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A Dark Love
A Dark Love is the unforgettable debut of Margaret Carroll, an extraordinary new master who spins a tale of passion tinged with terror. Though Caroline has finally escaped her marriage to a cruel and controlling psychopath, she still lives in fear. Her husband will not rest until he finds her . . . and makes her pay.
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
16 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Carroll
22 books12 followersMargaret Carroll writes fiction part-time in addition to being a full-time mother and homemaker. Her fiction builds on 20 years' global public relations and journalism experience. She has served on award-winning marketing teams, as President of an industry organization dedicated to raising standards for public relations professionals, and has traveled the globe.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and has completed numerous writing seminars and workshops.
She resides with her family now in Michigan in a seventy-five year old Tudor house that is a great place to write. They live with Buddy, a Scottish Terrier, who makes sure the mice stay outside.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and has completed numerous writing seminars and workshops.
She resides with her family now in Michigan in a seventy-five year old Tudor house that is a great place to write. They live with Buddy, a Scottish Terrier, who makes sure the mice stay outside.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 18, 2009
With four thousand dollars hidden in the bottom of her shoes and her dog by her side, Caroline Hughes is making a break for it. Waving goodbye to her husband, renown psychoanalyst Dr. Porter Moross, Caroline quickly disappears into bustling D.C. and hops onto a bus bound for the West. Hoping for a new start, like the pioneers of old, Caroline adopts the alias of Alice and prays that her husband will never find her in the quiet mountain town she's heading to. But she knows, as the days go by that he's coming for her, and this time only one of them is walking off that mountaintop alive.
******spoilers*******
Begin Rant
Oh. My. God. I've never been so happy to finish a book. Ugh. I curse my OCD. And ultimately, I've only got myself to blame because I knew it when I flipped to the back of this book at the bookstore. I knew when I spotted the HFN ending that this book wasn't going to be good for me. I knew it! *slaps self* But I was hoping for an exciting, tense thriller a la Karen Rose. Or something. Ha! Not even close.
This book was soulsucking on so many levels. Margaret Carroll lost me by the first page. She starts it off with Caroline's escape - in minute detail. Step by agonizingly slow step. Caroline makes her escape, buys hair dye, dyes her hair, gets on a bus, talks to an older woman, gets off the bus, walks to town, blah, blah, blah. You get my drift. Unfortunately all the above took like half the book to get to. Why? Because Margaret Carroll insisted on showing Porter's oh, excuse me, DR. Moross's point of view after every other chapter. This was of course, wedged in between the ten other BS character's rotating points of view. I can't even begin to describe how unbelievably frustrating I found this book to be. I couldn't even call Caroline/Alice, Dr. Moross and Ken Kincaid the main characters of this book. This was more play-like, with everyone given equal billing and stage time. Everyone a cast of supporting characters. And maybe from a purely fiction-standpoint that would fly, but not in a book stuck in the romance section. And even from a fiction standpoint this book wouldn't fly because it's so slow and boring.
But boringness aside, my main gripe was with, for argument's sake, the main characters, Caroline/Alice and Porter. They were unbelievably pathetic. I couldn't even call Porter the villain in this book. To do so would give him too much credit. And how the holy heck did he manage to reel Caroline in during the beginning of their cruel, symbiotic relationship? He's described as an albino? with oozing purple pustules on his face. *Sorry if that makes me the cruel, pretty cheerleader who is symbolically stepping aside so that the popular jocks can beat him up, but you know, sometimes the popular kids get it right. This mama's boy lost his soul a long time ago and those jocks probably sensed that.* But worst of all, he's mean and cutting to her during their first date. She can't even use the excuse that he started off as Prince Charming. How did this happen then, you say? Easy to explain. Because she's more pathetic than he is. She was a woman who seemed to understand his need to hurt her and she accepted it. Slowly spiraling down into the classic battered-spouse syndrome. Which didn't add up. If Caroline was capable of sending emails to a past college lover, complaining of Porter's treatment of her, then she wasn't as far gone as she let on. She hadn't hidden within that insular wall that abused women hide behind that allows them to show the world that everything is, "fine." Instead it led me to believe that she rolled over like a worm of a dog and took it. Sorry if this makes me sound heartless and a non supporter of abused women, but in all honesty, I blame the author. She was lousy at creating sympathetic characters. And equally lousy at creating a believable villain.
Porter was for the most part, lost in his own psychosis and spent a lot of time crying til snot ran down his face. It didn't make him less dangerous. The contents of his trunk was sufficient in letting me know what he was capable of. But it did make him less scary. Because instead of the fear of the unknown, he was predictable and controllable. You know he was coming after her in a great show of sound and fury but you also knew that all it would take was a harsh word, or a good, hard kick to send this little worm scurrying into the arms of the first lactating hooker he could find and into the first Infantilism fetish club that would take him.
Now onto the romance portion of this book. Which was lousy. She's only been away from Porter for a few days and she's already getting horny for the first hot guy she sees. Whatever. Again, this brings me back to that missing feeling of her battered spouse syndrome. Which allows me to feel that some of the things she suffered from makes her bear a certain amount of culpability. But whatever. I ranted about that already. Now I'm ranting about the romance portion of this book. *sigh* Ken Kincaid should have been a wonderful character. I loved the way he was described. A great big teddy bear of a man. Unfortunately he's not given enough to shine in this book, which is understandable since he's barely around. He's never on alpha male alert status either, desperate to protect his mate. He's relaxed, at ease, and he moves slowly because he instinctively knew that he had to do so around Caroline/Alice. He was just "nice" and "there" and was someone who unfortunately got caught up in the cruelty of the Moross marriage. There is zero amount of sex or sexual acts in this book, except for a weird, very quick, S&M flashback meant to show how degrading the Moross marriage had become, and the H/H never say I love you, nor do they even hug or kiss.
So what am I left with, when I hate both the main characters? A lousy attempt at a romantic thriller that leaves me feeling angry at myself for feeling heartless and cruel towards said characters. Even at the end, when Caroline is sad and hurt as she watches the people around her watch her with looks of revulsion and pity on their face, I couldn't deny that I was one of those people judging her. And I could have been a lot harsher with my thoughts, too.
Would I attempt a Margaret Caroll book again? Eh. Who knows. I do know that right now I think her writing needs a lot of work. No time was spent on finding out what went wrong with Caroline during her childhood and though Porter spends a lot of time whining about his mom, not a lot is told about what went wrong there either. She gave way too much information at certain times, then not enough at other times, and left several storylines up in the air. She conveyed no urgency or exciting, pulse pounding adrenaline rushes in her writing. Her transitions from the past to the present were not clearly defined. I spent one too many times going, "huh?" Plus, she was longwinded to the extreme. *Much like this review. But hey, when you're passionate, you're passionate.* If she was looking to create different characters in non-likable scenarios with no real right or wrong, then thats fine. But she needs to back it up with superb writing.
I do see some potential in her future work, just none in this book. So, all in all, I am very disappointed. But maybe someone who does not primarily read romance novels may like this book better. *shrug*
End Rant
******spoilers*******
Begin Rant
Oh. My. God. I've never been so happy to finish a book. Ugh. I curse my OCD. And ultimately, I've only got myself to blame because I knew it when I flipped to the back of this book at the bookstore. I knew when I spotted the HFN ending that this book wasn't going to be good for me. I knew it! *slaps self* But I was hoping for an exciting, tense thriller a la Karen Rose. Or something. Ha! Not even close.
This book was soulsucking on so many levels. Margaret Carroll lost me by the first page. She starts it off with Caroline's escape - in minute detail. Step by agonizingly slow step. Caroline makes her escape, buys hair dye, dyes her hair, gets on a bus, talks to an older woman, gets off the bus, walks to town, blah, blah, blah. You get my drift. Unfortunately all the above took like half the book to get to. Why? Because Margaret Carroll insisted on showing Porter's oh, excuse me, DR. Moross's point of view after every other chapter. This was of course, wedged in between the ten other BS character's rotating points of view. I can't even begin to describe how unbelievably frustrating I found this book to be. I couldn't even call Caroline/Alice, Dr. Moross and Ken Kincaid the main characters of this book. This was more play-like, with everyone given equal billing and stage time. Everyone a cast of supporting characters. And maybe from a purely fiction-standpoint that would fly, but not in a book stuck in the romance section. And even from a fiction standpoint this book wouldn't fly because it's so slow and boring.
But boringness aside, my main gripe was with, for argument's sake, the main characters, Caroline/Alice and Porter. They were unbelievably pathetic. I couldn't even call Porter the villain in this book. To do so would give him too much credit. And how the holy heck did he manage to reel Caroline in during the beginning of their cruel, symbiotic relationship? He's described as an albino? with oozing purple pustules on his face. *Sorry if that makes me the cruel, pretty cheerleader who is symbolically stepping aside so that the popular jocks can beat him up, but you know, sometimes the popular kids get it right. This mama's boy lost his soul a long time ago and those jocks probably sensed that.* But worst of all, he's mean and cutting to her during their first date. She can't even use the excuse that he started off as Prince Charming. How did this happen then, you say? Easy to explain. Because she's more pathetic than he is. She was a woman who seemed to understand his need to hurt her and she accepted it. Slowly spiraling down into the classic battered-spouse syndrome. Which didn't add up. If Caroline was capable of sending emails to a past college lover, complaining of Porter's treatment of her, then she wasn't as far gone as she let on. She hadn't hidden within that insular wall that abused women hide behind that allows them to show the world that everything is, "fine." Instead it led me to believe that she rolled over like a worm of a dog and took it. Sorry if this makes me sound heartless and a non supporter of abused women, but in all honesty, I blame the author. She was lousy at creating sympathetic characters. And equally lousy at creating a believable villain.
Porter was for the most part, lost in his own psychosis and spent a lot of time crying til snot ran down his face. It didn't make him less dangerous. The contents of his trunk was sufficient in letting me know what he was capable of. But it did make him less scary. Because instead of the fear of the unknown, he was predictable and controllable. You know he was coming after her in a great show of sound and fury but you also knew that all it would take was a harsh word, or a good, hard kick to send this little worm scurrying into the arms of the first lactating hooker he could find and into the first Infantilism fetish club that would take him.
Now onto the romance portion of this book. Which was lousy. She's only been away from Porter for a few days and she's already getting horny for the first hot guy she sees. Whatever. Again, this brings me back to that missing feeling of her battered spouse syndrome. Which allows me to feel that some of the things she suffered from makes her bear a certain amount of culpability. But whatever. I ranted about that already. Now I'm ranting about the romance portion of this book. *sigh* Ken Kincaid should have been a wonderful character. I loved the way he was described. A great big teddy bear of a man. Unfortunately he's not given enough to shine in this book, which is understandable since he's barely around. He's never on alpha male alert status either, desperate to protect his mate. He's relaxed, at ease, and he moves slowly because he instinctively knew that he had to do so around Caroline/Alice. He was just "nice" and "there" and was someone who unfortunately got caught up in the cruelty of the Moross marriage. There is zero amount of sex or sexual acts in this book, except for a weird, very quick, S&M flashback meant to show how degrading the Moross marriage had become, and the H/H never say I love you, nor do they even hug or kiss.
So what am I left with, when I hate both the main characters? A lousy attempt at a romantic thriller that leaves me feeling angry at myself for feeling heartless and cruel towards said characters. Even at the end, when Caroline is sad and hurt as she watches the people around her watch her with looks of revulsion and pity on their face, I couldn't deny that I was one of those people judging her. And I could have been a lot harsher with my thoughts, too.
Would I attempt a Margaret Caroll book again? Eh. Who knows. I do know that right now I think her writing needs a lot of work. No time was spent on finding out what went wrong with Caroline during her childhood and though Porter spends a lot of time whining about his mom, not a lot is told about what went wrong there either. She gave way too much information at certain times, then not enough at other times, and left several storylines up in the air. She conveyed no urgency or exciting, pulse pounding adrenaline rushes in her writing. Her transitions from the past to the present were not clearly defined. I spent one too many times going, "huh?" Plus, she was longwinded to the extreme. *Much like this review. But hey, when you're passionate, you're passionate.* If she was looking to create different characters in non-likable scenarios with no real right or wrong, then thats fine. But she needs to back it up with superb writing.
I do see some potential in her future work, just none in this book. So, all in all, I am very disappointed. But maybe someone who does not primarily read romance novels may like this book better. *shrug*
End Rant
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2009
The theme is one that I usually enjoy—the abused heroine escapes from her psycho husband and finds love with a great guy. This starts out good. Caroline is literally walking away from her life, carrying only four grand cash, and her tiny dog. It opens with her husband, Porter, watching her walk down the street and we know she has only his allotted 20 minutes (the time she must return from walking her dog) before he starts to suspect something. It takes a while for her to get to where she is going—a small town across the country. The husband immediately knows she is gone after her being like two minutes late and he starts to melt down. He’s retracing her steps, searching the house, hacking into her emails, etc. He finds out she’s been corresponding with a male friend from college for the past two years. There is flirty banter, and this enrages Porter. I’m thinking, “ok, here we go…this is good…”, but then it falls flat. Porter prints off all the emails between the man and Caroline and mails them to the man’s wife. Then…nothing. The guy is barley mentioned again, let alone get his wife’s response to the package.
We don’t get much background on the marriage or why she thought he was so great. He sounded like a pompous ass right away. The description of him is ghastly. He has long white hair and a beard, and purple oozing scabies all over his face. Gross!!!! Some controlling man that doesn’t even have good looks to make up for his personality makes no sense at all.
She finally gets to the town and decides ‘yes I love it. I’m never leaving’. She meets the love interest, Ken, almost immediately. He could have been cool. However, he was just always a smiling, understanding, hot-guy-that-can have-anyone, ex football star, that really had nothing to say. He didn’t really do anything. I didn’t buy that he sees this woman and falls for her instantly—like he just knew she was his destiny and he’d been waiting for her for years. Weird. I could see her thinking he is good looking, but if she’s been in an abusive marriage for years and also had a horrible childhood that consists of rape by the stepfather, then I can’t see her so eager to jump into something with Ken within a day. They hardly have any scenes together, and we get a few chaste kisses. No sex between them at all. However, there is a disturbing flashback with the husband and her that didn’t seem to fit. Usually you get that, and then the woman gets to find out what it is like to have loving intimacy. The husband keeps bringing up that she loved being raped by her stepfather, but we get no back ground about that all. How did she get out of that situation? Where is her mother?
By ½ ways through, I realized I bought a stinker. I was disappointed, and but couldn’t stop reading it. I had to know the ending. It was lame. It is complete with the H&H escaping an explosion, and the psycho having ‘mommy’ issues--so badly that he has mom stored in a drum in a storage facility. That seemed to be thrown in there. Ok. What did his mother do to him? How did he kill her? Why? No resolution.
It seemed the author was trying to make this man seem so scary that she threw all the standard psycho stuff at him and hoped they’d all stick. It was just silly to me.
We don’t get much background on the marriage or why she thought he was so great. He sounded like a pompous ass right away. The description of him is ghastly. He has long white hair and a beard, and purple oozing scabies all over his face. Gross!!!! Some controlling man that doesn’t even have good looks to make up for his personality makes no sense at all.
She finally gets to the town and decides ‘yes I love it. I’m never leaving’. She meets the love interest, Ken, almost immediately. He could have been cool. However, he was just always a smiling, understanding, hot-guy-that-can have-anyone, ex football star, that really had nothing to say. He didn’t really do anything. I didn’t buy that he sees this woman and falls for her instantly—like he just knew she was his destiny and he’d been waiting for her for years. Weird. I could see her thinking he is good looking, but if she’s been in an abusive marriage for years and also had a horrible childhood that consists of rape by the stepfather, then I can’t see her so eager to jump into something with Ken within a day. They hardly have any scenes together, and we get a few chaste kisses. No sex between them at all. However, there is a disturbing flashback with the husband and her that didn’t seem to fit. Usually you get that, and then the woman gets to find out what it is like to have loving intimacy. The husband keeps bringing up that she loved being raped by her stepfather, but we get no back ground about that all. How did she get out of that situation? Where is her mother?
By ½ ways through, I realized I bought a stinker. I was disappointed, and but couldn’t stop reading it. I had to know the ending. It was lame. It is complete with the H&H escaping an explosion, and the psycho having ‘mommy’ issues--so badly that he has mom stored in a drum in a storage facility. That seemed to be thrown in there. Ok. What did his mother do to him? How did he kill her? Why? No resolution.
It seemed the author was trying to make this man seem so scary that she threw all the standard psycho stuff at him and hoped they’d all stick. It was just silly to me.
July 28, 2014
First I want to say I really did like this story a lot but I couldn't justify a 3 stars due to certain issues. The story was easy to read and not bogged down with a lot of details and that is one of the issues I had. Not enough details. There were also certain unresolved issues that should have been addressed but weren't. Some scenes lacked so much detail that I assume the author was relying on the reader's imagination and that can be good but didn't really work for the most part. The romance portion was rated G and that is fine for me. I don't HAVE to have steam but I did feel it lacked some character development and details, of course. I will watch for more by this author, however, because I feel she has a lot of potential.
September 14, 2012
Very good book, keeps you in suspense the entire time. Definitely recommend it.
December 20, 2016
I was half/half on this one! It's yet another riff on Sleeping With The Enemy, but it's a fairly efficient thriller that kept me engaged from beginning to end.
However, I couldn't connect with Caroline and how she wound up married to this freak! I spent several years working as a Restraining Order clerk and learning from victim support workers how otherwise smart women are wooed into these terrible situations, as the abuser starts off as Prince Charming before slowly cutting off the channels for help, and how that pattern keeps repeating. I understand every situation is different (especially if drug addiction is involved), but here it's just bizarre! Porter is an albino with purple pustules lining his face. He behaves atrociously during his first dates with Caroline. He tells her off for being late. He acts like a child and refuses to talk to her. He cries at random moments and keeps putting her down! He doesn't do a single thing that would convince any sane woman to overlook any negative points. Caroline just wants to "fix" him! Seriously?!?
Not every abuser is hiding behind a handsome exterior, obviously, but the author is trying to paint Caroline as a smart woman who probably would, in real life, run for the hills moments into the first date!
However, I couldn't connect with Caroline and how she wound up married to this freak! I spent several years working as a Restraining Order clerk and learning from victim support workers how otherwise smart women are wooed into these terrible situations, as the abuser starts off as Prince Charming before slowly cutting off the channels for help, and how that pattern keeps repeating. I understand every situation is different (especially if drug addiction is involved), but here it's just bizarre! Porter is an albino with purple pustules lining his face. He behaves atrociously during his first dates with Caroline. He tells her off for being late. He acts like a child and refuses to talk to her. He cries at random moments and keeps putting her down! He doesn't do a single thing that would convince any sane woman to overlook any negative points. Caroline just wants to "fix" him! Seriously?!?
Not every abuser is hiding behind a handsome exterior, obviously, but the author is trying to paint Caroline as a smart woman who probably would, in real life, run for the hills moments into the first date!
October 26, 2009
I had to force myself to finish this book. I usually like this theme and the latest one I read was amazing (I think it was from Lisa Kleypas?) but A Dark Love just didn't do it for me.
I didn't believe in the romance because 1. they'd only met a week before and 2. she was still married but apparently that didn't matter. Some of the villain's scene were downright disgusting and I found myself speed-reading through them.
So I finished it but I can't say I enjoyed it. If the romance hadn't happened so fast, like say give them six months or so...if there hadn't been discrepancies (like the fact she was flirting via email with an old friend when she was supposed to be under her husband's total control), maybe I'd have liked it more. So I'm giving this 2 stars. If even.
I didn't believe in the romance because 1. they'd only met a week before and 2. she was still married but apparently that didn't matter. Some of the villain's scene were downright disgusting and I found myself speed-reading through them.
So I finished it but I can't say I enjoyed it. If the romance hadn't happened so fast, like say give them six months or so...if there hadn't been discrepancies (like the fact she was flirting via email with an old friend when she was supposed to be under her husband's total control), maybe I'd have liked it more. So I'm giving this 2 stars. If even.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 19, 2012
I LOVE this book. A Dark Love is a fast moving thriller with great characters, great pacing, and one of the most demented villains you'll come across. I know everyone loves to cheer for the protagonist, but here, watching the bad--really bad--guy devolve into madness is riveting. Do you know where the book is going? Well yes, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the ride. Don't let the cover fool you. If you're looking for a romance, go elsewhere. A Dark Love does have romance, but that's not what drive this story. I recommended this to my wife, and she immediately wanted more from this author.
July 17, 2013
I loved this book. I started reading and couldn't stop.
March 31, 2025
This is the "heroine running from an abusive relationship and finds love" trope, but it was poorly executed in my opinion. It started out ok, as we have Caroline having a 20-minute dog walk to engineer an escape from her husband. She then treks out to a small town in Colorado mentioned by a college friend, thinking her husband won't find her. Multiple people in town adopt her and in two weeks - yes, two weeks - she finds a place to live and work as a housekeeper in the small mountain town halfway across the country. She also finds love with the local hero, Ken. The problem with all of this is the characters are so undeveloped that I didn't buy anything. I don't understand how the main characters fell in love as they hardly talked, and she was always trying to not share info about herself, but apparently, he smiled enough to steal her heart? And with all the trauma she went through, it felt like she always had to have a man and couldn't stand on her own since she hooked up with Ken two weeks after fleeing. And don't get me started with Caroline's characterization. So many things mentioned and dropped that didn't make sense. I have no idea what attracted her to her husband, a Freud type doctor who was 12 years older than her and described as albino with all white hair and soars on his face. His treatment of her from the very first meeting left me thinking Caroline was an idiot even dating him as warning flags blared constantly. Throw in her horrible past that was never really expounded on and a husband who was such a caricature that it felt like the author was trying to throw in every cliche in the book to try and make him frightening, that he became a laughable villain. We had more flashes of the husband's crazy thoughts and search for Caroline than Ken's thoughts as the story primarily focused on Caroline and Moross. There was also one sex scene with the husband that just seemed bizarrely thrown in for shock value and an explanation of her abusive childhood. The whole book just left me scratching my head and wondering about the publishers and editors who though, yessss... this is a great book. Since I was stuck on a long-distance plane trip, I had no choice but to read it, but I wasn't happy about it.
April 8, 2019
This book reminded me of the movie Sleeping With The Enemy. But as books give more detail this story was more in depth than the movie. Caroline is married to Porter who has extreme trust issues. Porter punishes Caroline for his insecurity over the two years of their marriage. Caroline must get away to save herself. Can she stay hidden from Porter even though he promised to always find her if she left him? Is there a twist?
June 20, 2024
This book is absolutely terrible. Written by a woman who has not been plunked in years because her husband is dead. The character is so polarizing because the author is a narcissist who rubs off on others. Do not buy this book and support a terrible woman. What a hag!
June 3, 2017
This book had the right balance of suspense, character development and just that overall good feeling of small town life !
August 1, 2019
Pretty predictable but still a solid read. Great for the beach or anytime you’re looking for an easy but engaging book!
October 28, 2022
Gut, aber nicht unbedingt spannend.
November 8, 2022
Good story though I feel Porter character development wasn't utilized to his full evil potential, absolutely recommend it though
May 9, 2011
Caroline Hughes is a young Georgetown wife, married to Dr. Porter Moross, a world-renowned psychoanalyst. One afternoon, Caroline takes her small white Yorkshire terrier, and leaves. She boards a Greyhound bus and leaves for parts unknown, ending up in a small Colorado town. In two short weeks, she begins to fit right in with the sweet small town, even falling a little bit in love with a former Kansas City Chiefs NFL player. Yet all is not well. Her psychotically controlling, abusive husband hunts her down. He attempts to kill both Caroline and her paramour, and ends up killing himself. Caroline and the football player end up together.
That’s the basic outline. The book does provide suspense. It is a pretty standard woman-in-jeopardy storyline, but it is told in a pacey way, with enough complexity to make the outcome both obvious (the woman will win) while withholding enough information so you’re not sure how it resolve. I did not once skim or skip ahead. I really did absorb every word.
There were some problems, however. The first is, the crazy abusive husband had these weird unspecified mommy issues. Like, he called for his mommy without explaining what that was about. Also he had a kind of random way of being a barbarian to his wife. He would beat her with a riding crop while making her recite childhood sexual abuse at her step-father’s hand. I felt like if you’re going to use such serious issues, they deserved a little more depth. But they were mentioned in passing, as if they meant nothing.
On a purely technical level there were several issues. The author mentioned a “Porsche 988.” There is no such car. It would have been easy to Google and find a real car to use. This sort of tiny issue explains why research is so critical.
Carroll also uses the same phrases several times, very close together. Example: on page 179, she writes that autumn was the “harbinger of the season of death.” On page 184, she says the same thing. She also does this with “demons running wild” and several other phrases. It was obvious enough that it kept snagging me out of the fictional dream. Also, there were a few capitalization errors, and comma errors. These were minor, however, compared to the fact that not just one, but two storylines were simply abandoned unresolved. And lastly, Dr. Moross was always referred to as a “psychoanalyst” – the term “psychiatry” or “psychiatrist” never appeared in the book, a fact I found strange.
The last comment was a personal taste issue. The “romance” between Caroline and her paramour, Ken Kincaid, involves exactly two modest kisses and a lot of blushing. I found that sort of avoidance of any kind of serious romance a little disappointing. I didn’t expect wild sex or anything – but I find it difficult to believe Caroline would have endured horrific abuse, moved across the country, then allowed herself to believe she was in love after eight days. I wanted a little more romance and little less crazy husband.
Altogether, despite the problems, I found it a quick, enjoyable, suspenseful read. Perfect for a plane trip or a rainy weekend.
That’s the basic outline. The book does provide suspense. It is a pretty standard woman-in-jeopardy storyline, but it is told in a pacey way, with enough complexity to make the outcome both obvious (the woman will win) while withholding enough information so you’re not sure how it resolve. I did not once skim or skip ahead. I really did absorb every word.
There were some problems, however. The first is, the crazy abusive husband had these weird unspecified mommy issues. Like, he called for his mommy without explaining what that was about. Also he had a kind of random way of being a barbarian to his wife. He would beat her with a riding crop while making her recite childhood sexual abuse at her step-father’s hand. I felt like if you’re going to use such serious issues, they deserved a little more depth. But they were mentioned in passing, as if they meant nothing.
On a purely technical level there were several issues. The author mentioned a “Porsche 988.” There is no such car. It would have been easy to Google and find a real car to use. This sort of tiny issue explains why research is so critical.
Carroll also uses the same phrases several times, very close together. Example: on page 179, she writes that autumn was the “harbinger of the season of death.” On page 184, she says the same thing. She also does this with “demons running wild” and several other phrases. It was obvious enough that it kept snagging me out of the fictional dream. Also, there were a few capitalization errors, and comma errors. These were minor, however, compared to the fact that not just one, but two storylines were simply abandoned unresolved. And lastly, Dr. Moross was always referred to as a “psychoanalyst” – the term “psychiatry” or “psychiatrist” never appeared in the book, a fact I found strange.
The last comment was a personal taste issue. The “romance” between Caroline and her paramour, Ken Kincaid, involves exactly two modest kisses and a lot of blushing. I found that sort of avoidance of any kind of serious romance a little disappointing. I didn’t expect wild sex or anything – but I find it difficult to believe Caroline would have endured horrific abuse, moved across the country, then allowed herself to believe she was in love after eight days. I wanted a little more romance and little less crazy husband.
Altogether, despite the problems, I found it a quick, enjoyable, suspenseful read. Perfect for a plane trip or a rainy weekend.
August 11, 2011
Caroline sets out an elaborate plan to escape her abusive husband, but she runs into a snag before she even gets out of town. She finally manages to leave town and journey across country with her little dog, looking over her shoulder the entire time. Once she reaches her destination, a small town nestled in the Colorado mountains, she sets about trying to find her niche and settle down.
But Caroline knows better than to stay in one place for too long; she knows that her husband will never stop looking for her and in order to stay one step ahead of him she can never stop running. That doesn't prevent her from making friends or from falling for the ex-pro football player in town. When she finally realizes she's stayed too long, it's already too late.
This was an enjoyable read but I felt like it needed something more. Porter (the husband) was creepy, but not developed in a way that made me feel satisfied when I finished the book. I would have liked to have learned more about him, more about how he became the way he was, and why he felt so attached to Carolyn. In my opinion these things were merely touched upon rather than explored deeply and in the end I can only say it was a good book. Not as gripping as I would have liked.
But Caroline knows better than to stay in one place for too long; she knows that her husband will never stop looking for her and in order to stay one step ahead of him she can never stop running. That doesn't prevent her from making friends or from falling for the ex-pro football player in town. When she finally realizes she's stayed too long, it's already too late.
This was an enjoyable read but I felt like it needed something more. Porter (the husband) was creepy, but not developed in a way that made me feel satisfied when I finished the book. I would have liked to have learned more about him, more about how he became the way he was, and why he felt so attached to Carolyn. In my opinion these things were merely touched upon rather than explored deeply and in the end I can only say it was a good book. Not as gripping as I would have liked.
January 14, 2016
I wouldn't call this a spectacular read but it was certainly a solid one. Parts were confusing, like the FBI guys and the Ex boyfriend's emails. they could have been left out. I wish porter's past and darkness would have been put into further depth. But I liked the characters (well except for Porter naturally) and the suspense was pretty well timed, the love story of Ken and Caroline a sweet one. Storm Pass is the type of place I would really love to visit and I enjoyed the descriptions of it. I liked the sweet older characters of Gus and Nan Especially. A good work and I will look for more by this author in the future.
October 15, 2009
Good suspense - a bit different from the usual "young wife leaves abusive older husband and runs away to begin a new life only to be found by said abusive husband" scenario. Storyline kept me interested and I loved the setting in the mountains of Colorado. Thought the characters were interesting but needed more development. The romance was lacking on all fronts. "Tepid" to say the least! I enjoy a bit more chemistry between characters than presented in this book. And the ending was less than satisfying.
June 28, 2015
This book was freaky crazy. The story line was all over the map. I felt like it was rushed and it left a lot of plot information just out there in the air. So many thing just seemed unfinished. I'm pretty disappointed. The summary and book cover was so misleading. I was expecting a real suspense novel. I did give it 2 stars as I think it had great potential. But overall, big frowny face to this book.
Read
February 17, 2016Quite liked the premise but I would have preferred not having the husband's POV (or the random POV of secondary characters) as I felt this slowed down the pacing quite a bit. And given the slow pacing, I knew it was going to be impossible for me to buy into HEA that occurred for the heroine. I also found the painstaking detail of every action every character took also kept me from engaging with this book.
May 3, 2011
I wanted to give 3 1/2 lol but there anit one!
This was a dark and lovely book..Kept you on your toes
not knowning what would happen next..The book sums up to be
Well blanced and waiting for more..But the thing i did'nt like was the ending..
It left me hanging and guess what the end was
I did how every enjoy it very much
Happy Reading everyone
This was a dark and lovely book..Kept you on your toes
not knowning what would happen next..The book sums up to be
Well blanced and waiting for more..But the thing i did'nt like was the ending..
It left me hanging and guess what the end was
I did how every enjoy it very much
Happy Reading everyone
October 10, 2015
While the writing wasn't perfect, I found myself quickly captivated by this novel. Similar to Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks, this novel follows a path that is not hard to predict but still held my attention. I found it to be a nice mix of suspense with romance and would recommend.
July 17, 2011
Not one of those books that I would recommend to most people. It goes both a little too far and not far enough into the twisted psyche of the abusive husband. The characters didn't get a ton of development. Just an "meh" sort of read.
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October 8, 2012This book was AWFUL! The cover and the title are totally misleading! This was not a love story. It was a story about this woman who left her freakish abusing husband! There were way to many point of views going on and the story kinda abruptly ended! I do not recommend this story!
January 30, 2013
Stumbled over this while browsing and decided to give it a shot. Glad I did! It was complex and intense at times. Definitely different than my usual reads. Hated the ending though, in a way I wanted more.
March 1, 2013
Ms. Carroll - a fellow metro Detroiter - has thrillers: A Dark Love and Riptide and two earlier written lighter love stories: The Write Match and The True Match. Depending on your mood, all four are excellent choices.
June 28, 2025
I read this book once a long time ago & remembered how much I enjoyed it so I found it again & read it & it was still just as good! I do wish it had given a little more detail into both their pasts & their marriage but it was a good book & semi exciting too! I'd recommend it!
February 28, 2015
Storyline great
Story was captivating but the writing style became tiring. Author seemed to use a phrase, think it was worth repeating a few times to the point of annoyance. Probably won't seek out other books by this author.
Story was captivating but the writing style became tiring. Author seemed to use a phrase, think it was worth repeating a few times to the point of annoyance. Probably won't seek out other books by this author.
October 18, 2009
Pretty good book. Somewhat perdictable. Woman takes off from her controlling husband, hides out, he finds her.
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