Since You've Been Gone (Love Inspired #75) [Mass Market Paperback]

Marta Perry (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Steeple Hill (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373870752
• ISBN-13: 978-0373870752
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,756,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I realized I wanted to be a writer at age eight, when I read my first Nancy Drew novel, The Secret of the Old Clock. Most little girl reach the end of that book wanting to be Nancy. I wanted to be the person who created the story!
The dream lay hidden for years while I became a teacher, married, had children...all the usual things. But eventually it re-surfaced, and I began to write, beginning with short children's stories for Sunday school take-home papers. It seemed a long time until that first acceptance, but eventually I began to sell. After some three hundred published short stories, I finally found the courage to work on the novel I'd always wanted to write.
Thirty-some published novels later, I still feel the same excitement every time I begin a new book--a mix of not believing I can do it combined with an overwhelming urge to see the story on the page.
A lifetime spent in rural Pennsylvania and my own Pennsylvania Dutch roots eventually led me to the books I'm writing now about the Amish. The Pleasant Valley Amish series from Berkley Books are longer, more complex emotional stories with Amish main characters, while my forthcoming HQN suspense novels are more adventure-filled books set in Pennsylvania Dutch country. I'm also writing a Love Inspired series, The Bodine Family, set on the South Carolina coast where we have a second home.
When I'm not writing, I'm busy with church activities, traveling, and spending time with my three children and six beautiful grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very highly recommended, March 16, 2001

By 

C. Penn "WordWeaving" (Greenville, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Since You've Been Gone (Love Inspired #75) (Mass Market Paperback)

Dr. Bailey Tate was irrepressible, irresponsible, and lovable to a fault. He left seven years ago for a two-week mercy mission in the Amazon rainforest. He was presumed dead in a plane crash -- how dare he show up a week before Amanda's wedding. It was only the memory of Amanda that kept him going these long years with the Yanomani Indians. His new eye patch only lends a rakish, dangerous air.

Amanda Meadows thinks that she has finally put the bad, confusing times behind her. She has a handsome fiancé, a flourishing career, and a well ordered life. Exactly the wrong time for a husband to turn up -- and hardly the time for the old magnetic pull toward Bailey to manifest itself. She's already lived through the despair of losing a passionate, all-consuming love. And she's engaged to Marcus Stone -- Bailey's former partner.

As a tropical storm blows in, Amanda finds herself confronting the past and the future with the man who stole her heart. Sharing a meal suddenly becomes difficult as Bailey's seething lustiness draws her. But she's not the same woman he knew. She's no longer the sweet, submissive wife that put him through med school. Bailey left behind marital problems, huge debt, and a pregnant wife. He came back to an engaged career woman with a national contract to roll out her cookie baking series from coast to coast.

SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE is a tingly, impossible, totally romantic tale that makes you feel good right down to the toes. This compelling tale rates tops for originality and delight. Bailey's spontaneity and Amanda's assertiveness provide a combustible plot certain to keep the pages turning. Very highly recommended.

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm Torn..., December 24, 2011

By 

M. Palmer "Michelle P." (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Since You've Been Gone (Love Inspired #75) (Mass Market Paperback)

Emily and Nick were in love a long time ago. But after Nick's father was falsely accused and was told to leave town, Emily refused to go with him.

Now Nick was back. He was back to work on a merger between the mill his father used to work for and the company he works for. He and Emily started spending time together, but Emily had no idea that Nick was our for revenge...

Several issues here:

1. First of all, Nick seemed to hover. He invited himself to supper several times and seemed to find excuses to just barge in on Emily's family time with her son. This made me very uncomfortable.

2. Nick was a jerk, plain and simple. What he did to the town that had once again accepted him was very low. and I don't think the boys or Emily should have taken him back! He said he loved Emily and her sons, yet he participated in such an underhanded way of getting revenge.

3. I didn't see that Nick was a Christian. He hadn't been in church since forever, and the only reason he showed up in church was to see Emily and her sons. I never saw a conversion, and wonder if he ever did "get" what life was all about...

Regardless of the above things, I did find myself liking Nick. I loved the way he treated the boys, but I cannot give this book anymore than three stars because of what he did to those he loved...There were just too many issues.