Review: Very engaging
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2012
So very few novels deal with domestic violence, and I was glad to see Chicki Brown explore this subject in this novel.I found the book a very good, easy read, and the suspense of what unfolds as Marcia decides to cut ties with her current station and situation and effectively run for her life - literally, as Brown demonstrates - had kept me glued to the Kindle screen. Dani, as Marcia is later known, and Taylor Villanova explore their various quirks, from their backgrounds to their pasts, and Dani has to, eventually, confront her abuser, but before that, she has to build up a good bit of strength. Her journey from victim to survivor is engrossing, to say the least.One thing to note, though: while it is fascinating to see Dani come into her own after enduring what she had, it feels as though the bulk of that is done in the first two-thirds of the book. However, as an overall, it doesn't take away from the story.I love that the characters and the situations are true-to-life. You can go to a bar in Atlantic City, look at the cocktail waitresses there, and easily imagine that one of them had run to AC to sever ties with a traumatic past. If you look at a bouncer in a club, you may wonder if he, like Taylor Villanova, has something under the tough-guy veneer. Or, alternately, you can look at a Santa Barbara house and wonder exactly what happens behind closed doors. Chicki Brown does a great job in painting the picture.