Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown

2 reviews

abitofapoet's review

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  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
what. 

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ibeforem's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

 Mean Streak is about Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician from Atlanta who was written to be just a little too perfect. She's a great doctor with a well-known, successful practice, married to a man who works in finance, who gives a lot to charity, and loves running. It's running that takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where she plans to run a half marathon at a higher elevation to challenge herself in preparation for a marathon event she organized. She plans out her route and sets off one Saturday morning as planned, but never makes it back to her car.

Instead, she wakes up in a bed in a cabin with a man she does not know. Her head is bleeding, her foot is injured, her phone has no service, and she has no idea how she got there. And it's soon clear that she won't be leaving anytime soon, thanks to mountain fog. She has no way to tell her husband what has happened, or even that she's alive. Did this man kidnap her? Did he save her? Is he going to hurt her? She has no idea, and he won't even tell her his name.

I enjoyed the pacing of this book. The first half (almost exactly) is Emory trapped in the cabin with the mysterious man. When she is finally returned to town at that point, I wondered where the rest of the story would go, but it doesn't take long to see where it's headed. The police have a lot of questions for Emory, and they're not really willing to just accept what she has to say.

Where it falls apart for me a bit is the story of the mysterious man. His intentions and his reasons for living the way he does are well hidden. All you really know is that he's hiding from someone and the FBI is looking for him. There are insinuations, and a mass shooting in West Virginia is referred to often, but when the true reason he is living the way he is is revealed, it just felt like a stretch. It didn't completely pull me out of the story, but it also didn't endear him to me further.

Overall, I enjoyed the read. There is, of course, some steamy sex, because that is what you expect with Sandra Brown. But this is one you want to read without analyzing the plot too closely. 

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