Review: What If? What If? - Suzanne B. Miller - May 2025 Every now and then, a book comes along that feels like it was written just for you. When I was approached to read What If? What If? by Suzanne B. Miller and saw it was set in New Zealand—specifically Hamilton—I knew I had to say yes. What I didn’t expect was how deeply this story would resonate with me, not just as a reader, but as someone who’s lived through many of the same moments. The story follows Jasmine, a council archivist whose life is shaped by her OCD—nicknamed “Medusa.” Her condition is portrayed with such honesty and compassion, and I found myself relating to her work life more than I expected. Before I was made redundant from Tauranga City Council, I held a similar role, scanning and profiling old council documents. Reading about Jasmine’s day-to-day felt like revisiting a chapter of my own life. The setting was another highlight. Having visited Hamilton, I could vividly picture the Garden Square by the Library a...

Review: Checked - Jennifer Jamelli - December 2013 Taking a break from reading mystery novels, I was scrolling through my older books on my Kindle and came across Checked. I wasn't 100% sure what this book was about but I had an idea that it focused on OCD as the book tagline indicated about obsessiveness and counting which is one symptom of OCD.  In Checked we meet Callie and as we can tell her childhood anxieties and OCD arose from things that her parents told her and she took them to heart and over the years they manifested until it became a real fear. Not sleeping well and it starting to affect her work as a TA she is referred to a therapist to prescribe her some medicine. Depending on how you wish to view it, the therapist she was meant to see has a family emergency and so she is referred to the other therapist Aiden. Unlike the one, she was supposed to see Aiden is against medicine or as he calls it covering the disease with a medicinal bandage. As the book goes along, we rea...

Review: Every Fifteen Minutes - Lisa Scottoline - April 2015 One of my favourite female mystery writers to date still stands as Lisa Scottoline who all her books are written fast-paced and intriguing and touch on what could be real edgy issues. In Every Fifteen Minutes we meet Dr. Eric Parrish who is the head of the Pyschiatric unit at the hospital he works at and he also often takes on private patients. In Every Fifteen Minutes, after meeting a sick grandmother and her grandson Max , he agrees that his work will benefit Max and help him in order to better prepare him to cope when his grandmother passes away. Eric meets Max and soon discovers that he is the loner type and also suffers from a form of OCD in which he taps his head and recites the colours which resemble the little paint pots on those kindergarten easels . The other storyline that runs through the book is the "thoughts and actions" of who we only know as "the sociopath" and it seems that his in...

    Review: Inside Out - Book #3 Off the Map Series - Lia Riley - December 2014 One of the things I hate when it comes to the end of a series is that you have to say goodbye to your favourite characters, ones that you have come to love. I have to admit throughout this series I have been in two minds about Bran and Talia. Sometimes I love them to bits and other times I want to scream at them, especially Talia. In this book Talia has finally gone off to the Peace Corps in Africa and Bran is sailing around the world with his Antartica ship saving the ocean wildlife. The two are reunited when Talia falls into a coma after getting malaria. Bran comes back to America with Talia where she is confronted with the news that her dad is remarrying and him and his fiancee are expecting a new baby. As we know Talia has OCD and so this sets her off. During this time which is most of the novel, we read the back and forth banter of Talia and Bran - as Talia tries to push Bran ...

    Synopsis: Checked - Book #1 Checked Series - Jennifer Jamelli -December 2013 Checked is the first book in a new trilogy. Callie spends countless hours staring at appliances to make sure they are really unplugged. She wastes obscene amounts of time checking for murderers in various corners of her house and entire sleepless nights performing pointless checking rituals. Then every spare minute is filled with inspecting doorknobs, chairs, floors, etc. for minuscule traces of germs. Oh, and she does all of this as she counts to three over and over again in her head. She does this every day. Without fail. Dr. Blake just doesn't fit into her schedule. Until he does. Until Callie begins to trust him. Until she starts to need him. And want him. And . . Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20261875-checked?from_search=true