Title: Resurrecting Charlie's Girl
Author: Debra Kayn
Rating: 3 Stars
Publisher: Breathless Press
Release Date: March 2010
Book Genre: Action/Adventure Romance, Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance, Romantic Suspense/Mystery
A delightful romance with a dark side, showing the reader what a tormented abused woman must go through in order to move on and find love again.
Charlise decides that the time has come to move on again. She has been running from her abusive ex-husband for a while now and only staying in places for short amounts of time. The day she is leaving The Ridge, a shot rings out and her ex-husband, Jared Blatwell, has shot her boss. He takes her captive, walking her towards his car in the parking lot with a gun to her back. Charlise doesn't want to go back to the life that Jared had given her. Too many horrible memories. Her heart jumps a beat when she sees Tom, a private detective for the G.P.I. Company coming towards her to thank her for some extra blankets she provided him with the night before. She doesn't want to get this innocent man killed, too many people have lost their lives because of her ex-husband. Just when she thinks she has saved Tom's life, she falls to the ground, Jared's heavy body on top of hers; Tom has her in his arms in an instant and is running toward the cabin that he shares with his working buddies.
On the run with Tom is changing Charlise, and though she is still afraid that Jared will turn up at any minute, Tom is helping her feel a little more at ease. He teaches her to fly a kite, and she starts to relax just a bit. But when Jared makes an appearance yet again, Charlise realizes that she should have never relied on someone else for her safety. She has endangered him and lost money and clothing that she had ready to go for these such incidents. On the run together, a love blooms that neither expect. It's sweet and Tom vows to do whatever it takes to keep Charlise safe and recover from the torment that Jared has put her through. Everywhere they go, Jared finds them. Charlise decides that the only way to end it all is to take matters into her own hands.
I like the setting of this novella. It was constantly on the move which was exciting. The dialogue was short but to the point, which I didn't mind at all. It kept the reader tuned in to what was continually going on around and between the characters. I really liked that this novella focused on something that a lot of women go through in their lives. It is a very sad and serious topic, but the recovery is the best part to read about, and I'm so glad that this story ended the way it did. One small thing I would advise the author to do is to have someone go over it for grammar mistakes, as I caught quite a few. It wasn't anything that would deter this reader from reading, but others are a bit more picky.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a story of moving on in instances where there seems to be nowhere to go. I'm very glad that I got a chance to read this novella as it has educated me in the issue that takes place. I will be looking forward to reading more books by this author.
Resurrecting Charlie's Girl, in my opinion, deserves another 0.5 rating, which would make it 3.5 stars.
