Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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.

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I don't think this is for me either!

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Thanks for the review. I'm always on the lookout for new authors I'd enjoy. However, even without the review, the cover turns me off. Is it just me, or does covers of photographed closeups of women, supposedly the MC, say "crappy novel ahead." I see them everywhere now, and I avoid them. Plus, every book I read that has that kind of cover has been crappy. Sorry for the rant, but that cover set me off lol!

Emidy @ Une Parole said...

I think I'd enjoy the mystery aspect of this book, but I'm not sure if I'd like it overall. Thanks for the review!

Emidy
from Une Parole

Tribute Books said...

I like mysteries and adventure,if this is so,i might like the story.

Darlene said...

You always seem to manage to get to all these before me Luanne. lol. This is sitting on my shelf coming up. Hopefully I'll like it.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the review. Am pretty sure i would not have like this one either.

Diviwonder said...

The author's use of the word "for" nearly drove me to distraction. It was a predictable outcome and the characters lacked depth.
Don't think I'll be too interested in reading anything by Lesley again.