Twist of Faith: Ava Saunders, Book 1

A good, solid, well described paragraph describing a house of her past, the Polaroid photo of which Ava holds in her hand, immediately draws you into this web of intrigue. The story twists and turns all over the place so be ready for a ride! The author lets you think you have the answer but then surprises you again and again!IMPORTANT TO NOTE: sex, alcohol, violence and more are included in this novel. Sex is not described in detail but eluded to and not just between a man and woman. The 'F' bomb is also in residence, once again not heavy but showing up every once in a while. Some scenes/descriptions are brutal due to the violence involved. If you are of the Catholic faith (the main characters are Catholic), you may find some of this content offensive/too close to home, especially due to what has been in the news recently.Disjointed memories have plagued Ava, 23, for many years, making her suspect that the story of her being abandoned at the tender age of 6 weeks and subsequently rescued by Claire not true. Questions asked brought no answers and with Claire now dead it is time to start digging. What caused the demise of her adoptive mother's health in the last six months of her life? Who is the mysterious man that seems to be "stalking" her? Where is Ava really from? Who was her birthmother? Can Aunt Marie, a nun, help her? Who knows the truth of the past? Ava's friend, Joanne, wants Ava to call the police. Why? How does Russell, a detective at the Prosecutor's Office get dragged into help? Ava fascinates Russell. She is bilingual, working as a court interpreter and very knowledgeable of France, having a grandmother over there. Russell has been in a relationship with Juliette for 3 1/2 years. He was just recently pressured into getting engaged. How will it all turn out? The mystery man and three others are somehow connected in this web? What did they do? What's the secret? What was the priest's connection?The above paragraph sounds just like a normal book, doesn't it? That just what the author leads you to believe at the beginning! Although not an easy read, due to some of the violence, this was definitely a captivating one along with being well written. HOWEVER I then got frustrated. Why? Although there is an ending as such you will be left hanging! Although it is not clear, nor mentioned in the listing, this book has the feeling at the end of being the first in a series. Will the author be back with a sequel?I downloaded this onto my Kindle as my January First Read choice. I was not required to write a review but chose to do so. Thanks, Liz

Well....it did keep me engaged so for that part I will credit the author for writing a book that was intriguing. A lot of people talked about how the main character, Ava, was unlikable. I think that was one of the things the author did very well actually - she created this character that we sort of feel sympathy for, we want to like her, but she's a train wreck and an alcoholic mess..but still I kept trying to like her. I think that's a credit to the author that she gets you to feel conflicted about this character.However, the plot holes - there were several. I didn't catch on to the 'who done it' part until close to the end - another credit to the author - but I found the answer to that implausible, and we had to entirely suspend belief. That's when I became disappointed in the novel. The killings at that point just didn't make sense, it was almost anticlimactic once you found out. There was a part I had to go back where the detectives friend sees something moving in the shape of a body in the leaves - yet thats never brought up again or talked about..however it was a major plot issue. What happened to that part with the other guy seeing that? Plot hole.The involvement of the detective wasn't believable either and his 'self preservation' in order to keep his job. nahhh.. wasn't buying it. He was a schmuck to his bossy girlfriend who he plans to marry anyways - that didn't make a lot of sense either.It's so hard not to write more without spoiling it...but.. SPOILER AHEAD...............If you jump off a cruise ship chances are you aren't going to survive that.. yet unbelievably this person does and then the photos start all over again (I dont know why at this point - all the characters know everything so why is this person starting with the photos again???? ) leading into the next sequel. I'm not sure I'm going to read the next one.. again - intriguing to try to figure out why this one character is the way they are but ... too much of a convoluted plot and too many unbelievable 'left for dead' escapes.I would still read the author's other books though - I don't think she's a bad writer - I think she manages to tell a good story - just didn't tie up the endings to this one as best as she could have.

Can't wait to read the next one! Never saw the ending for sure. Great story telling and character development. Recommend for anyone who loves a good thriller

enjoyed

I was expecting a good murder mystery but this... This is just the life of a serial killer. Very disappointing. I don't see how it can be a series. I will not read the rest of the series.

Started well, but rapidly went downhill. I lost patience with people who were supposedly terrified that a psycho serial killer was hunting for them, but kept "forgetting" to lock their front doors. And the author made a mistake, in my view, by introducing a mysterious unidentified woman halfway through. I mean, there was only one person this could possibly have been! Doh!By the end, with a bunch of miscellaneous characters running around looking for clues, it began to feel like a Famous Five story (except they were better). The final chapter was too silly for words.Disappointing; didn't live up to its initial promise.

In my own opinion this book is better than people can make out to be as a standard reader can consider it to veer around by and confuse in whiles. The book was read by myself in small segments and pauses and so I got into the story far more readily and could understand when things go a bit farther out and hammered together more here than most books can be and get liked for. The edges of reading speed giving the book further life with the more attentive reader, less understanding of factors and goal leading reason on a pace better to go, given relationships and then it can be presented to a better trained mind.It is a book for the lacking of attention to framing scenes, here the tight team of fighting egos and their affaires in coming out with the goal of solution. The book does seem to constrict itself to the immediate precariacy of all the characters and the lack of abscribing the general feelings of further characters and gives powerful attractions between characters that seem to lose in the general apathy and publicity of the writing. The book keeps on with a rolling casebook that gets a bit lost in itself, such that you can't fairly see the keep up of the persuance of a personal journey.A guide need not be modelled onto the book or given a story you can faithfully rely on knowing, given that it has to be the best of a journey and is best seen martialling the drama of a broken assembly of still seeing warped personalities. It is mapped with tendrils of routes of consideration and true-to-roots besting. Your thoughts at points leading to minimum state of course it can still lead you with every chapter. The keeping up with the psychiatry of provocation can lead to further veers in story that can be seen with close binded characterisations and tendencies to form the worst of position in the book complete. It can be seen getting to further books though, that can mould the tale and give further points of view, though I haven't read the further books I think there would have a basis to establish perhaps a better tone, and a need to gain story adaptation leads and more attention to an aberrant protagonist and personality to environment, and more the position on affaires.

I was enjoying Twist of Faith until about the halfway point when Ava, the main character is ‘murdered’ by a crazy nun who happens to be her aunt and a priest. From this point the book loses all credibility.I was rooting for Ava. I wanted to like her. I wanted her to find out about her past. I was on her side. And then the book reaches the halfway point and develops a weird split personality. It was felt like I was reading two books, neither of which made much sense.Twist of Faith has great potential. I love books with unreliable narrators and twists and turns and constant surprises. Unfortunately, none of this works in this book. The ‘twist’ is ridiculous and requires complete suspension of belief. I did not buy the truth about Ava. Utter nonsense.I cannot think of a good thing to say about the book. The title should be changed to Twist of Nonsense or Suspension of Belief.