Summary:
Hazel is ready to find answers about a past she can’t remember. She has no memories, no family—only the fierce loyalty of Arlo, her ultimate protector turned devoted partner. But after a year of garish nightmares that constantly threaten her stability, she grows unsatisfied and decides to follow the pull she feels inside. Suddenly Hazel is tumbling through a rift between worlds and finds more than she ever bargained for, a world where her nightmares become reality.
Vander Darroch is a brooding wolven shifter with a soft side left behind from the loss of his only love long ago. When she suddenly emerges from a rift, back into his world, she is a mere echo of the female she used to be. She doesn’t remember him, the existence of magic, or anything about her past. Not to mention she’s fallen for another.
Between dodging attacks from a particularly powerful enemy and learning how to navigate the world of magic surrounding her, Hazel discovers glimpses of her past and must decide between accepting the world she’s stumbled into, or retreating to the only life she can remember. Can she hold on to what she’s discovered while protecting the one she loves? Or will she have to surrender everything she thought she knew in order to find herself?
My thoughts:
A Tether Through the Rift is a captivating story about memory loss, hidden power, and the journey to find yourself again.
Our FMC, Hazel, is terrorized every night with terrifying nightmares. Not only that, she lost all her memories a year ago and has been a shell of herself ever since. Scared to live, traumatized by her experiences, she is just trudging through life when we meet her.
I love a good mental health rep! She has amnesia, severe PTSD, anxiety, trauma, and depression. This all mixes together to create a horrible concoction that she spends the rest of the book working on. I feel very passionate about reading books with mental health rep, and this book did it so well!
Even with Vander, his mental health struggles and unhealthy coping mechanism was so well done. The scene with the wisps and the lake? It had my heart in a twist. I really felt for Hazel so much. When you have dark thoughts in your head, sometimes they just seem true. It was heartbreaking but also written so well.
I enjoyed watching Hazel try to figure herself out, especially once back through the rift. She is confused, scared, weak, and dealing with her mental health issues, but she tries to push through. I felt like this was a pretty accurate representation, because she really struggled through the entire book. Mental health issues are super hard to overcome and you can see this manifest in Hazel’s journey. We see the glimpses of happiness when they happen, and we also see the lows when she experiences them.
I loved Vander as her counterpart. He pushes her, and as much as she doesn’t like it, she needs it! He is dealing with his own issues too, but continues to not coddle her, and push her to be strong and overcome her issues.
Arlo was an interesting character. I didn’t love him very much, and was convinced he was nefarious in some way. I won’t say if I am right or not so I don’t spoil, but his overbearing protection and coddling did not sit well with me. He is written so well as a character this way!
The plot was very interesting, and I look forward to the next installment to see what happens! It ends on a cliffhanger which doesn’t bother me, but omg the cliffhanger! Unexpected.
Overall, I really enjoyed A Tether Through the Rift by Lindsey Rhoden. It was a great depiction of mental health struggles, a healing journey, and was in general a great story.
Read-worthy.
See what other books I think are worthy of a re-read here.
Read my review of the novella, A Love Woven in Moonlight, here.
