HELD

Held hostage by a terrorist group somewhere in Europe, Chloe finds herself increasingly attracted to her captor as her mother and friends back home do everything they can to free her.

Chloe was working in Greece over the summer and is known for how carefully she manages her life. When she is kidnapped on the side of a road, she is really out of control and frightened. Blindfolded and drugged, Chloe gradually realizes that she is being held as a trade for the release of prisoners whom her captor believes to have been unjustly prosecuted. Her main relationship is with one man who is gentle and kind and eventually becomes her lover. Chapters written by Chloe after the fact detail events and alternate with notes, letters, e-mail messages, news reports, Facebook posts and webpages. It is in these interpolations that readers see how Chloe's advocates manipulate facts themselves in order to effect her rescue. At the end, psychologists put her words in the context of how others have responded, challenging her veracity. This eminently discussable novel continually asks readers to consider whether ends justify means and how power and control affect relationships. They take the journey with Chloe through paralyzing fear toward what seems like love. Is it?

Less thriller than psychological puzzler, this novel effectively keep readers guessing.