I really want to like this book but unfortunately I just didn't.
I hate to leave a review even though I didn't enjoy it. I don't think this was a bad book, just one that wasn't for me in particular.

This was a not the easiest subject matter to read. Sexual and physical abuse from anyone is HORRIBLE! But when its from a parent its exponentially more horrendous is my opinion. This was very well written and sad to read. I LOVED the victim stories that were included in the end.


Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and to Jacob Paul Patchen for allowing me to read and honestly review this ARC.

This book was totally gripping! It starts off with 3 kids coming up with a plan to get themselves out of an abusive situation At Daddy's Hands. This chapter ends on a cliff hanger. Then it sends you right into the back stories of each of the 3 kids and the wife/mother. It sends you on quite the roller coaster of emotions giving you a peek at what someone in a situation like this would be going through mentally and physically. For me it gave insight to the question of "why don't they speak up and tell someone? Why do they stay in this situation?" The book hits the climax, but it gives you another chapter after that to read about the conclusion. I think this could be a great read for everyone.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I can't wait to read more by this author. His writing style is good.

This was a tough book to read. The descriptions of sexual abuse are hard to take. The worst part for me was when Nikki came forward and the judge decided to sweep it all under the carpet because it was an election year. Awful. Having said that, I think it was well written and thoughtful.
I received this book free from NetGalley and give this review voluntarily.

I did not find this to be a well written book. The storyline was an important one but neither the characters or story plot were well developed. More effort into developing the story and characters could have made it a five- star book.

This is a well-written book on a very hard, heartbreaking subject. The author did an excellent job portraying the horrors that exist in many houses across the globe and hits home to many victims and their abusers! This book will evoke many emotions and feelings and touch your very core being!

Jim Handler, husband, father, star detective and child molester. His three children have been raped and abused by this man. His wife beaten to a pulp.
No one believes them. No one will listen. The children decide to take things into their own hands. They hope a percocet cocktail will end their abuse.
This is a story about strength, courage and survival. Though this story is fiction it is written about a subject that presently is running rampant in our society. Children being abused and no one listening because the abuse is so good in everyone's eye that he couldn't possibly be doing these atrocities. It happens each and every day.

Jim Handler is a man with a gun ...and a badge. He's a homicide detective... and a small town hero.

Jim Handler is married with 2 daughters and a son. He is also abusive ..physically, mentally, sexually. And it's getting more severe day by day. His wife is drinking to deal with her husband, leaving her children at his mercy.

The older daughter reported the abuse to a teacher, who reported to the school psychologist, who reported it to the police. The police notified Handler and of course, he denied all allegations. The court system failed them as well. Basically, nothing has changed, except for his growing anger.

The kids have had enough. They have devised a plan that will stop the violence one and for all.

This was really hard to read due to the disturbing subject matter. It's a hard topic to tackle, especially as we all know these things still exist in our society.

The story is told from everyone's perspective ... mom, each of the kids, and dad. It's gut-wrenching to read the parents's backgrounds and instead of stopping the cycle of abuse, they continued it. It's a fairly short read ... thank goodness ... and guaranteed I will probably have nightmares when the lights go out tonight.

Many thanks to the author / Black Rose Writing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological drama. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Super hard read. Many trigger warnings.

As hard as this was to read, I do think there should be more awareness of each of these topics. Physical, mental, and sexual abuse. I understand that this is just a fictional story, but this stuff does happen in every day life.

I'm not sure what more to say....

At Daddy’s Hands by author Jacob Paul Patchen is a tough to read yet remarkable thriller of a book. It probably won’t be for everyone, but it’s good!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In reality Jim Handler is a well respect of the town he knows .
But his three teenager children has had enough of his sexual and mental abuse
Nikki , Tyler and Ally are the Three children and to end the Handler family

At Daddy’s Hands by Jacob Paul Patchen
Wow this book literally took the will to live out of me. Child sexual abuse is a brutal truth that we have to face and it is rampant the world over but this book really hits you in the face with this harsh reality.
Reading this book was far from enjoyable – it was gut wrenching but I guess sometimes we got to get rid of the escapist attitude within us and open our eyes to the real world.
Jim is a well respected homicide detective but there is a dark side to him. He was sexually abused as a child and continues the abuse with his own family, including with wife, Ashley, daughters Ally and Nikki, and son, Tyler. Each family member speaks about their individual personal experiences - the fear, pain and abuse they endured at Jim’s hands. The shocking abuse by the father is something difficult to stomach. Did the sexual abuse suffered by Jim in his childhood justify his actions? Can the abuse to his innocent children be validated?
Why didn’t the mother react to this scumbag of a husband? Yes she was suffering too but how could she allow this to happen to her children. The anger we feel at her helplessness is palpable.
This is one book which is difficult to read. Frankly I skipped a few parts merely because I just could not stand the suffering the children were enduring. I cannot fathom the pain real victims of abuse go through. The very thought sends shivers down my spine and yet there are children going through this day in and day out and predominantly, the perp is a loved one and thats what hurts the most. When someone we trust harms us in every way possible and leaves us emotionally scarred, it is something which is intolerable.
The reminded me of a similar book I read – Damaged by Cathy Glass. A well written book which really gets under your skin. I know it is not always fair to look at the world with rose tinted glasses. We need to step out of that illusion.

This was certainly a difficult book to get through although it's a short read. It's a dark subject matter but it's unfortunately one that happens every single day. A family living with a monster - and the way it affects each of them for the worst. We jump from one character to another - from the eyes of the children, the wife, the abuser himself, and the system that failed them (and others) so miserably - in order to see the full story. No one is alright in this book and I appreciated the author never tried to paint the abuse as 'okay'. The writing style was a bit average; very straight to the point without much detail (and while I was glad the detail wasn't graphic for certain scenes I think it would have set up less graphic scenes better with some more detail).

Still, a very quick read that I hope will bring light to how awful the legal system can be to the ones who need its help the most.

At Daddy’s Hands, such a powerful and disturbing read. A father(a cop), that the whole town thinks is a hero, abuses his wife and children. I had many different emotions going on while reading this. Anger, sadness, more anger!! This was a hard book to read due to the awful actions of this man, but one that needs to be out there. So sad that this happens way too often in this world now and that the justice system works pretty much the way it was portrayed in this book. Thank you to the author for doing so much research, surely that had be a painful experience.
Many thanks to the author and Netgalley for allowing me to read this and give an honest review.

I... huh.

This might be the hardest book I have ever had to review. While the story itself is fiction, it deals with very heavy, serious subjects. As the TW states, there is abuse, sexual assault, childhood rape, and familial rape as the basis of this story. If you continue to read this review and find any of those subjects triggering, please proceed with caution.

Honestly, I have no idea what to rate this book. I have battled with numerous different ratings and reasonings, but I guess I just have to... go with my gut on this one. Try to bear with me as I attempt to explain why.

As I said, the subject matter is very serious and reading the book was almost gut-wrenching. This is coming from a reviewer who reads extremely dark subjects on a daily basis. As if the fact that the abuser/child rapist in this book is their father isn’t bad enough, he also happens to be a cop. And, as one might expect, that makes any legal proceedings near impossible, as nobody chooses to believe the victims... and, as a reader, it was very aggravating.

The story was told in alternating POVs. You read from the perspective of the three children, as well as their parents. And... yes... that does include the child-raping scumbag. While I understand that the author wanted to get all of the different perspectives, I’m not quite sure how I feel about that decision. In fact, reading from Jim’s POV almost made me DNF. Almost. As someone who, thankfully, has never been sexually assaulted in her almost-21 years of life, if I considered DNFing then I can’t even begin to imagine what some victims of sexual assault might think if they read the same thing. I think I understand... maybe... what the author was trying to go for, but I just... don’t think it was very smart. Maybe others will disagree with me. I dunno.

That said, I also didn’t much care for Ashley, the mother. She was just... so fucking aggravating. She KNEW what was going on right under her own roof and did NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, in an attempt to stop it. While I whole-heartedly understand that women in abusive relationships might be afraid to speak up or get help, this woman just... literally sat there and watched her children be taken to the bedroom to be raped. In all honesty, she pissed me off almost as much as the actual child-raping scumbag did.

However.

While I have extremely mixed feelings about the story itself, at the end of the book the author has included accounts from real sexual assault victims from Ohio — where the story is set. That, to me, was better than the story itself, and I would almost consider purchasing this book just for that. Hearing these stories, giving these victims a platform, was incredible on the author’s part, in my opinion. It’s one thing to read about fictional sexual assault, but to actually read from real people... well, that causes feelings that I can’t even begin to describe.

Overall... well, I think it’s up to the individual person whether they can stomach a story like this. As I said above, I almost think it’s worth the read just to hear from real people, but the subject matter is, obviously, very grim and very real. Whether you’d want to read this particular story or not is completely up to you — but I definitely have newfound respect for the featured people who chose to speak up.

Speak up and speak out.

Thank you to the publisher as well as Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was definitely not for me, I dnf'd it due to graphic material.

Now I knew this book would deal with a tough subject, however, most books I have read don't seem very realistic. This book was realistic and more, while I do agree that more books need to be like this one it definitely isn't something I can read.

There was quite a bit of stuff that I just couldn't read due to past experiences, as well as having children of my own. I know this stuff happens, I just can't read about it.

However, I still rate it three stars because of the parts I did read. The book in a whole is very well researched and written. It conveys feelings and emotions in a very realistic and relatable way. This will definitely be a 5 star for a lot of people.

It's always hard with these type of books on such topics to actually 'enjoy' reading them, but overall this is a well put together book which keeps you turning the pages. I would preferred more detail put in the characters who were abused rather than the abuser however.

Thank you to Netgalley and Black Rose Writing for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

This was a really hard read - mostly because the premise is so within the realms of reality

Congratulations to the author though, because as hard as it was to read, its such a deserving topic

Heartbreaking but thoroughly recommend

‘At Daddy’s Hands’ is clearly a well intentioned book. Author Jacob Paul Patchen has experience of working with the survivors of abuse and that background has led him to write a fictional account of spousal and child sexual abuse within a family that draws on common themes he has seen in his career.
Unfortunately, good intentions and knowledge don’t necessarily make for a good book, and they don’t in this case. It’s easy to read (once you get past the horrific subject matter) but fails to be particularly gripping or even to feel that insightful. The three abused children are flat stereotypes rather than engaging characters. It’s not hard to root for them in their quest for revenge on their abusive father, but I found myself not caring that much about them. ‘My Absolute Darling’ by Gabriel Tallent covers similar ground with far more power and grit.