Closely Guarded Secrets Come to Light in J.T. Ellison’s New Shocker, ‘It’s One of Us’ [REVIEW]

When two people fall in love, it seems inevitable that they will eventually want to start a family. Sometimes, through no fault of their own, however, that dream is shattered into a million pieces when they discover one of them is infertile. Having experienced this firsthand, we know how devastating this can be. Now, in It’s One of Us, master storyteller J. T. Ellison (Her Dark Lies) offers readers a look into the troubled world of couples who are unable to have a child. But this story comes with a shocking twist, one you will never see coming.

Meet Park and Oliva Bender, childhood sweethearts who seemingly have it all, including successful careers they love. The one thing they don’t have yet is a child. So far neither IVF nor fertility treatments have proven successful.

Although Park is open to adoption, Olivia is adamant in her desire to give birth to a child. However, it just doesn’t seem meant to be. Olivia just lost baby number six. How can she possibly disappoint her husband yet again?

When Olivia goes to the kitchen to tell her husband, Park answers the door. As he leads two homicide detectives into their kitchen, Olivia looks up from the television where it is being announced that the body of Beverly Cooke has been found. Suddenly, she realizes that her world is about to change.

The detectives reveal that a partial DNA match to Park has been found in Cooke’s car and the evidence points to Park’s son. This stunning revelation opens the door to carefully concealed trove of secrets, and soon more of them must be revealed. For years before, Park donated his sperm to a clinic and has no clue how many children he helped bring into the world.

From this moment on, readers are led down a dark and twisty path filled with more questions than answers, questions which will have readers wondering just how well they know the people closest to them. The result is a novel rife with tension and palpable suspense.

While this story captivates due to Ellison’s careful plotting and skillful writing, it gains its verisimilitude through Ellison’s graceful and candid handling of Olivia and Park’s infertility trials. As such, readers will feel the Bender’s anguish, despair, and disappointment along with them.

As life tests their mettle, readers will likely wonder how they would react in the characters’ shoes. This is where Ellison shines, even as she makes us all examine our own flaws and strength of character. It’s One of Us is a tale that takes readers on a thought-provoking and insightful journey through a marriage and examines how disappointments and trials test even seemingly rock-solid relationships. This book will live on in your imagination long after the final page is turned.