Enjoy For Free The Rules Of Half Composed By Jenna Patrick Released Through Printable Format

of the best books I have read in! Loved it, "Received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review"
An interesting and refreshing approach to mental illness in fiction, through the character of a thirtyfive year old man Will Fletcher with bipolar disorder later reevaluated and I really enjoyed reading this book.

The characters are rounded, the smalltown setting creates a framework for the conflicts to emerge and various meaningful relationships develop.

I really liked the depiction of the hero and his connection with his sister, Janey, and the dilemma they face with this kind of situations the same happens with our elderly: “are they better off in the care of a mental health facility or in the care of family members who love them” quote from ARC The answer seems obvious, but I guess in real life its not that easy.

I also liked the sexual ambiguity of the character of Lindsay, I wasnt that certain that she would end with whom she did, so there was a little suspense that was nice.

I thought that Regan and, to an extent, her boyfriend, Lane was too mature for heryears.
Additionally, I tended to find any conversations she participated in a bit farfetched for a person her age.
Nonetheless, shes a lovable girl and a key element in her fathers recovery,
I'm grateful to the publisher, SparkPress, and NetGalley for providing a free copy, I received an advanced readers copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review,

I had read the reviews before diving into this book, I wasn't sure what to expect about a story about a daughter coming back to her longlost father, a father whom she thought she would have a normal father/daughter relationship with but was instead met with the uneasy fact that his life was ruled by his mental illness.


Although this is a story centered around mental illness, it's also a story about love and family.
I tore through this book, The writing was well done and the storyline was easy to follow, There were a number

of characters introduced and the character development and their specific storylines just skimmed the top without delving deep, that's not what this story was about.
Mental illness might be a life sentence, but it doesn't have to make you weak and alone.
Having love, no matter how much it might feel underserved, will help to persevere, And that's what this story is about,

I recommend The Rules of Half for the bright light that it is in an otherwise dark situation.
Thank You Net Galley for the free ARC,

What attracted me to this novel is that it deals with bipolar disease, However, either I am little aware of the amount of disability this can cause or this is an exceptional character.
Will was a veterinarian, so obviously he survivedyears of college and grad school, now he cleans out cages and is in constant trouble with the police because he starts fights and is in general a nuisance in town.
His disease borders on psychosis,

He finds out that he is a father, when Reagan moves in after her mother commits suicide and he want no part of it.
Eventually Reagan wins him over, Interesting story about a not too normal family, like most of them, It was a good read, This was a readable story of mental illness, loss, grieving and small town politics, While certain aspects stretched credibility and some of the entanglements were a trifle overdone, it was enjoyable.
If Will Fletcher's severe bipolar disorder isn't proof he shouldn't be a parent, his infant daughter's grave is.
Once a happily married, successful veterinarian, he now lives with his sister and thrives as the smalltown crazy of Half Moon Hollow.
But when a fifteenyearold orphan claims she's his daughter, Will is forced back into the role he fears most: fatherhood.
Her biological dad isn't the hero Regan Whitmer hoped for, but he's better than her abusive stepfather back in Chicago.
Still haunted by her mother's suicide and the rebellious past she fears led to it, Regan is desperate for a stable home and a normal familythings Will can't offer.
Can she ride the highs and lows of his illness to find a new definition of family The Rules of Half explores what it is to be an atypical family in a small town and to be mentally ill in the wake of a tragedyand who has the right to determine both.
One of the best books I have read so far this year, For a Debut Author, I must say this book has it all,year old Regan Whitmer has just lost her mother and is now left in the care of her Pastor Stepfather.
She knows she has a Father in Half Moon Hollow, she just has to find him and hope that he will want her when she confronts him.


What Regan doesn't know is that heryear old Father, Will Fletcher has been living a nightmare for the pastyears.
He has lost not only his beautiful young daughter but his wife and marriage too, And living in a town like Half Moon Hollow, where nearly all of the community are bigoted because of Will's mental illness, Regan is going to find that her life hasn't really changed that much from where she came from.


It seems everyone is against the Fletchers until Lindsay Shepherd arrives in town as the new School Principal.
She runs into Will at the animal shelter where Will helps out and even though Will is rude to her, she finds him attractive and interesting, and it seems Will finds an attraction in Lindsay too, unfortunately Will isn't the only person attracted to Linsday, it seems Will's lesbian sister Janey is smitten too.


Janey has looked after Will since his divorce and even though it is very tiresome to be constantly watching his every move, she wouldn't have it any other way but sometimes she would love a break and when she wins a coveted literary award she is persuaded to go to New York to accept it and leave Will in the hopefully capable hands of Regan and Lindsay for three days.


Of course Crazy Will has an episode and all hell breaks loose, The community finally has enough evidence to put him away in an institution and herein the fights really begins for all those who love Will to show him that life is worth living with him in it.


This is an emotional read, there are many humorous moments from Will and some sad moments that will bring you to tears.
Jenna Patrick has done a brilliant job in writing this beautiful book and it will stay with me for quite a while.


Thanks to Netgalley and SparkPress for the opportunity to read and review this memorable book.


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I received this ARC from Spark Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Having a mental illness is an awful thing to carry throughout your life.
It condemns you to a life where you have lost control of yourself, placing an enormous burden on your family, and becoming a pariah to society.
Such was the case with Will Fletcher, his sister Janey, and eventually Will's teenage daughter, Regan, who finds her dad after witnessing the suicide of her mother thus left with having no one to care for her.


Will Fletcher was formerly a successful veterinarian, a happily married man to the daughter of the mayor of his town, and a father to a newborn daughter.
After the death of his newborn child, Will starts his descent into the world of mental illness.
He is diagnosed with bi polar disease later changed to schizophrenia, which his dad suffered from and becomes what he believes to be a menace, not only to himself, but also to the people around him.
He becomes the brunt of the town's teenagers' jokes and pranks, Their incredible viciousness is evident in the way they treat this poor man, The townspeople shun Will and treat him as a pariah, His sister becomes his custodian and Will losses his profession, gets divorced, and takes a job mucking out cages at the local shelter.
Into this turmoil comes his daughter, Regan, He is shocked and thrown off kilter by Regan's arrival as he knew nothing of her before and he suffers with guilty feelings that he was the cause of his infant daughter's death.
He initially rejects Regan but through Regan's desire for a dad and her need for love in what had been her very troubled life, she ultimately succeeds in making inroads with her dad.
Will feels that he is undeserving of love, any kind of love and even though the town's high school principal falls in love with him, Will thinks he does not deserve her love or any love for that matter.
Meanwhile, because of numerous episodes Will engages in, the town, pushed by Will's former father in law, gets a petition to have Will committed.
A court case ensues.

This was a moving saga of the life a mentally ill person oftentimes faces.
The problem for me with this book was certainly not the subject matter, but that oftentimes the author tried to cram too much into its telling.
Her characters were all flawed but the author seemed, in a desire to show their flaws, to touch on too many topics.
In my opinion, that took away from the main idea of the book, that of mental illness.
Often too, the book seemed to meander and lose focus making the reader wonder who the author was writing up with abrupt changes of focus.
Perhaps a better editing job would have been beneficial,

However, I do applaud Ms Patrick for broaching the topic of mental illness and presenting her main character as a person who was to be respected and not judged for a condition he could not help.
Congratulations to Jenna Patrick on an absolutely stunning debut novel! I loved it, This novel portrays with depth and feeling the trials of Will trying to cope with bipolar disorder and the effect on both himself and his family.
I raced through the book with both tears and laughter as the various family dramas played out.
The story is well delivered and the characters well developed, Keep writing Jenna Patrick I will look forward to more!

Many thanks to Jenna Patrick and SparkPress through Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I rated this aout ofstars

In Rules of Half, Regan Whitmoor, along with most of the other characters, is dealing with a lot of serious issues.
Her mother committed suicide in front of her, leaving her with an abusive stepfather, who by the way, is a Pastor.
Have we hit on all the major taboos yet Regan runs away and finds her biological father, Will, a man who is bipolar, and dealing with his own divorce and the recent death of his infant daughter.
Yep, I think we MAY have hit all the social nonos, Regan's aunt, Janey, is a lesbian and is dealing with the discrimination of a small, backward thinking town, run by a power hungry mayor.
She has left her home and girlfriend to take care of her brother, Oh! And by the way, she is “crushing” the new school principal, Lindsay, as is Will.
OK, so maybe NOW we have hit them all!

Oh, what a tangled web we weave! And my heads STILL spinning.
The book has a quick pace, and believable, destruction bound characters to make it even a faster read.
I almost wanted to see if they would all end up on one of those daytime TV shows that involves throwing chairs, cute security guys who are also equally dramafilled and an audience chanting the talk show hosts name over and over.
Can you hear it in your head Yes, we are all closet talk show junkies!

I hate to detract from the authors positive writing attributes in the book, however, I found the end of this book was plain frustrating.
I am not sure why it was there, It may be that tackling mental illness, homophobia, parental abuse, clergy abuse, teenage romance, the death of a child, and cross romantic interests was too much for one book.
The mental illness alone would have been sufficient with all the familial issues going on in the novel as well, let alone throwing in all the kitchen sink maladies.


This was not your typical happy, fun read, The issues addressed are serious and dark, The author does have powerful writing and very likable characters, Overall it is a good read,

I want to thank NetGalley, Sparkpress Publishers and the author Jenna Patrick for providing the ARC for an honest and unbiased review.

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