#1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels’ new novel is a deeply satisfying and uplifting story of one woman’s journey from heartbreak to triumph.
Tessa Jamison couldn’t have imagined anything worse than losing her beloved twin girls and husband—until she was convicted of their murder. For ten years, she has counted off the days in Florida’s Correctional Center for Women, fully expecting to die behind bars. Fighting to prove her innocence holds little appeal now that her family’s gone. But on one extraordinary day, her lawyers announce that Tessa’s conviction has been overturned due to a technicality, and she’s released on bail to await a new trial.
Hounded by the press, Tessa retreats to the small tropical island owned by her late husband’s pharmaceutical company. There, she begins to gather knowledge about her case. For the first time since her nightmare began, Tessa feels a sense of purpose in working to finally expose the truth and avenge her lost family.
One by one, the guilty will be led to justice, and Tessa can gain closure. But will she be able to learn the whole truth at last . . . and reclaim her freedom and her future?
Fern Michaels isn’t a person. I’m not sure she’s an entity either since an entity is something with separate existence. Fern Michaels® is what I DO. Me, Mary Ruth Kuczkir. Growing up in Hastings, Pennsylvania, I was called Ruth. I became Mary when I entered the business world where first names were the order of the day. To this day, family and friends call me Dink, a name my father gave me when I was born because according to him I was ‘a dinky little thing’ weighing in at four and a half pounds. However, I answer to Fern since people are more comfortable with a name they can pronounce.
As they say, the past is prologue. I grew up, got a job, got married, had five kids. When my youngest went off to Kindergarten, my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother. I was also a voracious reader having cut my teeth on The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and the like. The library was a magical place for me. It still is to this day. Rather than face the outside world with no skills, I decided to write a book. For some reason that didn’t intimidate me. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more. Guess what else! I wrote 99 books, most of them New York Times Best Sellers.
Moving right along here . . . Several years ago I left Ballantine Books, parted company with my agent, sold my house in New Jersey that I had lived in all my married life and in 1993 moved to South Carolina. I figured if I was going to go through trauma let it be all at one time. It was a breeze. The kids were all on their own at that point. The dump was a 300 year old plantation house that is listed in the National Registry that I remodeled. Today it is beyond belief as are the gardens and the equally old Angel Oaks that drip Spanish moss. Unfortunately, I could not get my ghost to relocate. This ghost has been documented by previous owners. Mary Margaret as we call her, is “a friendly”. She is also mischievous. It took me two weeks to figure out that she didn’t like my coffee cups. They would slide off the table or counter or else they’d break in the dishwasher. I bought red checkered ones. All are intact as of this writing. She moves pillows from one room to the other and she stops all the clocks in the house at 9:10 in the a.m. at least once a week. When the Azaleas are in bloom, and only then, I find blooms on my night stand. I have this glorious front porch and during the warm months I see my swing moving early in the morning when the air is still and again late in the day. She doesn’t spook the dogs. I always know when she’s around because the five of them line up and look like they’re at a tennis match. As of this writing we’re co-habiting nicely.
Most writers love what they do and I’m no exception. I love it when I get a germ of an idea and get it down on paper. I love breathing life into my characters. I love writing about women who persevere and prevail because that’s what I had to do to get to this point in time. It’s another way of saying it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what matters is where you’re going and how you get there. The day I finally prevailed was the day I was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. For me it was an awesome day and there are no words to describe it. I’ve been telling stories and scribbling for 37 years. I hope I can continue for another 37 years. It wasn’t easy during some of those years. As I said, I had to persevere. My old Polish grandmother said something to me when I was little that I never forgot. She said when God is good to you, you have to give back. For a while I didn’t know how to do that. When I finally figured it out I set up The Fern Michaels® Foundation.
This was an easy read and it was interesting. It just was’t believable.
The ending was just rushed and weird. I felt like this book had promise and if it had been written better and more believable, it would have been much better. The trial being 2 weeks after the murder? The wife not knowing her husband’s mothers name? All of a sudden the husband she was with for a very long time has some multiple personality disorder she didn’t know about? A twin she didn’t know about? There was just a lot of stuff that didn’t work or would have needed more detailed explanations for it to make sense and work.
I know Fern Michaels intended audience is women, but really this book is totally improbable. I hate books that insult my intelligence or asks me to leave my brain on the coffee table as I read. Please, the whole premise of is implausible. When was the last time you heard of person (male or female) in the United States being convicted of triple murder within two months of the crime? Let alone a beautiful, wealthy woman? I love mysteries and am totally baffled about the rave reviews for this novel. I was a little ashamed of myself for spending the time when there are so much better mystery writers. I checked my reading list and noticed that many, many years ago I read a few Michaels books, and after reading this book it reminded me why it had been so many years.
The set up for this book is compelling: a woman is tried and convicted for the murder of her husband and twin daughters. She spends ten years in prison until a legal advocacy team finds a way to request a retrial. She is freed and returns to her home...the scene of the crime. Then the story unravels with illogical scene after illogical scene. Not as precise and compelling as her other books.
It's been a while since I have read anything from this author and the summary sounded interesting so I thought, "Why not?" Actually, now that I think about it, there was probably a reason for that.
It was EXTREMELY difficult to finish this story. The main protagonist was irritating. So irritating, exasperating, frustrating, annoying....hmmmm, getting the gist? It got to the point that I just wanted to tell her to "shut up". For a character that should have naturally garnered sympathy, actually a tremendous amount of sympathy, due to the circumstances of the plot - it was actually quite a feat to make that character so unappealing to the reader that you honestly couldn't care less about her. That is truly talent.
This character (Tessa) was beyond unbelievable. Not only was she unlikable, but she gave the reader no reason to even WANT to care about her. Her actions and her behavior were difficult to read/listen to, and not at all realistic. Or, I guess a better way to describe her actions would be maddening. Instead of a mother who honestly wants justice - and someone who honestly didn't know what occurred to her family - she seems to do everything in her power to prevent the truth from coming out. From having preconceived ideas that cloud her judgment (and that would have been okay as long as she took the time to just listen as evidence was coming out) to yelling at witnesses and screaming at witnesses, saying that they are lying. Then, interrupting the output of crucial information by having irrational outbursts that are really just extremely annoying - all of these actions would have been okay and even somewhat justified if she was even just a BIT likable.
Honestly, her behavior was so difficult that it just took me out of the story. It became more of a nuisance that everything else was just background. Who was the killer? Oh yeah, was this a mystery? All I know is that I'm glad it is over.
Tessa Jamison is released after 10 years in prison for murdering her husband and twin daughters due to a witness coming forward with new evidence. The story takes place over the 3 day period surrounding her release. Pending a new trial, Tessa and the CEO of her company go through personal possessions and try to find new forensic evidence to help prove her innocence.
On the positive side, I was engaged in the story and read it in one sitting. I felt great sympathy for Tessa at first, until she continued to yell and scream at people who were trying to help her. I understand she was angry. I had some unanswered questions that came up near the end: Why didn't Liz answer her phone or call when she promised to? Why did the girls incriminate Liam? Who was calling when Tessa was unable to answer the phone? Who called the police? I guess I like for loose ends to be tied up and just a couple of paragraphs probably could have worked. Throughout the book, the author gives a dozen clues for readers to figure out what really happened before the climactic ending.
This one started out okay and then just fell completely and totally apart. Brief synopsis: Tessa Jamison is convicted of the triple murder of her husband and twin daughters. Ten years later, the conviction is overturned based on a technicality and she is released while waiting for a new trial. She and Sam, the CEO of the company Tessa and her husband owned, begin to discover more about the mysterious deaths of her family.
It sounds interesting, right? It would be if it had been executed well. First off, this takes place in 2021. The murders, therefore, happen in 2011. The way Tessa interacts with technology, you would think it was the 80s or 90s. She's amazed by a Keurig...a KEURIG. Pretty sure she would have had one of those before she went to prison. I did, and I'm not anywhere near rich. It isn't something that didn't exist before she went to prison. She's also amazed by cell phones. Yeah. It's baffling. These are small things, sure, but they had me rolling my eyes.
A bigger problem? How she was arrested. There was zero investigation and the trial took place 2 weeks after the murder. That does NOT happen. Also, later, something is found buried on the property that the police didn't find two days after a triple homicide? Come ON. Absolutely impractical, especially when it is found ten years later ONE day after she's released. This leads me to how involved she was in EVERY step of discovery for a new trial. She is there when witnesses are interviewed and yells at them. She discovers evidence that's boxed up that was never admitted for her trial. The amount of dissonance you have to have from what ACTUALLY happens in an investigation is ridiculous. It's all simply outlandish. And don't even get me started on the fact that the setting of the murders is so muddled. Apparently, there's a mainland and island San Maribel and there's literally a line in the book that says something to the effect of "she couldn't have committed the murders in San Maribel because she was in San Maribel." It makes it all so confusing because the reader never knows where everything's taking place besides at the mansion. It's just a big mess.
I won't get into the "shocking" reveal at the end, or how slapdash and rushed it all was. Things happened that were never properly talked about or answered, and everything's just sort of thrown together at the end. I gave this 2 stars because I finished it. Just don't go into this book expecting to be thrilled or amazed, unless your amazement comes from how badly written this is.
I didn’t care for this book at all. The story was sooooo predictable and unbelievable. And I could not get myself to like Tessa, the main character. Very disappointing.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Sweet Vengeance = sweet read! I literally devoured this page turner in about three hours. I had to keep reading until I found out who was behind the murders of Tessa's identical twin girls and her husband. Tessa spent ten years in prison wrongfully convicted and railroaded for the murders. I felt for Tessa on page one and was so happy when she was released but all was not over, the real killer was still out there. I was so angry for Tessa when it was revealed how little investigating the police did and how they quickly pinned the crimes on Tessa without collecting enough evidence. You could feel Tessa's anger at this jump off the pages, this is how well written and well developed the character of Tessa was. By the end of the book I was completely surprised at what really happened to Tessa's family. This book definitely was a fast paced Mystery/Thriller with a touch of feel good romance.This review was originally posted on My Fiction Obsession
I have always loved Fern Michaels but needed a break from the Sisterhood series I really enjoyed this novel about a woman, Tessa, claiming she was wrongly accused and convicted who voiced to get revenge on the real killer when she was released from prison on a technicality. A really good book with a couple of surprises thrown in but also very sad at all of the lives cut short in one day; it can’t help engrossing you and keeping you emotionally invested.
I was intrigued by the premise, but feel that Ms. Michaels just mailed this one in. The heroine, Tess, is one of the most unlikeable characters from Ms. Michaels. Granted, Tess has endured a lot, but she is shrill, unkind and has a real sense of superiority. Two of the characters she is harshest on are the two working-class characters (George the mover and Rosa the housekeeper). Yet, she is absolutely so trusting of almost everyone else. In addition, there are several holes and inconsistencies to the storyline. I started off by listening to the audio book and the narrator was incredibly inconsistent in the voices. She used Sam's voice for Lee and Lee's voice for Sam several times. It was only when both Sam and Lee were in the same scene that she reverted back to the correct voices. And the narrator's "Rosa voice" was laughable and unrealistic. It was so distracting that I switched to the Kindle version. It didn't really help. I felt the story finished up with too many holes.
First, I would like to thank Fern Michaels, Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review. I have been a fan of Fern Michaels work for a long time. However, Sweet Vengeance in my opinion is her best book to date! From the prologue Fern got my undivided attention with her description of what prison life was life for Tessa. One thing that made this book interesting than any other book she has ever written is that it was written in the future. In this case it was written in 2021. So, things were a little different then. In this book Tessa goes back and gives a little history of who she was before she landed in prison. That person shaped her to the person she was today. I loved the part of the book on how she mentioned she loved reading her entire life. I can relate to her saying that books protect her sanity. I use books as an escape from reality. As did she. Plus, she got to work in the prison library. I felt sad for her that her daughters and husband were gone and no other family existed. That she felt alone. It is really a great read that is Ferns best work.
I found this confusing - Michaels calls the mainland San Maribel, but she also calls the island San Maribel. Since Tessa's guilt is dependent on where she was at the time of the murder of her husband and children, I wish the author had chosen different names for the two places.
The book details the events of the three days after she is released from prison due to a violation of her rights 10 years before. I found the story of what really happened depressing. Not sure this was worth reading
I felt like I was reading a cheap romance novel authors first attempt at a mystery novel. Seriously what person would go from being shocked/horrified at the sight of their murdered preschoolers unchanged room to 5 minutes later joking with a guy you hardly know and feeling your heart race as he smiles at you. The story was very unbelievable, the characters had no real depth, and the writing was repetitive and simple.
This was the first book I have read by this author. I wondered if such a prolific writer produced quality. This was bad on so many levels.
Tessa was a well-educated woman before going to prison. If I had a dollar for everytime she said "I don't understand", I could by a good bottle of wine and forget that I listened to this story for 2 weeks.
The reader didn't help. Her inflections made Tessa seem like a bobble head. Ugggg.
The love story was so fabricated. Argggh.
And then the element of the surprise twin. So daytime soap opera!
The neatly wrapped ending. I was so happy to get there that it didn't matter.
I had many problems with the logic in the book. I thought maybe someone in high school had written it. I need to move on, read something else to purge this feeble story from my mind.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a advanced reader's copy of this book.
Sweet Vengeance by Fern Michaels. This book was hit out of the ball park for me. I really enjoyed it. The characters and storyline pulled me in from the first page. I've read past books by this author and she has never disappointed me.
Too many holes & things that didn't make sense. A body buried on the grounds & the police didn't find it?? I don't think any coroner's office would be a whole day off on time of death. I did not like Tessa at all - screaming at everyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.