Good storyline full of twists and turns.  Author has created such unique dynamics between the characters that draws you in.

I really liked this book.  It was a quick read with enough drama to keep it going.  I like books that have some twist and turns that are unexpected and this book had a few.

"The past is either a shadow that haunts us or a fore that propels us."

I fell in love with this quote which just happens to sum up the story of Convergence nicely.  First, there is Denalyn, a psychology professor that continues to be haunted by a horrible ordeal with a stalker eight years ago, and fears that a repeat is imminent.  Then there is Adelia, a determined woman on an unknown mission to take care of some unfinished business.

Denalyn's story is told through flashbacks from the current 2017 to 2009, each situation parallel.  The switch between times can get confusing, and at times annoying, until you reach the end and all the pieces fall into place.  It also doesn't help that Adelia's story is also sprinkled in, thus adding more to the confusion.  The stalker is a mystery that keeps you guessing until the reveal, though I pegged it early on, connecting certain dots in this sinister plot, but I would not say this book is predictable by any means.

With deep character development, and the entire book shrouded in mystery, Convergence had me turning each page with eagerness, dying to put all the pieces together and know the truth.  What Denalyn endured was utterly unthinkable, but sadly could happen in real life, and actually would make an incredible action/suspense movie.

I love the touch of faith and empowerment interwoven in the story and Convergence proves that you can have an epic suspense novel without sex, violence, and bad language.  A remarkable and enjoyable read!

This is book takes a ton is twists and turns. I was kind of hard to keep up at first because the timelines are so close but not the same time.

The two women we read about are connected but I wasn’t sure how it would all pull together. This was definitely a page turner and an intense ride. Even though it can seem confusing I would urge you to hang in there, it is totally worth it.

I really enjoy books like this that keep me guessing and I’m not sure how it will end.


A copy of this book was given to me through the Celebrate Lit Team. All opinions are my own.

Let us return to the land of stories set up to confuse the reader in the name of increasing the suspense factor unnecessarily. Now that I have that out of my system, I can continue with a minimum of spoilers.
Our hero, Denilyn, has had a deep tragedy in her past. She thought the event of the summer she and her college friends spent working for a rafting company on the Kaweah river were behind her. She has moved on. She still has most of her circle of friends. But now the man who stalked her and her friend Adelia and who may have been behind Adelia's disappearance is out of prison. Deni feels stalked again. She returns to the river to solve the problem and the disappearance of her friend for good.
The solution is not what she had thought it was. She had been confused by one of her circle in the past. There had been two stalkers and only one of them had been truly dangerous.
I liked most of the book. The part where one person pretends to be two people was the only annoying part for me, because I didn't feel it was necessary. At least not necessary to be presented that way to the reader. As a tactic to bring down a possible murderer, it was fine and eventually the author gave up the pretense.
The copy of this book that I read was on Netgalley.

I was totally engrossed for the most part. Ytrrup kept me on the edge of my seat and had some surprises that in retrospect were foreshadowed well enough that they didn't feel out of the blue. She is a Christian author, and I enjoyed the way she incorporated faith in God into the story. From what I gather, this is her first venture into suspense, and I thought she did a great job. 

There were a couple of things that I didn't like too much. The first is the tense. First person, present is really popular now, but that style of writing is difficult to follow. Sometimes it engrosses me in the story and at other times it throws me completely out of the story. 

The second thing is that I think the big reveal came way too soon. I had been suspecting who had done it for quite some time (and I was right). But, by the time of the reveal, she had made it way too obvious. Then, after the big reveal, there was still 10 percent of the book left. At that point the suspense stalled. I chalk this up to inexperience in writing this genre. She's a great story-teller, and I hope to read more in the future.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. The writing style and plot really made this story worthwhile. I honestly had a hard time connecting with the characters but I still really liked reading about them. 
Towards the end though, I got really confused. I think I know what was happening but I still need to ask someone to clarify it for me, lol! 

This book had so many plot twists and heart throbbing moments that I had a hard time putting it down, well that and a deadline of only a few hours hanging over my head. xD This was my first book by Ginny Yttrup and I hope it will not be my last! 

I do not know how I feel about the end though. The plot twists was amazing and I did not expect it but I am still confused about that one thing. Maybe because I was speed reading towards the end I missed it, or I am just an oblivious reader. xD 

I loved all the faith content and seeing the characters develop in their faith. It was heartwarming to see and read that. God really does change people and their lives, this book painted a picture of that so perfectly. 

I honestly loved the whole take of a Psychology. You can tell that Ms. Yttrup put time and effort into the research behind everything, which was amazing! 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to suspense readers. This book is definitely up y'alls alley!! 

*FTC: I received this book from the publishers through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own, I was not required to write a positive review.*

Convergence was a suspenseful trip through a woman's past and present, her psyche, her self-doubt, her fear, and the conflict between her desire to help and reluctance to do the same. It was a wild ride that was made a bit more complex because it was not possible with a NetGalley copy to flip back and forth in the pages to keep the timeline straight. Other than that minor difficulty, this was a good and suspenseful read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for a review copy of the book for an honest review..

Convergence is my first book by Ginny T Ytrrup. Convergence is a psychological thriller that goes back and forth in time and back and for the between Denilyn and Adelia. Admittedly this was confusing for me and I would have to go back and see who and what year it was. 

Deni is an author, divorcee and Professor of psychology. However she is also still paralyzed by fear. The author was able to throw in some plot twists that surprised me. I struggled with this book a little and started speed reading which may have caused me to not be as engaged with Deni and her outcome.  

I think you will like the book if you enjoy a psychological thriller with Christian undertones.  I don’t think you will be shocked by the stalker but Ginny will still catch you with some surprises. 

I will definitely read other books by Ginny. 

Sexual content – any physical activity was behind closed doors with a married couple
Violence – Deni had a stalker and thinks she may have another one. 

I received this book from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review.
You can see my full review at More Than a Review dot com where I rate the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use in books.

This story is tough for me to review... Rounding up to 3 stars.

It started great - interesting characters and plot. Although this is becoming quite common, I always enjoy reading about psychologists. They have a unique inner dialog and I usually wonder what they are hiding from themselves.

I found the combination of three different timelines confusing. Although I was surprised by the conclusion and appreciated some of the mystery hidden until then, I thought that it could have been revealed in a more succinct manner.

*Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This was an alright read but it was weird how religion randomly became this huge part of the story and the plot revealed itself so slowly. Parts were so unnecessary and I found myself skimming just to get through to the parts where something actually occurred, especially at the end. Plus the culprit was pretty easy to figure out, and that is always frustrating. I don't think I'd recommend this book. 

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Convergence by Ginny L. Yttrup
Not a bad storyline, psychologist being stalked not once but twice but did the right guy get put away the 1st time? Her friend also got stalked and ended up missing presumed dead.....this story is told by both women in flashbacks and as happening now...this left me confused and constantly having to go back and figure out the time frame and the teller...like I said not a bad story just confusing to me.  Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for allowing me to read this and leave my honest opinion.

The story follows two people, Denilyn and Adelia. Both have had traumatic experiences and are trying to build new lives while constantly looking over their shoulders and feeling like they are being followed. Slowly we find the connection and learn many things about their past.
This book was rather confusing for me. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be inspirational or a mystery. I kept reading as the storyline was rather good, but at the end I felt rather deflated and had a lot of unanswered questions.
I do thank the publisher and author for giving me an ARC through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Maritza Velazquez's review 

May 01, 2019  ·  edit


liked it

bookshelves: netgalley, 2019, mystery 


A psychologist paralyzed by fear.
A mother propelled by love.
A stalker bent on destruction.
This is the blurb that had me requesting a copy of this book from NetGalley. Whom I thank for gifting me a copy of this book to read and review. Billed as a Christian mystery I did not know what to expect and am not sure if I liked it ad much as I should. Told through flashbacks and differing viewpoints the book progressed at a good pace. About 2/3s of the way through the story and mystery finally clicked into place for me. I was having a funny finally about one of the characters from the beginning and it turns out I was right. It was a fine read. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to discover a new author.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Ginny Yttrup book and her previous books were all straight women’s fiction, so it was a surprise to pick up Convergence and find it’s suspense. A good surprise, mind you!

Convergence opens with an unnamed woman taking her first tandem skydive. Except someone is watching …
The story then flips to January 2017, as Denilyn Rossi is heading to work—she’s the department chair of psychology at Pacific Covenant University in California. Deni is also a published author, although the success of her first book destroyed her marriage. She’s now been asked to write a second book

It’s not clear whether Chapter One is before or after the Prologue, which is kind of the point—the timeline skips forward and back, back and forward, until it all converges in the present (hence the title). We then skip eight years back in time, to 2009. We don’t know why, but we already know this is significant. The we’re back in 2017, but in the head of another character—Adelia Sanchez. And on it goes.

Convergence is a story that unwinds and reveals layers and secrets as you read. It breaks several of the rules of writing (don’t start with a prologue is just the first). But the whole plot—and the secrets—are unravelled in such a way they pulled me right in. What is the significance of January 9th? What happened eight years ago? How did Deni get that scar on her head? Why is her friend and colleague, Ryan, so worried about her?

I don’t want to say too much more because *spoilers*. Just believe me when I say this is an excellent novel, one with unexpected twists and turns and surprises (and it’s hard to surprise me). The plot is complex without being convoluted, the characters are believable, and the writing is top notch. All in all, it’s a great suspense read.

You know how sometimes when you finish a novel it’s so good that you want to muse on it for a few days rather than starting another book? This is one of those novels. Recommended.

Thanks to Shiloh Run Press and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Yes. This was a psychological thriller! My first read from Ginny Yttrup but won't be my last. 

The story involves a psychologist, a stalker & a mother. What could go wrong?

I highly recommend this book. Its an intriguing read full of plot twists, fast paced, complex, page-turner you won't want to put down. Thank you Net Galley for this complimentary book to review. My review is my own opinion.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoyed reading this. An interesting story with fun characters. Well written.

Convergence starts with mysterious and confusing instances surrounding Dr. Denilyn Rossi and her reaction to them. She is a woman of science who cannot explain why confusing and paralyzing events keep happening to her.  The book bounces back and forth between her past and her present.  This serves to let us know the events from before and the events from the present are converging together to create the terrifying events she is about to embark upon.  

The author does a good job leading up to the final climax of the book with the way she bounces around in Denilyn’s story and Adelia’s story. It flows quite well and was a lot of fun to read, up until the first “big reveal.”  
That made no sense.

**WARNING: SPOILERS**

With Denilyn being a psychology professor, I thought that her taking on Adelia’s name was rather stupid.  It seemed to make the ending very forced and not effective.  I think Yttrup had opened up a great possibility that Denilyn could have thought that she was Adelia or that she really was Adelia this whole time and she had split personality disorder and her friends just helped her through it until she became just Denilyn.  Then when Ryan went a bit nuts, Adelia “came back” to protect Denilyn. That would have been cool. But just to say she was Adelia and have the chapters named that was a huge letdown.  Maybe she wanted to take on some of Adelia’s more interesting characteristics, which was fine, but to set it up as if Adelia was “real” in a sense, well, the author could have done so much more with that. I think she missed a major opportunity with this one. 

The book does end well and it is a fun story. But I feel that such a huge opportunity was wasted on this that I can’t quite get over my disappointment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to read.  All opinions are my own.

An impressive novel that combines imagination, mystery, and a rock-hard edge — and never fails in its duty to maintain the building tension of a first-rate thriller

Psychologist Denilyn Rossi wrote a successful book on bullying, and soon after realized she was being stalked. Her counseling practice fell apart, her marriage disintegrated, and Deni ended up hiding out at her mother’s house, with her best friends rallying around her. Soon Deni rebuilds her life, begins teaching at a Sacramento area college with her best friend Ryan, and is thinking about writing once again. It just takes one strange occurrence, one feeling of distrust, and Deni is once again being stalked.

In their younger years, Deni, Ryan, and Adelia were rafting guides in Three Rivers. Much of this book centers on the convergence of the rivers, and on the three lives entwined with them. I was intrigued by the setting, but couldn’t really get into the story. It read, to me, a lot like a series of diary entries following Deni’s stalker and her determination to overcome and reclaim her life.