I read this as a book club selection. It was a fascinating premise regarding the illness and recovery of Lonnie Sue Johnson who suffered from encephalitis which resulted in damage to her brain's hippocampus. Lonnie Sue was both a musician and an artist prior to her illness. The studies done on her after her recovery. showed what aspects of her former life were retained after such a devastating and debilitating illness. It was intriguing to learn more about how the brain works and how memories are formed & stored. I was also enthralled to read about other similar cases such as H.M.

Overall, I liked the book and enjoyed reading more about the science of the brain. However, I often times found that the writing was repetitive and long winded. I would have liked there to have been more in depth of Lonnie's life and creativity.

I have been a huge fan of Nora Roberts but had taken a break from reading her books. I am very glad I picked up this book. For many (including me), the idea of reading about a mass shooting can be an emotional experience. However, I felt that Nora Roberts did a great job in portraying the effects of a mass shooting on a community and the loss of life.

The story is told from the perspective of Simone and Reed who were survivors of this mass shooting when they were teenagers. Haunted by the shooting, each choose a different path to deal with their pain. Simone chose to run away from her home town while Reed chose to become a cop and become one of the "good guys".

Years later, other survivors of this mass shooting are being killed off. How can this happen? The shooters were killed after the mass shooting. The twist of how the original shooters are connected to this new killer was great. It surprised me.

As with many Nora Roberts books, there is the usual romance that develops among the main characters. The character development was detailed and made the story more plausible and real to me.

I gave the book 4 stars instead of five as the race to catch the new killer felt strung out to me and was a bit too long.

On the whole, I believe that most Nora Roberts fan will enjoy this book. I look forward to reading more of Nora Roberts' books (and catch up on ones I have missed)

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Ann Morgan for a copy of "Beside Myself" in exchange for my honest review. I really wanted to enjoy this book. The premise of identical twins "switching" lives intrigued me. However, I felt that the book started shifting perceptions of the young Helen (later known as Ellie) and the adult Ellie (in present tense is actually Helen) too soon. Obviously, the adult "Ellie" has a lot of mental issues, whether due to nature or nurture, which can be seen by the behavior as an adult. I could not finish this book. I stopped at about 11% and just did not want to go further. The writing seemed to be all over the place...which may have been intentional but just did not work for me.