FREEFALL:JESSICA BARRY

Freefall: Jessica Barry

Relationships are sometimes hard to keep and when Allison and Maggie retell their story through their own eyes and viewpoints it will take you the reader to decide which one is more credible, whether they can mend and reseal their mother/daughter relationship as the story begins with a serious tragedy and the death of a pilot and a crash that will change their lives forever.

Allison Carpenter survives a deadly plane crash in an area where there is no one to help her and she does not wait to be recused. There’s a hidden reason as someone wants her eliminated but who? She immediately collects provisions, clothes and gets on her way to try and finding safety and someone to help her as she is injured in many places and has limited resources. As we hear her viewpoints and we understand her concerns and struggles we also learn that the pilot and victim found in scattered pieces was her fiancé pharmaceutical CEO Ben Gardner. The plane went down in the Colorado Rockies and Allison’s survival skills taught by her father at the age of 9 kick in as she flashes back to his many lessons, the time she learned to build a fire and we realize that she is tough, scared but that won’t allow her to be taken over as she teaches many readers the importance of thinking things out and not ever giving up on life.

Maggie her mother is told of the accident and that her body has yet to be recovered. Shocked by the information told and scared when reading the news reports and hearing the news she is remembering the fact that she and Allison are no longer in touch and they have been estranged for a long time. Not only that she had no idea that she was engaged and her life for the past two years unknown to her at this point since her father’s death.

Using her research skills as a retired librarian Maggie uses these skills to dig long and hard into the crash, learn more about her daughter and what she does will shock her to the core. Does she or did she ever really know Allison?

The settings that the author describes in Allison’s words are dark, cold, filled with the unexpected yet she manages to overcome the obstacles and find places of refuge. As Maggie relates her own frustrations and although she has a support system in Jim and his wife Linda, she pushes them aside wanting to focus and deal with this on her own. Allison relates how she lost her job and had to work in a bar and become friendly to the customers in a way that would give her enough money to live and much more. While Maggie learns about Allison’s arrest for DWI and the man she was arrested with who is twice her age leading her to wonder why and wanting to learn more.

Each time Allison seems centered we learn more about her life in the past, her working in the bar and the fact that she is deadly afraid that this unknown person will find her.

Allison takes us back to when she met someone that saved her from herself and her fate, but we do not know who it is yet, and we wonder why she fell into his spell so quickly after leaving the bar. Did she really need someone to affirm her worth? Maggie heads out to find the parents of the pilot and is stonewalled every step of the way. What are they hiding and why is she so bent on searching on her own?
When families become estranged why does it take a tragedy to bring them or hopefully bring them back together?

Allison finds herself in a cabin alone and yet she feels rejuvenated because she now has some type of shelter and some type of supplies that might keep her alive longer. Plus, there is water. While Maggie reminds herself of the past and when Allison was born, and the regrets and sorrows come shining through in their actions and words. Allison lost her job and as I stated was over qualified and wound up in the bar to make money and rent of some type. While her mother had no idea that she was getting married but there are more hidden truths and lies that will come out before the final reveals come to light.

Within the minds of both Allison and Maggie you begin to wonder whose truths are lies and whose lies are truths as the author takes us inside their innermost thoughts and you wonder if they were to meet again and Allison survives her ordeal if the rift between mother and daughter will not widen even more or maybe just narrow a bit until the chasm is closed for good and they become closer.

Maggie is determined to find Allison and her ruse with the maid only worked for a short time but when she meets with Dee who worked with her a limited amount of information comes to light, but we learn more about Ben, his possessiveness and the fact the wanted her in his world and not in her own. Allison became so entrenched in his world that she left her own and her mother as we get to hear what she learns states she would have helped her with anything she wanted.

Ben sounded like he was controlling and his family thinking she was beneath him as we hear the maid speaking to Maggie before she heads home. How far will someone go to feel special and accepted? How far will a mother go to find her daughter? The author creates suspense, suspicion throughout the novel and the twists, curves and turns will leave you hanging by a thread as if you are on the fastest and highest roller coaster ride of your life.

Ben’s company created a drug to help women with Post-Partum depression and it supposedly worked except we learn when Maggie looks up his company that the drug had hundreds of positive reviews and one that will tug at your heartstrings making you wonder whether there were more bad reviews and no one read them since this one was on page 74. We then hear the voice of a man that met with Allison and wanted something from her in order to stop Ben’s company and the fear in her heart when he told her he knew about the ride in the car and her role in the bar sent chills down her spine as we hear the voice of someone who is out to find her and silence her. Maggie is learning more but in the end,  who will win out as we realize that Ben had secrets of his own and that the man who contacted Allison claims that it’s all about money and power and not caring about the patients of course she did not believe it.
Voices are heard from many directions as Maggie meets David’s parents and a ill feeling comes over her as if they are being condescending and giving her tidbits about her own daughter making her feel as if she is a stranger in her life. The funeral was surreal and with them there uncomfortable as she gets to know a lonely man named Tony who wants into her life and Allison finds her way to freedom and out of the forest and into civilization but the person who took her to the motel might be the reason she continues to be in danger as someone found him and the end result has yet to be revealed as someone close to Ben cannot be trusted as you hear him ask about the man who talked to her and wanted to know if he asked her about her past.

Prexilane is the company and Somunblaze is the medication and the reviews being all good are misleading as Allison finds herself hunted by an unknown person and Maggie faces the fact that someone who befriended her knew about the trials being fixed, new about Ben and investigating it along with Allison. Will anyone believe the truth behind this company? Will Maggie be a target, and can she really trust Jim? Why are they saying the crash was an accident?

When the facts are told, and the truth becomes reality you won’t believe what the final ending will be? Cover-ups and an FDA investigator and investigation to prove that the side effects from Somnublaze are serious and what they because you not believe. When lives hang in the balance and they are barely stable sometimes they separate from those they love, other times they feel like they can’t hang on but in this case the sometimes you feel that you don’t have a life, but you have the sensation of a rapid and continuing drop or decline you in other words you feel like you are about to FREEFALL! Characters what are strong willed, and a plot created by author Jessica Barry that will keep you suspended in air until the final scenes and hopefully you won’t have the same feeling and FREEFALL!

Fran Lewis: Just reviews/MJ magazine/MJ Network