The Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall

Synopsis :

If only Alice could get rid of her new stepfather, then everything would be as sweet as it had been before Simon Jester wormed his way into her mother's heart.  No one wants to believe that the pieces of Simon's tragic past don't seem to fit - or that he is trying to poison Alice and her older brother.

The ranting of an eleven-year-old girl don't amount to much in East Texas - until the one night her mother comes in to kiss she good night and instead whispers a single word ' RUN'.

When I bought this book from a vicious reader, she told me that this is an extremely good read.  I took her word for it and it is true that it's an extremely good read. I read in within one days as I could not put it down.  Thank goodness that I had a sore throat that day and reading this did keep my mind off my sickness and made the day more pleasant.

Alternating between creepy and disjointed but yet captivating at the same time, I have conflicting feelings on this story.  Alice seems to be mature for her age and her older brother seems very naive for his age.  Mother seems like a very weak woman who went to pieces when dad left the family and clung on to the first man that showed her interest and ended up with a monster in her home.

Enters another girl who was institutionalized for poisoning her family complicates the storyline but certainly adds a lot of punch to it. This is especially so when Alice's brother who is really hero-worshiping her tried to preach to her. The ending was just twisted, way beyond what you can imagine especially right at the very end.

The run of story is quite expected but at the same time there are twist throughout the book that I wasn't expecting and the book really kept me on suspense the whole day. It certainly was a very good recommendation.  Thank you.