While I am grateful to the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this title, a busy schedule got in the way, and I was unable to read it before it was archived on Netgalley. I will be looking for a physical copy of this title at my local bookstore!

this was a really good book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed the mystery and figuring out what was going on.

This book had so much promise. The first half had me riveted to my seat. Honestly, I had to take a short break from reading I was so uncomfortable.

Clementine was raped. Clementine was raped in her antiques store. She was closing up for the night getting ready to leave out the back door where she parked her van. This was a premeditated attack. The person that raped Clementine knows that he will not leave any evidence behind.

The police department is not equipped to handle a sexual assault. Each individual officer knows the rapist. Gary has a hard luck story and is finally rising above the circumstances (or so they believe). They do not believe Clementine, and even if they did, there are no eyewitnesses and no DNA. She attempts to fight the system, but when the system is made up of a bunch of good ol' boys, where is there left to go?

At the ha[f way point, Clementine realizes that nothing is going to be done to her rapist. She becomes increasingly obsessed with getting revenge against Gary. She wants him to pay. She wants him to suffer like she is suffering. She goes as far as attempting to manipulate her close friends to take part in her schemes.
Becoming more obsessive, her schemes begin to include the innocent.

Here comes the rant....
I had a difficult time believing that a woman that has been raped would seek revenge by hexing the man via the IRS. I would have many, many ideas and hitting the guy up with a horrendous debt from the IRS is not one of them. Then she schemes to sabotage his workplace to ruin his reputation, and sicken many, many people.
She has no regard toward the people she will hurt including the restaurant owner. The final plan is hers and hers alone. She finally gets her revenge, but at the expense of an innocent man.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN!!!!!!!!! Why would she cause the suffering of innocent people when she, herself, is suffering? I have to believe that Clementine is a very naive woman or this story would be unbelievable. The first half is very believable. The second half almost laughable until she started to have ideas that would harm the innocent. The story-line that included the supporting characters kept my interest very well. I really enjoyed their part in story. For that, I rounded the 2.5 stars to a 3.

Thanks to NetGalley, Pen-L Publishing, and Sally M. Whitney for an ARC in return for and honest review.

A painful, angry, novel suffused in hope. This could have so easily been yet another account of #Metoo, but the author chose to really dig deeply into her characters and to examine the backdrop of their culture, economy, history. Reading what happened to protagonist Clementine, the ugly crime and the ugly aftermath, frightened and infuriated me. But the novel didn't drop us there. What ensues is a marvel of character evolution, acknowledgment that joy can come eventually after grief. I would never say Clementine 's tribulations should be visited on anyone, but her ability to strengthen in the Crucible of Adversity made me proud for her.