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rhirhireader's review against another edition
3.0
This took me a while to get into but was worth the effort because the twists and turns at the end surprised me. A lot was going on but true to Spindlers' style, it was tied up neatly at the end.
Pastor Rachael is afraid of something or someone on the island of key west. Next thing she's missing and presumed dead. Her sister Liz turns up to find the truth, instead she too becomes scared of what she feels in the town. She feels lonely, weary, and spooked. When liz untangles a web of lies and murderous scandals, she is in fear of being the next person missing and presumed dead.
This story had a lot of religous referencing, usualy this doesn't appeal to me, but it worked in this setting and powered out a chilling vibe.
Pastor Rachael is afraid of something or someone on the island of key west. Next thing she's missing and presumed dead. Her sister Liz turns up to find the truth, instead she too becomes scared of what she feels in the town. She feels lonely, weary, and spooked. When liz untangles a web of lies and murderous scandals, she is in fear of being the next person missing and presumed dead.
This story had a lot of religous referencing, usualy this doesn't appeal to me, but it worked in this setting and powered out a chilling vibe.
arathi's review against another edition
3.0
good twist towards the last few pages, always been a fan of books written by Erica Spindler...still more to go
zade's review against another edition
2.0
I should know better than to pick up a book published by Mira. They look like thrillers, but are really romance novels masquerading as thrillers, or at best, thrillers written by romance writers who really don't know what they're doing. Erica Spindler has quite a fan following, so she must be doing something right, but I sure don't know what it is.
This novel managed to get me interested, so that's something. For the first half of the novel, I was able to overlook the purple prose and so-so writing enough to be interested in what was happening. By the second half, however, I really didn't care anymore. Finishing the novel became more of an exercise in finding clichés and seeing how over-the-top she'd get in her finale. In that respect, she didn't disappoint. It was pure B-movie melodrama, jumping the shark all the way.
A couple of warnings. This novel contains graphic descriptions of Satanic murder and mutilation. It contains moderately graphic sex and occasional profanity, although that part is kind of funny. Ms. Spindler clearly doesn't drop the f-bomb in her daily conversation and the few times she uses it, it comes across stilted and unnatural in the mouths of her characters. I guess she thought a tough cop should curse a little. There's quite a bit of religious talk in this book, which will be off-putting for non-Christians and probably kind of offensive for many Christians. I mean, the heroes are supposed to be good Christians, but they swear, hook up, and engage in all sorts of worldly behavior. (But pre-marital sex is okay if it's real love, right? God meant them to hook up!) It's not that Christians, even good ones, don't do those things in real life--humans are imperfect--but the hodgepodge of evangelicalism and Catholicism, mysticism and superficiality is pretty much bound to tick off every sub-group of believers. Maybe not strict Calvinists, I guess. But they'd never read a book like this anyway. :-)
Final verdict? The first part has enough momentum to drag you along, but it loses speed and interest quickly and becomes unreal to the point of absurdity. I'm absolutely going to read something more recent from Ms. Spindler, just to see what she's done with her talent, but there's no way I'd read anything earlier and frankly I wish I had back the hours I spent on this novel. Yes, I know this is way harsh. I'm sorry for that and for all the fans of Ms. Spindler I'm going to tick off. But I call them as I see them. If I didn't, my reviews wouldn't be worth the pixels they're written in.
This novel managed to get me interested, so that's something. For the first half of the novel, I was able to overlook the purple prose and so-so writing enough to be interested in what was happening. By the second half, however, I really didn't care anymore. Finishing the novel became more of an exercise in finding clichés and seeing how over-the-top she'd get in her finale. In that respect, she didn't disappoint. It was pure B-movie melodrama, jumping the shark all the way.
A couple of warnings. This novel contains graphic descriptions of Satanic murder and mutilation. It contains moderately graphic sex and occasional profanity, although that part is kind of funny. Ms. Spindler clearly doesn't drop the f-bomb in her daily conversation and the few times she uses it, it comes across stilted and unnatural in the mouths of her characters. I guess she thought a tough cop should curse a little. There's quite a bit of religious talk in this book, which will be off-putting for non-Christians and probably kind of offensive for many Christians. I mean, the heroes are supposed to be good Christians, but they swear, hook up, and engage in all sorts of worldly behavior. (But pre-marital sex is okay if it's real love, right? God meant them to hook up!) It's not that Christians, even good ones, don't do those things in real life--humans are imperfect--but the hodgepodge of evangelicalism and Catholicism, mysticism and superficiality is pretty much bound to tick off every sub-group of believers. Maybe not strict Calvinists, I guess. But they'd never read a book like this anyway. :-)
Final verdict? The first part has enough momentum to drag you along, but it loses speed and interest quickly and becomes unreal to the point of absurdity. I'm absolutely going to read something more recent from Ms. Spindler, just to see what she's done with her talent, but there's no way I'd read anything earlier and frankly I wish I had back the hours I spent on this novel. Yes, I know this is way harsh. I'm sorry for that and for all the fans of Ms. Spindler I'm going to tick off. But I call them as I see them. If I didn't, my reviews wouldn't be worth the pixels they're written in.
kathijo63's review against another edition
2.0
Week 11 of the Around the World in 52 Weeks Challenge: A book originally published in a year that is a prime number
The book was OK. I thought it was way too wordy and could have been about 100 pages shorter.
The book was OK. I thought it was way too wordy and could have been about 100 pages shorter.
kaz_loves_books's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant, really enjoyed this book. Erica Spindler is a great author.
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