Review: A difficult subject done well.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 18, 2012
Nancy Radke managed several difficult topics - When is violence acceptable? What does it take to survive an extreme situation.This is a study of Mary.  Mary is a woman who witnessed the brutal murder of her mother at the age of 9. She lives in constant fear and insanity could well be her future now that her father has been brutally murdered in a robbery and she is alone in the world except for a few friends. In her mind she has only one redeeming skill - she and her father were trained for search and rescue work in the Cascades outside of Seattle, Washington - training that her father had encouraged to help her gain confidence.Enter our hero - a man trained for war, an academy graduate from Annapolis.  For a woman who abhors violence in any form, who believes everyone is innately good, who firmly believes that only passivity and nonviolent responses can be appropriate when faced with the killers who are unexpectedly looking for a small chest she didn't even know her father owned, the next days are ones of terror and strangely, growth.Our hero, a man of action, has never failed in any endeavor at all - from grades to sports to career.  Connor is a fighter pilot, a leader of men, and a decisive man of action.  Now, his decisions lead to failure after failure as Mary thwarts his attempts to escape from their captors first from fear and indecision, then for fear of harm to Connor, and ultimately for fear of harm to her captors.  Her fears and her innate need to save others from harm continuously conflict with Connor's need for action.  Connor learns patience and her goodness touches the heart of the one killer who can be touched. All come to respect Mary and hold her in awe.Mary's emotional problems keep the criminals from killing Connor but there are times when you just want to throttle Mary for her inability to take action.  Just as you are about to throw the book across the room in frustration, Radke reminds you of why Mary is doing what she is doing - and you have to agree.  Slowly you watch as she and Connor fall in love and discuss their irreconcilable differences of how to handle their situation.  They both want to escape...Each grows to respect the other, but can love come to such two different people?  Can each change to accommodate the values of the other? Can they have a future?How each changes the other is what this story is about.  The background of winter hiking in the Cascades makes the entire story work. This author does not make a superhero out of Mary.  She is very human.  So is Connor.  But this book is about Mary's transition from a fear-ridden mental invalid to the woman she really is.  It is Connor who makes it happen. The circumstances provide the opportunity and Mary's and Connor's ultimate decisions... and, well, it is a romance.