Finding Mary Blaine [Mass Market Paperback]

Jodi Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mira | Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Only a few hours after Blaine Anderson drags herself, dazed and bleeding from the smoking rubble of a bombed clinic, the world believes she's dead. Before she can reach her husband, she realizes the bomber is trying to kill the witnesses -- including her. Without money and I.D., she becomes Mary Blaine, hiding in a homeless shelter, knowing it is too dangerous to go home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beautiful Blaine Anderson, who lives in a posh Austin, Tex., townhouse with her lawyer husband, Mark, seems to have it all. In reality, she's a timid trophy wife who's secretly terrified by city traffic, threatened by change and especially frightened that her possible pregnancy might further alienate the career-driven Mark. To find out if she really is pregnant, Blaine visits a women's free clinic, but while she's there, the clinic is bombed in an apparent act of anti-abortion terrorism. Blaine soon realizes that the bombing was an unfathomable attempt by Mark's senior partner to kill her. Unable to contact her husband without endangering him, the injured and bewildered Blaine lives among the homeless, and in doing so confronts her fears as well as a relentless killer. Thomas (The Widows of Wichita County, etc.) skillfully, and at times humorously, depicts the various street characters who assist Blaine, and she does an excellent job of portraying Mark's moving metamorphosis—with the help of an irresistibly eccentric old lady neighbor—from cold careerist to caring human being. By the book's end, the author has believably revitalized the dead-end relationship of two emotionally numbed people.
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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mira (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778320642
• ISBN-13: 978-0778320647
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars exhilarating romantic suspense, July 28, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Mary Blaine (Mass Market Paperback)

In Austin, Texas, Blaine and Mark Anderson barely talk to one another as their lives have become comfortably managed by him. An attorney, Mark is considering running for public office, but does not contemplate Blaine's fears of public appearances. Mark goes on to work while Blaine leaves him a note that she is going to a clinic and they need to talk later.

An explosion rips through the clinic killing some people including a nurse holding Blaine's coat and rings while she was being examined. Blaine, now knowing she is pregnant, survives in a daze, but the papers declare her dead when Mark recognizes her jewelry.

Unable to reach her spouse, Blaine goes undercover using her first and middle name Mary Blaine hiding in a homeless environment as the bomber, realizing she lived, searches for her. When Mark learns his wife is alive, he begins a street search for her because he loves her and rejects the notion that she just simply left him. With the help of street people, Blaine survives and makes friends, but the killer is coming and aid from her spouse is cut off by his employer.

FINDING MARY BLAINE is an exhilarating romantic suspense that focuses on a mousy heroine surviving by befriending street people. The story line moves forward at a fast clip, but readers gain an appreciation for Mary, Mark, and several folks she befriends. Though the inability to reach Mark seems odd in an age of communication even with his mentor manipulating much of the scenario, fans will appreciate this rousing look at the plight of the homeless wrapped inside an exciting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most captivating book I have read in a long time!, March 20, 2005

By 

Shanyeah (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Mary Blaine (Mass Market Paperback)

This is truely one of the most heartwarming and captivating stories I have read in quite some time! The storyline was something very new and exciting. Unlike any book I have read. I found myself bursting into tears one minute, then biting my nails in suspense as Mary (Blaine) runs for her life! My husband even got a tad angry at me because I brought this book in the car and read on our way out to eat dinner...I could not put it down..I was so captivated. I believe you will not regret reading this wonderfully written book, it will touch your heart and make you take a look around your life as to what is REALLY important in your life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Mary Blaine, February 27, 2005

By 

Town Without Pity - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Mary Blaine (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book! It's got everything in it. It makes you care about the characters, appreciate relationships and see the good in everybody.

It takes the main character from a very comfortable, high-style but robotic life to living on the streets. She learns that the street people actually survive by caring for and looking out for one another. As she trys to survive that experience, in the meantime, she is being hunted by a hired killer, who quickly finds that he missed her as his target in a clinic bombing. Early on, her husband is told the worst, that she didn't survive. His feelings, and even a friendship he strikes up with an elderly neighbor, are developed.

She also discovers that even though she and her husband went through their daily routines and their relationship without much effort, she came to realize how much she really cared for him and how strong her instinct was to keep him out of harm's way.

I highly recommend this book, as I found it suspenseful, romantic and enlightening. A very good read, in my opinion.

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