Read Cold Waters Normal Alabama Book 1 eBook Debbie Herbert

Product details File Size 4774 KB Print Length 310 pages Publisher Thomas & Mercer (May 1, 2019) Publication Date May 1, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07HF4SCB7

Cold Waters Normal Alabama Book 1 eBook Debbie Herbert Reviews

• ‘Cold Waters’ was my First Read choice for April as I love psychological thrillers and I was not disappointed as this was definitely a page turner. Author Debbie Herbert is new to me, however has created a thrilling story of murder and madness set around the dark and cold waters of Alabama.
  
  After a summer-night swim 14 year old Violet is found confused, wandering in the forest—and her best friend Ainsley has disappeared. Everyone is accusing Violet of murder however without a body, murder charges won’t stick, yet Violet is sent away to an institution.
  
  The story picks up when she returns 10 years later and goes back and forth between that tragic night and the present day - sort of flashback like but mainly her trying to piece things together as she has no solid memory of what happened that night yet it has wreaked havoc on her mental health.
  
  On the edge of madness, Violet must fight to keep her sanity long enough for the terrible truth to float up from the ‘cold waters’.
  By the end of the book many mysteries are revealed, and the reader is left spinning. Debbie Herbert is a new author to me however it is clear she is a master at detailed, vivid description of the landscape and characters It is definitely a psychological thriller in it’s most nightmarish form. Highly recommended. 4.5 Stars
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• I have terrible luck with First Reads Books. I didn’t hate COLD WATERS as much as I have previous months’ choices, but I didn’t like it either.
  
  Violet’s friend Ainsley disappears and Violet is suspected of her murder. She spends years in a psychiatric hospital and is now back in Normal, Alabama to help her (awful) sister care for their father who has dementia.
  
  COLD WATERS is filled with unsavory characters from liars to mean girls (women) to sociopaths. Violet, who narrates a good portion of the book, is the most likable.
  
  Debbie Herbert took the plot in some interesting, but mostly predictable directions. Much of COLD WATERS is a downer, lacking tension and suspense. This is supposed to be book one in a Normal, Alabama series, though I can’t imagine why a book two is needed.
• Selecting my First title was even more difficult than most months. I chose “Cold Waters” only because none of the other stories even tickled my curiosity. When I got to Chapter 2 and the brief flashback to 12 years earlier, I began to think I should have gotten the children’s book, “We Are (Not) Friends.” At least the first review of that book made it sound like a fun read…
  
  I suppose it was by about Chapter 4 that I began to appreciate the intimacy evoked by Ms. Herbert in “Cold Waters.” And the authenticity of the main character as she let us glimpse into her world of uncertainty and poor self-confidence. The author was especially skilled at slowly, in a style somewhat reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock, keeping me on the edge of my seat as she focused onto the important details so I could better see and feel the mind of Violet.
  
  I’m trying especially hard not to give any spoilers. Unfortunately, though, if you read the book’s description closely, you may assume there are NO spoilers possible. THINK AGAIN.
  
  What makes this work with me is the intimacy. I feel almost as if the author did indeed experience such an incident and is trying to use fiction to reveal some deep, hidden, haunting period in her life to us, as a means of therapy.
  
  BLUSH FACTOR To achieve such an authentic psychiatric look, the language would have to accurately portray the characters in somewhat stark honesty. There are only a few eff words, used with profound effect. Otherwise, there is no good reason to not share it with friends and family.
  
  WRITING AND EDITING Professional and polished.
  
  CLIFFHANGER ENDING? No, but a follow-on story could help illuminate the main character and her life. This is a good stand-alone.
  
  BOTTOM LINE
  
  While I would have liked a deeper character development of the father and her siblings, the look into Violet’s mind was far better than I expected.
  
  Four stars out of five.
• Bless this author's heart, she wrote a book I'm sure exacted enormous amounts of effort, time, and determined hopes from her, and the most charitable thing I can say is "So THAT happened".
  
  It's pretty awful.
  
  Every sordid stereotype of inbred Alabama dysfunctional society crawls out from the dark pages of Herbert's tale. I didn't even grow up there and I'm still embarrassed for the poor place.
• I'm giving it 5 stars because it's the first book in a long time that I couldn't stop reading until I got to the end. Started at 7 pm, intended to read about 30 minutes, needed to go to bed at 930, but found myself still reading until nearly 11 pm! NOT good for your health LOL There were so many plot twists and turns I couldn't stop until I saw what happened next. As a matter of fact, I read 5 chapters, then went to the end and read the last two, so that I could take my time reading the middle to see how it got to the ending, like over a period of days? Then went back to chapter 6 but with so much suspense in every chapter I kept reading without noticing the time. Lots of sad damaged people in it but there's always hope that Violet will survive. A shocking ending but a happy one for her. The author made all the characters seem like real people, that's a real talent. I'm glad the sister Delaney was exposed as a sociopath early on in the book, as it explained her actions as it went forward. I also like the flashback style to fill in detail to explain the present circumstances. I did some skimming to hurry on through but will go back now and read the book again in its entirety, and it will remain a permanent part of my library.
• I am from the Alabama area and reading about all the wonderful quirks about the people of this state was just the icing on this great book. Just enough mystery, drama, fear, hate and ultimately love to keep you reading though to the very end. Bravo!
• It is suspenseful, but a very sad tale. Violet finally comes into her own, but it is a very twisted path.