self | redpillows

About the Book:

Kilee Brookbank was a typical sixteen-year-old, thinking about school, soccer, her friends, and her boyfriend. But her last ordinary day erupted in an explosion that consumed her house, burning over 45 percent of her body and sending her to the very brink of death. After thirty-eight days of surgeries, skin grafts, perpetual physical therapy, and excruciating pain, she had to discover how to live again.

When Kilee returned home, she had to find a new “normal,” relearning how to tie her shoes, put on her makeup, and even turn a doorknob. In each moment of her long journey back to everyday life, she had to make choices that would define who she was and who she would become.

With unwavering support from her mom, Lori, and the rest of her family, Kilee faced her journey with determination, strength, and a positive attitude that inspired not only her community, but people around the world.

Told together by Kilee and Lori, Beautiful Scars is a story of recovery, healing, and hope, reminding us all that we’re never powerless, never alone, and that each challenge we face helps make us the people we are meant to be.

My Thoughts:

This story of 16 year old, Kilee Brookbank’s experience with skin burns and her positive outlook to fight back and live a fulfilling life is encouraging and inspiring. The idea to get her story out there, to teach people to love themselves in spite of how they look or the scars they bear is wonderful and I applaud Kilee for the same!

This book brings out the sequence of events from both Kilee’s POV and her mother, Lori’s POV, thus helping us to understand all sides of the story and the feelings of everyone involved. It is a scary thing that happened, but the way in which it was approached and dealt with, made a huge difference to the recovery.

How do you recover from the pain and shock of the burns to living a normal life again? How does someone accept that they no longer look the way they used to, they are different in many ways? All this is covered and shared in great detail. The strength and support of the family and the people around them is wonderful and this story of hope and healing tells us that we are not alone, as long as we do not hesitate to ask for help. There is always someone out there who has gone through what you are going through and there are support groups and help if we seek it out. This is a story of growth and healing of not only of Kilee but also of her family and her mother who stood by her and supported her. They treated her as a normal person, in spite of her burns and the difficulties she faced initially. She had to re-learn to do all the everyday things by herself and I think Lori deserves a huge amount of credit for her unwavering faith and support. The idea to help people deal with the trauma of burns and healing makes Kilee’s story worth a read!

About the Book:

The Black Witch of Mexico

Would you sell your soul to have anything you wanted?

Adam Prescott has everything; he’s earning big money as an emergency specialist at one of Boston’s biggest hospitals, he has a fancy apartment in Beacon Hill, everything is working out fine.

But when his girlfriend dumps him, it hits him harder than he expected, and he lets himself spiral. On the advice of his boss he takes a sabbatical in rural Mexico – a place where they still believe in magic – and in witches.

A mysterious figure called the Black Crow tells him he can cast a spell and give him anything – anything – he wants … and though he doesn’t really believe in any of it, Adam is tempted.

Anything at all?

Okay, he says. Okay get me my girlfriend back.

And that’s when the nightmare starts.

From the witch markets of Mexico City to the ancient valleys along the Guatemalan border, places still haunted by the statues and ruins of the Olmecs, he is drawn deeper into a world he doesn’t understand and comes to question everything he once believed.

Are witches just superstitious nonsense? Or is there such a thing as real evil in the world?

The Black Witch of Mexico is a chilling psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems.

So be careful what you wish for – you might just get it.

My Thoughts:

“Be careful what you wish for – you might just get it.”

That’s how the synopsis of the story ends and this is an apt way to describe the plot of this book.

The protagonist, an emergency specialist at one of Boston’s biggest hospitals spirals down after his girlfriend dumps him. On the advice of his boss, he takes a sabbatical and moves to Mexico. Here he lives in a village where the people still believe in magic and the existence of witches. What follows is a series of events that form the entirety of the plot.

When the doctor encounters a witch, who offers to give him anything he wants, he asks for his girlfriend back. Thus all hell breaks lose and leads to the beginning of a series of nightmares. Playing on the psyche of the character, the author has written an interesting book. The author’s style of writing is captivating and will ensure that the reader is hooked.

The story is well written and is quite different from most books I have read. However I must say that I did not understand the ending and I feel a little let down by that. The story was built up really well up until that point, but the ending confused me. In spite of this, I thought that this was a good read and would still like to recommend it even though it left me a little confused.