Customer Reviews

The Gift

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lindsay Ryan, a redhead who looks like "an older, Irish version of Shirley Temple," has no family to speak of and has been a loner for much of her life. It's not due to her looks-she's a nice-looking mid-thirties-aged gal. But she's hiding a secret, which has kept her from getting close to anyone. She has recently moved to a new town and hasn't been at her job for many months when she is confronted with a vision so compelling, so palpable, and so frightening that she is moved to warn the family of a child she keeps "seeing" victimized.

Police detective Rachel Todd is sent out to investigate a stalker case and meets Lindsay, the alleged stalker. The two take an immediate dislike to one another, especially when Rachel decides Lindsay is some sort of lunatic and has her jailed. Rachel has been alone for the last few years after losing the people most important to her, and she's not too good with the touchy-feely stuff. She's focused on the day-to-day of her gritty, demanding job.

Both women's lives are turned upside down when Lindsay's visions start coming true. Rachel has to decide whether to believe Lindsay-or not-and before a plot of murder, kidnapping, and abuse is exposed, Lindsay will have to draw on reserves of strength she didn't realize she had. Rachel, too, must learn to trust in this cross-genre action/romance about two hearts who have loved and lost, but with any luck at all may be found once again. Entertaining and recommended.-Lori L. Lake, author of lesbian fiction and freelance reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Golden Crown Literary Society's The Crown, The Independent Gay Writer, and Just About Write.

What do you do when you can "see" events that are going to happen, and you are shown an unpleasant picture? Already costing her more than she cares to admit, events of her past have forced Lindsay Ryan to move to a new city and a new job. When fate or whatever you call it shows her that a child is, once again, in danger, Lindsay is forced into revealing herself. What is this peril to the child? Why a child? And why do the police and the child's parents not believe her? When all attempts at warnings are met with resistance, Lindsay decides to take matters into her own hands.

Detective Rachel Todd, assigned the task of checking things out, has the usual reaction and decides Lindsay is "nuts" and is not to be trusted....especially when one certain detail in Lindsay's vision points directly to the detective herself! What is this detail and why does it bring suspicion on the detective? Eventually forced into working together by a third party coming into the mix, Rachel and Lindsay start to struggle with totally different feelings for each other? Who is this third party? How and why are they involved? And whose life could it cost? Will both women survive the danger and rescue the child? Or will it cost them everything and keep them from exploring these emerging feelings?

The author of such dynamic books as The Chosen, Graceful Waters, Crystal's Heart and These Dreams tells an intriguing, suspense-filled tale of how two women, each with heartbreaking pasts, meet and bond together to overcome intense danger, overwhelming odds and society's reaction to "psychic revelations".

I tried to like this book but found it very disjointed. The jumps the author made (in story and emotional content)kept me rolling my eyes and wondering why I didn't just put it down. I added the book to my wish list based on the other reviews but I have to wonder 'what book did they read?'

This reader has enjoyed everything she's read by Verda Foster. `The Gift' is no exception. Foster has written another quality story with intriguing, dimensional characters and a solid plot.

Lindsay Ryan has had visions most of her life. However, these visions have been unsubstantiated by the larger psychic community. It seems the trigger for Lindsay's visions is unpredictable and not repeatable at will. She experiences one of these visions at the park one day when she catches a ball two girls have kicked away. In the vision, she sees the younger girl dead and lying at the bottom of a shallow grave. Scared for the girl, Lindsay approaches her nanny with the situation. The nanny discloses her conversation to the girl's father - a man who is unwilling to listen. In fact, he does what most people would do - tells the nanny to keep the girls away from the crazy lady with the visions.

Not to be dissuaded, Lindsay decides to keep an eye on the girl anyway. The father reports her activities to the cops, and in walks Detective Rachel Todd. Rachel is as skeptical as anyone would be, especially after Lindsay discloses another vision... One in which Rachel is the person who kills the girl. Lindsay's life is falling apart, but the girl's uncle takes her in and says he believes her story. Little does Lindsay know that her problems are only beginning and that Rachel isn't who she first believed.

Foster has created a cast of incredibly interesting characters and delivered them in a passionate mystery. The characters fall in love gradually, pleasantly surprising the reader. Refreshingly, the story is not pure formula and has an original slant. Recommended with a carafe of white wine and a few slices of good cheese on a sunny summer day.

IN "The Gift" I found the premise of psychic abilities and the lack of acceptance of the community, interesting...but the story and the characters never fully develped beyond a two-dimensional realm. I found it immature and unrealistic to say the least. I wouldn't recommend spending the money on this one.