Matt Bowers’s life ended at sixteen, when a vicious betrayal by someone who he should have been able to trust left him a shell of himself, fighting OCD and PTSD, living in constant fear and always running. When he buys a remote tract of land, he thinks he’s found the perfect place to hide from the world and attempt to establish some peace. For ten years he believes he’s found a measure of comfort, until the day a stranger begins to run on Matt’s road.
He returns every day, an unwelcome intrusion into Matt’s carefully structured life. Matt appeals to the local sheriff, who cannot help him since the jogger is doing nothing wrong. Gradually, after tentatively breaking the ice, Matt begins to accept the man’s presence—
But when the runner doesn’t show up one day, it throws Matt’s world into chaos and he must make the hardest decision of his life.
Title: Runner
Author: Parker Williams
Release Date: July 28, 2017
Category: Contemporary
Pages: 200
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Dreamspinner Press
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This new book from Parker was such a creative premise to write from. To write from the perspective of Matt, with all his trauma, and his extreme OCD really draws in the reader. I honestly was hooked from the very first page.
Matt, having been through such a trauma literally turned everyone and everything away, including his family. What a tragic start to young adulthood. And to not have any human contact, and not search any out, what a sad existence. On top of it, he didn’t even venture outside his own set of books, almost as if time literally stopped for him from that moment on.
I loved how Charlie came into his life. Not with any forcefulness, merely a presence who ran by his home…for months, allowing Matt to see him not as a threat, but almost as a part of the landscape outside his window. Happening at the same time every day, in the same direction, until one day he doesn’t, and Matt’s world turns upside down even more.
Their relationship took time, and I loved the fact that finally Matt was able to face his demons, fighting through every step of the way, because he wanted to be there, not merely because Charlie wanted him to be there.
At the end of the book, I found myself confused, not quite understanding the timing of how things happened, and in fact, I thought things happened in a different order. It left me wondering if I had missed a piece or if a chapter was moved.
In the end, though, I really enjoyed this book, and I loved the way Matt kept fighting to find himself back in the world, with his family, with his love, and mostly with the person he wanted to become. Well done.
4.5 pieces of eye candy
Can’t wait to read it! Great blog post!