Julie's Review: Without Hesitation: Rasner Effect II

Summary:After two years in the Brookhill Childrens’ Psychiatric residence, Clara Blue is ready to leave, but at what cost? Clara is back in the Brookhill residence after Rick Rasner and the Duke Organization laid waste to the facility and liberated her as one of their own. She went willingly, seeing this rogue mercenary group as the accepting family she’d sought after her entire young life. The dream came to an abrupt end, however, when rival mercenary, Jake Scarberry, attacked the Duke Organization’s headquarters. The battle’s climax left Rick for dead, the group in ruins, and saw Clara sent back to the Brookhill facility. Now, consumed with regaining her freedom, her constant escape attempts and delusional hallucinations keep Clara distracted and ostracized by the new staff and patients alike. As the Brookhill residence recovers, Rick’s co-leader, Jennifer Duke, arrives under the guise of a therapist. With her presence, Clara is sure rescue is imminent. But Jen is there for another reason as well, one that scares Clara. Only Jake Scarberry has a chance of halting Jen’s nefarious plans, IF he can be coaxed out of the solace of civilian life. ~amazon.com

Review: In the fall I read and reviewed, The Rasner Effect and really enjoyed it. It was a great psychological thriller. I was thrilled when Mark contacted me about reading and reviewing the sequel, Without Hesitation. The sequel, picks up a few months after the first book and lands us back at the Brookhill Childrens' Psychological Hospital with a new Director. Clara Blue is still acting up and finding herself in isolation a lot. To be honest I don't think she really cares if she lands in there.

Clara is a reluctant heroine. What I mean is you really do want to root for her but she's not always likable. She's got major anger issues and some violent tendencies that really come to a head in this book. Enter Jennifer Duke, the most violent, vile and psychotic character I have ever read about. She's scares the crap out of me. She's just plain evil. Well she's come back to Brookhill to break Clara Blue and a band of misfits out. You see she might not like Clara, but Rick brought her into the fold and she has to honor that. What Clara wants most is just to get out of Brookhill and be free at any cost and by any association.

Jake Scarberry is also back. For the last 3 months he's been living the civilian life and once he's brought back in, it's like he's never left. You see Jake still wants to avenge his brother's death by the hands of the Duke Organization and well Jennifer Duke is still available to satisfy that need.

I will have to say that this book is a bit more gory and violent that the first one but since I read the first one, I knew it wasn't going to be all rainbows and sunshine.

My concern for Clara is that she's entering a world that she'll never get out of and this world only feeds her violent side. With no family to reign you back in you go astray. You root for her but you also cringe because you know that this just can't end well for her.

As with most thrillers, I can't really delve into details because well it would give away all the plot points that the author would love for you to read on your own. I will say there a quite a few twists that I didn't see coming.

I will say that each time I read a book or watch a movie about children and psychological issues, it makes my heart wrench. It's just so heart breaking that these kids are discarded as social pariahs, when maybe the system is the real issue.

As a fan of the TV show ALIAS, I always picture Brookhill as the psychiatric hospital Sydney was in during Season One. It's probably because Brookhill seems so archaic and that one definitely was.

This is a sequel that doesn't disappoint. I want to thank Mr. Mark Rosendorf for having his publisher send it to me. Now knowing there is a 3rd in the works; I can't wait to see what Clara and Jake do next.

As a side note, with Shutter Island being released this weekend, I think that more and more readers will want books with a psychiatric hospital as the setting.

Final Take: 4/5