 Hello everybody! E here. E here. Welcome back to another book review. Before we get started, happy belated book birthday to Laurel Hightower's Crossroads. I'm going to say something right up front. It's my only criticism and I just want to make sure nobody else has the same expectations I did going into it. It right off the bat you realize that this is not the case, but with this cover I could have swore I was about to read a Western. Now I don't read book descriptions, especially not with novellas, because they tend to give too much away. Not that I don't trust Laurel and off-limits press, I do. But I still wanted to go in completely blind. In fact, a lot of people on Twitter were talking about this, raving about it. And even when people tell me, oh you're in for a heavy read, that's kind of a spoiler to me. I just want to go in completely blind, especially with an author I trust and I loved Laurel's book, Whispers in the Dark. Now another thing I have to say, just throwing this out there, you guys know that I try, well not try, but I'm honest with my reviews whether or not I know people or not. This one, I know Laurel, I would consider her a friend. We talk on Twitter quite often, but that didn't, there's no bias here is what I'm trying to say. This book, it's a hard read. Even for being as short as it is, I think it's like 120, no, it's 110 pages. I had to put it down several times, I still ended up reading it all in one day because even though it was triggering me, and I suggest if you want to know more about that, I'll leave a link to my Goodreads review down there in the doobly-doo. But it was upsetting me greatly and I was having reactions to it. I'd set it down, I'd go out and do something, and then I'd come back and I'd see the book sitting there and I just had to know what happened next, so I ended up blowing through it in a day, even with multiple times me having to put the book down. Laurel can write her ass off. The writing here is exceptional. If you like great writing, this is definitely for you. But the utter tragedy of this book is supremely affecting. It does have to do with the loss of a child, but the child is dead. It's an adult child, I will say that, is dead at the beginning of the book, so you kind of don't have to deal with that. Now I mention that because one of the best parts about the writing is the subtext. Everything that the main character, everything this woman goes through, I believe her name is Chris. Yeah, Chris. Everything she goes through, everything she sees, everything she touches, everything she talks about is in relation to her son. It was very, very well done because in another author's hands, they would have done flashbacks to give the character development for the son. In this one that isn't the case, Laurel stays in the present and shows you everything that this child, her son, meant to her. I'm saying child, but child in that it's her son because the son was an adult when he died. But she so beautifully and so simply, the simplicity is, it's not really simple. When good writing, easy reading is hard writing. And she, I wish I could put this into words, man. I was so taken aback by all of the subtleties of how she built the character. Nothing's overt. But you get to reading and you start noticing that everything that this woman does and sees and feels relates to this tragedy. And you have posthumous character development. Sorry, I'm mad with pronunciation so if I got it wrong, I'm sure you'll let me know. But all this stuff, all this character development happens without the character on screen. And that blew me away. I've said this a lot this year and I know it's probably starting to sound cliche and over said, but this is another one of my favorite books of the year. I don't know why. There's so much good stuff coming out right now, but there is. And I gotta add this. In fact, when I do my top five of the year, it's probably gonna end up having to be a top 10. It might even be a top 20 because we're only halfway through the year. Anyways, this book is out now. I highly recommend you go out and you grab it and you read it. You'll likely blow through it just like I did. It is even better. I gave Whispers in the Dark five stars, but it is even better than Whispers in the Dark. So far, Laura Hightower is only getting better. Have you read Crossroads? If you have, let me know what you thought of it down there in the doobly-doo, whether or not you loved it, whether or not you hated it. If either one of those things, let me know why you loved it, why you hated it so we can have a discussion. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U, this has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. I'm already waving. What am I doing? Bye-bye.