Julie's Review: Symmetry

Summary: Jessica Cassady must reevaluate her marriage while also dealing with the realization that her hair pulling is more than just a nervous habit. When her husband Lee attends a sportswriters’ convention and Jessica calls his hotel room, another woman answers the phone. He swears things aren’t what they seem, but she insists he move out while she decides whether or not to forgive him. With the increased stress of the separation, Jessica’s hair pulling escalates and she realizes she might have a physical condition called trichotillomania. As if she doesn’t already have enough to deal with, her domineering mother shows up for a surprise visit. Jess tries to avoid her mother’s disapproval by attempting to conceal her marital problems. While Lee works to win Jess back, things grow complicated when she runs into Noah Hamilton, a sweet, unassuming history teacher from her past. Jess’s interest in Noah makes her think that maybe—as her best friend Deb loves to tell her—she needs to forego the beefcake brigade and give the sensitive type a try. Conflict escalates when Lee realizes just how much he’s lost in losing his wife. Sparks fly as these two polar opposites on the testosterone scale compete for Jess’s affection. Will she find her emotional center, decide which man is right for her, and finally achieve the symmetry she craves in every aspect of her life? ~amazon.com

Review: I first want to thank Ms. Scarbrough for stopping by the blog and finding it interesting enough to offer me her book Symmetry. I found Jessica Cassady a very smart and sassy young woman except in one area of her life, her love life. She just can't shake the addiction she has to her former football player husband, Lee. You can pretty much gather from the beginning of the book that Jessica is not going to leave/divorce Lee. You know that by the end of the book he'll say the right thing to get her back.
This wasn't the storyline I was interested in.

What I enjoyed most was Jess's journey to figuring out why she liked to pull out her hair, strand by strand. This leads her to a self-diagnosis of trichotillomania or TTM for short. She begins to try to understand the triggers for this and takes actions to stop. I also liked how she developed a relationship with a young girl named Cara who did not have the support of her family in treating this disease. As a psychology major, I found it extremely interesting that this is a phyical disease and not a mental illness. I can see why it would be misdiagnosed a lot of the time.
I liked how this also brought her closer to her younger sister in law, Lexie and she was able to help Lexie with her own issues with OCD.

Normally I would think that author's would have to do a lot of research on a disease like TTM but not Ms. Scarbrough, for her this was a personal novel because she deals with TTM personally. I always like it when author's use a subject matter that they know personally as a source of inspiration for a character. I have a feeling that Jessica is a lot like Joyce in her way of dealing with TTM.

Ms. Scarbrough has quite a fan base around the web and I was happy to read her book to help her promote it.

If you are looking for a quick, fun and informative read, go grab yourself a copy of Symmetry and curl up on the couch.

Final Take: 3.75/5