An appealing paranormal suspense tale.
An American college student uncovers a gruesome mystery and a hidden world of magic while studying in Ireland in this debut novel.
For Morgan Patterson, attending the University of Ulster in Coleraine is the opportunity of a lifetime. Her host family, the O’Donnells, provides a supportive and stable home, and she enjoys learning about an area her grandmother frequently visited. While searching for mollusks, she meets Sgt. Tiernan Doherty. Their attraction is instantaneous, but Tiernan has a dark past and obligations. His routine duties take an ominous turn when he finds a bag containing two dismembered feet. Morgan was in the area and saw a distinctive car shortly before the discovery. Although the investigation stalls because the authorities are unable to identify the victim, Tiernan believes the murder was intended to send a message to him. Morgan and Tiernan fall in love, but two women from his past threaten to complicate their future. Em and Withypol want something from him, and they will stop at nothing to ensure Tiernan pays his debts. When Morgan discovers that Tiernan is actually a faerie, she enters a world of magic and intrigue and crosses paths with a dangerous enemy. Perkins’ genre-bending series opener is an arresting mix of murder mystery and paranormal romance with well-developed characters and a narrative that takes many twists and turns. Morgan is a resourceful heroine who generally regards stories of faeries and enchantment as nothing more than fantastical Irish folklore. Tiernan is a well-drawn character, loyal and passionate but unable to fall in love until he meets Morgan. The author also succeeds at creating dynamic supporting characters who could potentially serve as protagonists in future stories. The setting is an important element in the book, and Perkins paints a vivid portrait of life in a university town. The narrative is sprawling, with the focus often shifting between the murder mystery and the paranormal activities of the characters. The author, however, keeps the novel from seeming overstuffed by maintaining the focus on the protagonists and their relationship. This story may satisfy fans of Nora Roberts and Sherrilyn Kenyon.
An appealing paranormal suspense tale.Pub Date: April 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-977947-79-6
Page Count: 776
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
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