A convoluted romantic suspense novel set among well-rendered scenery.
While evading her vengeful, abusive husband, a woman changes her identity and finds new opportunities for romance.
Liles’ debut novel is the story of Amie Dupler, formerly known as Allison Murdock, who has undergone plastic surgery and changed her identity to hide from her abusive husband, Mike. Amie starts her life anew and runs a B&B on the coast of Northern California. Completely cut off from her own family, she cautiously explores new friendships—and new romances. There’s Levi, the much older antiques dealer who displays a kind, tender interest. The mysterious Jared lavishes attention on her, although he seems to have his own undisclosed agenda. And there’s Chet Phillips, the FBI agent assigned to Amie’s case, whom Amie hasn’t been able to stop thinking about since she met him. But her feelings for him aren’t reciprocated—right? As Amie tries to choose the right man, she must also hide from Mike, whose search is intensifying. The combination of a few potentially innocuous incidents—the vandalism of her new home, mysterious phone calls, strangers asking about her—makes Amie realize that she may still be in danger and can never be truly safe until Mike is stopped. Liles’ novel hums with tension, and she clearly has a keen eye for the atmosphere of beautiful Northern California. The characters, however, don’t quite spring to life in the same way. Amie is relentlessly wonderful—beautiful, brave, selfless—and constantly in need of rescuing from one of the three men in her life. There is an excess of florid dialogue: “I plead; please come and let me love you, if you will.” Furthermore, the plotting of the story is a bit muddled, and the eventual reveal is more confusing than compelling.
A convoluted romantic suspense novel set among well-rendered scenery.Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4809-6171-5
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Rosedog Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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