Access Denied

by Jacqueline Roth

Access Denied Jacqueline Roth In Sanctuary the Committee controls everything, food, healthcare, housing, information and even love. The Committee's life guides match the single residents for three-month compatibility assignments. Everyone gets ten changes to find true love or at least an acceptable partnership. There is something special about Leah Bradley. She has the unique ability to reach out and really connect with the people in her life, but if she's so special why is she facing her seventh assignment? From the moment she meets James he makes it clear he grants no one access to his life or, especially, his heart. Brooding and sad, he carries a darkness inside him that swallows another part of him every day. What's worse, he seems to want it this way. Leah slowly loses her hope and her heart. But just when James begins to see Leah the way she truly is, he's forced to ask himself one Does the Committee really have happily-ever-after in mind?

Genres: Romance

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 11, 2007

About the author

Jacqueline Roth is by passion and profession a teacher of writing, reading and literature to middle school students. A writer since childhood, she has had essays appear in niche publications and spent time as a freelance writer doing book reviews and author interviews. Fantasy is a weakness she embraces and she confesses to a fascination with Were-creatures, Arthurian legend, Greek/Roman/Celtic mythos, and Gothic literature. Both currently resides in Atlanta, GA, where she finds the human component of her family seriously outnumbered by canine and avian members.

Reviews

[Julia ♥Duncan♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unusual little post apocalyptic book. It is set a few years after an asteroid has hit earth. A community was constructed underground before the asteroid hit and there was a lottery to determine who went to the community. People were allowed to bring spouses and children but everyone else left outside died when the asteroid hit. This underground community, called Sanctuary, is run by a Committee that controls every aspect of the residents' lives - even assigning them in matches to find life partners. At the beginning of the book the heroine, Leah, has just been rejected by her sixth match.

For the most part I really liked this book. The setting was very convincing and the details were well thought out. The romance was also paced pretty well and developed naturally through the book. Just enough details about the suspicious nature of the Committee were sprinkled in to keep you guessing as the book progressed.

James and Leah were both very likeable characters. They were very real feeling, and aside from Leah's empathy, seemed very average and easy to relate to. It was easy to imagine them and their circle of friends. I really liked that so much of the book was so realistic. I didn't particularly like one of the reveals at the end though because I thought it took away from the realism. I didn't like the explanation for Leah's empathy. I thought it was a little far out there and it was not something I saw coming at all. I didn't even think it really needed any sort of explanation - it is a futuristic book, I could easily believe that some people have changed enough to have these abilities. It didn't need a fantasy-based explanation.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was definitely worth the time to read.

[Kalyee · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a great little suprise!

I read the blurb for this and was intrigued, but really wasn't expecting too much. I was so wrong! Take away the futuristic setting and the fantasy elements and this is really a simple but powerful story.

Leah is a wonderful, strong ,generally happy person. She has loyal friends and a fulfilling career. However, her deepest desire is to be loved, and to build a family. Sadly, as wonderful and special as Leah is, no man wants to keep her. She is short, and fat and while the author doesn't spend a lot of time on her face, the word homely is used to describe her. The book opens with Leah preparing for her 7th attempt at pairing. The bulk of the story is the relationship between James and Leah. How they move past old pains, resentments and fear into something neither of them ever expected.

There are some really powerful moments in this book. I was teary eyed several times. I wanted to punch James and rail at all of Leah's male friends, who so easily took what she offered while placing her firmly on the "friend/sister/mother" shelf, never really seeing how their rejection wounded her.

The one thing I think that deters this from a higher rating is that the author was never firmly in any real category. There is not enough scifi here to satisfy most of those readers, and scifi is not a genre you can just dip your toes in. There is also an unexpected dash of fantasy, which I didn't mind, but I also didn't find necessary. I enjoyed it, but I like romance/scifi/fantasy/post apocalypse books(not that I've ever read a book that was all of those before), but if the author had maybe tried to pair it down to just two, it would have flowed better and appealed to a broader crowd.

[rm2h · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story takes place some place where humans have to escape Earth in the future. I did not get if they left Earth its self by going underground or if they went to another planet. Only a select few were allowed to join this colony and the rest of Earth died. It is a sad story about a woman overlooked due to her looks by those who could be her mate - she is on her 7th assignment when she is sent again to someone who discounts her looks. What follows shows how to look deeply behind looks, attitude and get to know someone on a new level. He had his own trust issues with circumstances related to his past. I felt that a part of the story at the end was not necessary and took away from the emotional pull of the book affecting for me the HEA. Overall it was a good book.

[~Sara~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't particularly care for any of the characters and didn't feel the emotion between them. I'm not even sure how I made it to the end - I actually stopped reading about 10 pages from the end and just went back and finished it now, weeks later. I don't think I've ever done that before.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid romance with dystopian elements.