She wakes up in a hospital room...bruised. . .bloody...confused. She knows her name is Gemma La Porte--but that's all. She doesn't remember smashing her car. She doesn't remember anything from the last three days. But a policeman, Deputy Will Tanninger, is waiting for answers and wants to know if she's responsible for a fatal hit-and-run. . .
But Remembering Her Past Could Kill Her. . .
Hoping to restore her shattered memory, Gemma has no choice but to put her trust in Will. But if it turns out she's guilty of murder, he has no choice but to arrest her. Torn by her growing feelings for Will, and haunted by her shadowy past, Gemma is determined to learn the truth. But, in this case, the darkest truths are unknowable--and the deadliest enemies are unseen. . .
Nancy Bush is a New York Times bestselling author of over forty novels, including the River Glen Series, Nowhere Series, and numerous stand alone novels. She also is the co-author of Last Breath, Last Girl Standing, and the Wicked Series, written with her sister and bestselling author Lisa Jackson, as well as the collaborative novels Sinister and Ominous, written with Lisa Jackson and Rosalind Noonan.
Nancy has called Oregon her home all of her life. She grew up in a small logging community and after graduating from high school, attended Oregon State University where she met her husband, Ken and graduated with a degree in nutrition. They married a few years after graduation and together they have one daughter. After working in banking and the travel business, with her daughter still in diapers, Nancy read an article in Time Magazine about young mothers who, once the last diaper was changed and the final bottle was washed, pulled out their typewriters and wrote romance novels for the then expanding market. Nancy convinced her sister, Lisa Jackson, that they should try their hand at writing.
After writing several successful romance novels such as Lady Sundown, Miracle Jones, Jesse’s Renegade and Scandal’s Darling and a stint writing for one of ABC’s top-rated daytime shows: All My Children, she turned her attention to writing thrillers for Kensington Publishing. Today, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
In her free time Nancy enjoys walking, working on jigsaw and crossword puzzles and hanging out with family and friends. When she and Ken aren’t visiting their daughter and grandchildren in Southern California, Nancy is busy working on her next book!
I am almost 200 pages in this book and have had enough... I am not a prude by any means but so tired of the f-word ect. Book 1 was very good, so it's like a new author took over... There are more books in this Series and Hopefully will be better.....
Although I liked the story line I found it took several chapters to figure out what might be going on. Gemma LaPorte has grown up with periods of blackouts. She can't remember parts of her childhood and now she might be responsible for running a man down with her car on purpose. Than we have another character named Wolf who seems to think all women are witches and need to die. Add in to the mix Deputy Will Tanninger, his partner Barb and than we have Lucky. Seemed to be so much confusion I found it hard to follow until almost the end of the book.
The best in the series so far. I think it should be the second one read, and wish they had included it in the series so I could have read them in the proper order.
From the information given I think Bart (Wolf) and EZ's Mother was Rita's Aunt "Blind Spot".
Gemma wakes up in the hospital with no memories. She is accused of running down a pedophile. Will is assigned to the case and quickly falls for Gemma, with the evidence mounting against her he desperately wants to believe her assertions of innocence. Memories of her life start coming back to her, and she quickly returns to her home where she learns she has been plagued by memory lose since childhood. She also has a unique ability to read peoples emotions. When people start accusing her of things she hasn't done she fears that the unscrupulous psychiatrist who wants to use her to make a name for himself is correct and that she has multiple personality disorder.
Meanwhile Bart is on a mission to kill "witches". He killed his Mother (who he refers to as the Mother Witch) and burned her. Now he is killing young women he deems witches and burning them. But the main witch he wants to kill is Ani, who he blames for his brother EZ's death.
Desperate to find out what is going on Gemma allows the psychiatrist to hypnotize her and discovers that she was a conjoined twin. Gemma was left with an old Indian woman Totu (possibly her Grandmother) who eventually left her on the ferry allowing her to be adopted by the La Portes and given a good home. Her twin Ani was given to the pedophile doctor in exchange for operating on the twins to separate them. Anxious to share her news with Will she calls him and they agree to meet at her house.
Will is startled when "Gemma" shows up at his door minutes after their phone conversation arranging to meet at her house, but they quickly have sex, it's only afterwards that he realizes the scare is on the wrong side of "Gemma's" hip. Ani realizes he knows that she isn't Gemma and ties Will up. She then goes to see Gemma, they are interrupted by Will's partner Barb, who Ani shoots. Will who has managed to untie himself quickly arrives and Barb is rushed to the hospital. Ani escapes from the law only to be captured by Bart.
Will and Gemma see the bonfire in the quarry and rush to it. Gemma manages to free Ani's hands before she is forced back by the flames. Bart and Will fight and Will is forced to kill Bart. After the fire is put out they realize Ani escaped, but are unable to find her. Thinking Ani is Gemma Little Tim (retarded man with a crush on Gemma) helps Ani.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The story opens up with Lucky, a nickname, who was stalking a guy, Edward Letton, at a girl's soccer game. As he calls over one of the girl's to his van, Lucky makes a move and runs this guy down. The man is hospitalized. Same day, a woman gets dropped off at the hospital with severe head injuries. When Gemma wakes, she has no memory of how she got to the hospital or how she got her injuries.
It doesn't take Gemma long to realize that she can read minds and that her adopted mother, used her in giving readings to customers. Gemma struggles with the gaps in her memories, while the police look for evidence to tie her to the hit and run. Gemma's friends' daughter, passes on info that she had been following a man, and Gemma worries that man could've been Letton.
What Gemma doesn't know, is there is someone that was stalking her, who goes by the name of Wolf. He hunts witches and burns them to send them back to hell.
This was a captivating read. The story had some loose ends. One example, Gemma was exhausted, although she had a good night's sleep. She left work and went straight home to sleep on the couch. Further into the story, Gemma wakes up nude and finds her uniform in the hamper with no recollection of anything. I was left wondering why Gemma was so exhausted, and what happened from the time she arrived home, fell asleep on the couch to waking up nude. Overall, it was a good book.
I don't usually read mystery novels, but this one was actually really interesting. It's about a woman who lives to kill men who are pedophiles or sexual predators. She spies on them and then catches them when they are vulnurable and kills them. She is spying on this one man at a child's soccer game and decides to hit him with her car on instinct, because he tries to lead the girl into his van. She ends up hurting herself, the force of the hit caused her head to slam against the steering wheel, and she ends up in the hospital with a concussion along with the man she killed. The whole book is about her trying to remember what happened while also trying not to reveal that she actually killed the man to the police. I thought it was very interesting, because new things kept popping up and it was very suspenseful. I can't say that I learned anyting significant or life changing from reading this book, because it was really just for entertainment. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the dialogue wasn't that great, and I expected that it would be. Other than that, it was a fun book.
I love a good mystery/thriller. This book did not disappoint. The beginning of the the book leads you to believe one thing and then with all of the twists and turns you have to take a step back and say, "whoa, I didn't see that one coming". This book tells the story of Gemma who wakes up in a hospital and is told that she is the suspect in a hit and run accident. She seems to have some memories but nothing connects. All the while she is being stalked by someone. Enter the deputy, Will Tanninger, who wants to believe she is not guilty. He finds himself drawn to her but yet is not willing to compromise his beliefs that if she's guilty she must be punished. Throughout this book there is a thread of of the paranormal in the form of mind reading or future telling. Gemma remembers vaguely being told she has the "gift" of seeing or feeling the future. How all of this plays out is something the reader will need to find out on their own. I definitely recommend this book to all mystery lovers.
It is virtually impossible to say anything about this story without tipping off readers to the big surprise at the end. And it's a doozy. Solid suspense. Solid romance. And I know the forthcoming NOWHERE SAFE (due out some time in August, 2013) heavily features a character from UNSEEN and characters from NOWHERE TO HIDE. So believe me when I say Nancy Bush's romantic suspense books are best read in chronological order, including the WICKED series co-authored with her sister, Lisa Jackson. At any rate, UNSEEN is a terrific page-turner and my third favorite Bush book after NOWHERE TO RUN and BLIND SPOT so yes(!) I strongly recommend this.
FYI: A chronology of Bush's r/s books*: UNSEEN (2009), WICKED GAME (WICKED series 1/3, with Lisa Jackson) (2009), BLIND SPOT (2010), WICKED LIES (WICKED series 2/3, with Lisa Jackson) (2011), HUSH (2011), NOWHERE TO RUN (2012), NOWHERE TO HIDE (2012), SOMETHING WICKED (WICKED series 3/3, with Lisa Jackson) (2013).
NOWHERE SAFE should be out September 2013.
* This list does not include her ebook romances or her Jane Kelly mysteries.
Gemma LaPorte wakes in a hospital room, sore, bruised, bloody a nd no memory for the past 3 days. Deputy Will Tanninger is investigating a hit and run of a man, hoping to restore her memory she must trust Will. But if it turns out she's guilty of murder, which the evidence is pointing to, then he must arrest her even if he is falling in love with her. Love this book
At first, I was kinda confused about what was going on. Then as the story unfolded, things became clearer. This didn't have a super surprise ending for me but I did enjoy it.
Series/Sequencing Style: 2nd in an anthology series, can be read as standalone, slight cliffhanger understanding series types: dynamic, static, anthology - source 1, source 2
CW/Triggers: attempted murder, murder, incest, cheating, mental health issues, pedophilia, slut shaming, rape, torture, violence
Review/Notes This book is a lotttt. It started off more promising than I think it ended. Over the top, with loose ends. For example, Ani? What actually were all the blackouts?
The plot was interesting enough, where I was into the book for the first half more than the second. However, the story was too convoluted, with lots of "bad guys", which was confusing, and too many coincidences -
This book was dark, with multiple cases of incest & pedophilia, which just makes it *a lot* to read. The The killer is a disgusting POV, but I guess that happens with the creeps.
Other issues I had - non-spoilers: • Romantic connection was low... for a romantic suspense novel, there wasn't enough balance of romance vs suspense - it was too dark. • Lots of weird word choices; examples: "A man stood in the aperature...", "For a moment he saw her ringed by a fiery areola."
Other issues I had - the spoilers: • It might have been a mistake, but I'm just not okay with him fucking her sister. • How did all these other people see both sisters, yet no one (including the sisters) figured it out before then? • When Ani waved at Charlotte, how did she know her? Is there just some link between the sisters with who they know? • Honestly, DID would have made more sense than them being twins, but I get the author wanted a twist.
DISCLAIMER: This book contains depictions of many types of abuse and assault. Please keep this in mind when choosing to read this book.
This is the second book in the colony series, however this one is solely written by Nancy Bush and not in tandem with her sister, Lisa Jackson. The writing is clearly different than the first book Wicked Games so it’s clear they have different writing styles.
Things I liked about this book: -the plot was very interesting and it made we want to keep reading to find out more -I enjoyed the female police officer. Her character was actually believable whereas I sometimes think that cops in books can be so superficial
Things I wish were improved on: -the plot took a while to get into and I felt that there were a lot of missing details throughout. We needed maybe a hundred or so more pages -the romance it was just totally out of nowhere and although I liked it, it again just needed more pages to make it believable and overall make sense. They just all of a sudden were together?
Things I did not like: -the amount of f words thrown around -there is discussions of many types of assault in this book. If you are vulnerable please proceed with caution. The way it was handled I think could have been with more care -everything seemed SO rushed because there were so many perspectives. I wish there were more pages so we could really get the idea of what was happening
I found the Colony series a few years back, read the first book and didn’t know if I wanted to continue it. The first book is by Lisa Jackson, then the second is written by Nancy Bush. The two collaborate somehow on this series. However, the second book didn’t really follow the first book at all.
I decided to continue with this series with book two, Unseen, after being disappointed by book 1 as this book had really good reviews and people mentioned there were multiple twists and surprises. Unfortunately I did not agree, it was an entertaining storyline but I didn’t find anything surprising. There was one twist at the end that was okay but not shocking.
The story follows a woman named Gemma who wakes up in a hospital with memory issues. A police officer named Will suspects of her running down a guy with her car in a murder attempt. Gemma and Will have to work together to piece back her memory and solve the murders.
Much like the first book I found the characters bland and there’s a lack in character development. The storyline had enough action that it wasn’t a boring book and the ending was interesting but it doesn’t feel like a part of a series. I will give book 3 a chance which is also written by Bush sometime in the future.
Gemma LaPorte has had period of time she can not account for a lot of her life. One day she wakes up in the hospital and bandaged and bruised. No idea how she got there but her injuries are consistent with an auto accident. Meanwhile a guy is brought into the hospital as someone tried to kill him by hitting him with his vehicle.
Gemma is the number one suspect. Soon another female dies and again Gemma wakes up with no idea of what has gone on. Meanwhile a male who calls himself wolf is on t he hunt...he is looking a female one who is a witch and he is hot on her trail and going to kill her.
Lots of twist and makes you wonder who is doing what. Great book and looking forward to starting the next one in the series.
Eventually got into this read but it took until about chapter 8. The ties to the colony are minimal and since I've read that entire series, I'm not seeing how this ties into the story line. Things don't seem to be connecting to the next by this author. Hmm, a real head scratcher if you love series stories like I do
I liked the characters in this book. They were a nice blend. Hope that they are still characters in book 3. I loved the mysteries and trying to figure out if most of the characters are right. I had come up with different theories along the way.... I was close but it was still a surprise. Ending that I half hoped for.
This book was awesome. If you like Lisa Jackson, you will love Nancy Bush. I plan on reading more books of hers. It had all the elements of romance, suspense, and psychological twists!
I'm afraid to write much for fear of a spoiler. Just to say that I've decided to read the whole series again even though I think these first two were the only ones I hadn't already read.
A bit steamer than my normal reads, but the suspense and twists and turns were worth it. The plot kept me guessing and the characters were very believable. Good writer. I will read more.
The Good: The mystery kept my attention. I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on and that's a necessary part of a mystery book for me.
The Bad: I wasn't prepared to have to deal with the perspective of the child molester/rapist. That's not a perspective I want to know about nor do I want to deal with sexualized violence. For me those parts of the book took away from the storyline. I also thought that the romantic relationship between the hero and heroine could have been developed more. I thought that there was an imbalance between the mystery and the romance which made both fall short. Also while I appreciated the references to different towns and cities in Oregon, it felt forced to me.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I think that my expectations were way too high.
This 'paranormal' thriller is not a bad read, but I had to give it only two stars because it's so predictable and repetitive. I just read Wicked Game by Nancy Bush and Lisa Jackson - both books literally have pretty much the same plot, just with added storylines and details in Wicked Game. I suppose if I hadn't read Wicked Game first, I would liked Unseen more. Disregarding that, it's a mildly suspenseful read about a woman who may or may not have a multiple personality disorder..did she black out and run down a pedophile? She predictably has a relationship with the detective working on the case, blah blah blah. Honestly I think Nora Roberts and Heather Graham write better paranormal thrillers, if that's what you're in the mood for
How can a woman defend herself against charges of mowing down a pedophile when she can't remember anything from the past 3 days? We get to follow the woman in question as she questions both her sanity and her killer instinct, as well as the detectives trying to determine if she's really the responsible party. All along, there are multiple perspectives on the action and you never know if our heroine has multiple personalities, or what. The book is chock full of mentally unstable folks, and is set along high way 26 in Oregon, so the flavor is very local.
I really like the colony books. As a matter of fact I read some of them some years ago and wanted to read them again but I couldn't remember who wrote them. I googled and googled and searched but I couldn't find them. I spoke with a librarian but we couldn't find them. Then, when I was downloading a Mary Burton book (another great author), Nancy Bush came up!!! I finally found the author and the series. I have been up all night reading because I don't want to stop. Unfortunately, I now have to go to work. If you like the scary suspense type of book this is a good read!
I love a good mystery and I rate this one up there with the best. It kept me guessing up until the last chapter. I enjoyed it and the main characters, Will and Gemma.
I can hardly wait to read the book that Nancy Bush wrote with Lisa Jackson. Lisa Jackson is one of my favorite romantic suspense writers.