anything away in the reviews but I would reccomend this to anyone who enjoys the genre.

“Tear Me Apart” by J. T. Ellison starts with a medical crisis; Mindy Wright has a potentially career-ending crash that threatens her future as an Olympian and a professional skier. However, the trauma does not end there. During surgery to save her life, doctors discover an aggressive form of leukemia, and only a stem cell transplant can save her life. The family immediately prepares for the life-saving procedure, but yet complication emerges; they are not a match. It appears that Mindy is not their biological daughter. How can this be? The past holds deep secrets, and how far will a mother go to protect her child? As far as it takes, Lauren Wright will let nothing stand in the way of saving her daughter.
The characters are well developed, compelling, and not always truthful. The story is told in sections from different points of view, and each interpretation contributes to the complex story as readers follow the uncovering of years of secrets and lies.
The gripping story unfolds layer by layer as the family’s world unravels around them. This is a personal drama, full of tension, and one that will keep readers engaged right up to the end. It addresses family devotion and childhood illness, as well as the difficult topics of mental illness and missing children.
I was given a review copy of “Tear Me Apart” by J. T. Ellison, Harlequin, and NetGalley. It is a convincing story filled with family problems, and not all the twists have obvious resolutions. I found the book riveting and captivating. It was a bit long, but it was well worth the time it took to read. Readers should not skip the author’s note at the end of the book.

I have to say I've loved everything I've read by J.T. Ellison from her very first Taylor Jackson novel, and I was pumped to get an ARC of this one (which I ended up finishing on release day!!). I won't rehash the description because you most likely have read it, and I can't go into any more detail than that, but this might actually be one of my favorite books by her. The first half felt very similar to a Jodi Picoult novel and I was really into the change of direction. The second half turns into thriller mode that we know J.T. for, and it does not disappoint. The characters were unbelievably well written, and I had and extremely difficult time putting the book down because every chapter left me in suspense. Highly recommended to anyone who loves a good, slow burning mystery with plenty of twists. I can't wait for the next one! Thanks to J.T. Ellison, publisher MIRA, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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.

This was my first book by J.T. Ellison and it will not be my last! I was seriously impressed with Ellison’s writing and I have to admit, I have never had to look up so many words while reading a work of fiction - so hey thanks for increasing my vocabulary, Ms. Ellison!

When seventeen year old professional skier, Mindy, breaks her leg in a competition, a series of events unravel which will change the course of her and her family’s life forever.

This is a dark, multi-layered story that combines issues with mental and physical illness, and questions as to how far certain people will go for those they love. I certainly appreciated the author’s note where she mentions her inspiration and her support of suicide prevention. This is an important topic that is addressed within these pages.

And I have to say Kat the dog was probably my favorite character in the whole book!

This was a buddy read with my fellow @6bookbesties Mackenzie and Berit. Thank you to MIRA and Harlequin for my advance copy. This book is available today!

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.