Without A Voice

by Lauren Ritz

Contemporary with religious topics, Without a Voice has been described alternately as suspense or a Don't put yourself on the grid. No credit cards, new name, new city. Few friends, no family. Connections of any kind are a risk.Five years ago Mae left Justin in Orlando. Never again will she cower, wondering who he'll hurt next. She's done letting him punish her.Now she has real friends, people she cares about, a life worth living. After years of relative peace she's gotten complacent, relaxed her guard. Somehow, he's found her. There's nowhere you can go. Mae can no longer cling to her safe obscurity if she's going to survive.Once she could have run and been certain Justin would leave those she loved alone. But he's changed. Justin is the whisper in the dark, a shadow on the street, the phantom no one sees.You are mine. I will never stop.

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2013

About the author

Lauren Ritz was born in Utah and continues to reside there, somewhat to the chagrin of those who know her well. She is commonly known as a walking insane asylum (just ask her) and a compulsive gardener.

She began writing at the age of six with a “journal entry” about aliens flying through her bedroom window and landing on her wall.  She tried to start earlier, but was handicapped by the fact that she couldn’t draw well enough.

She lives in Utah with the aforementioned bats, a cat named Darth Vader and too many books to count. She is a wannabe herbalist, but the herbs stay outside for the most part. Most of her plants are domesticated varieties and housebroken.

No, she does not talk to the plants, but they talk to her. Luckily she's hard of listening.

Writing is her love and her lifelong obsession, taking up the majority of her time when she isn’t involved in other less compelling interests. 

Reviews

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for a good thriller, so I was excited to have the chance to read this book. It started out with a bang and had me thinking about it whenever I had to put it down and do something else—like feed my kids lunch—and I couldn't wait to get back to it.

It was great! Justin was the perfect bad guy who makes your skin crawl. From the first moment you meet him, you want Mae to run away as fast as she can. Mae was one tough girl who had learned to stick up for herself and after starting a new life to get away from Justin, she starts forgetting to be careful.

Keli, Mae's best friend, owns a bookstore that I would have just loved to browse through. She's a great friend to Mae and is always watching out for her.

Lauren brought in a twist with adding religion that I wasn't expecting but I like how she did it. There are times when adding it can fall a little flat but she did a fantastic job. This is a great book for those that love thrillers.

[Lauren Ritz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course every author loves their book. If someone posts something here and isn't entirely convinced that it's the best it can be, they probably should have waited.

Without A Voice is a story that's been a long time coming. I started it in about 2006, and I've been working on it off and on ever since. At the time (silly me) I imagined a young woman's journey toward finding a religion. It turned out to be about finding herself once she got hold of the story and started guiding it.

Mae isn't perfect. She's made mistakes, some very serious, with far-ranging consequences. As she's starting to recover and learn how to trust again, her past catches up with her.

We can't choose the consequences of our actions--good or bad. What we can do is choose how those things are going to affect us.

Mae is moving, slowly, toward being able to rely on others. And most importantly, to rely on the one person who will always be there when we have no one else.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do.

Lauren

[Donna Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The has a definite LDS flavor, so that might be a draw or not, depending upon your preferences. The writing is excellent, and the characters were very likable--or hateable.

It's short, a novella, but lately I'm really liking that. In this case, though, I would have liked to have seen a bit more development in some of the characters:
* Psycho boyfriend--I wanted more about him so I could be as frightened as Mae was.
* Keli--has some pretty powerful emotions about an issue in the story (no spoilers here). I wanted to know more about what had caused those, what her deep-down motivation was for a pretty heartless thing she did.
* The resolution at the end. It happened so fast, I missed it and had to go back and read it again. That's what I get for trying to finish the story before the plane landed. lol

So I wanted more. I look forward to reading more from Ritz.

[Jacquelyn Wallenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. If you know anyone that has or had a troubled childhood and is seeking something to find peace, this book might be the one. The author tells about a young lady that finds through her friend that religion is helping cope with the problems of her past.