Sharon A. Mitchell

As a teacher I have taught students with varying levels of autism. Most of them were higher functioning. I have not been trained to work with them. However, I have had a couple of parents, and even the students themselves that have helped me understand people with autism a little bit more. This helped when my own grandson was diagnosed with autism. When my daughter would call me frustrated with her son’s meltdowns I thought I recognized the signs so I checked with another parent who told me to have her son tested. He is very high functioning. However, I now know things not to do and how to help him. So let’s get to the book.
This book is fiction. We have Ben a man who learned just three years before that he had a son and that he had autism. Jump forward to present time. Ben receives a call from his son’s mom. She can’t deal with their son Kyle. She is pregnant and engaged; she is dropping Kyle off to live with him. Knowing nothing about autism, Ben does everything wrong. He was under the impression that the therapy he had been paying for over the last three years would cure his son. On the first day of taking his son to school he witnesses the class his son will be put in. He berates the teacher for her methods only to learn that is the class his son will be placed in. Ben truly wants what is best for his son, as does Kyle’s teacher.
I loved that autism was treated accurately in this book. We saw children of varying levels. We saw what happens to parents who hold their children back out of fear of the world hurting them. I found that this is the first book in a series. I most definitely will get the others to read.… (mais)

Trust is Sharon Mitchell's 2nd book in her When Bad Things Happen series of psychological thrillers. Her first book Gone was fantastic. Novels 3, 4, 5 and 6 have already been published. Selfish was published in May 2021, Instinct was published in October 2021, Reasons Why was also published in October 2021 and Mine was published on January 7, 2022. The author is currently writing the 7th novel in the series. 12 books are planned for the series and it looks like they are all going to be fantastic.

The publisher's summary:

Elizabeth thought that after all they'd been through, the bad parts were over. Guess not. After saving herself and her little boy from abductors, Elizabeth yearns to put the terror behind them, to cocoon with her sone, safe and secure at home. Court hearings confirm that they suffered the worst betrayal possible. She never dreamed that she'd have to battle the law to protect her medically fragile boy when his life and sanity are on the line. When her son is targeted and taken, Elizabeth will do anything to save him.


I absolutely LOVED this book. It continues the story of Elizabeth Whitmore and her four year old son Timothy from Gone. In this installment of the series Elizabeth is awaiting the trial of her ex-husband who tried to kill her. She keeps her son within her eyesight at all times and does not let him socialize with other children. Elizabeth does not trust anyone near him not does she trust her neighbors who try to be friendly. Timothy is not speaking since the attempted murder but he did have a late onset speaking ability from birth as well as a seizure disorder. However, whatever gains he made in speech he lost. We see inside Elizabeth's mind as she grapples with day to day decisions on who to trust. Elizabeth does eventually trust someone but it turns out horribly bad.

The novel was full of emotion but had plenty of suspense. With Elizabeth's emotions highly charged the reader cannot figure out what she is going to do and this is what creates the suspense. I don't think that she even knew herself how she was going to handle each new day. As I was reading, I thought that the villain might be Elizabeth's tormented mind. However, Timothy's court ordered psychologist becomes the villain toward the end of the story. I was surprised at the psychologist's actions and did not see her machinations coming. It was a great ending.

5 out of 5 stars.… (mais)

Gone is a spellbinding novel about a mother and son who have been abducted at a gas station. The son is only four years old and he has a severe form of epilepsy and autism. His mother Elizabeth manages his illness well while her husband is gone weekdays and nights on business. One morning Elizabeth and her son are at a gas station to buy gas. Elizabeth leaves her son in the passenger seat of the car while she pays for the gas. While she is at the cash register, Elizabeth sees a man approach her car and get in. She hurries to the car and is able to jump in the backseat as the car takes off, but leaves her purse at the counter. The driver takes them to a hidden cabin and will not let them leave. Elizabeth has to figure out how to free herself and her son.

This psychological thriller kept me reading all night. The serious nature of the child's medical needs not being met after the abduction give the novel its suspense. The restricted life a person with epilepsy has is shown in detail and it is this circumstance that keeps the reader reading. I found myself routing for the boy but did not like Elizabeth. She was dependent on her husband for everything and got angry when he wasn't around to tell her what to do. She seemed whiny to me. I wanted to shake her out of this mindset. it was odd that she thought that only her husband would search for her, not the police. Doesn't everyone know that it is the job of the police to search for missing people? Also, I wondered why she thought that she could not handle her situation. Elizabeth really did not need her husband to help her care for her son. She did this almost daily on her own and was handling the abduction well.

Despite these concerns, Gone is a mesmerizing story and I highly recommend it.… (mais)