All of my reviews can be found on www.novelgossip.comIm joining in again with Throwback Thursday which was created by my good friend Renee at Its Book Talk. She started this weekly feature as a way to highlight old favorites and read books that have already been published. I have so many older books on my TBR that get ignored in favor of review copies and I figure participating in Throwback Thursday will help me to read at a least one older title a week! I read my first Chevy Stevens book a few months ago, Never Let You Go and LOVED it, so Ive been wanting to go back and read her earlier books ever since.This is told using a really cool narrative style, each chapter is actually a session between Annie and her therapist as she details the day of her abduction and the year she was held captive, then it follows her up to the present day. Annie had such a strong, unique voice and I loved the conversational feel it had. Her ordeal was harrowing and at times very uncomfortable to read about, but I was still very gripped, this was an addictive read. There were plenty of shocking events, I was dying to know how Annie managed to escape and I did not predict that whole scenario at all. I love abduction stories and Im especially intrigued by the aftermath and Annies growth and development was great. It was horribly sad and tragic to see how much she changed and how damaged she was, it broke my heart. This was one creepy read with unpredictable twists and turns galore, I cant wait to read the rest of Stevens books and have a feeling theyll be coming up on my TT posts quite a bit in the future.

I recommend that you don't read this if you are a female real estate agent as its guaranteed to give you the creeps next time you show a house on your own. Chevy Stevens was herself working as a real estate agent when she got this terrifyingly scary idea for her first book and consequently quit her job to write it. Annie O'Sullivan was a successful realtor on Victoria Island when she was abducted by a psychopath at the end of a house viewing and held captive for a year in an isolated mountain hut. Up to that point she was contented with her life. Although her more popular older sister and father died in a car crash when she was young and she and her mother had never got along, she had a good job, owned her own house, had a great best friend and a caring boyfriend. But after being held captive for a year, she is unable to trust anyone, lives in fear and is wary of anyone getting too near. Eventually she decides she needs help from a psychologist and gradually tells her the story of her year in captivity.I liked the way this plot unfolded with Annies account of her abduction and terrifying year in captivity seamlessly interwoven with the continuing police investigation into finding the identity of the man who took her and why he targeted Annie. Although badly damaged psychologically by her abduction, Annie comes across as a strong character determined to get back on her feet and start living a normal life again. Her mother is more difficult to understand as a cold, self centred woman who seems to resent Annie and has made it hard for them to be close. Gary, the detective who interviewed Annie after the abduction is a lovely character, who is patient in taking Annies phone calls and supporting her after everyone else has given up. This was an excellent debut novel and Im happy to discover a large back catalog of Ms Stevens thrillers waiting for me to read.

We learn about a womans abduction, her year long captivity with a psycho, her escape, and how the trauma affects not only her but everyone close to her. It is told in first person through sessions with a therapist, and I liked this approach. The story starts out very fast paced, with her being kidnapped within the first ten pages. I was hooked. The Freak, as she calls the captor in her mind, takes her to a windowless cabin somewhere in the wilderness. He reveals his plans for her over the course of a few days and she is horrified. He plans to keep her as his wife, where they will never leave this place, and live off the land. She is expected to bear his children. She must follow his rules, endure his beatings, nightly rapes, and psychological games. She slowly beings to lose pieces of herself. This is shaping up to be a pretty good story right? HmmAbout half way through, she out of the blue gets an opportunity to get away from him. I just didnt buy it, and started to question how the rest of the story would go. In the following description, Ive left out some details of her captivity (such as the baby factor) because Im not focused on that. Hes chopping wood, and wants her to stack it for him. He sets the ax down to do something, and she gets this idea to brain him with it. Ok fine. However, this woman has just givin birth to a baby a few weeks before, has not slept in five days, and has barley eaten. Somehow she has the strength to lift an ax and drive into the back of this mans skull. Have you ever lifted an ax? Its not like swinging a baseball batthose things are heavy. I just couldnt buy that she could swing this with such power, overhead, and drive the blade of an ax into the back of a taller mans head. Of course it works. He dies instantly. Wow thats it? Really? In summary, she ends up walking down the mountain and finding the van and driving to the police. What a letdown! I was anticipating a final showdown with the bad guy. I think the author got to a point where she was thinking, well crapI need to end this stuff with the psycho, so we can get to the part of the mystery that I really want to tell. Im tempted to throw the term deus ex machina with sudden strength, but that may be going a bit far.When she gets back home, the story lulls a bit. Yes, I do understand how seriously screwed up she has to be, and cant relate to anyone. I was just kind of bored. Finally about fifty pages left, the book totally redeems itself to me when revealing the who, and why of the whole story. I did suspect the mother the whole time, but the author gets points for creating a such a pathetic woman and the reasons for what she did to her daughter. In the end, I moved my initial rating from a 3 to a 4 because I did like the ending. I recommend for any fans of thrillers.