An abused wife fakes her death and runs. She eventually reaches a small island where she feels safe to settle down. She opens up a small business, makes friends with the locals and starts to practice witchcraft (a long tradition of the island said to have been originally settled by witches). She even feels free to fall in love again.
But a chance sighting by an old friend leads her estranged husband to her door. Angry and determined to reclaim her he stabs her new lover, the local sheriff, and when she runs he chases her. Her new friends come to her rescue and with a combination of magic and the law he is forced from her life for good.
If you remove the magic elements (which were very much a side issue) this book is pretty much a written version of the movie Sleeping with the Enemy.
Given the International Bestseller claims of the cover and the recommendations of friends, I thought to find, at the very least, surprising new twists in the plot and possibly writing that sparked and danced across the page. The writing wasn’t bad but neither was it exceptionally good. And given the rave reviews I’ve seen of this author’s works I expected something outstanding. What I got was competent handling of a much told story carried along by interesting secondary characters. And it is the presence of those secondary characters that had me finish the book.
This is the first in a trilogy and in its secondary characters was the promise of more interesting stories to come. I hope that is the case since I have committed to reading the next two books.
Overall far from the worst I’ve ever read but also far from the best too.-Lynn
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