Autumn Sommers knows the danger of ignoring such powerful omens. Twelve years earlier, she could have prevented a tragic accident if only she had acted on those horrible nightmares. This time, she knows what she has to do. Her research into local missing persons suggests that the girl in Autumn's dreams could be Molly, the daughter of businessman Ben McKenzie. Still emotionally shattered from his loss and unwilling to trust this stranger, Ben is angered rather than relieved to hear her theory that Molly is still alive. Certain that she may be the girl's only chance, Autumn persists, until Ben grudgingly agrees to explore this tiny, if improbable, shred of hope. As Autumn's dreams become more and more vivid, she and Ben pursue their leads—leads that point to more murders, and to the only person in control of whether they live—or die.
Kathleen Kelly was born on 14 July 1947 in the Central Valley of California, USA. She obtained a degree in Anthropology and also studied History at the University of California in Santa Barbara. She was a real estate broker, when she met her future husband, Larry Jay Martin. A short time after the two became acquainted, Larry asked her to read an unpublished manuscript of an historical western he'd written. Kat fell in love with both the book and the author! Then, after doing some editing for him, she thought she'd try her own hand at writing. She moved on to become a full time writer.
Published since 1988, she signed her books with her married name, Kat Martin, but she also used two pseudonyms: Kathy Lawrence for a book in collaboration with her husband Larry Jay Martin, and Kasey Mars for her first contemporary romances. The New York Times bestselling writer, among her many awards, has won the prestigious RT Book Review Magazine Career Achievement Award. To date, Kat has over eleven million copies of her books in print. She has been published in seventeen foreign countries, including England, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria, China, and Korea.
Currently residing with her husband, a Western-writer and photographer, in Missoula, Montana, USA. But when they are not writing, they also enjoy skiing and traveling, particularly to Europe.
"I've always loved books. I was an avid reader, with any number of my own stories rolling around in my head. Writing them down seemed a logical step."
"I love anything old," Kat says. "I love to travel and especially like to visit the places where my books are set. My husband and I often stay in out-of-the-way inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of a by-gone era."
Kat Martin has always been sort of hit-or-miss for me, especially her contemporaries. I really enjoyed this one, though! This is book 2 in what she calls her "paranormal romantic suspense series", and I will definitely read books 1 and 3 now. However, this was not paranormal in the way that word has been used lately (vampires and shifters and breeds, oh my!). The likable heroine has repeated dreams of a young girl that prompt her to begin looking for a victim. [Seems she dreamed about a tragedy many years before that actually came about.] Through this search she meets our handsome, sexy (should I go on?) hero and, well you're not going to get more than that. Really a 4.5 star read for me - an unexpected pleasure.
Darn you new cover, you suckered me in. I have read this before but by the time I figured it out I decided just to go ahead and reread. It was a very nice read. It was what I call a psychic romance. The heroine had dreams that led her to the hero to help him find his little girl who had been abducted 6 years before.
The pacing was good. The story of the abduction was believable. The dream thing made sense once you bought into the psychic dreams of course. The romance was hot and moved at a good pace. All in all a fine book and one of Ms. Martin's best.
I greatly disliked reading this book. Being a previous fan of the author, and having LOVED one of her other contemporary paranormals, I've been in a serious psychic-story mood and was looking forward to this work.
This is not going to be an eloquent review; it is a list of complaints/rants/whining. I'm annoyed. This book is ONLY 2 stars because I've read worse. Technically all of the elements are there: a beginning, middle, and end, with narrative, climax, and resolution, and many of the words are in the right order. Some people seemed to like this book, and it's not terrible. The mystery develops into something interesting. But I have some issues to fuss about.
I have to wonder whether she changed editors or something before this book was released, because the first thing I noticed was the editing issues. There's a few run-on sentences, the wrong word used in several places (the book is about climbing, and yet "assent" instead of "ascent" somehow made it into the copy), and it's just overall awkward. There's a lot of telling, not showing, and sections are repetitive. If you SHOW us something, don't TELL it in the next sentence. Your readers are not morons, they get your oh-so-subtle nuances. It's not as if it is lacking in details; there's more items from a Sports and Hiking catalog mentioned here than a non-athlete could ever keep up with, complete with all the cutesy abbreviations some quick research added for flavor. But a cohesive tale it is not. It's not enough mystery, enough romance, enough... whatever. It felt amateurish, and it honestly felt like a woman wasn't writing it. I'll elaborate.
She works hard to make us like Autumn, but in the most important parts of the book, Autumn takes a backseat. She steps back in the important parts, but we get the poignant parts of the story, the emotion, from her. The scenes where she then turns into a piece of furniture in the background are lacking in that kind of emotion, the poignancy. Moments where she should be involved, we don't get her side of it. I'm repeating myself, so more on that in a moment.
And then... there's Ben. Besides my previous comment about how he marvels that all women love a nice kitchen (gag), he keeps wanting to take Autumn "to bed". It's not that he says it once, it's how he describes his lust for her in every chapter. He seriously can't wait to take her "to bed". I swear, if a man ever offered to take me "to bed" and wasn't wearing a cravat or a kilt, I'd be very put off. In addition, every sex scene in the book is from his perspective, and is usually some combination of her clothes coming straight off and him tearing off her thong to have at her. Once or twice, I can see that being hot, in the whole "I can't wait to have you" kind of way. But not every time, and not when you want us to believe there's "love" involved. The sex was kind of a cheap Elmer's glue to the plot; technically it's holding everything together, but you know that something's going to fall off or you're gonna get glitter everywhere eventually... But it looks nice temporarily, so don't wanna think too much about it.
I read a lot of romance novels and the affection part of this book was totally lacking. The only time I believed it was when he spontaneously said that he loved her up on the summit, before they went to save his daughter. THIS NEVER GETS REFERENCED AGAIN. When they have their later "but we cain't" angst, and Autumn is SO disbelieving of his "love", there isn't even a momentary glimpse of "well, he said he loved me when he wasn't even thinking about it". That part stuck with me, because it had the truth of spontaneity. Then it never reappeared. So, really, the only part of this book where I felt some kind of connection with their relationship, the part I thought was most romantic, was ignored for overly verbose description of angst and lust.
Oh, and a mystery story that gets more detached as the book goes on. Ben is WAY more concerned with getting more of Autumn's little pink butterfly than finding his daughter, until the end when he gets to rampage and punch the kidnapper's face into a bloody pulp. And the FBI shrugs and says "Hey, we'll clean it up from here". Uh huh. Ben should've at least been questioned or something, some intensity at the end with the law. Instead, they climb a mountain, waltz in just as his daughter is about to get "consummated", and barely escape shooting the guy. It's not even self-defense; Ben lands the first and last blow. Oi. I liked Autumn's "powers" as it were, but... there's not even a chance to think of her as noble besides her dogged stalking of Ben at the beginning; the one time she talks about it, she's so upset that she has to live through these visions. Not even a "with great power comes great responsibility" style speech? She doesn't have a moment where she can be grateful that her magic dream psychicness saved a little girl and brought closure to another murder? The whole dream thing kind of disappeared by the end anyway. Nobody treated her like she was a loon over it anyway (besides Ben, for all of five minutes while his manparts told him to trust her, WINK). "Oh, well, it seems to be working, so... let's blindly follow the dream-lady". Ugh ugh ugh.
So... there's my whining. Phew. Ms. Martin, you have done and can do better. It'll be a while 'til I revisit you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I absolutely loved this book. It's fascinating, disturbing and sexy all in one. It involves Autumn, a schoolteacher and climbing teacher who dreams about a little girl getting kidnapped. Through research she finds out that the event actually occurred and that the father is the owner of the building in which the gym she works at is located.
She convinces Ben that his daughter is alive and to renew the search for her based on her recurring dreams. She dreams only when she is in contact with Ben. Throughout this a mutual, electric connection between them happens and sparks fly.
Time is running out to find the girl, Autumn does not believe a man could be faithful to a woman and the only clues they seem to get about the daughter's location is through the dreams.
The ending is riveting, tearful, nerve-wracking all in one. If you have a child, you will feel the emotions evoked due to this horror. Definitely well worth reading.
Pedophilia, pluralist religions, misogyny, patriarchal societies, child sex abuse, abduction, murder, and the Brethren of Lazarus are all neatly wrapped up in this novel. We watch Autumn convince Ben that his now twelve, abducted daughter was not dead, and Autumn throughout this novel, convince herself that she is not”good enough”, for Ben, which was in juxtaposition of her athletic prowess as an excellent mountain climber. Religion warped can be lethal... mind control of the masses is front and center in this novel. Great reread!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The Summit is yet another amazing book by Kat Martin!! Autumn Sommers has been having dreams about a kidnapped little girl & is determined to try to find out who she is to try to save her. She finds out who she is & approaches Ben McKenzie, Molly’s father, about her dreams & working together to try to find her. He’s skeptical at first but finally believes her. It’s a suspenseful, entertaining, emotional (due to difficult subject) page turner of a book that’s a definite must read!! You can never go wrong with a Kat Martin book!!
This isn't your typical romance. The h is Autumn Sommers yes the name cracks me up! Anyways she has reoccurring dreams of a preteen and it eventually leads her to the girl's father Ben McKenzie yes there's an actor with that name too lol. Anyways it's urgent for Autumn to find the girl and everything is resolved in the last 100 pages. I didn't get feel any chemistry between h and H. Yes there was sexy times, yes there was a conflict (kidnapping), yes there was a happy ending.. but it felt lacking.
An easy read but kind of dull. I was starting to get annoyed by how many times it mentioned them getting coffee. Lets get coffee. Maybe we should have coffee. We had coffee. He brought me coffee. I made some coffee. Literally. Autumn crying over every little thing was also annoying. Her emotions seemed childish to me. Not what a grown and mature woman would actually behave like. And the romance was not exciting in the least. I could have done without it. The only part I really enjoyed was getting to finally find out what happened to Bens daughter.
I liked the book but author was very descriptive even when she didn’t have to be. And towards the end of the book as they got closer to finding “the person”, specially in the small town, they should have had a cop with them or someone from law enforcement. It’s very unrealistic to have civilians do all that. They had many allies that were law enforcement.
How awful! He married his wife for her social status and physical beauty, with his daughters he hardly spent the weekend even before the divorce. From then on, he has been jumping from bed to bed and making money. Now that he has a chance to find his oldest daughter, he only thinks about sexually harassing the woman who offered him help!?!?!?!? What a way to ruin a good plot!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down. Why is Autumn having dreams about Ben’s daughter? She was abducted years ago and I worried what’s become of her. Loved how hard Ben falls for Autumn and can he convince her to give them a chance? Thankfully there’s a very happy ever and I highly recommend this book.
Kat Martin has written a heartstopping, heartwarming story of kidnapping, psychic deaths and the long search for the child and the monster that kidnapped her. Osbourne determination of the dreamer and the little girls father solved the mystery.
La historia me gusto, pero en ciertas partes se me hizo cuesta arriba y en un momento sentí que se estanco. Creo que retomo el ritmo en los últimos capítulos y que luego se desarrollo un poco apresurado el final.
Really liked this "Paranormal Suspense". Autumn Sommers dreams of a young girl turn out to be more than just dreams. She has to persuade Ben McKenzie that the daughter he believed died after a kidnapping 6 years ago is still alive. Enjoyed the way Autumn's climbing competence was always at the forefront & that Ben often had to take a step back to admit she was more skilled at certain tasks than him. Definitely revisiting this earlier Romance series.
I didn't want to put this one down and it took every ounce of restraint I had to not peek to the end. Kat Martin showcases her incredible writing skills with this beautiful tale that is a testament to the strength and enduring quality of love. Autumn Sommers dreams of a little girl named Molly, witnessing her kidnapping in the dream. Haunted by the memory of a past dream that came true, Autumn is determined to find out who Molly is, particularly as the dream keeps returning to her, over and over again. Her search leads her to wealthy sporting goods store owner, Ben McKenzie. Ben McKenzie is a self-made millionaire, and since his daughter was lost he and his wife have divorced, and he has thrown himself into that business. Now Autumn won't leave him alone, and he has come to accept the death of his child. Reopening those old wounds to find her a fake, after his money would kill him. When Autumn was 15 she ignored a dream which resulted in the deaths of her two best friends. Knowing what she knows now, Autumn knows that she won't be able to live with herself until she finds out who the girl is. After searching the library's archived news stories, Autumn's search brings her to Ben McKenzie. Though she doesn't personally know him, Ben owns the building where she teaches rock climbing classes for a local gym. She knows that seeing Ben is what triggered her dreams. Great read.
I gave it two stars because at least I finished it, although it was trying. I have to wonder if this book was edited. There are words that are either misspelled or not used properly, and the spelling of some of the characters names magically changes, one example being Molly, who's name spelling suddenly changes to "Mollie" at the very end of the book. Someone certainly was not paying attention. The main characters were cartoonish in the romance department, which is so often the case in romantic suspense. One of the reasons I do not care for romance in my suspense. The male seems more interested in getting laid than possibly finding his missing daughter. First time reading this author and it will probably be my last.
This book was fantastic! Ben's daughter was kidnapped and long ago presumed dead. Now Autumn was dreaming about her. When she finally pieces things together and confronts Ben with the fact his daughter may still be alive, he dismisses her as a nut job. Circumstances eventually convince Ben there may be something to what she is telling him. Together they set out on a quest to find Molly. Neither of them planned on falling in love. The characters in the story were not only interesting but I fell in love with them and couldn't stop turning the pages to discover what happened to them. And to Molly, of course. Plenty of suspense, keeps you guessing as to what the truth is behind Molly's disappearance, and the love story sizzles. Highly recommended!
Autumn and Ben. I really enjoyed the plot line to this book. I thought it was written well. I have read a few books that include kidnapped kids, and the kidnapping are never solved, or they end badly. This one does end good. I love how Autumn tries to get Ben to listen to her in the beginning. I though the had good chemistry. Autumn was a strong character, but I felt like Ben fluffed her off a lot, and treated her more like a doormat. Towards the end I don't think she got enough appreciation from him for all she did. I gave it a one less star because I felt like the ending could have been way better.
The Summit by Kat Martin: This book is about missing children. Autumn Sommers had a horrible nightmare about a little girl that had went missing five years ago. She reseached into local missing persons and found a little girl who looked like Molly, the daughter of Ben McKenzie. She had to talk to Mr. McKenzie and tell him what she saw in the dream. He would not listen to her, so she had to make him. Ben is angered rather than relieved to hear what she has to say and the theory that Molly is still alive. She had to make him trust her so they could look for Molly. Very good book, keeps you interested and can not put it down. Well written.
Excellent! I don't think I've read a bad Kat Martin book. Taking place in the Pacific Northwest drew me in right away as always but the story was so damn creepy that I read it straight through! A mystery/suspense w/ the main character having psychic abilities, but the book in no way ever read "out of the realm of possibilties" that's what made it scary - especially if you have children. Happy Ending!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.