New Book Alert: When She Touches Book One: A Discovery of Destiny and A Gift Like No Other By Sheryl M. Frazer; Touching Modern Fantasy About The Gift of Empathy

 New Book Alert: When She Touches Book One: A Discovery of Destiny and A Gift Like No Other By Sheryl M. Frazer; Touching Modern Fantasy About The Gift of Empathy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Many who practice and study supernatural or psychic abilities know that there is a distinct difference between a telepath and an empath. A telepath can read a person's thoughts while an empath can read a person's emotions. Both can be difficult and amazing for a person.

 Those with such abilities are able to access the subconscious and ascend to a higher level of existence. It can be difficult because they can be overwhelmed by such knowledge. People may think they are lying or are afraid of them. They may have hardships separating themselves from the other person.

 Too much thought and emotion can depress them or drive them insane. Sometimes they have to spend time by themselves to get away from the unwanted thoughts and emotions. They may also create coping mechanisms, like wearing gloves when they aren't working or focusing on one thought or emotion at a time.

Genevieve Walker, the protagonist of Sheryl M. Frazier's novel When She Touches: A Discovery of Destiny and A Gift Like No Other, is just such an empath. She first experiences these abilities when she dreams that she is standing in front of a hospital bed surrounded by people who are sick from some unknown illness. Then, she hears an unknown voice and sees a mysterious teenage girl tell her that she has a fearless soul and to trust the path that she will follow. Genevieve will understand after the birth of her daughter.

Genevieve is shocked. She doesn't know what the girl is talking about, besides she isn't even pregnant! She is 17 years old and only just got married to Teddy Walker, a commercial real estate developer from Northern England. 

Besides, Genevieve hasn't exactly had the best start in life. Her father was killed in Vietnam and her mother abandoned her and her younger sister, Tess. The sisters were then raised by their loving Uncle Steven and Aunt Madeleine who treated them like the children that they never had. This difficult past made Genevieve reluctant to accept love and friendship from anyone, until she met Teddy.

Genevieve's path is laid out after, as predicted, the birth of her daughter, Ariella. Genevieve feels a sense of newfound curiosity and euphoria and she realizes the emotions are coming from her daughter. She also remembers all of the times that she felt a wave of depression in the presence of her mother.  The dream reenters her mind and she realizes that she has empathic and clairvoyant abilities: She is able to access and feel the emotions of others.

The discovery of her empathetic abilities opens up new possibilities for her. While watching over the hospital bedside of Chrissy, her friend's daughter, Genevieve gains a further understanding over how her abilities work.

She is in communication with the Soul. The Soul is ageless and often wiser than the body that it inhabits. It knows many of the person's buried secrets, knows their life path and destiny, and knows when it's time to leave the body.

Through the years, Genevieve begins to consult with medical and legal professionals as well as worried and grief stricken friends and family members to help comatose or missing victims and find out what happened him. 

The answers are interesting insights into the human condition. Beth,  a woman reveals that Nick, her comatose husband was attacked by a man with whom she had been having an affair. However, Nick and his Soul are willing to forgive her.

 While peering into the Soul of Mario, a young man, Genevieve discovers a cycle of abuse, recriminations, and revenge that runs through his family from which he was trying to break.

Sometimes the Soul leaves clues for Genevieve to decipher. One encounter with Mario's Soul causes her to picture a coffin. At first, she thinks of death. Then, she imagines a box and goes through metaphors like "boxed in." Finally, she learns that the key to the Soul's message is inside a box which holds the answers that Mario's mother seeks.

These experiences open Genevieve's mind and heart. Through her abilities, she becomes a better character who understands and relates to other's struggles while exploring the dark past and haunting questions towards her own life.

Genevieve has a wonderful family with a loving husband, Teddy and two understanding children, Ariella and Broc. She is very close to the aunt and uncle who raised her, but has so many unanswered questions about her missing mother.

A Soul delivers her a personal message to forgive and understand. This message leads Genevieve to learning about Liv, her estranged mother.The revelations about Liv's whereabouts cause Genevieve to question her aunt and uncle, her upbringing, and her history with her mother, as well as her abilities. 

At first, Genevieve is furious and feels betrayed about the secrets that Melinda and Steven kept from her. She is confused about the hole in her life in the shape of her mother. Genevieve digs deeper into Liv's history and how her aunt and uncle have tried to fill that void. This causes Genevieve to gain a better understanding towards them.

 She honors Melinda and Steven for the roles that they played in her life and sacrifices they made for her and Tess. She also learns that their arrival helped Melinda and Steven through the voids and sadness in their own lives.

She also begins to see her mother in a better light. Instead of a mentally unstable depressed irresponsible woman, Genevieve sees someone else. She recognizes Liv as a depressed woman with intense grief for her husband's death and who feels disconnected from her children.

 Genevieve also learns that she inherited her abilities from Liv, but unlike Genevieve who was able to channel them into a higher level and a new life path, Liv couldn't get a handle on them.

Liv's empathic abilities overwhelmed her to the point that she became disconnected and depressed.

 She tried to block herself from them with distractions. She tried to start a new family. She got checked into a psychiatric hospital and ultimately became a drug addict. 

Genevieve learns to love and embrace the woman that her mother  was. She also meets her half-brother, David, who also is an empath, and accepts him into her family.

When She Touches is a wonderful book that explores how one's abilities can be used to help them gain a stronger perspective and knowledge onto their life path and find closure with the past. The subtitle is right. It is a real discovery and a gift like no other.