Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison

5+++ stars from me! I have read quite a bit of really good books this year and this is one of them. This is a book that is going to stay with me. I requested this ARC simply based on the fact that I really like the last two books I have read by this author. No One Knows and Lie to Me were 5 stars in my book. So I had pretty high expectations. What I didn't know is that she managed to exceed them. This is my favorite work so far by her.

Mindy Wright is a 17 year old blazing the slopes as a champion downhill skier. She is in the running for making the Olympic team. All she has to do is ace this competition. Then it happens, she falls and has to be hospitalized for her injury to her leg with surgery pending. There is still hope for her Olympic dream, until the doctors discover by accident that she has leukemia. She has been tired lately but thought it was just her training schedule.

Upon learning that she had leukemia, I instantly thought oh great, I don't want to read a depressing book. I am a nurse and I deal with enough with illness and death that I just don't like to read about it when I am trying to decompress from whatever I have dealt with during my work day. Much to my surprise, it wasn't like this with this book. Somehow even with that being part of the story, it just wasn't a depressing story to me. Upon being diagnosed with leukemia this book develops into so many twists. They weren't random though, they all were shocking, but it blended so well with the story, it seemed like real life. It wasn't a bunch of shock value twists. It was just a twisted story of a family that sucks you in. I honestly didn't want the book to end. Just when you thought another detail to this story couldn't be added, there is another one. Quite possibly my favorite line was "Why can't this bitch just stay dead."

Multiple deaths, missing children, mental illness, suicides. Seem like too much? Not a chance. This is a perfectly spun story that I truly enjoyed reading.

On a side note, I highly suggest reading the author's note at the end of the book. It actually brought me to tears, it is very touching and heartfelt. As someone in the medical field I was impressed by her medical terminology and details. Thanks for another great read J.T. Ellison!

Thank you to J.T. Ellison, Harlequin Mira and NetGalley for this ARC