Stolen - Lesley Pearse

I have a fondness for British authors, but hadn't read Lesley Pearse before. The premise of Stolen sounded good.

A beautiful young woman is found washed up on the shores of Sussex. Against all belief she is alive - but has no idea who she is. When her picture is put in the paper, two past co workers from a cruise ship recognize her as Lotte, a fellow hairdresser. They haven't spoken to her in the past two years - and neither has anyone else. Where has she been? What has happened to her?

Pearse seems to have a trademark style. She puts an innocent into a dangerous situation and against tremendous odds, they survive tragic events and triumph. To this end, she sponsors an award - The Lesley Pearse Women of Courage Award.

I was drawn into the plot immediately - I really wanted to find out what had happened to this girl. There is a good cast of supporting characters. They are all clearly drawn leaving no doubt as to who the 'bad' ones are, although they were a little over the the top. I had a hard time connecting with even the 'good' characters though. Lotte never became 'real' for me, despite the circumstances she goes through. It sometimes seemed like Pearse thought of every bad thing that could befall this girl and wove it into her plot. I found some of the storyline transitions a bit jarring - they didn't seem to flow naturally.

But - Stolen has lots of adventure, intrigue and romance to keep readers turning pages.

Sometimes a reader notices small things that really don't contribute to the overall picture, but stick in their head. For me I found myself counting the number of times the characters 'grinned' by the end of the book. (A lot...) And I found the use of exclamation marks somewhat overdone!

This was a good read - I'd give it a 3/5, but not really the one for me. Fans of Sandra Brown or Danielle Steele would really enjoy Lesley Pearse.