Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Review: The Speed of Light by Elissa Grossell Dickey

The Speed of Light
by Elissa Grossell Dickey

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pages: 290
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Simone is trying her best not to think of what she’s lost. Diagnosed with MS, she awaits the results of another anxiety-inducing MRI. She’s just walked away from Connor, “a fixer” but possibly the love of her life. And nearing the holidays, the sights and sounds of winter in South Dakota only prick memories of better years gone by. Then, on a December morning at the university where she works, jarring gunshots pierce the halls. In a temporary safe place and terrified, Simone listens and pretends this will all be over soon.

As she waits for silence, her mind racing, Simone’s past year comes into focus. Falling in love and missing it. Finding strength in family and enduring friendships. Planning for the future, fearing it, and hoping against hope in dark places. Her life has been changing at the speed of light, and each crossroad brought Simone here, to this day, to endure the things she can’t control and to confront those that she can.


Kritters Thoughts:  A riveting story that has two storylines from the perspective of one character.  Simone has recently been diagnosed with MS and she is still trying to figure out how to react to this chronic diagnosis.  In the same story, at the university where she works there is a shooting taking place and she must react in order to check on her co workers and also try to figure out who is doing this.    

What I loved most about this book was that I saw this character go through the acceptance of a disease, MS, and the limitations that eventually her body will make on her.  I know very little about MS and appreciate when fiction can enlighten me in a soft and easy way without all of the science.  I care more about reading about the feelings of diagnosis and how someone comes to grips with the path that their life will now lead.  

The way the author laid out the book kept me turning pages.  We go back in time a year before the shooting and read about Simone as the year unfolds and leads up to the shooting and the events of that day while at the same time the shooting slowly unfolds throughout the book.  For me this was a really satisfying way to keep me reading to the end and gave the book a little mystery as I was trying to find out who the shooter was alongside Simone.  

I was excited to learn when I finished that this was a debut book written by an author who is living with MS and I really hope there are more books to come from her!  


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2021 Challenge: 15 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Lake Union Publishing.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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