Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke

Mind of Winter  [**]
by Laura Kasischke

Okay, so I think Laura Kasischke and I are breaking up. I read "The Raising" and raged for days after, but I gave her another try because I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment.

Holly Judge wakes up Christmas morning to find that she's overslept. But that's not all. She's convinced something has followed them home from Russia. Although it's been thirteen years since they were in Russia to adopt their daughter Tatiana. Her husband is out picking up his parents from the airport, and a blizzard has kept all their Christmas day guests from arriving. In the meantime, Tatiana has suddenly become a teenager. Like, overnight. Or something. Because this sudden back and forth of attitude and sullenness and door slamming is made as if to appear from out of nowhere.

At the same time we are getting flashes of the adoption in Siberia and random happenings over the years since that cause Holly to repeat, over and over and over and ... "Something followed us home from Russia," and she's convinced if she could just find time to sit down and write she could get it all figured out.

And I know that this is all supposed to build up tension for the big ending, but mostly it just feels repetitive and disjointed.

You know how it goes: Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice ... Yeah, well shame on me. I should have learned my lesson after the fiasco that was The Raising.