(155)All She Ever Wanted by Rosalind Noonan

All She Ever Wanted

by Rosalind Noonan

Publication Date: December 24, 2012

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Chelsea Maynard has always had "it" together.  She was a DIY guru for a well known magazine in NYC, she had an amazing marriage and a beautiful house in the suburbs when she finally got what she wanted most in life - to get pregnant.  Now baby Annabelle is six months old and Chelsea is barely a shadow of her former self.  It is all she can do to get up in the morning, the dark thoughts invade almost every waking moment.  Postpartum Depression has ravaged this young woman from the inside out.  

It is Chelsea's husband, Leo, and her sister that are holding Chelsea together and making sure the baby gets what she needs.   But then Leo has to go out of town for work and Chelsea's sister is facing her own health crisis. And one morning during that horrible week Chelsea wakes up to find Annabelle gone.  GONE.  She doesn't remember much from the night before and as dark as things have gotten, Chelsea doesn't THINK she did anything to the baby, but how can she know for sure when she doesn't remember anything at all?  Did Chelsea do something to harm her baby or is there some other dark force at play here? And will baby Annabelle ever come home?

I have never been pregnant so I have never had an opportunity to have Postpartum Depression, but the picture that Rosalind Noonan paints with her words is so very frightening.  While Chelsea has the support of her family you can FEEL her desperation leaking off the pages because she realizes that her family doesn't realize just how desperate the situation has become. Then when Annabelle goes missing, we - the reader - don't know what happened.  We don't know who did the unthinkable, making All She Ever Wanted the ultimate page turner.

Bottom line, All She Ever Wanted was a "can't put down" book for me.  I stayed up long past my bedtime to read this one in one sitting and as an old woman it takes a special book to get me to stay up late reading.  I think there are millions of women out there who can relate to Chelsea and her Postpartum Depression - and the rest of us will get just a glimpse at what it must feel like.  If you are looking for something to spend those gift cards on, then really, look no further.