Customer Reviews

Sleep No More

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book in one day, which was easy because it was interesting. Abby wakes up one morning to find she has started sleep walking again, which she hasn't done since childhood. She thinks it may have to do with her mothers death but is still concerned, especially since starting a fire when she was young while sleepwalking. One night while waiting for her take- out food, she starts talking with Jason Coble, the local psychiatrist. They seem to hit it off pretty well and eat and chat together. After leaving and hoping for another 'date', Abby wakes up in her van, her feet in water and covered with broken glass from her window. She has a bump on her head and can't remember where she is. She eventually gets out, worrying about gators and snakes, and makes it to land. Not long after getting out of the river, the police arrive and tell her she can hang up. She informs them she lost her phone in the water and they walk in the woods and find a mangled motorcycle and a boy, dead, with his cell phone on.


Abby is devastated because she knows she was 'sleep-driving' and now it appears she has killed someone because of it. With the help of Jason, the start to unravel what happened that night. Along the way, they deal with Abby's father showing signs of Alzheimers, Jason's alcoholic ex-wife, Bryce, his teenage step son acting weird, and someone threatening Abby, first by breaking into her house, then leaving a threatening message on her mirror, to finally causing an explosion. You will be surprised!

400 pages read in one day. I'll admit that I'm a fast reader, but I still had to stop to entertain children when they didn't want to lay in bed, make lunch, make supper, all that good stuff. This was just one of those fast paced, can't put it down type of books!

Right from the first page I kept turning. It started with the scene describing the fire that was started when she was sleeping and younger that horribly disfigured her little sister. It's a good backdrop for the issues that she now has, and poor Abby has issues. You would too if her experiences had been yours. She doesn't have dreams of anything more than what she has now in her future for fear of something else happening when she is sleep walking again. And it does, when she's sleep driving. There is an accident, she comes to in a marsh, and the senator's son is dad. She wasn't the only one in the marsh though. Someone had called 9-1-1 from the dead son's phone and it wasn't him. He died on impact.

I'm a sucker for a good romance and the one between her and Jason has such potential. You can taste it as you're flipping through the pages. You hate the thought of Abby throwing away this wonderful man because her fear of the past happening all over again is holding back from giving her all to this guy.

There are times that I guessed where Susan was going with the story, but that was ok. I was not 100% sure until she wanted me to be 100% sure.

I'm also a huge mystery/thriller reader and I think Susan did a great job with Sleep No More. The story is believable if you stretch your imagination just a bit.

One thing I missed in the book, and I'm hoping that I didn't just miss that part was a resolution to her dad's problems with dementia. Her dad was there in the story and he reminded me of my grandpa when he was going through the beginning stages of it. She went through the effort to start the process of helping him. I just wish that there had been more to him and what ended up being wrong.

I really enjoyed the book, if anything (and I'm just being picky here) I would have loved more. More to their relationship, more to Jason's relationship with his kids, more to Lucy's (his ex-wife) attitude at the end. More to Father Kevin (now there was a surprise twist I didn't see coming) and his niece Maggie. Just more. A couple hundred more pages more. (It really was such a good book I didn't want it to end.) I'm one of those people who loves more than your average details in my books, I want to know everything about the characters, descriptive settings for every scene, etc. (Most of the books I love, I have read reviews where people though there was too much description, yet I thought it was perfect.) Without my nitpicking though, it was an excellent book. I really enjoyed it. So much so that I plan on buying Susan Crandall's other books.

Sleep No More by Susan Crandall is an intense thrill ride story. It will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Abby Whitman has lived all her life with her sleep walking being a danger to others. Her burned and scarred sister is living proof on how dangerous it can be to be near Abby. Abby thought she had it all under control until recently. Abby awakens late one night on a darken road seemingly driving while asleep. She is shocked that someone may have died because of her. As the evidence seems to clear her she starts to receive mysterious threats to her life. Abby turns to local psychiatrist Dr. Jason Cable for his help.

Dr. Jason Cable is intrigued by Abby. His initial contact is over her concerns for her elderly father but soon Jason realizes Abby needs his personal help for herself. Jason agrees to try to get to the cause of Abby's sleepwalking. As Jason spends more time with Abby he is drawn to the strong woman he has come to know.

Abby is afraid of the feelings Jason invokes in her. She had herself convinced that she would always be alone because of her illness. Jason has her starting to believe that they may have a chance at a happy life. But someone is out to make sure Abby doesn't have any more happy moments.

Sleep No More is Susan Crandalls best to date in my opinion. It covers the full range of human emotions. Abby's dealings with her father and sister are so true to life. Jason and Abby come together under unusual circumstances and learn to fight for a chance at happiness. I can't wait to read the next book from this author.

Abbey has some dark secrets. While sleeping one night when she was young, she started a fire that hurt her little sister. Unfortunately, her problem has resurfaced. When a young man is killed in a car accident, Abby can't help but wonder if she is to blame. She begins seeing a psychiatrist to try and make sense of all of her repressed issues. The results are electrifying!

This is the first book of Susan's I have read and now I need to add her to my favorite authors list! If you like the synopsis, you will like the book.

In Sleep No More, Susan Crandall has crafted another suspenseful, intriguing romantic suspense epic. Imagine that you are a psychiatrist in a small South Carolina town, just escaped from a marriage to an alcoholic wife with a range of problems beyond your ability to control or cope with. Into your life comes an alluring woman who has innocently stepped into a nest of figurative vipers.

The night was always Abby Whitman's enemy. As a young girl she walked in her sleep, and one night, started a fire that scarred her sister for life and left Abby with unbearable guilt, and a loneliness that echoes within her.

Now Abby has begun blacking out again--with apparently fatal results. A car accident has killed the son of a prominent family. Even though the evidence seems to exonerate her, Abby is plagued by doubts--and soon by mysterious threats. A young psychiatrist, Dr. Jason Coble, is intrigued by Abby and offers to help her explore the dark recesses in her mind. Through this terrifying journey, Jason's interest turns to passion, and he yearns to give her the love she craves. But first, Abby must trust him--and shed light on secrets that will rock this Southern town and reveal a danger that threatens them both.

Sleep No More flows with rhythmic cadence, as the reader becomes immersed in the emotions of the Abby and Jason and the suspense of the fraud threatening to dispose of them before their love can ripen. This is a page-turner that demands your attention. Each of the twists and turns in the story, and the interconnections of the characters, draws you deeper into the story as it plays out on the original manor grounds, including family cemetery and lifeline of the river.

Congratulations Susan on another masterpiece!

Sleep No More is the second novel I've read by Susan Crandall. She continues to surprise me in her daring and skillfully crafted work. This author is not afraid to use subject matter that's so often avoided. She does an incredible job, and shows how well she researches and interprets that knowledge in her writing. This exciting and intense novel gripped me from the first page to the last. The characters are intriguing. Each has their own personal problems, elaborated throughout the story with finesse. They add to the story but do not take over with overblown and drawn out angst. The romance between Abby and Jason builds slowly as does the sexual tension.

What kept me turning the pages is the threads of intrigue that are woven through the story creating a strong piece of twine, pulling the reader in one direction to an exciting and not expected culmination. If you like a novel with plenty in it to keep you entertained then this is the book for you. - Abi

Can you imagine being afraid to fall asleep? What lengths would you go to in protecting others from your sleeping self? Abby Whitman has successfully built a quiet, private life placing as many barriers between herself and others during her sleeping hours. She lives in constant fear of the destruction she knows she is capable of when sleepwalking. When Abby wakes on a dark deserted stretch of road in the middle of the night, she cannot imagine the life altering consequences of her unconscious actions.

As reader's, we find ourselves on a constant quest to stumble onto that perfect thriller, the suspenseful story that will temporarily silence the world around us. In "Sleep No More", Crandall seamlessly combines equal parts of romance and suspense, weaving more than words and creating a compelling connection between the reader and her characters. "Sleep No More" is a toe-curling success.

Susan Crandall's Sleep For Me is part thriller and part romance. Abby has spent most of her life regretting and trying to make up for the effects of one painful night. Abby comes across as a sympathetic character because she doesn't fixate on the past, doesn't complain, but takes real steps to fight her problem and to keep it from harming other people.

When it appears that her sleep walking has returned and Abby finds herself questioning her sanity, Dr. Jason Coble steps in just in time. The romance between Abby and Jason adds to the excitement, making Sleep For Me a fun and exciting romantic thriller.

ISBN-10: 044655684X - Mass Market Paperback $6.99
Publisher: Forever; Original edition (January 1, 2010) 380 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

Susan Crandall has created a complex heroine in Abby Whitman who while impressed me with her strength of character and resolve with respect to her life choices also tugged at my heart strings. Abby is a gifted and well known florist who lives and operates her business from a cottage and shop housed on her family's property which is isolated from the small town of "Preston". When I first started this novel, I thought Abby was a character with some type of psychic gift, I was wrong. She suffers from a sleep disorder called somnambulism, more simply, she sleepwalks. Abby believes, (as does her family) that she set a fire that burned the family century old plantation home to the ground during one of her "episodes" when she was a child. Her sister, Courtney, was badly burned and horribly scarred in the blaze and Abby has therefore shouldered the burden of guilt regarding this event all her life. She will not sleep in the same house with anyone for fear of harming them, thereby suppressing her sexuality and any hope of a 'normal' life. Abby is a very lonely woman, but she finds solace in her work and does have a kind nurturing way that is especially evident in her interaction with "Maggie", a young woman with Down's Syndrome, whom she has befriended.

Dr. Jason Coble, is a psychiatrist with his own truckload of personal baggage. He is a divorcée with two children who are dealing with the aftermath of the family breakup and an ex-wife who is an alcoholic. What I liked about Jason is that he is a consummate professional regarding his psychiatric practice and he is devoted to his children. In addition, Jason thinks things through in his personal life and his expertise allows him to deal with Abby's 'issues' in a methodical and supportive manner as they become emotionally involved. Essentially he gains an understanding of her and earns her trust (which isn't easily given) as their relationship develops.

"Sleep No More", is certainly a romantic suspense, but moreover it is a psychological thriller and I was kept on the edge of my seat during plot twists, turns and unexpected developments as the story progressed. This novel is about a woman who has insulated herself from the outside world because she feels she is "fundamentally flawed", due to her sleep issue. Abby had grown out of her sleepwalking once she passed puberty, however it reemerges during the aftermath of her mother's sudden death. On the heels of it's reoccurrence she becomes the victim of a chain reaction of events that would test the sanity of the strongest of individuals. She is involved in a car wreck and a young high profile individual is found dead at the scene, Abby has no recollection of the events leading to the accident. Her father's memory is failing and he requires vigilance and medical attention. Then someone begins stalking and threatening her and there is a break in at her home.

Jason, who in spite of Abby's attempts to reject him, stands by her and instills calm and sanity into an otherwise out of control situation. I don't mean to make Jason sound dull, because he isn't in the least, he is charismatic and strong and Abby revives a passion in him he thought long extinguished. Abby, in turn responds to Jason with a fervor she had no idea she possessed. This is not an erotic novel, there are love scenes but they are not sexually explicit. There is major conflict instilled in the romance plot that as a reader I thought there was no hope for this couple having their HEA. However, at the end of the day, Ms. Crandall did resolve one of the major issues particularly for Abby.

There are a couple of niggles for me regarding this story. The first is there are a number of characters introduced at the beginning of the novel who played minor and major roles in the plot. I did have a little trouble keeping everyone straight, but as the story progresses Ms. Crandall did develop these characters and their roles in the story became clearer. One character, Deputy Trowbridge, a particularly arrogant, decidedly unpleasant man, who lacked an iota of compassion is the officer who comes to the scene of Abby's accident. This character has a minor role in the novel, and I didn't quite understand why he was introduced in the first place and had to be so obnoxious. I have to say that I found him particularly annoying and it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book, but that is just me and I'm sure the author had a reason for involving him in the storyline.

Ms. Crandall is a new to me author and I found "Sleep No More" to have a number of unexpected surprises and she kept me guessing concerning the identity of the antagonist until very late in the story. In addition, there is quite a twist with respect to the car accident and the identity of a "third" party that was very unexpected. If you enjoy a romantic suspense novel, you may like to give "Sleep No More" a try.

When her Great Gran Girault caught Abby Whitman sleepwalking, she warned the family that the child was cursed before returning to her Louisiana Bayou home. Soon afterward Abby wakes up after sleepwalking to smell smoke. Everyone assumes she set the fire accidentally that permanently scars her sister Courtney and destroyed their home. Filled with guilt and fear that her Great Gran is right that she is a danger to her loved ones, Abby moves away from those she cherishes but remains nearby while Courtney moves to New Mexico living like a hermit.

In South Carolina psychiatrist Jason Coble kicks himself for missing the signs of alcoholism that his ex-wife Lucy has shown. He warns her he will seek sole custody of their seven year old daughter Brenna if she fails to get her act together; he wishes he could do likewise for his teenage stepson Bryce but has no legal connection though he raised the lad as his own son.

Abby awakes from sleepwalking to find herself in the driver's eat of her car half sunk in a marsh; nearby is a dead motorcyclist who she fears she killed. When she meets Jason at the funeral of the grandmother of his former wife, they hit it off and she asks for his help. He agrees feeling a compulsion to help her learn the truth about the boy's death and the cause of her sleepwalking.

This is an action packed romantic suspense thriller with one intriguing final twist. The support cast is too stereotyped and the romance enjoyable but unneeded as the focus is Abby who is terrific especially when she makes dumb decisions out of fear that she is a cursed monster. Fans will enjoy this tense tale as Abby learns it's all in the family.

Harriet Klausner