Review: Nightmare In The Woods
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2012
Nightmare in the Woods is a gripping tale that will leave you scared to go into the woods by yourself. The author creates a story that plays on the fears that we all have, being lost in the dark. The story starts off with Tess already in the clutches of madman Larry. Using her quick thinking she is finally able to escape him. Tess' journey through the woods brings her to John Paul Thornton's, famed action star, cabin. She hides away while John does his best to get rid of Larry. John realizes that she has been brutalized by Larry, so he does what any hero would do, he saves her life by fleeing with her. They eventually end up at the Sheriff's. One the Sheriff gets the FBI involved Tess and John have to leave again to escape the madman. The place that they up at is John's home in California. Here they can try to get back to some sort of normalcy. Tess and John's friendship starts to develop into something more. They are a little skittish on perusing anything, with Larry on the loose and Tess still copping with the kidnapping. Surrounding themselves with John's sister Lindsay and his friend Gabe, John and Tess find it easy to almost forget and give into their passion. Just as things are going good for the group Larry finally strikes. Tess is fed up with it all and wants it to end. So she goes back to where it all began, the cabin in the woods. I think part of her is looking for answers as to why and also maybe find out what happened since she can not remember it all. Answers are put to a halt when Larry arrives and the final showdown has begun. When it all is over and John and Tess walk away together. The ordeal that would have torn others apart seemed to make them much stronger than before.I liked the author's underling message in this book. Violence in movies and TV. Tess' character was tortured when Larry reenacted violent scenes he  saw in movies. People say that you can tell the diffidence between reality and fantasy, but I think Tess says it best" What are we supposed to do about the ones who can't?". That is a powerful statement that speaks volumes.I enjoyed the book. It had me wondering what would happen next. It is not one of those who done it types but you never know what's going to happen.I wasn't too happy with the romance in this book. It wasn't too believable. You are on the run from a madman, at night you have night terrors because you don't know what that crazy man did to you but lets stop everything and fall in love. I think it would have been better if they had put distance between one another after Larry killed. Maybe taken the time to decide if you where really in love ore if it was because of being scared.Overall I liked the book but I am not crazy about it. Great concept and the characters and writing all works well.  I wish the romance portion was done a little differently and I think it could have been better. For this I am giving it a 3 out of 5. It is in the romance genre but it didn't rock the romance for me.