Review: “Allison,” Jeff Strand

Pros: Had me on the edge of my seat!
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

Jeff Strand’s Allison takes the girl-with-supernatural-powers-gets-pushed-too-far trope and makes it delicious again. Allison found out the hard way that she can move people with her mind. Unfortunately she has very little–if any–control over this, so whenever her emotions spiral out of control (good or bad), she tends to break bones. She’s resigned herself to a life of hermitude. Then one day she instinctively catches a pregnant woman who nearly falls, and her abilities help out a bit. She’s terrified she might have hurt the baby, so the father of the baby, Daxton, decides to pretend that the baby died so as to extort some money out of her. When her emotional reaction to the news causes him to discover her powers, he decides that the guy he works for, a mob boss, would reward him for capturing her. Meanwhile, Cody, a young man who’s willing to believe what he’s seen with his own eyes, gently calms Allison down and asks her about her powers. The two of them hit it off, but Allison knows she can’t get too close to him.

I love the characters in this book. In particular, Allison and Cody are both quirky enough that I could read whole pages of even their most mundane dialogue and not get tired of it. I love that Allison is a strong, middle-aged woman. She’s been stuck with this power-as-curse because the only thing she can affect is the human body, and there’s no way to practice that without breaking a lot of bones. So this means she can’t trust herself around anyone. But this also means she doesn’t use her powers as a cure-all. She’s a gutsy woman who will grab whatever’s to hand and start swinging when the bad guys come for her.

Daxton and the mob boss, as well as Daxton’s pregnant girl Maggie, also add a lot of depth. They’re neither cartoonishly evil nor overly misunderstood. They have their own agendas and loves and hates.

If you want to read an awesome paranormal short novel about a woman with power forced to go up against a bunch of bad guys, grab this one today and give it a read! Content note for torture, some blood and guts, and very mild sexual material.