JUST

4 stars out of 5

Betrayal, human trafficking, blackmail, jealousy, unrequited love and super-lousy parenting - they're all in here. Added to what I'd call far from a happy-ever-after ending, and you've got a book that certainly wasn't fun for me to read. Every single character is flawed (save one who's too young to have been corrupted by the others, but I have no doubt her turn will come).

Although the description puts the setting in "idyllic" Cambridge and other lovely places, I respectfully submit that way too much of it for my liking takes place in godforsaken parts of countries like Libya, where a young doctor named Scott Langbrook is working for an organization known as Reach, which is charged with a task referred to as Dead Body Management. As one might suspect, it's not exactly a pleasant job - at least until Scott hooks up with Dr. Fiyori Maziq, the expedition leader. Problem is, she has more issues than Nike has swooshes.

Meanwhile, things on Scott's home front aren't going too smoothly either. He's got a shaky relationship with his mother, Lucienne, who's a dentist in Cambridge. Most recently, he's been living with his father, Eddie, and his second wife Susan (much to the consternation of Mom, who's been in a love-hate relationship with her ex for the past 10 years and has never met - nor ever wants to meet - Wife No. 2). Luci's good [platonic] friend and partner in the dental practice, Finlay Duff, clearly is infatuated with her, but apparently amid fear that he'll be rejected, he's never let her in on his secret.

As the story begins, Eddie is killed in a freak accident. Now, Luci is faced with really, truly never seeing him again - and worse, the possibility she actually may have to meet Wife No. 2. That her son is on a dangerous mission in an unfriendly country - and the awareness that if he makes it back home it most likely will be to his father's place instead of hers - just adds to her misery.

Then, come home he does - and the plot begins to thicken fast. If Luci thought her life was a mess before, she quickly learns she ain't seen nothin' yet. And for better or worse, this is where my narrative must end; to say more would spoil things for other readers. This is a short book as books go; my only complaint, as it were, is that the transition between chapter settings seemed on occasion a bit disjointed - meaning it took me a few paragraphs to realize where and about whom I was reading. For those who might object to such things, there are some sexually graphic passages; other than that, it's a well-thought-out, well-written story - and I thank the author for sending it to me to read and review. 

Just by Jenny Morton Potts (Amazon Digital Services LLC, June 2018); 318 pp.