Karen Ziemba Books

I stayed up way past my bedtime for three nights because I couldn't put this book down. The fact that Bart Corbin could murder Dolly Hearn in 1990, nonchalantly go on with his life and then murder his wife Jennifer 14 years later is absolutely chilling. Ann Rule portrays the very human side of both victims: despite Bart's scary behavior, Dolly tried to ease away from him gently, and Jenn was so unhappy in her marriage that she turned to an Internet relationship for solace which proved to be devastating. You feel a keen sense of loss even if you didn't know either of these vibrant, warm-hearted women. Bart Corbin is evil personified and is right where he belongs, even if it came 16 years too late.

This tale of two murders is truly amazing. I didn't know anything about this case before I picked this book up, and there were a couple of plot developments that almost took my breath away. But while the saga is spellbinding, the storytelling is just so-so. Every aspect of the lives of those involved are explained in great detail. Much of the investigative process is examined closely, too. Then, it seems, once Dr. Bart is put in jail, boom-boom-boom, time is telescoped, everything happens in a matter of pages, and The End. As workmanlike as Ann Rule's work is here, she deserves applause for the careful way she depicts Dolly and Jenn. It would have been easy to sensationalize certain aspects of both women's lives, but Ms. Rule instead chooses respect and compassion.

I have read most of Ann Rule's true crime books, and she has indeed authored a great many books. 'Too Late to Say Goodbye' is one of her latest efforts and, I'm glad to say, one of her better efforts too. It is about a dentist who murders both his girlfriend and, fifteen years later, his wife in a similar fashion and is, thankfully, ultimately brought to justice. Ann Rule obviously prepared well since 'Too Late...' is very detailed. And the book is deceptively well structured (the accounts of both murders are largely interwoven throughout most of the book to highlight the similarities).

The book doesn't earn five stars because the nature of the crimes in 'Too Late...' are not quite as convoluted or are heinous compared to what is found in other Ann Rule books. And I was disappointed not to be entertained with any sort of courtroom drama. On the plus side, I found this book to be less 'gushy' in flowery descriptions of the victims, or their kids, or anything which Ann Rule can blather on about in hopes of making the crimes sound even more heinous than they are. Is murdering a beautiful woman with adorable children any more tragic than killing an average woman with brats??? It's a bit irrelevant.


Bottom line: a entertaining slice of true crime drama. Recommended.

Read it while on an extended hospital stay and it made the time pass quickly. Another good Ann Rule yarn...however, someday I'd like to read a story by her where the husband loves the wife and isn't some obsessive killer! : )

In this true crime story of murder and betrayal, the author takes the reader into an exploration of two murders, seamlessly and empathically weaving the stories of the tragic deaths of two young women. Though the deaths were fourteen years apart and in different jurisdictions, the two victims would have one thing in common. They had each fallen in love with the same man, Bart Corbin.

The first woman to die was Dolly Hearn, a beautiful, vivacious, dental student, who met Bart Corbin in dental school, where he, too, was a student. They eventually became a couple but the relationship was quite rocky. Then Dolly met an untimely death by virtue of a gunshot wound to the head, which the police classified as a suicide, despite her parents' belief that she had been murdered.

The second woman to die was Jennifer Corbin, Bart's wife. Bart Corbin, now a dentist, though not particularly successful in his practice of dentistry, was still able to live the American dream. He had a lovely wife, two wonderful children, and a nice home in a great neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. There were cracks in that facade, however, and his wife finally decided that she was going to leave Bart, as he was not the man that she had thought he was. Then she, too, met her maker through a gunshot wound to the head. This time, however, the police did not rush to judgment to classify this death as a suicide.

A careful and thorough investigation, fueled by an unexpected lead, led to the police to connect the dots between the deaths of these two young women, resulting in the re-opening of the investigation into Dolly Hearn's death. What the police were to discover and what lead to the arrest of Bart Corbin in connection with these two tragic deaths makes for riveting true crime drama.

I loved these books the series last 3 books and I enjoyed going on adventures with our main character and her friends. This is a book my daughters will read and enjoy.

A bit predictable, but a nice book to read during class when the teacher's lecturing about something boring.

One of my friends told me that this was one of the best books she's ever read, but I'd definitely have to disagree. This was just an average, okay book. It definitely had some interesting qualities, like Calwyn's strong feelings for Darrow and an ending that would leave most people wondering about what could happen. But I just think that the whole story was a bit predictable and it seemed to drag on forever... Then again, I'm very selective about what types of fantasy books I like and dislike.

I enjoyed this book. Kate Constable gave some great thought into the world that she placed her characters into, and I found myself wishing that I could see more of some of the worlds she took me to (especially Antaris). I liked the characterization of Calwyn, and I found that she was realistic to me. I guess my only complaint about this book is that it leaves you wanting more... the author wrote it in such a way that there wasn't as much depth to the universe as there could have been. However, I am not a big fan of JR Tolkein or other authors who go into great, intricate detail about every thing in their world, since I like more plot-driven books that move quickly. This book was satisfying in that regard. I would like to see the author write more books in this same world.

teen girl/novice priestess
feels trapped
gets in trouble often with harsh priestess
runs away with mysterious older man/wizard
crush on him
dresses like a boy
fighting evil wizard who used to be good wizard's pal
rag-tag band of adventurers with different powers
captured by pirates
escape
travel through the "waste"
tired of eating stew
to the city of the ancients
their battle seems hopeless but then . . .

Summer of Roses
It was a good book. Need to read Summer Child first to really enjoy it more. Fast moving.

I really enjoyed this book after reading 'Summer's Child'. This book got deeper into Lily's life and what she went thru with Edward and it all started to come together and make sense as to why she disappeared for nine years. There a little mystery, romance, drama all going on at the same time. I love to see the bad guy get burned and I love happy endings and this book ended just that way!

If you like the first book, you will love this one. This is a good book for when you want to relax and just enjoy some pleasant reading.

I've read many of Rice's books and did enjoy this one, but have to say it wasn't my favorite. Liked the characters but thought it dragged a bit at the end.

Wow - this was a wonderful continuation of Summer's Child. It had me on the edge of my seat reading about Edward's cruelty and attempts at revenge! These beaten women showed remarkable strength, and in the process, found healing and renewed purpose. As a mother, I appreciated the extent they went through to protect and care for their children. Luanne Rice has a wonderful style of writing, and I enjoyed all the shark/whale symbolism. The setting added so much depth to the story because it was so interesting - not just Nova Scotia, but all the oceanography too. Liam was a wonderfully supportive character!

I was quite upset after receiving this book to find I have had read it years before. This should be stated in the ad about the book. Although , I love Mrs. Delinsky's books, I have found her and her publishers to make this a habit! Plus I was charged to return it......

What a wonderful story of an adoptee and her struggle to find her birth heritage. When her adoptive mother dies, Chelsea Kane begins to commute between her position as a partner in a lucrative Baltimore architectural firm and her new position as a partner in a granite company in the small New Hampshire town of Norwich Notch where she was born. Her adoptive father strains against her doing this. He cannot understand her need to find her heritage.

Trying to please her father, she has a one-night stand with her long time friend and business partner which her father also wants her to marry. Unfortunately, they are better friends than lovers but Chelsea becomes pregnant. The day she plans to tell him is the day she finds out he is going to marry a former girlfriend.

Without telling him she is pregnant, she throws herself into the granite business and renovates a farmhouse in her birth town. But all is not well. There are those who don't want an outsider in their town. But Chelsea is determined to find her heritage. In the process, she finds a half of her she never knew existed and a man who is willing to stand beside her through it all.

One of the only books I truly love, I have read my copy so much it is falling apart and I have to buy a new one. I have read other books by Barbara Delinsky, but this one, in my opinion, is one of her best.

Of course, author Barbara Delinsky, started her writing career with Harlequin; so, obviously there are going to be sex scenes in her novels. This was one of the older novels, which came out in 1992 as a paperback, perhaps before she began writing mainstream hard-cover fiction. For this reason, I can make some allowances, owing to the genre of that time, and the title of course, "Passions of Chelsea Kane" is certainly not going to be about a nun in a convent.

However, it gets irritating after awhile. Central character Chelsea Kane casually sleeps with her childhood friend, just to see if they are compatible. They are not. Oh well. Chelsea then moves to a small town in New England where the whole rest of the novel seems to be pre-occupied with Chelsea's lusty thoughts for one of the granite workers at the town quarry she has just bought. Scene after scene of gratuitous sex, even during Chelsea's pregnancy, yuck. And, even hints at sex during her breast-feeding, double yuck. Chelsea had arrived in the small New England town pregnant, and doesn't even bother having her new lover take an AIDs test, which could have injured her unborn child, I would think. There was AIDs in 1992, so I feel author, Barbara Delinsky was very irresponsible making pregnant Chelsea Kane so promiscuous, whether it serves the plot or not.

Why did Chelsea purchase a granite factory in a small-town of New England? Chelsea was adopted as a child and she is now looking for her birth-parents who came out of that town. She is an architect and granite gives her a reason to get involved with the small town to see if she can find her parents amongst the townspeople.

All the quarrying for granite stuff is about as interesting as the maple-sugaring stuff in Delinsky's "Accidental Woman" novel. The problem with writing so technical about these crafts is that if the reader is simply not interested in maple syrup, gardening, grape-growing, or quarrying........the whole novel will be a big bore.

Delinsky is not so great at suspense and mystery either. The reader can easily guess who Chelsea's surprise parents will be. The ending of this long-drawn out novel is pretty lackluster as too many clues were handed out long before and there really aren't much surprises.

What is good here is the narrow-mindedness of the small-town attitudes. Delinsky is an expert at capturing the feel of small New England towns and the petty and small attitudes of the townspeople towards urbane Chelsea Kane. There are some great scenes of the long-time denizens of small-town Norwitch Notch arguing with city-dweller, Chelsea, as the townspeople simply do not want her there and try to run her out of town. In fact, I would go so far as to say that author Barbara Delinsky's small town "Norwich Notch" in this novel, which she custom-created, is about as expertly defined as "Empire Falls" was in Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Richard Russo's "Empire Falls" novel----which won the Pulitzer in 2001.

Both Richard Russo "Empire Falls" and Barbara Delinsky are perhaps the best in all of fiction at creating accurate New England small towns.

However, I'm still going to take one star off for the bizarre sex scenes. And, one star off for all the boring stuff about granite and quarrying.

Chelsea Kane always realizes that she was adopted but her family didn't want her to know anything about her biological parents. They destroyed all the records. When her mother dies, her lawyer gives to Chelsea an envelope postmarked Norwich Notch, New Hampshire. Before she makes the decision to go to the town of her birth, she makes love with her best friend and business partner Carl Harper.

She becomes pregnant but before she can tell Carl, he informs her he is marrying the woman who is carrying his twins. Needing a place to escape to and wanting to find out about her biological roots, Chelsea moves to the small conservative village of her birth, buys into a business and meets Judd Streeter who is Chelsea's foreman on the quarry site. While the two fight their growing feelings for one another, someone in town attempts to scare her into leaving, going so far as to trying to run her over and burning down her home.

It has been over eleven years since THE PASSIONS OF CHELSEA KANE was published but classics such as this stand the test of time and remain a strong read when reprinted. The relationship between the heroine and her love is so dynamic and explosive, sparks fly off the pages. The townsfolk are an interesting group who give color and atmosphere to the plot and demonstrate that even in a small hamlet, there remains a huge gap between the classes.

Harriet Klausner

Two sisters could not be more different. Rose, the together, prim and proper attorney and Maggie, the beautiful, disorganized, mess. They are forced to cohabitate after Maggie runs short of money, causing a shock to Rose's world. However, they both have some things in common: they hate their stepmother, they would like to meet the grandmother they were cut off from when their mother passed away, and they are looking for men who will not turn out to be jerks (which does not turn out to be an easy task).

Quote: "Maggie showed no signs of leaving . . . and, Rose noticed, the money she'd given her had magically disappeared."

I liked this book somewhat - it takes different chapters from the viewpoints of various main characters, which I dislike. I found myself skipping over certain characters to keep with the story I was into at the time, because I like that continuity (then, of course, I had to go back and read the other characters' chapters in a row), until eventually the different characters more or less come together. It is a nice vacation read, if a little bit predictable.

This is the story of two women who are sisters. Rose, the good, smart one. Maggie, the pretty, sassy one.

For the first third to half of the book, Maggie is a total beyotch. I had a very hard time going past her abuse of everyone around her. Only the hints that there was something more, below the surface, kept me reading.

And there is a catharsis. There's an awakening on the part of each sister. And of course there's a happy ending.

I have not seen the movie, but a friend who has says that a very important part - Maggie's rebirth - is removed from the movie. It's the one thing that makes the book worth finishing, watching Maggie grow.

In all, a decent story about how women hurt each other, and how we support each other.

(*)>

This book was fabulous! I love Jennifer Weiner! I bought the book after seeing the movie (loved it) and it was the same! It is an easy read and you never want to put it down. I am really picky about my "chic lit" and this one was right on the money. You will love it!

This is a great read by Weiner. I liked it much better than Good in Bed. Basically the heavier girl from Good in Bed feels like she comes back in this book with a lot more chutzpah and strength. It's like Cannie is reincarnated into more of a heroine for bigger girls to look up to, and the waif girl is the loser. Nice change from the Hollywood standard.

I am admittedly a fan of most of Jennifer Weiner's books. This one is no exception - I found it as enjoyable as "Good in Bed" and "Little Earthquakes". The characters are well developed, and have a goodly amount of depth to them - even Maggie, who personality-wise is shallow and selfish.

It's very easy to warm up to and enjoy Rose early on in the book, despite her her lack of self-confidence. Maggie takes a lot longer to warm up to - you really have to get to know her more in depth and watch her transform to be able to like her better, as she starts out fairly badly. However, the book does a good job giving you background on both sisters and their personalities. And it's fun to watch both sisters develop into "better" people and ultimately develop a better relationship.

Yes, you will occasionally want to yell at one (or both) of the sisters. But you will also laugh, cry, and cheer for them as well. This is a great read, and one I would highly recommend.

I read a lot and can be very forgiving to authors because I appreciate the craft of writing, however, this is a very bad book. It's been said in a lot of the reviews already but let me reiterate why I think this was a very poorly written book: one dimensional, stereotypical characters (especially the Nebraska family members), no explanantion for why Sabine would adore Parsifal for more than twenty years or agree to live with him and his lover, no explanation for Sabine's sudden off ramp to lesbianism, difficulty liking the main characters, plot turns that high school students would be afraid to try, and an ending that just leaves me saying, "huh?". I had to go back several times to read sentences and paragraphs because I couldn't believe that the editor let it go through. For example, Sabine talks about not being over Parsifal's death a mere two weeks after he died. The writing is bad, the plot is silly and the only reason I finished this book is because I was on a plane and had no access to other reading material. Don't bother picking this one up.

Quite frankly, I bought this book because it had a rabbit on the front, and I'm an avid rabbit lover. But I ended up loving this book, mainly because I could relate to her grief (I'm a widow, too). And the quirky ending, that makes you wonder, did she and Kitty ever really get together..., was great. I thought all the characters were very human and likable, and you felt compassion for the position that all of them found themselves in, due to what happened so many years ago. Not to mention, as a rabbit lover, the random notations about the rabbit were charming, i.e., on Page 182, when Sabine calls home to her dad in LA, and he says, "Guess who's sitting here in my lap, helping me read the newspaper?" And Sabine says, "You'll spoil him." And her dad's response is, "No such thing as a spoiled bunny. This is an animal who possesses an infinite capacity for affection." Loved it!

Parsifal the Magician is dead, and you're kind of glad anyway because really, who goes by the name Parsifal anyway? Parsifal is just one of many uninteresting characters in a novel that dares you to slap yourself awake to get through uninspiring dream sequence after another. And boy do those dream sequences keep coming. To say this book was unaffecting is to minimize how greatly this novel disappoints.

The book starts off with the loss of Parsifal, the great love of Sabine's life. But you never really get a true feel of the loss of this man's life, he, much like the book's plot, is merely an apparition. He is a ghost on every page of this book and yet again he never truly is there. Sure he's talked about a lot but he never really seems real, and quite frankly you never seem to care that he is gone. He's lived his life, had his fun, and the poor hapless soul that is his assistant is all that's left behind.
Sabine was just a character to me. She never really felt real and it didn't help that the author had her spouting nonsense like "In California every girl you meet you want to kiss" I mean every description of LA was so waxingly poetic it felt like she was reciting lines from a postcard.

Well if you can't tell by now I hated this book. I'm an avid reader and I must say this book was dull, boring, and an utter chore to read through. All I felt was relief when I got to the last page.

With The Magicians Assistant, Ann Patchett has performed the proverbial "Hat Trick" with a tale that is filled with beautiful writing but contains nothing new in the way of plot.

By diverting our attention with conversations with the dead, flashbacks, dreams and vicarious travel being experienced by Sabine, the title character of this piece and widow of Parsifal the Magician, she manages to make us think we are experiencing a tale of substance when, in fact, it is really all just smoke and mirrors. This story of a woman in love with a man who is in love with a man, as well as the "tragic" childhood experiences and hidden family with a trunkful of secrets are classic Hollywood fodder and not worthy of the woman who gave us Bel Canto and Patron Saint of Liars.

Okay, I get the premise. Everyone is searching for love and acceptance and at sometime in our lives we all have to deal with death, or loss, or grief ..... or a combination of all of the above. This search, however, was boring and it's final outcome less than satisfying and definitely without true resolution. Ms. Patchett was probably going for an abstract look at one woman's spiritual journey. All I can say is you had better pack a large lunch to take along on this trip, because that is the only thing that will sustain you, since there is little in this story to feed your grey matter.

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book -- but in the end it definitely grew on me and ultimately touched me.
It's definitely written in a muted tone. The protagonist, the assistant of the title, is sunk in depression after the death of her two gay friends, one of whom was her husband. She sleeps a lot -- but she has sleepwalked through most of her life, settling for the illusion of love instead of the real thing. Her role as the assistant has been to stand there and smile sweetly while he does all the real living and loving.
Surprisingly, only when she travels to snow-bound Nebraska to bond with her dead husband's famly does the book come truly to life. It becomes clear this is a book about family and about the possibility of love -- the love that holds families together and the love that binds two people together, true love, the real thing, not the illusion.
Worth persisting with.

I got this book on audio cd for a long car ride, and I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe it's because it's over 20 years old and the writing is full of cliche's...or maybe because the guy reading it sounded like someone's grandfather with a mouth full of dentures. It made listening to the love scenes pretty funny. I don't think this book stands the test of time. The main character Jenny is annoying. She's naive to the point of stupidity. I'd recommend Karen Robards for romance books. Even her early work from the early 80s is still relatible.

This was perhaps the worst book I have ever read in my entire life.

Whenever I see such an author published, it gives me hope that maybe it's not as difficult as I thought to break into the elite world of "The Published."

I lost count of all the times I rolled my eyes and breathed an "Oh, please" while reading this. The plot was VERY weak, Jenny was VERY pathetic, and Cage was VERY cliche.

I agree 100% with the commenters that mention Cage raping Jenny. That's how their whole love affair starts. Is that not terrible?! Not to mentioned that they were raised practically as siblings. *shudders*

I listen to many audio books, novels and non-fiction alike. This is one of the rare books that I removed from my car's CD player before it ended. I thought it was dreadful. The whole premise was how Cage (what a stupid name) was going to get into Jenny's pants (again). Jenny didn't know it was not her fiance but her fiance's brother who she made passionate love to in the darkness? Come on! And of course she gets pregnant the very first time - also very realistic.
I'm not going to waste any more time on this review. The book just isn't worth it.

Although written some time ago, this is yet another Sandra Brown novel that is quick and easy to read. Here is the plot made simple: bad boy/daredevil (Cage, who is often misunderstood and harshly judged) + good son/religious zealot/martyr (Hal, who is following in his father's footsteps to be a minister) + beautiful/orphaned/virginal woman (Jenny) + hypocritical parents + forbidden love (both brothers love the same woman) + death (good son dies) + secret (Bad boy slept with good girl pretending to be brother)+ fast car (I let that one slip) + near disaster + pregnancy = a great/entertaining story.

Jenny Fletcher begs her preacher fiance Hal to spend a night of passion with her before he leaves for a dangerous religious mission in Central America. In reality, it is his black sheep brother she makes love to. When Hal dies while in Central America, Cage sees this as his opportunity to be with the woman he has always loved, despite her parents' disapproval, particularly when Jenny gets a party favor from her night of passion with "Hal." When Jenny learns the truth about Cage's deception, will she be able to forgive him and remain with the man who instills such passion in her?

The interesting storyline was marred by really clunky and cheesy dialogue (a common early trait of Brown's writing that she has thankfully lost). The chemistry between the two characters is immense, the secondary characters well drawn, both brining the story from a dated soap opera to a pretty dramatic read.

Thank you for the book. It was shipped in a timely manner and arrived in perfect order. Thanks so much.

Remember in highschool english class when you learned about willing suspension of disbelief? Willing suspension of disbelief is the ability to set aside any common sense so that you can enjoy the book or movie without any thoughts of "that really couldn't happen". I can read a book and enjoy it, but afterwards - some things just nag at me and over time diminish my enjoyment.

I find it hard to believe lots of things about this book.
1 - that there are people in this day and age named Zebulon and Sixtus.
2 - that an accident in space would not have been reported on the news so that it is left as some unknown traumatic event in Zeb's life.
3 - that astronauts are recognizable celebrities.
4 - that 2 people as connected as Rumer and Zeb wouldn't have talked about the misunderstanding that she stood him up to have sex as teenagers, and this was the 100% ending of their relationship. (The book makes it sound like he went straight from the woods to NY to be with Zee)
5 - that Zee would be interested in having sex with someone younger than her whom she watched grow up and was obviously in love with her younger sister.

I could go on - and trust me - reading this review will not diminish your enjoyment of the book - these items are pretty quickly apparent.

Despite these things - it took me a while to get into the book - but I did read it and enjoyed it at the time (until I started analyzing it)

Not my favorite - but certainly not the worst book I've ever read.

I've enjoyed several Luanne Rice books before. I love her beach settings, and deeply moving plots and characters. I have to complain about the sloppy editing in this one though. I'm reading along a very moving scene between Rummer and Michael reconnecting and the next paragraph it's Rummer and 'Colton' talking? I'm assuming someone zoned out while transcribing and got the names mixed up, but it sure yanked me out of the story in a hurry. Hate when that happens. I have the mass market paperback. Hopefully that's been corrected in later editions.

It is a good story. It's a very simply written story. Wonderful plot, I find it a little hard to believe that two people who were so in love let themselves suffer and be seperated for so long. And a little hard to believe that Zeb would fall for the love of his life's sister without so much as a question or at least a heart to heart before the wedding. I think so much more could have been done with this story.

It is a sweet tug at your heart strings book though. Once again, one of my signature comments; a good quick weekend read. Best on a rainy weekend.

Someone gave me this book at work, and I really enjoyed it. It's a wonderful, charming love story of two people who knew each other as youngsters. It's a great beach or summertime read. I love Firefly Beach and Safe Harbour by Ms. Rice too. She wrote a true blue story with this book, and I would recommend it. I could't put this one down. LOVELY STORY.

Dance With Me is a family saga romance that ties up multiple couples by the end. It's a story of two sisters. One is fair-haired, spinsterly and dutiful, while the other one is dark-haired, moody, and took off to live in the big city. Good daughter Sylvie has left her school librarian job to care for her failing Mom. Wilder Jane returns to the small town from the big city to lend a hand. This would be enough to make a good story, but Rice also throws in a family in conflict over selling the family farm to developers, an adopted teenage daughter searching for her real mom, and the tragedy of a murdered child. All these conflicts miraculously resolve by the novel's end. Even the mother enjoys her nursing home! The book is set in rural Rhode Island, which provides a well-drawn and somewhat unusual background for the story. This is the first Luanne Rice novel I've read, so I can't compare, but it would have been a better book if it had tried to do less, and did more with that was left. Instead, it's so formulaic that you can't share the characters' joy in their happy ending, because you can see it coming from page 1. Dance With Me is weak even for a beach read.

I can't remember when I have read a more annoying book as this one. Jane is one of the most annoying characters I've come across for awhile. I couldn't even feel sympathy for her. She is 20 when she finds she's pregnant; she didn't have to give her baby up-that was her choice. She's not 15 or 16 but old enough to make choices. Then even so people do move on and in 15 years she could have married and had other children instead of the obsession she had with Chloe. The whole book is over the top dramatic with nothing realistic. Now I'm sure most women who have to give a baby up never truly forgets and probably hopes one day she can see that child but for Jane to walk into Chloe's life when she is at the most vulnerable age is unconscionable. I didn't see Chloe as so sensitive as determined to have her own way with the whole environmental issues and etc. I believe in environmental issues but Chloe is over the top ridiculous. She's too young to even understand some of the implications. She is destructive to people who do not agree with her. I was disgusted with the language the author had Chloe and her friend use even to using the F__ word. Wasn't it interesting that the adoptive parents raised her and now walks in Jane the birth mother who is ever so cool and clear through the book Chloe takes pot shots at her adopted parents as if she has the maturity to judge them. Jane had no right to intrude in Chloe's life and I was very upset when she told Chloe who she was without having talked to the adopted parents first. That was horrible! I was adopted and I knew from the time I was a little girl and I didn't spend my growing up years pining for a mother who gave me away. IT happens! I was perhaps curious but not obsessed. I found my birth family (quite accidently-I wasn't looking) after my adopted parents had passed away. It was not all the drama portrayed in this book. My adopted parents gave me my values and education and though it was nice to find my birth family and answer some questions, it will always be the parents who raised me that will be the best part of my life.

I did feel sorry for Dylan and all he had been through and perhaps Jane could have been good for him if she hadn't lied and deceived everyone. She was supposed to be there helping with her mother and instead she was always sneaking off to see her daughter and leaving her sister to handle everything. I was just disgusted with her through the entire book and of course this being a work of fiction, the author made it all come out okay. In real life it could have been and probably would have been a disaster!

I have liked some of Luanne Rice's books like The Secret Hour, Summer of Roses, and Dream Country and some have been a bit annoying but this one was so annoying from start to finish that it will take me awhile to try another of her books!

Other reviewers have accurately described Luanne Rice's Dance With Me. What hit me when I read it was the way the author presented the book in the eyes of young, middle-aged, and older people. For example, Margaret Porter, the retired school principal, and mother of Jane and Sylvie, was in the early stages of dementia of some type. Being in her head was some times confusing to the reader, and well it should be.

Then, we get into the head of a 15-year old. But not just any 15-year old. Chloe is adopted and knows it. She longs for her real mother, but loves her adopted parents dearly. At one point we, the readers, must feel the pain she goes through when she first learns she might be pregnant. This is especially hard if you are a parent of a teen yourself.

In the middle are Sylvie, Jane, and Dylan (Chloe's uncle). Sylvie, who has put her life on hold to care for her mother until her sister Jane helps her find a way to find happiness for herself. Jane, mother of Chloe, is steadfast throughout. She must have suffered throughout the years before the story begins, but now she is okay with it. It is not until the end of the book that we learn enough about Chloe's father to understand Jane.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story guided by excellent characters. It is a book you won't want to end.

As an adoptive mom i was not thrilled with this book on many levels. I was not happy with the (unfavorable)portrayal of Chloe's adoptive parents and the fact that there seemed to be no love between any of them at all. Ms.Rice obviously has not a clue about the true love and bonds formed between adoptive parents and their children. i know that this was a book only written about a particular family but i was truly disappointed with the way adoption was portrayed-for those reading about it will get the wrong impression of adoptive families in general.
I would not recommend this book at all.

I found this book very disappointing. Everything was so predictable, I didn't even have to read to the end. Jane was an extremely selfish, self-centered, 35 year old woman. She came home on the pretext of taking care of her mother, yet, that's not why she really came home. She came home to butt into the life of a daughter she gave up at birth and to get into that daughter's uncle's pants. Jane has a younger sister, who has stayed with their mother all these years, pretty much giving up a social life, and her career. Jane supposedly came home to help her, but all she did was leave the sister with more work, and even took her car whenever she wanted without asking. What a selfish character. Anyway, as stated above, the whole story was very contrived and very predictable. What a disappointment. I've read four or five other books by Luanne Rice which I enjoyed very much, but not this one.

Unemployed blogger Ali Reynolds can't say know when her friend's daughter vanishes. When the girl turns up, an apparent runaway, Ali takes it upon herself to straighten the girl out--taking away her phone, ordering her around, and threatening to leave her on the side of the road if she doesn't conform to Ali's rules--it's the kind of tough-love that Ali implicitly knows will get the girl behaving again. In the meantime, one of Ali's father's projects, a formerly homeless man, is beaten on the side of the road and the woman who once financed Ali's way through college demands that Ali drop everything and visit her--and then dumps a bombshell. Arabelle, she says, was repeatedly raped by her stepbrother. The stepbrother is dead, but now his son is blackmailing Arabelle and she wantes Ali's help.

A mysterious beating, long-ago incest, and present-day runaway teens (with child sexual issues) might seem like enough to keep Ali fully occupied, especially when the young man behind the beating decides to become a celebrity by going on a killing spree. Jance loads the story further, though. In addition, though, one of Ali's regular blog readers has been diagnosed with cancer and is angry that the doctor, who just might be in cahoots with the woman's son, is refusing to treat her.

Author J. A. Jance can be counted on to deliver a page-turning adventure and HAND OF EVIL is no exception. Jance's writing keeps the reader involved, wanting to find out what's going to happen to these people.

Unfortunately, HAND OF EVIL is also badly flawed. I found Ali's bossy and overconfident treatment of the wounded runaway Crystal, to be insensitive and offensive. Crystal is clearly hurting, obviously running from something horrible, but Ali doesn't bother taking the time to find out what. Sending her back into the environment that she fled without an understanding of why it didn't work the first time seems doomed--and none of Ali's bossing around and intimidation is really likely to result in a change. From a logic perspective, I had a hard time understanding why Arabelle contacted Ali in the first place. The supposed reason, to look for advice on writing a book, is clearly false but we were never given another. The whole Arabelle subplot felt like something glued on to give us an incest threat (and a bit more physical danger for poor Ali). Finally, am I the only one who thought the coincidence of Crystal being a witness to Kip's beating was a bit of a stretch.

Jance is a good enough writer to engage my interest, to make me keep reading in hopes that she'd finally pull things together--perhaps having Ali learn a lesson about being so sure she's right all the time. For me, though, this story didn't quite coalesce. Then there's the whole idea of being a full-time blogger. Are there really enough people in the world so lacking in their own lives that they'd pay to read Ali's?

J. A. Jance is a great writer. HAND OF EVIL is a very long way from the top of her game.

This is the second J.A. Jance novel featuring Ali Reynolds. She is an interesting character being a 40-year old Sedona resident who lives in a life of chaos. She has much going on, dealing with the loss of her job in broadcasting, deaths of her husband and a close friend, then her own brush with danger. Ali likes to try and solve murders so she is kept busy with the disappearance of her father's handy-man, the young daughter of her detective friend and a woman who has some ugly secrets to share with her. So the book never has a dull moment with Ali trying to solve all these mysteries and finding the answers she seeks.

Even though this is a fictional story, it depicts what can happen when a child is molested at a young age.

Ali Reynolds is grieving for a wandering eyed husband. The wealthy family that offered her a college scholarship wants to see her but a friend's daughter goes missing just as the meeting was requested. Ali steps in to help her friend find his daughter and gets entangled in a web of evil that is more than a quarter of a century old.

The daughter witnesses a brutal murder and is afraid to go to the police because of what she was doing at the time. Ali's parent's have a friend who has gone missing as well. Is all of this tied to the wealthy family in some way? Murder and child molestation are involved but in what way?

Karen Ziemba reads HAND OF EVIL and has a clear and easy voice to listen to. You are able to tell who is talking with her various inflections.

I had read the first 2 books in this series and I wanted to read the 3rd. I found it on Amazon at a much lower price than at the book stores. So I ordered it and I got it in a very timely manner and I would recommend to anyone who loves to read to use Amazon to get their books that are either higher priced at book stores or if they are hard to find. I have also found books on here that are not readily available in book stores. I love shopping at amazon.

I can usally get tuned in pretty early reading Jance's books, but this is not the case. Half way into it and I'm still waiting for my interest to peak.