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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Novelizing Religious Fanaticism: Sisterwife by N. R. Collins, December 5, 2003
Kelsey Waite is a single mother doing the best she can and trying desperately to put the abuse she suffered at the hands of her parents and others behind her. She has promised herself as well as her young daughter Tia that she will be a better Mom than her Mom was to her. Thanks to Mrs. Rampton who watches her daughter after school and her Aunt who left her the beachside cottage in her will, as well as to her own inner strength, Kelsey is making it happen each and every day. That is until her daughter, in every parent's nightmare, is taken from school. Kelsey awakens three days later to find herself in the middle of a living nightmare. The police are stumped, Mrs. Rampton has been brutally murdered and Tia is long gone. The woman who took her claimed to be Kelsey's sister. Much like not having a childhood, Kelsey never had a biological sister. But, she begins to wonder if it could be a "sister" in the form of address towards another woman as used in the Mormon church of her youth. Detective Quinn Anderson is assigned the case and there is something that leads Kelsey to trust him. She confides her horrifically abusive past to him involving her parents and a fanatical cult offshoot of the Mormon Church. Pushed by his questions, Kelsey attempts to contact her estranged parents only to find out they have been banished from the Mormon Church and have left, in all likelihood joining the fanatical cult. With a cult bent on fulfilling what it sees as biblical prophecy involving the end of the world, Kelsey and Quinn unite in a mission to end the cycle of abuse by bringing Tia back home where she belongs. Intense and riveting, this is a very suspenseful novel. Different aspects of the Mormon Church and other sub groups within the church are brought forward and explained to the average reader. This is done with style and even handed balance in regards to the Mormon Church and never in a lecturing or condescending tone. At the same time, the characters are multifaceted and while the culprits are identified early, the complex motivations and the scope of the possible ramifications are not. The reader is left with an intense, entertaining and sometimes very disturbing story featuring characters pushed literally to the edge of madness and physical ability to survive as well as numerous questions regarding religious faith taken to the extreme. If recent real life examples are not enough, this intense fictional tale again explains the horrors of religion when pushed to fanatical extremes by cultists with a self appointed prophet in their midst.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Real Life Demons, December 30, 2004
Kelsey Waite (nee Sorenson) has been through a lot in her life. Years after running away from an abusive, fundamentalist father who sold her in marriage when she was only 16, Kelsey comes home one day to find that her daughter has been kidnapped and her neighbor murdered. To find her child, Kelsey must return to the place of her nightmares and confront a madman who believes he is God's prophet.
SisterWife (a term that refers to the way multiple wives in polygamous marriages refer to one another) catches your attention right away by starting off inside Kelsey's daughter Tia's mind. Collins switches easily between multiple points of view throughout the story, giving each character their own unique voice and a different perspective on the action.
Although the writing style sometimes threatens to slip into genre romance, Collins has done a beautiful job of portraying the relationship between Kelsey and Quinn. Never forced, the romance is sexy, yet believable and the characters' reactions honest.
In addition, Collins has created one of the most frightening madmen in fiction today, David Stone. The calculating, ruthless nature of his actions paint a portrait of a true sociopath that makes you shiver with the knowledge that he could be out there somewhere.
All in all, SisterWife is a book I would gladly recommend to my friends along with a mug of hot cocoa and several uninterrupted hours!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sisterwife, April 3, 2002
This review is from: Sisterwife (Paperback)
Kelsey Waite had run from her shameful life in Utah many years ago. Knowing that she would never outlive her past, she attempted to make a new life for herself in California. She soon had a daughter and was living the existence of a single mother. Just when she thought she might be able to succeed in giving Tia the childhood she never had, tragedy struck. Kelsey came home from work one day to find her neighbor murdered and her seven-year old daughter missing. With the help of the handsome detective Quinn Anderson, Kelsey discovers that her Mormon parents were probably behind her child's kidnapping. Due to unacceptable behavior, they had been forced to leave their church and had joined a polygamous cult where her abusive father had become an important man. With the pain of what he had done to her for so many years weighing heavily upon her mind, Kelsey feared greatly for Tia's safety and well-being.....especially since she knew it wasn't her daughter they wanted. Kelsey was the center of a prophecy, one that would bring Armageddon, and the cult leader wanted her back in Utah where she could fulfill her part. Quinn and Kelsey were going up against a group of doomsday fanatics who were fully prepared for a bloody showdown they claimed would be done in the name of God. Natalie Collins seems to have an amazing grasp of the Mormon culture and through that breathes believable life into this suspenseful story. Frequent trips back in time flip-flop with present-day activities, but are italicized to prevent confusion. Sensitive readers will want to note that there is some colorful language sprinkled throughout the book. All in all, Sisterwife is definitely a page-turner, and with the aid of short chapters, it can be read practically in one sitting. Look for Natalie Collins' other books "The Murdered Man" and "Outer Darkness
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