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Flower Girl
What happens when a scientist with top secret clearance and a rogue CIA agent join forces, and he happens to be her father?
As a kidnapped orphan she hires out as a flower girl on Cheju-do Island, Korea the honeymoon capital of Asia. At 12 she is rescued from being sold as a child bride. Her rescuer is a rogue CIA Agent, who happens to be her father, who returns her to the USA to get an education. At 26 she is a scientist and linguist with a top secret clearance working for a government contractor when her rogue agent father suggests that they start a family business as assassins for hire. An unexpected turn of events on an assignment sends them back to Cheju-do where she is faced with the difficult choice of service to family and community or revenge.
"To start a family business you first need a family." Hunt (circa 1990)
A novel of mystery, adventure, and discovery, with a touch of whimsy, where past meets present as an atypical family comes together and learns about themselves while learning to trust each other as they start up an unusual and dangerous family business.
As a kidnapped orphan she hires out as a flower girl on Cheju-do Island, Korea the honeymoon capital of Asia. At 12 she is rescued from being sold as a child bride. Her rescuer is a rogue CIA Agent, who happens to be her father, who returns her to the USA to get an education. At 26 she is a scientist and linguist with a top secret clearance working for a government contractor when her rogue agent father suggests that they start a family business as assassins for hire. An unexpected turn of events on an assignment sends them back to Cheju-do where she is faced with the difficult choice of service to family and community or revenge.
"To start a family business you first need a family." Hunt (circa 1990)
A novel of mystery, adventure, and discovery, with a touch of whimsy, where past meets present as an atypical family comes together and learns about themselves while learning to trust each other as they start up an unusual and dangerous family business.
- GenresMystery
298 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 8, 2015
Interesting read for those who enjoy learning about ancient history and different cultures. The characters are lovable and very intelligent, which is always a plus in my book *pun intended*. I'm still not sure how I feel about the author putting himself into the book. It's funny, I guess. I think the few things I wasn't crazy about is the fact that it seemed a bit longer than it needed to be, and that the author would point out facts that I thought were already established in the book. I assume the author wanted to remind the reader, but instead I felt it was repetitive. Enjoyable read for folks who are interested in Korean history and crime books.I got this book through First Reads on Goodreads.
August 8, 2016
Flower Girl, a name that does not inspire thoughts of action but this is a brilliantly written book mingling family and friends, wilderness, Korean history, spying, sniper, pilot and savior of enslaved children, stolen at birth and raised to the ripe old age of twelve to be some rich person’s child wife. An off the reservation CIA operative seeks to bring his far flung family together. As a trained sniper he imparts his skill to his daughters, one of many skills he teaches them. Along the way he invents a device designed to aid in the sniper’s success and puts it to use to eliminate some of the evil in the world. With a colorful cast of characters, the story combines so many events and so much action I can only hope for a follow on.
May 24, 2015
This is an outstanding book on several levels. It is informative about the country of Korea and its history without becoming boring. It is a wake-up call about the ongoing problem of child slavery and child brides being sold without becoming preachy. But most of all it is a great story about an extended group of people and their unusual business, assassination. It is a great read, and I will be looking forward to more adventures of the Burton family.
June 23, 2015
Amazing read! It's not often you find a book with such depth. Child Bride flows easily between seventh-century Korean queens and modern day child-bride sellers. In league with her ex-CIA agent father, main character Shannon Burton builds a family dedicated to freeing stolen children. Every detail is painstakingly accurate, from the top-of-the-line special ops bush plane to way sniper rifles really operate. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and gained new information along the way.
May 12, 2015
This overall was a good book. The story was enjoyable my only negative comment is that it took a while for me to catch on to the authors writing style in the beginning. So for others who might want to read this book just stick with it through about the first 65 or so pages because the story starts to get going there.
April 19, 2016
Flower Girl
This book is exceptionally well-written and takes one on a complicated, interwoven wild ride of events. Reddy’s past as a CIA operative influences the lives of his daughters and associates by teaching them how to survive in his world. You will enjoy touring the beautiful countryside of Korea through the main characters’ eyes.
This book is exceptionally well-written and takes one on a complicated, interwoven wild ride of events. Reddy’s past as a CIA operative influences the lives of his daughters and associates by teaching them how to survive in his world. You will enjoy touring the beautiful countryside of Korea through the main characters’ eyes.
November 1, 2023
Flower Girl A Burton Family Mystery by David Marshall Hunt
205 Pages
Publisher: David Marshall Hunt, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles
Release Date: March 5, 2014
Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, Child Brides, Assassins
Carrie Lee believed she was an orphan. She has lived in an orphanage all her life. At twelve years old, there is a break in and she is taken. The man, Reddy, turned out to be her biological father. He tells her what happened to her mother and her birth name, Shannon Lee Burton. He provides for her financially but is mostly an absent father.
As an adult, she finds he was an operative of the CIA. Actually, he is a high paid sniper. She begins training with him and together they begin rescuing the girls from the orphanage. They were being sold as child brides.
The book has a steady pace, somewhat developed characters, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The information on Korean culture was interesting.
205 Pages
Publisher: David Marshall Hunt, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members’ Titles
Release Date: March 5, 2014
Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, Child Brides, Assassins
Carrie Lee believed she was an orphan. She has lived in an orphanage all her life. At twelve years old, there is a break in and she is taken. The man, Reddy, turned out to be her biological father. He tells her what happened to her mother and her birth name, Shannon Lee Burton. He provides for her financially but is mostly an absent father.
As an adult, she finds he was an operative of the CIA. Actually, he is a high paid sniper. She begins training with him and together they begin rescuing the girls from the orphanage. They were being sold as child brides.
The book has a steady pace, somewhat developed characters, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The information on Korean culture was interesting.
September 26, 2018
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway in return for an honest review. Save your time. This book never saw an editor - spelling, unintelligible context, grammar, etc. The first sentence (I am not kidding you) begins talking about a "doctor (medical) at the age of four." And the rest of the book makes as much sense as the first sentence. I was so disappointed because I know Korea and was expecting more. The author does not know much about Korea or its language - he writes about "Chedu-do Island" when "do" in Korean clearly means Island. So he writes about "Chedu Island Island." It does not get any better - multiple people, enough to confuse you, who is the parent, the friend, whoever? This is just a mish-mash of words. I urge the writer to hire an editor.
September 13, 2024
I truly enjoyed this book. The historical fiction was so good. I was fooled almost to the end. The players in the ring of child virgins and no one was immune to the rise of power in the bad person. So much of this book was good, but I must remain vague in order to not give anything away. It was a great suspense and a wonderful network of friends. Book provided by NetGalley.
May 18, 2017
This book was incredibly slow and could not get into it.
September 29, 2016
She had been Carrie Lee and now she was Shannon Lee Burton and she was twenty six. Shannon’s best friend and colleague was Angie. The man in black had rescued Shannon from the orphanage that Shannon had been at since she was four and had been being raised to be a child bride. Shannon had been twelve when she was rescued but the man in black put her in Bush School for Girls when she had run away from the foster home he had put her in and she had been twelve. The man in black said he was Reddy Burton and he was her father when he had rescued her. Shannon had met Angie at the school and they had become best friends and combated the other girls teasing them. Reddy showed up at Shannon’s graduation from U C Berkley. Shannon’s graduation gift was a down payment for a house but he was to build a workshop in the basement of the home. Angie also came to live with Shannon. Then the CIA came to visit Shannon to do an intelligence job to find Reddy who had been an agent and came up missing. Then Reddy and Shannon go to a cabin of his friends for the summer to bond. Reddy also wants to bring his daughter together and teach them and his associates to survive in his world.
I love this story. I didn’t know much about child brides I vaguely knew they existed but more in the Morman thing with Warren Jeffs I believe his name was. But i did absorb the information given to me and on Korea which I didn’t know anything about. This story sucked me in from the start and kept me there until the last page of it. I loved this story though some of it was sad as with the child brides. I loved the ins and outs of this story. I was happy Shannon had someone as she grew which was Angie since she really basically didn’t have any family her father dropping in every now and then but other then that no one. I loved the ins and outs of this story and I highly recommend.
I received an ARC of this story for an honest review.
I love this story. I didn’t know much about child brides I vaguely knew they existed but more in the Morman thing with Warren Jeffs I believe his name was. But i did absorb the information given to me and on Korea which I didn’t know anything about. This story sucked me in from the start and kept me there until the last page of it. I loved this story though some of it was sad as with the child brides. I loved the ins and outs of this story. I was happy Shannon had someone as she grew which was Angie since she really basically didn’t have any family her father dropping in every now and then but other then that no one. I loved the ins and outs of this story and I highly recommend.
I received an ARC of this story for an honest review.
April 15, 2015
Not my favorite. Though I did enjoy the book, there were many parts that seemed to have been drawn out. Also, it's probably just me, but everyone (charcters) just seemed super intelligent. I felt .. well .. maybe I'm not the intended reader, only people w/doctorates should be reading it. Every charcacter spoke multiple languages and had an immense amount of skills, it took me a longer bit of time to read b/c lack of interesting characters (again that's just me - I don't like it when *they* all appear to be flawless beings w/emotional issues.)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews