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Lost & Scared
When their younger twin siblings were murdered by their cold-blooded father, Shane and Keri’s own twin connection deepened. Their father shamed Shane and Keri into silence, and then went on to bring four more children into a house shuddering under the weight of his unpredictable temper.
Ten years later, what should have been a regular visitation turns into a horrific nightmare. Trapped in the Superstition Mountains with an addicted and dangerous father, Keri’s faith and determination wavers, but she knows she must save her brothers and sisters and return all of them to the home they love.
She now faces one insurmountable obstacle. He can’t afford to let her go.
Ten years later, what should have been a regular visitation turns into a horrific nightmare. Trapped in the Superstition Mountains with an addicted and dangerous father, Keri’s faith and determination wavers, but she knows she must save her brothers and sisters and return all of them to the home they love.
She now faces one insurmountable obstacle. He can’t afford to let her go.
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 23, 2015
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
K.C. Sprayberry
169 books168 followersA lifetime of observing people around her has given K.C. Sprayberry many insights into the human condition. Now that she's in her retirement years, she takes those experiences and turns them into stories that have attracted many.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 15, 2020
Keri and Shane are fraternal twins and they have a powerful bond which only twins can have.
With an abusive father who claims to have killed Keri, it is clear that Shane can stop looking for his sister.
But the twins do not give up and whether they are able to fight the odds against them and get back to each other, forms the story.
Gritty story and definitely heart wrenching.
With an abusive father who claims to have killed Keri, it is clear that Shane can stop looking for his sister.
But the twins do not give up and whether they are able to fight the odds against them and get back to each other, forms the story.
Gritty story and definitely heart wrenching.
September 2, 2015
Stories like Lost & Scared are not exactly my cup of tea. I am going to give it a 5 on 5.
What does the above line mean? Too often I find reviewers voice their opinion on how they feel about a product or service rather than its contextual merit. But isn’t that what a genuine review supposed to be like? No, sir. The problem here is with a linguistic limitation that leads to our routine miscommunications – paucity of words. While yes, a review is supposed to express one’s feeling, the circumstance and context of that feeling is equally crucial and must be monitored/considered. For instance, when you have a nasty cold and can barely smell or taste even the best of delicacies, is it fair to say that the problem lies with that dish? Or when your cab driver has given you hell en route to a hotel, is it just that you treat the check-in experience as faulty? Too often - and I have experienced this first hand in a professional context - that is the case. Unreasonable? Yes.
While writing reviews, I try to adhere to one humble objective: to dig out the author’s intention and analyze his/her approach to it without personality bias. The story itself follows next. My agreement to the concept is a trivial opinion that comes right in the end. Reading Lost & Scared, I was faced with an issue that is quite simply alien to me. The crime of parental abduction is quite unheard of on the other side of the planet, but given that over 200000 families experience these annually in the US makes it no less significant. That is nearly 550 cases per day, 1 every 3 minutes!
Ms. Sprayberry centers her story on a family comprising an abusive, escapist father, a victimized mother and her children. She puts us right in the thick of tragedy through her storytelling as the chapters move along in 1st person – alternated between Shane & Keri – twins who suffer the brunt of evil ongoings. It is an excellence idea of to showcase the domestic ills from the point of view of children – the biggest sufferers. The twins bear a psychic connection where one can feel the other’s turmoil/joy, thereby giving us a more holistic view. The author goes a step further to as she adapts the tone and language based on her characters, keeping them realistically contemporary with the use of both slang and sober mannerisms.
The narrative highlights strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. The wailing of a child or painful weeping of her mother renders us feeling helpless on one hand. On the other, we have a young captive who, three months into captivity, remains undeterred in spirit and smiles at her kidnappers’ reactions. The idea here is not so much to gift us twists. It is to cruise us through a problem that we must lend an ear to. To temporarily abandon meaningless fantasies for an urgent need takes responsibility and defiance. K. C. Sprayberry handles it well. The interest each succeeding chapter generates in us readers is simply a bonus.
The author acknowledges that the aftereffects of such abductions are beyond measure. She also dedicates this book to their victims in lieu of the pain and the lives they lead thereafter. It is an intention so pure that a quantitative judgement of her book’s entertainment quotient just feels wrong. As it should. It is due to this book that I am now aware of a social crisis beyond just the numbers. And that is its objective. So while we continue to witness an age of calculated, left-brained fascinations, let us step back to credit a beautiful endeavor that is simple and caring. In the words of one of K. C. Sprayberry’s characters, at times all we want is that – normal.
What does the above line mean? Too often I find reviewers voice their opinion on how they feel about a product or service rather than its contextual merit. But isn’t that what a genuine review supposed to be like? No, sir. The problem here is with a linguistic limitation that leads to our routine miscommunications – paucity of words. While yes, a review is supposed to express one’s feeling, the circumstance and context of that feeling is equally crucial and must be monitored/considered. For instance, when you have a nasty cold and can barely smell or taste even the best of delicacies, is it fair to say that the problem lies with that dish? Or when your cab driver has given you hell en route to a hotel, is it just that you treat the check-in experience as faulty? Too often - and I have experienced this first hand in a professional context - that is the case. Unreasonable? Yes.
While writing reviews, I try to adhere to one humble objective: to dig out the author’s intention and analyze his/her approach to it without personality bias. The story itself follows next. My agreement to the concept is a trivial opinion that comes right in the end. Reading Lost & Scared, I was faced with an issue that is quite simply alien to me. The crime of parental abduction is quite unheard of on the other side of the planet, but given that over 200000 families experience these annually in the US makes it no less significant. That is nearly 550 cases per day, 1 every 3 minutes!
Ms. Sprayberry centers her story on a family comprising an abusive, escapist father, a victimized mother and her children. She puts us right in the thick of tragedy through her storytelling as the chapters move along in 1st person – alternated between Shane & Keri – twins who suffer the brunt of evil ongoings. It is an excellence idea of to showcase the domestic ills from the point of view of children – the biggest sufferers. The twins bear a psychic connection where one can feel the other’s turmoil/joy, thereby giving us a more holistic view. The author goes a step further to as she adapts the tone and language based on her characters, keeping them realistically contemporary with the use of both slang and sober mannerisms.
The narrative highlights strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. The wailing of a child or painful weeping of her mother renders us feeling helpless on one hand. On the other, we have a young captive who, three months into captivity, remains undeterred in spirit and smiles at her kidnappers’ reactions. The idea here is not so much to gift us twists. It is to cruise us through a problem that we must lend an ear to. To temporarily abandon meaningless fantasies for an urgent need takes responsibility and defiance. K. C. Sprayberry handles it well. The interest each succeeding chapter generates in us readers is simply a bonus.
The author acknowledges that the aftereffects of such abductions are beyond measure. She also dedicates this book to their victims in lieu of the pain and the lives they lead thereafter. It is an intention so pure that a quantitative judgement of her book’s entertainment quotient just feels wrong. As it should. It is due to this book that I am now aware of a social crisis beyond just the numbers. And that is its objective. So while we continue to witness an age of calculated, left-brained fascinations, let us step back to credit a beautiful endeavor that is simple and caring. In the words of one of K. C. Sprayberry’s characters, at times all we want is that – normal.
July 20, 2015
Lost & Scared
K.C Sprayberry is a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Some of her short stories have appeared in anthologies, others in magazines. Softly Say Goodbye, Take Chances, Lost & Scared, Inits, Where U @, Canoples Investigations Tackles Space Pirates, Canoples Investigations Versus Spacers Rule, Paradox Lost: Their Path, The Curse of Grungy Gulley, Evil Eyes, The Wrong One, and Softly Say Goodbye are international best sellers. Who Am I? (a YA novella) is another international best seller.
Readers will come across an interesting story and beautiful characters. The author focused on emotions and managed to describe the difficulties and the feelings of a family who suffered in many ways successfully. The story didn’t lack of anger, disappointment, and horror, and love (teenagers discovering the first leaps of love). Agony and compassion will accompany those who will read this book. I’m glad I had the chance to read it. I think Lost & Scared would be a great movie.
Shane, Keri and the rest members of their family are the heroes of our difficult times. Although they knew the real meaning of love and kept doing their best to forgive their father while ignoring his sins, their dad never respected the shape of their hearts and loved betraying their trust and souls.
Cover: Simple and Beautiful.
Readability: Clear, descriptive, direct writing and rich vocabulary. Readers will love the author’s writing style.
Messages: Never give up, things will get better.
Originality: *****
In ten years: I will never forget Lost & Scared.
K.C Sprayberry is a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Some of her short stories have appeared in anthologies, others in magazines. Softly Say Goodbye, Take Chances, Lost & Scared, Inits, Where U @, Canoples Investigations Tackles Space Pirates, Canoples Investigations Versus Spacers Rule, Paradox Lost: Their Path, The Curse of Grungy Gulley, Evil Eyes, The Wrong One, and Softly Say Goodbye are international best sellers. Who Am I? (a YA novella) is another international best seller.
Readers will come across an interesting story and beautiful characters. The author focused on emotions and managed to describe the difficulties and the feelings of a family who suffered in many ways successfully. The story didn’t lack of anger, disappointment, and horror, and love (teenagers discovering the first leaps of love). Agony and compassion will accompany those who will read this book. I’m glad I had the chance to read it. I think Lost & Scared would be a great movie.
Shane, Keri and the rest members of their family are the heroes of our difficult times. Although they knew the real meaning of love and kept doing their best to forgive their father while ignoring his sins, their dad never respected the shape of their hearts and loved betraying their trust and souls.
Cover: Simple and Beautiful.
Readability: Clear, descriptive, direct writing and rich vocabulary. Readers will love the author’s writing style.
Messages: Never give up, things will get better.
Originality: *****
In ten years: I will never forget Lost & Scared.
February 25, 2015
***Since this is an ARC I cannot speak of any errors I may have or may n not have found***
Lost & Scared follows a set of twins, Keri and Shane, who live through the most terrifying situation a family can ever go through.
This book is a fictional account of what it's like for a child to be kidnapped from their custodial parent. Told from Shane and Keri's point of views, the story takes the reader not just through the spirals that the family left behind go through, but the horrors the kidnapped children do as well.
The reader is definitely advised to have tissues at hand. Parts of this book made me tear up more than once while reading. It is also advised not to read this book if you can't handle real scenarios even if they are fiction. This story could be any missing child report, any Amber Alert. I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone who has or who currently is going through a missing child situation to read this. I would, however, recommend anyone who likes Psychological Thrillers to read this.
The characters are realistic and believable. They are each well developed and unique. The emotions areraw and in the reader's face. There is no escaping the anger, sorrow, and joy; each emotion hits the reader full force.
I have been a fan of Ms. Sprayberry's for a very long time, and every time I think I've read my favorite by her, she surprises me with something even better. This book will not disappoint.
I give this book 5 of 5 paws
Lost & Scared follows a set of twins, Keri and Shane, who live through the most terrifying situation a family can ever go through.
This book is a fictional account of what it's like for a child to be kidnapped from their custodial parent. Told from Shane and Keri's point of views, the story takes the reader not just through the spirals that the family left behind go through, but the horrors the kidnapped children do as well.
The reader is definitely advised to have tissues at hand. Parts of this book made me tear up more than once while reading. It is also advised not to read this book if you can't handle real scenarios even if they are fiction. This story could be any missing child report, any Amber Alert. I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone who has or who currently is going through a missing child situation to read this. I would, however, recommend anyone who likes Psychological Thrillers to read this.
The characters are realistic and believable. They are each well developed and unique. The emotions areraw and in the reader's face. There is no escaping the anger, sorrow, and joy; each emotion hits the reader full force.
I have been a fan of Ms. Sprayberry's for a very long time, and every time I think I've read my favorite by her, she surprises me with something even better. This book will not disappoint.
I give this book 5 of 5 paws
February 26, 2015
I got this book as an ARC, and dove right in to it. Lost & Scared is an amazing book that leaves on the edge of your seat and breathless. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down.
The story centers around twins Keri and Shane who help their mother care for their four younger siblings after their father inexplicably disappears. It switches points of view between the twins and you learn all the trauma and tragedy surrounding their family. Between the death of younger siblings many years before to the abuse suffered at the hands of their father, your immediately drawn in to the story. Ultimately, the kidnapping of Keri and three of her younger siblings leaves you in suspense. But ultimately the twin bond wins out and the family's reunited at last.
This book is definately worth a reread, several of them. you can actually feel the love and bond between the family. Admittedly, I did cry several times reading this book, it was really that good!
The story centers around twins Keri and Shane who help their mother care for their four younger siblings after their father inexplicably disappears. It switches points of view between the twins and you learn all the trauma and tragedy surrounding their family. Between the death of younger siblings many years before to the abuse suffered at the hands of their father, your immediately drawn in to the story. Ultimately, the kidnapping of Keri and three of her younger siblings leaves you in suspense. But ultimately the twin bond wins out and the family's reunited at last.
This book is definately worth a reread, several of them. you can actually feel the love and bond between the family. Admittedly, I did cry several times reading this book, it was really that good!
July 17, 2015
This is an emotional story that brings home a very important point, no matter how horrific, about the fate of kidnapped children. Moreover we see extremely well developed characters in the children themselves, something I'm having a hard time seeing out there, but in this story the author takes her time to depict for the reader the internal and external emotional impact this terrible situation has on them, and their courageous behavior when dealing not only with the kidnapping, but a mentally unstable parent.
The story tags at the reader's heartstrings, and yes, it is difficult to read in certain parts, especially for parents, but we must remember the situations shown here are real, they do happen. The author shows us the kids’ courage to fight, and for me, that made this book an emotional, must-read.
I recommend this book to all readers -- the emotional element here is top-drawer. A worthwhile read.
The story tags at the reader's heartstrings, and yes, it is difficult to read in certain parts, especially for parents, but we must remember the situations shown here are real, they do happen. The author shows us the kids’ courage to fight, and for me, that made this book an emotional, must-read.
I recommend this book to all readers -- the emotional element here is top-drawer. A worthwhile read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews