She is Annabel Jayquith. The only daughter of billionaire Hollings Jayquith. Just eighteen and stunningly beautiful, she feels the world is hers.
He is Daniel Madison Ransom. The only son of the assassinated Senator Madison Ransom. Incredibly good-looking and famous, he's considered one of the country's sexiest young men.
They meet at a high-society party, and are instantly drawn to each other by a love so strong it threatens to overwhelm them.
Annabel knows only that she loves Daniel more than any man she's ever met.
But Daniel knows more: that their families are linked by a dark and violent secret. A secret so terrible it makes their love . . . forbidden.
Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!" When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action." To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams! - Scholastic.com
It isn’t often that I give up on a book. I usually put it down and try to start it again. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case with this book. I really like Caroline B. Cooney’s books so when I saw this one on Netgalley I jumped on the chance to read it. The synopsis seemed intriguing and mysterious. Unfortunately I only made it halfway through the book before I had to put it down. The writing felt cheesy and over dramatic. The plot wasn’t too bad but I was just too put off by the writing that I didn’t have any particular interest to continue the story.
Also, this book was hard to find on Goodreads. Not that that was something that had an effect on my rating. I was just confused when I looked it up. I think it’s a re-release of one of her older novels but set in modern times. Either way it was sort of confusing when I looked up the book and found a historical novel instead. Overall my main gripe was the cheesiness and over dramatic writing.
*I recieved this book via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.
Warning: This is the version of a book that was originally published in 1993.
Imagine my surprise when I read that phones (not sell phones) were amazing, about a Prince Andrew and the phrase "This is the America of the 20th century"!!
Even without these hints the story had a feeling of oldness, the feeling you have when you see an old a movie. If I knew that the book was happing in 1993 I would have enjoyed the story more. I think.
As for the story I liked it most of the time. The book ended with some unfinished threads. It gave some vague idea about what the future was holding for the characters but for me there was still an uncertainty. An epilogue would have been a good idea.
I am not convinced about Annabeth and Daniel's love. A spark or something was missing and I would; don't have minded if they had taken different paths in life. The point of view was tricky and didn't always make sense.
I will give points to the book for the unexpected turn of the events but I cannot say that I was 100% into the book.
I picked this up because of the author, and my fond memories of The Face on the Milk Carton series. And while I haven't read those since the late nineties, I couldn't help be somewhat disappointed with this one. It wasn't badly written, and there were scenes that were compelling, but there was far too much going on for such a short book. There were so many characters introduced that there was no time to explore their depths, and I was left with 7 'main caricatures' rather than a few well-rounded main characters within a compelling plot. I eventually finished the book, and it became a bit easier to wade through as the plotlines were hastily resolved, but it didn't change the fact that I had no real connection to any character, nor was I convinced by each of their motives.
But I'm still going to go reread The Face on the Milk Carton immediately, so it couldn't have been that bad.
I found this in my childhood bedroom amongst other point, point horrors & point romance books and recalled the author so decided to re-read
I enjoyed in a nostalgic way, there’s a lot going on in the book and I was easily able to escape into the rich and privileged world the characters reside in.
I also have unforgettable and The Fire in my to re-read pile
3.5 stars Outlandish tale of secrets, kidnapping and murder of the rich and famous with young love in the forefront. Entertaining with a twist or two despite being preposterous.
I would cast this along the lines of Unforgettable, The Mummy - the more sensationalist books. Definitely not a bad read, quick, I enjoyed Annabel and Daniel. Annabel's resourcefulness was great to read. I'm not sure how I felt about the Jade storyline - it seemed kind of random and wasn't resolved very well at all.
Wow! Recommended to me by a friend- who recalled this book from her childhood. All I can say is I felt like each sentence should end with an exclamation point- it was dripping with emotion. The cool thing is that my own personal illicit favorite book from childhood was listed in the back!
This was a simple romance novel with suspense and mystery. It was a clean romance and I like my books much more spicier. I can't say it was a bad book, it just wasn't my type story.
Thank you Open Road Integrated Media and NetGalley for ARC.