Customer Reviews

All I'll Ever Need (Claire McCall, Book 3)

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All I'll Ever Need by Dr. Harry Kraus is book three of the series featuring Claire McCall, a young physician recently diagnosed with the Huntington's disease gene. Like the two previous books, Could I Have This Dance? and For The Rest of My Life, this chapter of Claire's life give an excellent overview of Huntington's as it relates to generations dealing with this insidious neurological disease, with the fragile relationships that suffer because of Huntington's, and all the myriad of issues that need to be dealt with by, not only the patient, but those who love and support them.

Dr. Kraus does an excellent job of taking the circumstances surrounding Claire and weaving them into a credible medical thriller. In some ways All I'll Ever Need reads like today's headlines as it tackles controversial issues such as euthanasia, having children while gene positive, and whether to pursue a relationship while your spouse is dying. Dr. Kraus has a done a marvelous job of showing us Claire's faith while making it obvious that God is all she'll ever need in a non-pushy overly religious way. His characters are believable, fully dimensional and engaging. All I'll Ever Need is a quick read with a well-written realistic plot.

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This is the first time I have picked up a book by this author, and I thought it would be neat to read a story of a doctor written by a doctor. I wasn't disappointed. All I'll Ever Need is the third book in this series, but I was able to jump into the story with relatively ease. There were a lot of characters in the beginning, but I kept pushing through and soon everything fell into place and I was able to `connect all the dots'.

I wasn't expecting this book to be such a suspenseful mystery, but it was. When I hit the halfway mark on the book, I could not put it down! The complexity of the plot was amazing! Kudos to Harry for thinking of this and tweaking out every detail so that, at the end - when you don't think the situation can ever be resolved - everything gets worked out perfectly. The storyline was very gripping!

Claire and her family have had such a difficult life - I couldn't help feel sorry for them. And to know that you have the gene that could give you a deadly disease later on in life...that's sobering. I connected with her really well, and was sad to leave her and her new husband when the story ended. John, her fiancé was also a great guy. He was so sweet and understanding toward Claire in everything - and faithful, even when he was getting hit on by a younger, prettier woman. Though, I must admit, I wanted to knock his block off sometimes when he put up with the flirting instead of simply showing that girl straight out the door! lol, I wanted to yell at him, "You know you're setting yourself up for trouble!"

When Claire is arrested and put in prison, I really felt her pain. How awful it must be to not understand why you are even being held, not be able to see your husband or family, and not be able to help yourself get out of prison. I think I'd go crazy! I kept rooting for John, anticipating him figuring out the mystery so he could get his wife out of there. And when he finally made the connection, I held my breath when he was attacked. Yes, like I said, it was a very suspenseful read!

There are several cautions I must give on this read. I wouldn't recommend this book for younger readers. Claire is nearly raped in her bed in the previous book, and she deals with many things in All I'll Ever Need connected with the attempted rape. She remembers being molested as a teenager after she got drunk one night. Nothing too graphic, but she mentions being inappropriately touched and her clothes pulled off. Two different couples in this book deal with past affairs they had, though nothing is explained except that it happened in the past. As I mentioned above, there is a flirt who wants John's attentions and she goes to great lengths to try to pull him away from Claire. She goes so far as to even make it look like John was trying to molest her in hopes that Claire would dump him. Lastly, I did catch one bad word in this book, if I remember correctly.

With all that said, I still think it was a really neat, suspenseful mystery that kept me guessing. I was able to figure out who it was a little while before the characters, and it made me antsy as I waited for them to make the connects as well. (I guess it helps when you are able to read different scenes from different characters. lol) The ending was all I could have hoped for. It was perfect. :-)

I reviewed this book for Zondervan. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done.

Book is in fairly good condition. A little worn but since I'll be at the pool while using it, what does it matter. Received quickly. Thanks

This book kept my attention the whole time. It had a shocking ending. I would highly recommend this book.