★★★★★
Review:
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that was
utterly unputdownable. This book is everything I had hoped it would be, and
more. It is easily the best book I have read in over a year and is among my
favorite books of all time. I frequently caught myself scanning ahead because
my eyes just couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.
Wendy has just remarried, and her abusive ex-husband, Josh,
kills her and her entire family in retaliation. She wakes up disoriented,
finding herself in a bar, and like a bad dream, her memory fades as she comes
to. She is twenty-one again, and what she doesn’t know is that she’s been given
a second chance at life by the Fortuna coin her father gave her. Plagued by
flashes of her memories of the future, she experiences overwhelming déjà vu.
She meets her soulmate that night in the bar, but for her to save her future
children’s lives, she will need to relive her past with Josh rather than follow
her heart.
The first few chapters were difficult to read, but they were
brief. This book definitely has a lot of triggers, but the worst of them is at
the beginning. As Wendy and Josh’s relationship develops in her new life, she
can sense that something isn’t right. As a domestic violence survivor, I could
feel my anxiety building with each insidious thing Josh would do, even though
the advancement of his controlling behavior was very gradual. Sometimes, it was
just a subtle change in his demeanor, and he would have looked perfectly
amiable to an outsider, which is so often the case in domestic violence
situations. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the pages. However, despite the
tension I felt, Karen Ann Hopkins delivered this story with such understanding
and delicacy that at no time did I feel overwhelmed or triggered. I would guess
that she or someone very close to her has experienced this sort of relationship,
but if that’s not the case, her research has served her very well; Josh’s
character is written flawlessly.
I would highly recommend this book to all women. (Domestic
violence is genderless, but I make this statement since the majority of victims
are women and the main character is a woman.) So many of us second-guess
ourselves when our instincts are screaming at us that something isn’t right,
and this book could help many women identify toxic behavior in their current
and future relationships. For domestic violence survivors, I would recommend
that you embark upon this book with caution, but I do not feel it is so extreme
that you couldn’t find the same pleasure in reading it that I did.
I will be recommending this book to everyone I know. The
author graciously provided me with a digital advanced reader copy at my
request, but I love it so much that I am purchasing a print copy to add to my
bookshelf.
#TheFortunaCoin
Audience: adult
Trigger warnings: domestic violence, abuse, murder, death of children, gun violence, sexual content
Recommended for fans of: domestic thrillers, psychological thrillers, time travel, romance
Publisher's Synopsis:
Wendy Catalano, a newly remarried mother of four, finds
herself, her husband and her children, murder victims of her ex-husband. A
family heirloom takes her back in time to the beginning of her relationship
with her eventual killer where she’s given the magical opportunity to change
the future and stop her family's tragic ending. But she isn't aware that she's
reliving a tortured life. With only glimpses of the future, Wendy struggles to
survive present day, unaware that a bloody and unforgiving destiny awaits her.
The Fortuna Coin is a haunting psychological thriller about domestic abuse and
second chances…but will the truth really set Wendy free?
Source:
Author-provided ARC
©Karen Ann Hopkins: October 12, 2021
Edition: ebook
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