Read this one right when I got it -- and finished it in less than 24-hours!
3.0 out of 5 stars - "Change your thoughts and you change the world."
The Beth Movies, featuring a young Kathleen (renamed Kick) Lannigan, are
"still the most downloaded child pornography on the internet." Abducted by Mel Riley when she was only 6, Kick was kept secluded and was sexually exploited until a dramatic FBI rescue brought the damaged little girl home. Now 10 years after her ordeal, Kick is 21 and has reinvented herself as a serious student of self defense. Expert with weapons of every kind and in peak physical condition, it's only her mind that still exhibits the toll though Kick has tried every type of therapy known. Estranged from her biological family, Kick and James (another abduction survivor) have used her settlement money to form a sort of investigation team using his computer skills and her insider knowledge of the child porn industry. Their goal is to try to find other missing or abducted children before it's too late. When a couple of children appear in Amber Alerts, Kick feels the familiar dread seep in, so when a mysterious man who calls himself John Bishop and says he needs her help with a job connected to the cases of Adam Rice and Mia Tuner, Kick finds herself in a helicopter back into remembered hell.
Does Kick have memories and skills that can help recover these two children and will this chance to help save some other child give her the relief she needs to assuage the guilt she feels because of what she did the night she was found. When the opportunity to see the dying Mel Riley in a prison infirmary brings back feelings she thought she had buried, she is more focused than ever on helping to make up for what she'd done and to release Mel's hold on her.
A bit uneven in pacing and with the ever popular damaged heroine protagonist, the novel moves along in spurts of present day interspersed with flashbacks that show only a little of what Kick's life was like during the years with Mel. It's quite obvious that Kick still has a lot to work through and needs much more psychological help. The relationship between Kick and Bishop is stereotypical and predictable. I never grew to develop any affinity for any of the characters despite the writing telling me I should, and never felt the threat of real evil or suspense in the story. The novel ends as you'd expect when knowing that this is the first book in a new series.
I've read all of Chelsea Cain's previous books and enjoyed part of the Archie and Gretchen story until it no longer made sense to me, so I was hoping this departure and fresh start would be a thriller in which I could rediscover some of the shock and awe that made the author's first books so addicting. Despite all the famous name gushing blurbs, this just didn't grab me or enthrall me as I'd wished. To be more specific of the ways it failed might produce spoilers, so I'll leave it to other readers to either agree with me or to have their own very diverse opinions. I'm not sure I'd read the second one.
Amazon Vine and NetGalley provided ARC copies of this book for review.
The Beth Movies, featuring a young Kathleen (renamed Kick) Lannigan, are
"still the most downloaded child pornography on the internet." Abducted by Mel Riley when she was only 6, Kick was kept secluded and was sexually exploited until a dramatic FBI rescue brought the damaged little girl home. Now 10 years after her ordeal, Kick is 21 and has reinvented herself as a serious student of self defense. Expert with weapons of every kind and in peak physical condition, it's only her mind that still exhibits the toll though Kick has tried every type of therapy known. Estranged from her biological family, Kick and James (another abduction survivor) have used her settlement money to form a sort of investigation team using his computer skills and her insider knowledge of the child porn industry. Their goal is to try to find other missing or abducted children before it's too late. When a couple of children appear in Amber Alerts, Kick feels the familiar dread seep in, so when a mysterious man who calls himself John Bishop and says he needs her help with a job connected to the cases of Adam Rice and Mia Tuner, Kick finds herself in a helicopter back into remembered hell.
Does Kick have memories and skills that can help recover these two children and will this chance to help save some other child give her the relief she needs to assuage the guilt she feels because of what she did the night she was found. When the opportunity to see the dying Mel Riley in a prison infirmary brings back feelings she thought she had buried, she is more focused than ever on helping to make up for what she'd done and to release Mel's hold on her.
A bit uneven in pacing and with the ever popular damaged heroine protagonist, the novel moves along in spurts of present day interspersed with flashbacks that show only a little of what Kick's life was like during the years with Mel. It's quite obvious that Kick still has a lot to work through and needs much more psychological help. The relationship between Kick and Bishop is stereotypical and predictable. I never grew to develop any affinity for any of the characters despite the writing telling me I should, and never felt the threat of real evil or suspense in the story. The novel ends as you'd expect when knowing that this is the first book in a new series.
I've read all of Chelsea Cain's previous books and enjoyed part of the Archie and Gretchen story until it no longer made sense to me, so I was hoping this departure and fresh start would be a thriller in which I could rediscover some of the shock and awe that made the author's first books so addicting. Despite all the famous name gushing blurbs, this just didn't grab me or enthrall me as I'd wished. To be more specific of the ways it failed might produce spoilers, so I'll leave it to other readers to either agree with me or to have their own very diverse opinions. I'm not sure I'd read the second one.
Amazon Vine and NetGalley provided ARC copies of this book for review.
Very disappointed! I expected a good suspense/thriller but not to be---moves very slow and all through the book it has too many 'bad memories' pop up, Kick is portrayed as a tough bad-ass something? I'm not even sure what her role was, not a cop, not FBI so what? Just her and her mysterious benefactor hunting for missing children.
By page 100 it just lost me trying to muddle through all the descriptions and all 'the past episodes' from when she was a missing child.
Even up to page 100 it just moved along too slow in getting the story going good and most of those pages were spent in repeating over and over all about the 'weapons' she is supposed to be expert with, and describing each and every weapon with what color they are and how big they are and so on---boring!
By page 100 it just lost me trying to muddle through all the descriptions and all 'the past episodes' from when she was a missing child.
Even up to page 100 it just moved along too slow in getting the story going good and most of those pages were spent in repeating over and over all about the 'weapons' she is supposed to be expert with, and describing each and every weapon with what color they are and how big they are and so on---boring!
Took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked, a story of how strong the human soul and spirit can be. Kidnapped as a child, Kick escapes and is trying to help find others. Looking forward to book 2
I enjoy a book with a kick ass woman, expert in weapons and self defense, but Kick came up a little short. She and Bishop who sort of forced her to join him in a mission to find missing children who were kidnapped as Kick was at 8'yrs old. It seems Bishops brother was killed by a pedophile years ago and since Kick was rescued, he needs her memory of the past to help him in his venture. It seems to me Kick has PTSD which kicks in as the two of them close In on the brutal men responsible, leaving Kick whimpering in a corner as her past still haunts her.
This is the first book in a new series for this author and I will read the next book to see if it moves along at a better pace.
This is the first book in a new series for this author and I will read the next book to see if it moves along at a better pace.
I just didn't like it. I cannot pinpoint exactly why, but even now after reflecting on the read, I just don't care for it. It starts slow, it ends poorly and I really just don't care for the characters. I think I will cross this series off of my need to read list.
Short review...sorry. This book kicks serious ass. I don't read a lot of female writers, because they spend too much time delving into "feelings" and motivations. Chelsea Cain manages to balance it with suspense and action in a tightly crafted story. Very impressed. Can't wait for the sequel.
I really enjoyed this book, it read well and moved quickly. It was hard to put down, because I wanted to know what happened next. I love a book that pulls at my emotions, and this accomplished that. I so hope this is tithe first in a series with Kick Lannigan.
Chelsea Cain does it again with a new group of characters. She has the knack of bringing the reader in from the very beginning and doesn't let you go, even after you read the last line of the book. My only complaint is that while she has the second book of this "series" written and ready to go, she's changed publishers and the book hasn't been issued yet, leaving us readers hanging. I WANT that second book!!!
