Affiliate links can be found within this post. If you need additional information, please see the disclaimer.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
This is a book tour hosted by Love Books Tours.
MY REVIEW:
Triggers: Agorophobia, Anxiety, PTSD, Bullying
Paula Hillman does an outstanding job of telling Cassie’s story with workplace bullying. This is the story of a very professional woman, Cassie, who is a teacher at a prestigious primary school in England. She is recently promoted to Deputy Head (kind of like a Vice Principal) along with her teaching duties. This promotion brings out the claws in the staff members who start a strange coalition against Cassie to create an environment where she questions everything about herself. Ultimately leading to extreme anxiety where she can no longer leave her house.
From the beginning of the story, you’re immersed in the re-telling of her experience through the long months of this development and bullying. I could feel Cassie’s anxiety acutely and relate with my own experiences of heightened fear over situations and people. It’s a scary experience to feel that way and it’s incredibly crippling. But Paula tells it straight and truthfully with how situations that seems so innocuous can turn you in on yourself completely.
While the story is meant to focus on the elements of anxiety and overcoming those challenges, Paula also does a great job of showing the support mechanisms that Cassie had around her to keep her head above water. Mainly her husband and her daughters who never left her side or removed their support for her. Bullying is a very serious thing and happens in more contexts than we really give credit to.
A thrilling read about real-life scenarios where everything can change and create a hostile environment that makes it nearly impossible to continue functioning as you normally did.
GET IT HERE:
Amazon || GoodReads || BookShop.Org
From the author of Seaview House: What happens when bullying becomes lethal?
Every workplace has its dark corners, places where the power-hungry lurk, where resentment and grudges fester. Former deputy head teacher Cassie Clifton knows this. It’s why she’s no longer working. And it’s why she hasn’t left her home for more than two years.
Cassie’s husband has encouraged her to work with a therapist to recover from the damage she’s suffered after workplace bullying and a drunken staff party that took a violent turn. Freddy’s counseling and support helps Cassie take her first tentative steps back into the world. But the threat hasn’t disappeared—and once she understands the malevolent machinations going on around her, she will have to confront her fears head-on . . .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I live in Cumbria, in a large industrial town called Barrow-in-Furness. Ship building is at its heart, and because of its location on the coast as well as on the foothills of The Lakes, I am heavily invested in the natural history of the place. I studied science at college and specialized in it for my Bachelors teaching degree, but my heart has always been tied up with books and reading. I walked away from a long teaching career because I wanted to write. I wrote many texts and playscripts as part of my job as a teacher, and I wanted to do more. Writing is a therapy, as much as walking in nature is, to me. I am married to a photographer and have two children- a thirty-eight-year-old daughter, and a twenty-year-old son, who is still at home with us. I am a passionate advocate for local communities- Barrow has a deep Victorian heritage and a Cistercian Abbey- and I have studied these in depth for my own interest and within my teaching career. Barrow people are community driven and welcoming, and their character is unique in so many ways. I want to capture all of this in the books I write. I’ve now got a master’s degree in Creative Writing, and have embarked on a post graduate diploma in regional and local history. Seaview House is my debut novel, published with Bloodhound Books. It’s all coming together.
Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
Leave a comment