Rating: 
Summary: TOO drawn out.
Review: The plot takes place on an island, and it feels like everyone on the island has a few chapters devoted to him or her. I think that the plot is drawn out so much that it makes the reading frustrating. She seems to give a large part of the story to characters that are inconsequential to the plot. Although, the plot is a bit dark (childhood trauma) you are hooked right away. But the interest may fade with all of the added stories. I found myself skimming pages looking for the real plot to pickup again. If you have a lot of time and patience this is the book for you. For those of us that have little patience and much less time, it is an exasperating read and I do not recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her Best but her Michael fans will like it
Review: The story grabs your attention right away, which is good. Michaels is one of my favorite authors, I don't think anything by Fern Michaels is bad - many others have been better, however. The subject matter here is very serious - childhood rape, murder, mental institutions, lust, to name a few. The novel could have been absolutely captivating if it had been written just a little differently. The main character, Casey, is a young woman released from a mental institution after 10 years who cannot remember what happened to send her there. She goes back to her home town to find out. With the help of the local doctor, Blake, who becomes her love interest as well, they start unraveling the horrible story of what took place in her young life. There are a lot of twists and turns here as well as shady characters to keep the reader interested. It is a disturbing story, how she was repeatedly raped as a child by a stepbrother, neglected by her mother, and the dark images that haunt her but that she can't identify. She has been drugged heavily for the past 10 years in the institution, and she is afraid to take any medication, but agrees to regression therapy as a last resort to try to remember what supposedly drove her mad. The light-hearted dialogue between Casey and Blake in the midst of intense moments is what throws off the feeling of suspense and reality that good fiction should convey. An example of this is when she is about to begin the regression therapy, she suddenly chickens out, makes the therapist leave the office while she tells her doctor/boyfriend that she can't go through with it. It's an intense moment in the story so one doesn't expect the doctor/friend to just say "ok, let's make a run for it while he's out of the office" and grab a couple of beers out of the fridge on their way out while they joke about it. It isn't a joking moment. This just doesn't ring true. If that one part alone had been left out of the book it would have made for a better novel, even `though there was another similar circumstance in the book. Victims of extreme violence do not usually react like this, or make light remarks in the middle of serious conversations. It's hard not to care about Michael's characters. The bad and villainous "mommy, dearest" was a little hard to fathom, yet was lots of fun to hate. Michael's fans will enjoy it. It's also a fast read and keeps you turning those pages, perfect for a day at the beach or at the airport. One thing that did surprise me about this Fern Michaels is that in the beginning of the book Casey has a daydream of home and family, complete with dog (Fern Michaels' novels aren't complete without a dog) but in the end one isn't mentioned. A golden retriever sitting next to the bassinet of the newborn would have been more like the Michaels we know and love!
Rating:
Summary: Not her Best but her Michael fans will like it
Review: The story grabs your attention right away, which is good. Michaels is one of my favorite authors, I don't think anything by Fern Michaels is bad - many others have been better, however. The subject matter here is very serious - childhood rape, murder, mental institutions, lust, to name a few. The novel could have been absolutely captivating if it had been written just a little differently. The main character, Casey, is a young woman released from a mental institution after 10 years who cannot remember what happened to send her there. She goes back to her home town to find out. With the help of the local doctor, Blake, who becomes her love interest as well, they start unraveling the horrible story of what took place in her young life. There are a lot of twists and turns here as well as shady characters to keep the reader interested. It is a disturbing story, how she was repeatedly raped as a child by a stepbrother, neglected by her mother, and the dark images that haunt her but that she can't identify. She has been drugged heavily for the past 10 years in the institution, and she is afraid to take any medication, but agrees to regression therapy as a last resort to try to remember what supposedly drove her mad. The light-hearted dialogue between Casey and Blake in the midst of intense moments is what throws off the feeling of suspense and reality that good fiction should convey. An example of this is when she is about to begin the regression therapy, she suddenly chickens out, makes the therapist leave the office while she tells her doctor/boyfriend that she can't go through with it. It's an intense moment in the story so one doesn't expect the doctor/friend to just say "ok, let's make a run for it while he's out of the office" and grab a couple of beers out of the fridge on their way out while they joke about it. It isn't a joking moment. This just doesn't ring true. If that one part alone had been left out of the book it would have made for a better novel, even 'though there was another similar circumstance in the book. Victims of extreme violence do not usually react like this, or make light remarks in the middle of serious conversations. It's hard not to care about Michael's characters. The bad and villainous "mommy, dearest" was a little hard to fathom, yet was lots of fun to hate. Michael's fans will enjoy it. It's also a fast read and keeps you turning those pages, perfect for a day at the beach or at the airport. One thing that did surprise me about this Fern Michaels is that in the beginning of the book Casey has a daydream of home and family, complete with dog (Fern Michaels' novels aren't complete without a dog) but in the end one isn't mentioned. A golden retriever sitting next to the bassinet of the newborn would have been more like the Michaels we know and love!
Rating:
Summary: Truly terrible
Review: Thi is my first book by Ms. Michaels'and I am fairly sure it will be my last. I think the whole abuse them is so graphically and tastelessly done that it can hardly be considered entertaining, and any author who makes money from this sort of sensationalist rubbish should donate her time and money to rape and child abuse crisis centers. In terms of the writing, it is terrible, completely disjointed. and supposedly trying to portray her disjointed memories. But since she is supposed to have amnesia what does she really remember. And every time she asks she gets all lies anyway. It starts looking more and more like the author does not even know what information to give us to tie the whole thing together, and there are some real inconsistencies and irrelevant information about people and places that make this whole thing read like a disorganized mess in need of a really good edit. Even leaving aside the problems with the narrative structure, we don't care about the characters enough to weed it all out. The heroine Casey is so wooden and nearly always unconscious because constantly fainting, so that she is hardly of any interest and her boyfriend the wonderful doctor is too sterotyped and too good to be true. Just as the mother and step brother and fiance are all too terrible to be true, and the motives of the villains are just unbelieveable. As is the fact that Casey forgives them all in the end and they live happily ever after!! Even the good doc can't believe when Casy forgives them at the end. This is absolute drivel of the worst sort, not romance, not a thriller. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Truly terrible
Review: Thi is my first book by Ms. Michaels'and I am fairly sure it will be my last. I think the whole abuse them is so graphically and tastelessly done that it can hardly be considered entertaining, and any author who makes money from this sort of sensationalist rubbish should donate her time and money to rape and child abuse crisis centers. In terms of the writing, it is terrible, completely disjointed. and supposedly trying to portray her disjointed memories. But since she is supposed to have amnesia what does she really remember. And every time she asks she gets all lies anyway. It starts looking more and more like the author does not even know what information to give us to tie the whole thing together, and there are some real inconsistencies and irrelevant information about people and places that make this whole thing read like a disorganized mess in need of a really good edit. Even leaving aside the problems with the narrative structure, we don't care about the characters enough to weed it all out. The heroine Casey is so wooden and nearly always unconscious because constantly fainting, so that she is hardly of any interest and her boyfriend the wonderful doctor is too sterotyped and too good to be true. Just as the mother and step brother and fiance are all too terrible to be true, and the motives of the villains are just unbelieveable. As is the fact that Casey forgives them all in the end and they live happily ever after!! Even the good doc can't believe when Casy forgives them at the end. This is absolute drivel of the worst sort, not romance, not a thriller. Don't waste your time.
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