Enduring Love: A Novel

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Joe Rose has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside to celebrate his lover's return after six weeks in the States. To complete the picture, there's even a "helium balloon drifting dreamily across the wooded valley." But as Joe and Clarissa watch the balloon touch down, their idyll comes to an abrupt end. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. As the wind whips into action, Joe and four other men rush to secure the basket. Mother Nature, however, isn't feeling very maternal. "A mighty fist socked the balloon in two rapid blows, one-two, the second more vicious than the first," and at once the rescuers are airborne. Joe manages to drop to the ground, as do most of his companions, but one man is lifted sky-high, only to fall to his death.

In itself, the accident would change the survivors' lives, filling them with an uneasy combination of shame, happiness, and endless self-reproach. (In one of the novel's many ironies, the balloon eventually lands safely, the boy unscathed.) But fate has far more unpleasant things in store for Joe. Meeting the eye of fellow rescuer Jed Parry, for example, turns out to be a very bad move. For Jed is instantly obsessed, making the first of many calls to Joe and Clarissa's London flat that very night. Soon he's openly shadowing Joe and writing him endless letters. (One insane epistle begins, "I feel happiness running through me like an electrical current. I close my eyes and see you as you were last night in the rain, across the road from me, with the unspoken love between us as strong as steel cable.") Worst of all, Jed's version of love comes to seem a distortion of Joe's feelings for Clarissa.

Apart from the incessant stalking, it is the conditionals--the contingencies--that most frustrate Joe, a scientific journalist. If only he and Clarissa had gone straight home from the airport... If only the wind hadn't picked up... If only he had saved Jed's 29 messages in a single day... Ian McEwan has long been a poet of the arbitrary nightmare, his characters ineluctably swept up in others' fantasies, skidding into deepening violence, and--worst of all--becoming strangers to those who love them. Even his prose itself is a masterful and methodical exercise in defamiliarization. But Enduring Love and its underrated predecessor, Black Dogs, are also meditations on knowledge and perception as well as brilliant manipulations of our own expectations. By the novel's end, you will be surprisingly unafraid of hot-air balloons, but you won't be too keen on looking a stranger in the eye.

Book Description

On a windy spring day in the Chilterns, the calm, organized life of science writer Joe Rose is shattered when he witnesses a tragic accident: a hot-air balloon with a boy trapped in its basket is being tossed by the wind, and in the attempt to save the child, a man is killed. A stranger named Jed Parry joins Rose in helping to bring the balloon to safety. But unknown to Rose, something passes between Parry and himself on that day--something that gives birth to an obsession in Parry so powerful that it will test the limits of Rose's beloved rationalism, threaten the love of his wife, Clarissa, and drive him to the brink of murder and madness. Brilliant and compassionate, this is a novel of love, faith, and suspense, and of how life can change in an instant.

Customer Reviews:

A tale about obsession.......2007-09-23

Enduring Love deals with erotomania, or Clerambault's syndrome, most recently featured in the movie A La Folie...Pas Du Tout or He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not starring Audrey Tatou (of Amelie fame) and Samuel Le Bihan (of Brotherhood of the Wolf fame) - a rather chilling movie told in a cheerful, romantic comedy-esque manner. In McEwan's novel, how the two main characters meet is an event of remarkable proportions. A hot-air balloon appears to be flying out of control, tossed and buffeted by a strange wind, and four men rush to the aid of the pilot and a young boy trapped inside the basket. Suddenly they are lifted into the air, all the men hanging on to the ropes of the basket. Someone detects the danger and the futility of the effort, and drops first, then one by one, the others follow, save one. The balloon, after losing the extra weight, moves swiftly and farther away from the men who look on in horror. The last man hanging on eventually loses all strength and falls to his death. Ironically, the basket lands safely later and the boy is unhurt. One of the men, Jed Parry, becomes inexplicably drawn to the narrator, science writer, Joe Rose, after their joint witness of this awful incident. Something passes between them, according to Parry, and thus the novel unfolds its riveting tale of how life can change in a single instant. Murder and insanity ensue, of course.

Just annoying..........2007-08-06

When I read the other book McEwan won the Booker for, I wondered why. That plot was rather unbelievable and the story was rather unsatisfying.

With this, again, he's stretching my credulity. As some others have pointed out, the relationship between Joe and Clarissa is unconvincing. I would buy that yes a stalker could do what Jed did. But the lapses in Joe's character and Clarissa's too just plain annoy me. I pushed through the book because McEwan is good at capturing thoughts in interesting ways. Otherwise, the characters stink.

Sometimes, I feel like McEwan just collects factoids and musings and strings them together with a lame plot to make a story.

Contrary to the title, it's a thriller.......2007-08-04

In "Enduring Love," Ian McEwan has written the most perfect first chapter I've ever read. Joe Rose, the narrator, begins by telling us, "Here's where it started" and you begin to realize, with horror, that what "it" is is the astonishingly rapid unraveling of the perfect life he has. The action begins when Joe happens to help with an accident waiting to happen--a hot air balloon buffeted by high winds, with a ten-year old boy cowering in the basket. Having acted unthinkingly to help save the boy, he and a handful of other men who happen to be nearby are towed upwards on the balloon lines, vainly attempting to bring it to earth. One by one they let go--all except one.

I won't divulge any more specifics than that, other than to say that McEwan is clearly a genius. His gift is in excavating the messy architecture of the human heart and exposing how very fleeting and tenuous some relationships are, while showing how firms the bonds of other relationships can be. The characters are realistically drawn and their interactions with each other true-to-life. There are a couple of twists, but they're believable--and they add to the general sense of loss and emotional horror and enforced loneliness this novel palpably sketches.

Another McEwan Great.......2007-07-05

Ian McEwan is skilled at writing inner dialogue, this time from the point of view of Joe Rose. Joe and his common-law wife Clarissa, along with a group of passers-by, attempt to gain control of an unstable hot-air balloon. However, one would-be rescuer loses his life in the process. This event brings Parry into their lives, who quickly becomes obsessed with Joe. Parry's presence evolves into something dark and disturbing, threatening Joe and Clarissa's ideal relationship.

Joe is convinced Parry is disturbed, but at the same time, the reader can't help but question Joe's own sanity. Within a few days, Joe's life is turned up-side-down. This was a great book full of chilling psychological twists and turns. I was extremely pleased with McEwan's delivery of a well-drawn conclusion.

The menace under the surface.......2007-06-15

I had always thought Ian McEwan to be a bit of an overrated author. Good, undoubtedly, but 'the supreme novelist of his generation' as posters all over London, promoting his new novel 'On Chesil Beach' proclaim? Certainly not. For me, he has a bit too much of the fusty middle class headmaster about him. Someone who has a servicable prose style, with the odd stylistic hit, and a constructor of reasonable stories usually based on sinister or tragic events occuring to civilized middle class people, but nothing more.

Having not read anything by him for a couple of years, I recently picked up Enduring Love from my local library. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is more to Ian McEwan than I initially suspected. His prose, clearly inspired, like so many British novelists, by Bellow, is invested with the absolute authority of reality. On the first page, as he swoops into the memorable first scene description, he depicts a bottle of wine being handed over at a Chilterns picnic. His talent for pointing out the visceral detail makes us feel we are there - we can vicariously feel the cool wine bottle, we want to taste the centerpiece of the Carluccio's picnic - 'a great ball of mozarella which the assistant fished out of an earthenware vat with a wooden claw'. With a roving cinematic eye, McEwan describes a tragic balloon accident in that first chapter - a child is trapped inside an unstable hot air baloon gusting in the wind, and Joe Rose, his wife Clarissa and various others find themselves embroiled in a tense, finely balanced moral dilemma - one of those 'if you see a train heading towards another train do you divert the points so it turns into the siding, where a child is trapped' type ethical issues so typical of freshman philosophy classes. Five men find themselves holding onto the balloon ropes as it lifts over an escarpment. If they all hold tight, they can bring the balloon down to safety, but nerves fail as the balloon lifts and the men fall away. Only one of the men, John Logan, remains holding, and he grips on until he is lifted 'almost black against the sky'. He can't hold on, and falls to his death.

For Joe Rose, a successful science journalist, this tragedy is only the beginning of a series of bizzare and troubling events. One of the other men, Jed Parry, phones him up that night and declares his undying love for him. Joe Rose tries to deflect him, but his pathalogical attentions grow deeper, and more threatening, which drives a splinter through the seams of Joe Rose's civilized, urbane existence. His stable relationship with his wife, Clarissa, a beautiful Keat's scholar, comes under strain as Joe musters all his rational might to comprehend Jed's complex, which he rightly deduces is a form of Clerambault's syndrome. He goes to visit Jean Logan, John's widow, who suspects John of being with a woman on the day he died based on a scarf that was left in his car. Clarissa becomes more and more wary of Joe's behaviour as Jed becomes more and more diligent in his stalking of Joe, fuelled by the delusional belief that he is carrying out the will of God. The middle of the book continues in a string of elegant, dark set pieces: Joe has a Kafkaesque encounter at the police station as the inspector refuses to take his case seriously, a birthday celebration at a smart restaurant culminates in a spray of blood, and Joe decides to pursue an old clapped out hippy trail to procure a gun for his self defence.

In the end, things resume focus, and closure of sorts is effected. In a detailed appendix McEwan draws back the curtain and reveals the wheels and pulleys behind his plot device - the whole novel is a fictional recasting of a real life case of de Clerembault's syndrome, concerning a 28 year old unmarried man P who pursued a successful scientific writer, R in circumstances very similar to those outlined in Enduring Love. This is a brave decision by McEwan. His novel would have stood up fine without revealing the workings in the appendix, though his decision to do so by no means diminishes his artistic achievement - Ha! He nearly had us there. The appendix is actually a clever hoax, which fooled a number of prominent psychologists who believed it was a genuine case history. So McEwan redresses some of the balance against all those pranks played by Puckish scientists who like to get one over on their woolly brained artistic peers.

Enduring Love convinced me that there is something powerful in McEwan's writing. He writes about rationality and science superbly: he finds a voice for Joe that gives a convincing portrayal inside the mind of a rational man beset with emotional difficulties, many times he references everyday events to scientific theories - for instance when he is giving evidence in the police station after the restaurant incident, he laments the 'pitiless objectivity' humans delude themselves into believing as he is told his version of events differs from that of the waiter. McEwan is a great scientist of literature. He is a cool, clinical and rational stylist, and he expertly draws on his scientific reading to create a plausible and gripping piece of fiction.

Ian McEwan's Enduring Love: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)

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Ian McEwan's Enduring Love: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)
Roger Clark , and Andy Gordon
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Enduring Love: A Novel

ASIN: 0826414788

Book Description

This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from `The Remains of the Day' to `White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

"Enduring Love" (TY Advanced Lit Guides)

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"Enduring Love" (TY Advanced Lit Guides)
Jane Easton
Manufacturer: Teach Yourself Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340803037

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Enduring love,: A romantic novel
Ida Schaaf Regelman
Manufacturer: Exposition Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007HRE64

Average customer rating:

Don't listen to the abridged book on tape
Enjoyed this second book, but still has poor editing
awesome

An Enduring Love: A Novel
Michele Ashman Bell
Manufacturer: Covenant Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1577343336

Customer Reviews:

Don't listen to the abridged book on tape.......2005-10-12

I absolutely have loved listening to the other novels by this author, but for some reason Covenant decided to record this 334 page novel onto only two tapes. It was like listening to a book report rather than hearing an uplifting novel. The characters never were developed and I was often confused as to who they were and what they were doing. I know I'll need to read the book now, but I would have loved to listened to the story as well.

Enjoyed this second book, but still has poor editing.......2001-03-06

I enjoyed the first book in this series enough to seek out this second book. I enjoyed it just as much as the first, maybe even more so because Michele took us on a wonderful travel adventure through Europe. But I was still frustrated by the lack of thorough editing this book had before hitting publication. Forms of words were misused, punctuation was hit and miss, and the tenses even got switched a couple of times. It's too bad, because these errors really pulled me out of the story, hurting an otherwise very good story.

awesome.......1999-10-21

This book is great. First you need to read "An Unexpected Love" and then read this book, and then read "A Forever Love". These books start out with an avid fitness instructor and her struggle with anorexia. She takes time off work and is living with her sister who is LDS. She and her mother are very much against the LDS church. The first day she is at her sisters she meets a guy and of course he is LDS too. This book takes you through her struggles with anorexia and finding herself in the church. Don't read this book unless you have time to not put it down.

"No ideas but in things": fiction, criticism, and the new Darwinism.(Critical essay): An article from: Style

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"No ideas but in things": fiction, criticism, and the new Darwinism.(Critical essay): An article from: Style
James M. Mellard
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000V7RX02
Release Date: 2007-08-17

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Style, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2007. The length of the article is 12394 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: In recent literary criticism, one of the more controversial ideologies to emerge in the wake of postmodernism has been a new Darwinism that pledges allegiance to findings in cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary social science. In its radical form developing as a new fundamentalism, the new Darwinism is marked by intolerance of nonscientific modes of knowledge, by stories of conversion in which critics discover truth and salvation in evolutionary science, and by a disregard for the cognitive gap dividing science's materialism from forms of idealism exhibited in literature. Regarding issues it raises, fan McEwan's novel Enduring Love has become something of a lightning rod. While McEwan explicitly attaches himself to Darwinist ideology, the novel itself shows how problematic for art and criticism is any attempt simply to toss out knowledge from fields other than science. Based on a concept of erotomania (de Clerambault's syndrome) that developed from studies in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Enduring Love illustrates how persistently--and perhaps irreducibly--divergent are sciences's materialism and fiction's philosophic realism.

Citation Details
Title: "No ideas but in things": fiction, criticism, and the new Darwinism.(Critical essay)
Author: James M. Mellard
Publication: Style (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Page: 1(29)

Article Type: Critical essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Have to disagree

Great sequel to the Backup Plan

Second Novel the Trilogy

strong character driven contemporary romance
Flirting with Disaster
Sherryl Woods
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Backup Plan

Waking Up In Charleston

About That Man

Feels Like Family (Sweet Magnolias)

Flamingo Diner

ASIN: 0778322386

Customer Reviews:

Have to disagree.......2006-12-26

From the back cover:

Opposites attract, but they don't last.

At least, that's what improper Southern belle Maggie Forsythe thinks after being unceremoniously dumped two weeks before getting hitched to a man even her mother approves of. Maggie has never given two figs what anyone thinks, so why is she hiding away from her South Caroline Low Country home?

This is until concerned--albeit scheming--friends arrive with three options:

One: Sit and mope.
Two: Go home to her gallery.
Three: Help them build a house for a needy family and make a difference for once.

But one look at Maggie, and the project foreman Josh Parker knows what kind of sweet-tea-swilling debutante he's dealing with. Even if she does know her way around a circular saw. Sure, they have enough sparks to ignite a bonfire, but he's corn bread to her caviar. And if these's anything he's learned from growing up broke, it's better to aim low than risk everything and loose.

And my review:

I'd tried this author before, when her story appeared in Harlequin's "So This is Christmas" romance anthology. Since the stories in romance anthologies are so short, I don't like to write an author off completely if I didn't like their story, since I feel that most authors do better when they have enough room to work.

But I'm afraid I had the same big complaint with FLIRTING WITH DISASTER that I did with my first experience with this author's work. I find that the sexual attraction between hero and heroine is way over-the-top. They see each other, and are instantly picturing each other in bed in various sexual situations and positions, etc. They both have sex on the brain (even though they hate each other). It was just ridiculous. (As someone who has met and married the love of her life, this immediate and overpowering lust just doesn't feel realistic to me.)

I just never felt that there was anything drawing the characters together except overactive hormones. And for me, that's just not enough for a satisfying read. Lust is not what real and lasting relationships are build on. Sexual attraction is important in a relationship, but it can't be the sole motivation for it.

Guess I'm in the minority here, but I can't recommend this book. Of course, if you're already a fan of this author, my review probably won't do much to change your mind. But if you've never read Sherryl Woods before, I recommend that you borrow this one from the library if you're still determined to read it.

Great sequel to the Backup Plan.......2006-02-21

Unlucky-in-love gallery owner Maggie Forsythe is cleansing her wounds when her fiance Warren called the wedding off after the invitations went out. She is visited Warren, best friend Dinah and Dinah's husband Cord. They make an offer she cannot refuse - help with the building of a home for a needy local parishioner.

Also on hand is Cord's foreman, Josh Parker. He is a rootless man who goes from job to job and lives in motels. When he and debutante Maggie meet, they are like fire and water. So you know that the sizzle will be good. He writes Maggie off as a bubble head, not realizing that she is quite an accomplished handy-gal herself, having renovated her gallery on her own. Neither wants to make the first move, but when his often married mother comes for a visit, she makes it her business to get the two together. That is when she is not driving the man opposed to the construction crazy.

As Maggie and Josh rush to make the deadline and try not to fall for each other despite all their friends (and family) shenanigans, they suddenly have to look out for an abusive lover of a gallery employee hell bent on making Maggie's life hell.

The story is another great southern fried romance as well as a great follow up to "The Backup Plan," with the main characters back playing pivotal roles telling Maggie's story, and soon to follow with "Waking Up in Charleston."

Second Novel the Trilogy.......2005-12-29

`Flirting with Disaster' by Sherryl Woods is fun southern romance novel. This novel tells the story of a stubborn woman who nursing a dose of embarrassment after her fiancé breaks it off two week before the wedding. Her friends talk her into helping out with church building project. She clashes with the handsome foreman for day one - but where is there is sparks there is fire. This is the second novel of the trilogy. I am off to read `The backup plan' for the first novel. The final novel `Waking up in Charleston' will due out May 2006.

strong character driven contemporary romance .......2005-11-30

Two weeks before their marriage, dependable Dr. Warren Blake dumps Maggie Forsythe. The Charleston iron magnolia flees her home, leaving her art and antiques gallery Images to be run by her employees, and hides on Sullivan Island. Her best friends Dinah and Cordell Beaufort and Warren arrive to bring her home. She hides from them the real reason she retreated that has nothing to do with humiliation but feeling that for whatever reason she is unlovable. Still they persuade her to help build a house for a widow with three kids.

Heading the construction project is a reluctant Josh Parker who assumes that Maggie is cotton candy only to be surprised she is good with tools having renovated Images by herself. They are attracted to one another, but neither wants to ignite the spark as she fears rejection and he presupposes that a working stiff with a matriarchal hang-up is way beneath her level. When his mom comes out of nowhere and teams up with Dinah as matchmakers, neither one of the hesitant duet stand a chance unless they run away from love.

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER is a strong character driven contemporary romance starring two wonderful protagonists and a powerful support cast with many facing complex problems. The return of the stars from the BACKUP PLAN augments the fine story line in which he and she both agree on two things: they want one another and they do not belong together. The social issues are deftly handled due to the powerful characterizations. Fans will appreciate this fine look at modern society in which it takes a community coming together to help parents raise children.

Harriet Klausner

Women in the Military: Flirting with Disaster

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factual errors abound
Two Thumbs Down
outstanding
It is sad we need such books, but need them we do.
So true about what is happening

Women in the Military: Flirting with Disaster
Brian Mitchell
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0895263769

Book Description

From today's sex-scandal headlines to tomorrow's battlefield disasters.

Customer Reviews:

factual errors abound.......2007-09-04

The majority of the arguments presented by the author, while backed up by statistics and numbers in the text, are skewed to represent the authors opinion. the author writes about womens motivations, not based upon interviews with women in service, but based on his own opinion.

Two Thumbs Down.......2007-08-30

Disguised as a scholarly effort, this book reeks of chauvinism. Mitchell distorts the truth (something he ironically accuses feminists of doing) and makes claims for which he has no basis. For a more accurate look at women's role in the military, see D'Ann Campbell's "Combating the Gender Gulf" (about women's military service in the first Gulf War) or Judith Hick's Stiehm's Arms and the Enlisted Woman. Both works bring to light the complexity of women's roles in the military and give a much more balanced assessment of their history and future in the Armed Forces.

outstanding.......2007-03-22

Insightful, evocative and direct...trust a former soldier to get right to the point. With a seemingly endless number of statistics and various investigative committee results, Mr. Mitchell makes such a case against the extensive use of women in the service that it begs the question why we are even still entertaining the notion that they can pull their own weight. As a deployed soldier, I can attest with first-hand experience to the veracity of Mitchell's conclusion that the presence of women is hampering our fighting ability. Thankyou to the author for saying what needs to be said in an age where effectiveness of military units seems to play second fiddle to the desires of political constituents.

It is sad we need such books, but need them we do. .......2005-11-07

This is an excellent book which details in a very entertaining, but accurate way, the fact that women's inferior strength and robustness is a hazard to not only themselves but also jeopardises the safety and undermines the morale of those who are forced to work with them - which obviously has potentially very serious repercussions for the effectiveness of all branches of the military. In my own country, the UK, the politicians, at the request of the UK's armed services , have finally been forced to admit defeat on this issue after a decade of 'gender blind' egalitarianism imposed upon them by politically correct fantasy. As from April, 2006, women will be removed from many positions and placed in their own platoons, and their training regime and subsequent duties will be "sustainable and commensurate with their physical profile". Kind words and gentle diplomacy indeed. But, alas, it seems that is what is necessary in the contemporary world at present, to merely state the truth and declare what is blatantly obvious to all but the most idelogically brainwashed. And this applies to many other fields of human endeavour besides the military.

So true about what is happening.......2005-10-23

This book tells the truth that others are afraid to tell simply because telling the truth nowadays puts people's job on the line. Many people bash this book because they don't like the fact this is what is going on right now in our armed forces. My father served in the military for over 20 years as a combat aviator and also feels strongly about the issue. Not only him but also his brothers who also served as well as some friends of mine in the service who are actually serving in Irag and Afgan right now. It's sad to see the greatest military power that the world has ever seen is being destroyed from the inside and the attitude of the warrior must be lost because of political correctness.

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Ok
No spark and just irresponsible
This book is sensational
Unforgettable and Unputdownable!
Jane Graves does it again!

Flirting with Disaster
Jane Graves
Manufacturer: Ivy Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345458400
Release Date: 2003-11-04

Book Description

HE WAS THE MAN SHE COULDN'T HAVE . . .

On a humanitarian mission to fly doctors to a remote village in Mexico, pilot Lisa Merrick discovers something sinister lurking behind the organization in charge. Her plane is sabotaged, leaving her trapped in the Mexican wilderness with a price on her head and no way out. Injured and desperate, she manages to contact the one man she knows will help her: Dave DeMarco, a tough but compassionate Texas cop she was once wildly in love with, a man who left her with nothing but a whispered promise that now provides her only hope.

. . . SHE WAS THE WOMAN HE COULDN'T FORGET

Dave DeMarco is stunned when a woman from his past phones him late one night with an incredible story of smuggling, sabotage, and attempted murder. Just hearing Lisa Merrick’s voice brings back memories Dave doesn’t want to face, but a promise he once made leaves him no choice but to help her. Soon, though, his mission to rescue Lisa becomes a struggle for survival against an enemy who wants them both dead. When the danger they face clashes with the passion that still burns between them, Dave vows to protect the woman he never stopped loving–and keep her in his life forever. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Ok.......2007-06-03

This was my least favorite in the series I was really looking forward to a story but it defintly did not meet expectations. Dave just up and leaves his daughter to help an old high school friend he hasnt seen in 11 years. I did not like the fact that throughout the whole book hes just running around with Lisa and never really gives his daughter a thought he called his brother a few times and maybe two or three times asked about his daughter but other then that it did not seem to me he even cared about his daugther it would have been a better book if he did not have a daughter which since his daughter was maybe in less than a chapter of the book it did not seem like he had one. If you can forget that hes a dad that abandoned his daughter its a good book.

No spark and just irresponsible.......2004-06-11

I didn't feel the characters. Dave willingly drops everything, which means asking his family to watch his small child, to help a woman he hasn't heard from in 11 years. Once he's safe, he decides to jump right back into the danger even though his family urges him to return home to them and his daughter. Nope, he can't do that because Lisa has no one to help her and because "he knows there is more to Lisa"; this stems from the brief time he knew her in high school. You're kidding, right? Dave and Lisa continue to act irresponsible throughout the book. Lisa had a tough childhood and had some deep issues that she has never resolved. The author could have really made something out of this, but the adult Lisa reminded me of the teenager that never grew up and an adrenaline junkie who used sex to keep Dave, and the implied numerous men, in her life just a little longer. Typical, no suprises here..... Also, I didn't understand why Dave was attracted to Lisa in the first place other than "knowing there is more to Lisa". Lisa's characther lacked common sense. This makes her attractive? I don't get it.. I concluded it was the mind blowing sex she made sure he would never forget. To me, that made Dave shallow. Usually, I am willing to go along for the ride, but overall, I just don't see how lacking common sense and being irresponsible could be good reading....

This book is sensational.......2004-04-28

Flirting With Disaster by Jane Graves is another wonderful adventure of the DeMarco family.

Cop Dave DeMarco the calm, logical on of the family, is having issues with his job. His brothers think Dave needs to get a life since it has been several years since his wife died, leaving him to raise a daughter alone. During the middle of the night he gets a phone call from a woman from his past, Lisa Merrick.

Lisa Merrick is doing what she always wanted to do, fly a plane. She is on a mission to bring docs to a remote Mexican village. Lisa discovers some major illegal activity and is almost killed in the process. She turns to her high school friend Dave for help.

As Dave and Lisa fight to escape the people that want to silence them forever. They realize the spark of attraction they felt for each other in high school has grown into something stronger. But first they have to get back home alive and overcome the past.

Flirting with disaster is a must read, its fast-paced and sexy. Dave and Lisa literally draw sparks when they are together.

I am so glad a good friend recommended this author to me. I can't wait for the next story.

Unforgettable and Unputdownable!.......2004-04-04

Flirting with Disaster by Jane Graves was a lot of fun. I enjoy stories of this nature. This was my first Jane Graves book, and it won't be my last. I like this writer.

Jane Graves does it again!.......2004-02-26

Dave DeMarco lost his wife 4 years ago in an auto accident. Even though he was in love with Lisa Merrick in high school, he married Carla (you'll find out the reasons why in the book).

One night Dave gets a call from Lisa. She is a pilot who was flying a humanitarian mission and uncovered a smuggling ring. She's hiding out in Mexico and needs Dave to come help her get out.

The characters were likeable. Poor Dave, all that he'd suffered in silence. As close as the family is it's amazing that they never had a clue. Lisa was the school "bad girl" but all along she was just trying to survive her horrendous family.

Book Description

The delightful new Kate Carpenter Mystery It's springtime in the city and the first festival of the summer is taking place. Amidst clowns and bands and face painters, Kate Carpenter and her friends are working for the Festival while enjoying the sunshine. But a serial killer is stalking the area, leaving the streets deserted at night and a wake of fear rippling across the city. After Kate has a huge fight with her boyfriend and is plagued by a member of the festival's staff she is supervising, she is terrified that one of the volunteers could be the serial killer. A missing child, a kidnapped woman and a dead body all convince Kate that her life is on the line. Surrounded by strangers, and not knowing who to believe, can Kate determine who she can trust before it is too late? And will she return to her boyfriend Cam or is there now another man in her life??

Customer Reviews:

Another Great Read.......2005-12-13

Our beloved Kate and Cam are back in this next book of the Kate Carpenter Mysteries, but this one far surpasses the previous.
Kate and Cam find themselves at a crossroad in their relationship; one that may well end in disaster and we see Cam leave our heroin to take a trip alone that was meant for the two of them. Kate, now confused and hurting is thrust into a relationship with another and again is plunged into a life and death situation of murder, mayhem and mystery.
I feel author, Deborah Nicholson has truly outdone herself in this latest work. Her growth as a writer is extremely evident as she holds your thoughts captive in this read. She brings romance, mystery and adventure expertly into this work and intertwines characters in the storyline that are both loveable and repulsive. You never forget Cam, although he is not present through most of the read and you find yourself in the same emotional dilemma concerning heartstrings to him that Kate is feeling.This is always a mark of an excellent writer when they pull you into the mind of their character.
You wonder about Kate; is her spirit truly one with Cam or will her heart belong to another? And who is after Kate and why?
I have to say this is truly the best work by Deborah Nicholson yet; grabbing your attention and understanding of the story whether this is your first taste of this series or if you are reading along with each outstanding book as it is released. I honestly give this book my highest recommendation. It is one of romance, mystery, adventure and a storyline with heart. I believe we truly have another winner. Well done!

Flirting With Disaster & Spanking the Monkey

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Flirting With Disaster & Spanking the Monkey
David O. Russell
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0571190715

Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental

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Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental
Marc S. Gerstein , and Michael Ellsberg
Manufacturer: Union Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1402753039

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Management: Flirting With Disaster!
Maxwell Pinto
Manufacturer: Rosedog Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805995919

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