Customer Reviews

Rescuing Olivia

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anders and Olivia are lovers. While riding on Ander's motorcycle, a black Mercedes runs them off the road, leaving Olivia in a coma. Anders was lucky and only sustained a few cuts and bruises. Olivia's father won't let Anders anywhere near Olivia.

A few days later, Anders receives the news that Olivia has died. Anders has a feeling that Olivia is very much alive. He goes in search of Olivia. In doing so, Anders uncovers a deep, dark secret that involves Olivia. Can Anders rescue Olivia before it is too late?

I have not read Tell No Lies by Julie Compton, though I have that book on my wish list. After reading her latest novel Rescuing Olivia, I plan to purchase the book soon. This book kept my interest from beginning to end. The whole time I was reading this book, I was cheering for Anders.

After reading the concept for this book and what Mrs. Compton learned from her research made the thought behind the plot for Rescuing Olivia that more scarier and intriguing. As if I needed that because there was enough adrenaline in the story line to keep my heart racing. Julie Compton rescued me into discovering a new author.

Take two soul mates separated after being injured in a suspicious hit & run motorcycle accident, the main character, Anders Erickson, kept from seeing his love in the hospital by the powerful & rich family, and ultimately being told she is dead, and you are hooked into joining Anders in his search for the truth of what really happened to Olivia.

Compton creates engaging characters with depth that we can readily love or hate based on their roles as the mystery plays out. Many with deep seated issues that influence their behavior and choices as the story takes us first from Florida to Connecticut and ultimately Africa.

Rescuing Olivia is an excellent read that keeps you guessing and rooting for Anders as he rolls with all the punches delivered to him in his quest for the truth about what really happened to Olivia and why.

Once you pick up this book, putting it down ceases to be an option. I bought Rescuing Olivia for my husband, a thriller junkie. Before wrapping it, I thumbed through the pages. Next thing I knew, I was on the edge of the bed reading. Then I was fifty pages in and the book was mine, mine, all mine!

Julie Compton is the queen of luring a reader in. From opening scene, through flashbacks, she draws us hand over hand into her story, never letting up on the tension long enough to take more than a few breaths--and in those breaths, magic. She creates images and emotions with the same mastery she creates her tension. Start to finish, you just can't know how it's going to end for this cast of characters.

Awesome stuff. The only thing I wish is that I'd picked up this book during the summer. It's the PERFECT beach book.

After reading "Tell No Lies" and then the reviews of Compton's latest novel, I just knew that once I started reading, everything else that I needed to do would become secondary. I've had "Rescuing Olivia" since it was initially published and just recently found a break in my schedule so I could read and enjoy without interruption. "Rescuing Olivia" exceeded every (very high) expectation that I ever had. Everything else on my "to do" list was suddenly not so important as I savored every word and every turn of the page.

The events and twists are unpredictable and captivating. Compton brings every character to life and every scene into full view....you know these people, you are there with them and you share every emotion.... I kept finding myself turning back the pages to re-read details that I did not deem significant at the time. I remember reading an early review that described Rescuing Olivia as a "modern day fairy tale". As I read the final pages, these words came back to me...it is every bit that and so much more. I couldn't wait to read the next page, the next chapter .....and then when I realized I had read the last, I longed for more.

Following the successful TELL NO LIES in 2008, Julie Compton writes sort of along the lines of the chick flick Penelope, in which a rich girl has an ugly face. With her intriguing stand-alone, Olivia is a rich woman with an ugly past and a manipulating, conniving father. RESCUING OLIVIA is a modern fairy tale about love, fraught with international intrigue and set not as chick-lit but as a psychological thriller.

Mysterious Olivia arrives in a pickup truck at a Florida resort where Anders Erickson works in landscaping maintenance (he's a lawn boy). His travels have been limited to a brief diving trip in California and his somewhat estranged sister's house in suburban Chicago. Thirty-something Anders doesn't have a passport and never thought he'd need one.

That changes, however, when the motorcycle on which Anders and Olivia are riding is run off the road by a black Mercedes-Benz. With only a bad case of road rash, Anders is released from the hospital where Olivia is comatose. Caring nurse Carrie takes Anders to see her and shows him his name newly tattooed on Olivia's neck, marking her commitment to him. But Olivia's conniving father, Lawrence Mayfield, claims that his daughter died and that Anders murdered her.

Two cops show up at the house Olivia shares with Anders and threaten him with legal action, but Anders later learns from the local PD that these officers don't exist. Real police tell Anders, "No fatalities, insufficient evidence of criminal intent." There's a "Twilight Zone" thing going on when hospital medical records vanish without so much as a bill to an insurance company left as proof. Only his injuries and crushed motorcycle allay Anders's doubt that the accident occurred.

Olivia's manipulative father piles high cards of lies, including a bizarre experimental drug Cranitex that eliminates recent memories. Anders belatedly learns why her memory had been erased. He topples the card-house by tracking Olivia to Connecticut. There, a gang of local "good old boys" had involved her in unimaginable acts, the cause of her father needing to eliminate recent memories with Cranitex. The G.O.B. mob nearly separates the close proximity of Anders's soul and body, described in a horrific beating scene to be read through cringed eyes.

With "jaundiced bruises around his eyes" weeks later, Anders and Lenny find themselves on a dude safari in Kenya. The chase continues into Tanzania with Anders not knowing who to trust, not even Makena, the midwife who had brought Olivia into the world when the Mayfields lived in Kenya and has been Olivia's lifelong surrogate mother. Finally, Anders rescues Olivia, not only from the control of her father but from a horrendous bipedal animal in Africa. The psychological hurdles that the characters go through in this book will keep readers breathless to the end.

With rich writing ("He heard the traffic on I-95 and mistook it for the surf"), Compton dissolves writers' stumbling blocks like piles of salt in the rain. An intriguing read with more twists than a plate full of rotini pasta, this is a five-star story of devotion as Anders questions how far he will go to rescue Olivia. The answer is not surprising: "He'd risked his life for her, but maybe it still wasn't enough. For either of them."

I highly recommend Julie Compton's new novel, Rescuing Olivia, a suspenseful page-turner that will leave you breathless. Luminous, elegant prose weaves a suspenseful plot with characters so real they jump off the page and resonate long after. I finished this book in record time; I could not put it down. Julie Compton's second novel does not disappoint, but meets and even exceeds the high standard set by her debut novel, Tell No Lies.

Just what exactly would you do to rescue the one who means everything to you?

Imagine if you were in an accident with the woman you loved and when you woke up, you were denied the ability to see her. Imagine that you went back and found out she'd been taken from the hospital and no record exists of her being there. Imagine if you traced her to Connecticut and found out she was half a world away in Africa. Imagine if she was The One, the woman who was the air in your lungs.

How far would you go to get her back?

Anders Erickson can answer those questions, because all of those things happened to his love, Olivia Mayfield. And he has to decide what he's willing to do to get her back.

Julie Compton's second book hits the ground running and never slows down. From the very first, you'll root for Anders to retrieve the love of his life, even as the odds mount up and things look bleak. This is a fantastic page-turner and you won't put it down.

In a remote forest in Florida, a hit-and-run motorcycle accident leaves victim Olivia Mayfield in a coma. Stunned upon learning his girlfriend lies in an intensive care unit, almost thirty Anders Erickson feels guilt and regret for not proposing.

Just prior to the accident, someone stole the helmets of Anders and Olivia. Anders also considers that Olivia thought they were being followed. Meanwhile her father pharmaceutical mogul Lawrence blames Anders for his daughter's coma and wants him to stay away from her; he refuses to allow "Andy" access. Later he informs him that Olivia died. Stunned, Anders has a hard time accepting the death of his beloved and begins an inquiry that leads to her hometown of Clifton, Connecticut where he finds clues that sends him to Kenya.

Clearly over the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Rescuing Olivia is a terrific amateur sleuth thriller starring a young man with issues from his childhood that match in some ways those of his beloved as both prefer to live in the present and future. Anders is a refreshing hero who rejects the premise that his beloved died as he feels he would know in his heart if she did. His efforts to find and rescue Olivia make for a wonderful drama.

Harriet Klausner

A motorcycle accident leaves Anders Erickson with a few scrapes and bruises, but his lover, Olivia, is not so lucky. Anders first becomes frantic when Olivia's family prevents him from seeing her in the ICU, but his panic escalates when it becomes clear that they have no intention of ever letting Anders near Olivia again. Anders is about to discover that there is much that he doesn't know about the woman he loves and he'll have to determine just how far he's willing to go to save her.

Early in the novel Julie Compton uses the following sentence to describe Anders: "And in typical Anders fashion, he followed the path of least resistance." This sums up Anders perfectly. At nearly thirty he is content to ride his Harley, work at a job that requires little from him and limit his relationships to women who require even less effort. Until Olivia. Now Anders will have to push himself beyond all conceivable limits and in the process face his own troubled past.

This was a truly fantastic story: part mystery and part suspense with a little action thrown in for good measure. And a deeply touching love story. The characters really shine in this book; they are not simply good or bad but instead they are very human and capable of being both heroic and selfish. Anders is particularly well drawn but I was probably most moved by the young, vulnerable Shel. Anders' friend Lenny turned out to be a nice surprise as well.

While I was intrigued by the premise of the story I'll admit that there were times when the beginning felt a little awkward. The story switches from present tense (the days immediately following the accident) and past tense (glimpses of Anders and Olivia's relationship). I felt like this kept me from really getting absorbed in the story. But by a third of the way through I was completely engrossed and heavily invested in these fictional people and what becomes of them.

This is a well written "page-turner" with great characters. Highly recommended.

Occasional strong language and some mild sexual content.

In Rescuing Olivia, Julie Compton has far exceeded her good work in Tell No Lies. This is a real thriller with plenty of exciting plot turns, and deserves to get a lot of attention. Great job, Julie!