Rapture [Mass Market Paperback]

Thomas Tessier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2006

After 20 years without contact, Jeff rediscovers Georgianne and becomes obsessed with her - destroying her life so that she will turn to him.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (August 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843955589
• ISBN-13: 978-0843955583
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,469,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Little Twisted, But Definitely Not Scary, April 30, 2008

By 

Cherise Everhard (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rapture (Mass Market Paperback)

Jeff Lisker spends his time consumed in his work; he has an almost non existent social life. His sex life consists of an on going role playing and fantasy type deal with a prostitute, but other than that it's Dullsville, USA, population: Jeff.

When his father passes away he goes back to his hometown and is suddenly consumed with thoughts and memories of his one time good friend, and object of unrequited lust, Georgianne. He's thought about her over the years, with the occasional 'what if' and 'could have been'. But once he arranges an accidental meeting and sees her again, he is all consumed with making her his. Unfortunately, there are a few obstacles like a husband and a daughter, but that doesn't stop Jeff. He puts his plan in motion.

I honestly didn't find this book at all scary and only mildly disturbing; I guess the reason for that was its predictability. Every move Jeff makes I saw coming for a mile and the execution of his plan seemed to drag a bit.

He stalks Georgianne, and she is of course oblivious, and then he does something horrible to insure his place in her life. Only in from the time they meet again in that first "accidentally on purpose" meeting and the end of the book, more than a year has passed. For a stalker he certainly has the patience of a saint.

When he comes clean about his feelings, instead of telling him "it ain't gonna happen," she kind of tap dances around the issue. I am not saying she deserved to get stalked, but come on ladies, if you have some guy sniffin' at your door and you don't want or need his lovin, let him know! Then later when a friend points out that he has the hots for her she acts shocked, like the fact that he kissed her THEN told her he wanted her, never gave her a clue.

The ending was a little disappointing as I found it very anticlimactic. Some things go unresolved and I found myself wondering if I wasn't missing a page or two. After all that stalking and some other heinous crimes, Jeff starts questioning his feelings. I guess I found him more pitiable than terrifying. Not the best book on the planet, but a sexy little thriller none the less.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Satisfying Thriller But Nothing New, May 23, 2007

By 

William M Miller (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rapture (Mass Market Paperback)

RAPTURE, by Thomas Tessier, is quite addictive, although not as inspired or suspenseful as his novel, FINISHING TOUCHES or the novella, FATHER PANIC'S OPERA MACABRE. I expected more out of this tale of an obsessed stalker who puts all his resources into winning over a woman he had a crush on ever since high school, twenty years earlier. As always, Tessier is a wonderful writer that cuts to the quick, never adding fat or fluff to get his point across. He always keeps you on edge and drops subtle hints of foreshadowing. My biggest problem, however, was the way the some of the characters (Georgianne and Bonnie) seemed to have an almost psychic ability - a hunch - to sense the lead character's crime of murder, without any reason or evidence to back it up. The ending seemed a little rushed, but once again, Tessier still manages to spin a tense thriller and I look forward to his new book, WICKED THINGS, his first published novel in ten years.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotically chilling to the bone read, October 6, 2006

By 

- Kasia S. (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rapture (Mass Market Paperback)

This book should come with a warning label, I wish I knew that it would suck me in like a tornado and leave me breathless while I raced through the mind of a man obsessed with something he couldn't have. Thomas Tessier's smooth words glazed my brain like honey as I was unable to read anything else until I was finished with Rapture and hungry for more.

Jeff Lisker, who reads like a fallen hero who is full of passion and hunger for a woman he cannot have whisks the reader away into his cold world of desire beyond reason. For the past twenty years he has been nurturing his computer business in Southern California, suffered through a fallen marriage and has resorted to sleeping with a teenage girl named Diane who barely filled a void in his heart. Upon learning form his aunt back in Connecticut where he grew up of his fathers passing, he packs for a long weekend and flies home. With the trip the ghosts of his past are freed and he recalls the high school days and his longing for Giogrianne, a girl he had a crush on but never dated. A plan forms in his head, a stem of a thorny rose that reaches to his goal, the blooming of his love for Giorgianne suppressed through the years that cannot hold back and makes him think crazy things. He does not care that she has been married to Sean, gave birth to now teenage Bonnie and her life is quiet and peaceful, a life that he is about to trample on until there is nothing left but him for her to turn to.

Jeff wants us to like him, his charm, wit and personality that have a bit of an odd edge would make anyone friendly with him. Perhaps the deadliest enemy is the one who seems like a close friend. He invites himself back to Giorgianne's life, meets her family and decides for himself that they are not what she needs, he loves her and wants her by his side, and he wants to smell her golden hair, hold her closely and to make her his forever. His borderline psychotic thoughts weave through his fake façade and that warm smile and taint the air with uncertainty.

I loved all the surprises and the incredibly daring escapades that he kept stacking up, as if he was trying to reach the counter in the kitchen for those warm cookies that were not for him. Jeff Lisker was a sly villain, someone you wanted to root for simply because he felt and cared so much, unfortunately his reasoning and his actions were incredibly evil and have made for a thrilling read. I felt like a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on his conversations and his flirting, as Thomas Tessier so skillfully brought Jeff to life, a simple man with terrifying ideals. Great and furiously fast read, I just wish the ending was longer, but with good books there is always that heartache and longing long after the last page is read.

Kasia S.