Sleeping Beauty [Hardcover]

Judith Michael (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1991

A high-powered divorce lawyer returns home upon the death of her grandfather and finds herself involved in a vindictive battle over his legacy. 2 cassettes.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The husband-and-wife team of Judith Barnard and Michael Faine ( A Ruling Passion ) has again created a swift-moving drama set against some rich and exotic backgrounds. The wealthy, influential Chatham family, founders of a Chicago-based realty empire, present a wholesome image to the outside world. But 30-year-old financial whiz Vince Chatham has raped his 13-year-old niece, Anne, and continues to abuse her sexually. When Anne overcomes her fear and guilt to accuse Vince at a family gathering, she is met with skepticism from her relatives and denial from Vince. After Anne runs away from home, however, Vince is stripped of his position at the corporation; enraged, he vows to destroy the rest of the Chatham clan. Nineteen years later, Anne, although emotionally scarred, has become one of Los Angeles's top divorce lawyers and is warily beginning a relationship with a renowned archeologist. Thoroughly unprincipled Vince is now a U.S. senator from Colorado, with his eye on the White House. He is powerful enough to cause grave financial harm to the family's cherished resort property in Tamarack, Colo., and when he finds that Anne has risen to prominence he coolly plots her murder. The plot moves smoothly, with ease and style, deftly combining romance, intrigue and nonstop action.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Incestuous rape understandably sends a wealthy Chicago teenager into a quarter century of celibacyuntil her passions are awakened by a kindly archaeologist and the chance to undo her malefactor. Midwestern melodrama from the husband and wife Wealth, Glamour, and Power (Inheritance, Private Affairs, A Ruling Passion) specialist team. No wicked stepmother could be more odious or evil than Anne Chatham's handsome, vile uncle Vince, who, under the noses of Anne's large, immensely wealthy but astonishingly unnoticing family, sexually enslaves the motherless child for two years until she at last denounces him at her 15th birthday dinner in 1967. Fleeing her semi-credulous relatives, Anne leaves the Chicago suburbs for Haight-Ashbury, where she pulls herself together and begins a life alone that takes her through Berkeley to Harvard Law (top marks always, of course) and on to a lucrative career dealing in L.A. divorces. But returning to Chicago for her grandfather's funeral, Anne is sucked back into the family drama. Uncle Vince, renounced by his father after Anne's accusations, is now a Denver zillionaire senator with an eye on the White House. Anne's father is losing most of his fortune in inept developments, and the younger generation of Chathams has upped stakes for Tamarack, the Aspenlike ski resort developed by grandpa. Uncle Vince is not happy to see Anne back in town. She and her unhappy memories could send his career into a tailspin. He begins a series of machinations intended to eliminate Anne and, while he's at it, to take revenge for his excommunication by wiping out the family's ski-slopes-for- the-superrich business. Meanwhile, Josh Durant, Anne's handsome, scholarly, deeply rich admirer, flies back and forth between Tamarack, where he woos the still chilly Anne and where he is accused of heinous crimes, and Luxor, Egypt, where he has discovered a deeply rich tomb with a completely intact Pharaoh and where he hopes Anne will discover her deeply buried feelings. Upmarket Harlequin. Middle-class values prevail no matter how many millions are flung about. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 470 pages
• Publisher: Poseidon Press; First edition (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671648934
• ISBN-13: 978-0671648930
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,352,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frighteningly realistic, April 2, 2000

By 

Andrea Egger, author of Grave Accusations (Gallup, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeping Beauty (Mass Market Paperback)

A survivor of child sexual abuse, Anne Garnett leaves home far behind at a young age and becomes a high-powered, beautiful -- yet romantically untouchable lawyer. Until love enters the ice princess's life, and her beloved grandfather dies. She finds she must go home and face faces of relatives she'd rather forget in her painful memories of incest. Anne's character is so real, as are the characters readers meet from her past and in the present. This is an example of a romance novel that dips into one of life's true horrors -- incest -- and doesn't romanticize it or try to make it any less pretty than it is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Characters draw you in and hold you., June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleeping Beauty (Mass Market Paperback)

Sleeping Beauty will be an alarming tale for those who have experienced the injustices faced by Anne and for those who fight to protect children. After forcing myself to go on, I was drawn into the story. Anger, sadness and excitment were only a few of the emotion I felt. I could not put it down. I feel relieved when the victim conquers his or her fears and Anne was allowed to do that?

However, I was disappointed that "good ole Uncle Vince" received to what amount to a on slap on the hand for his transgressions and slimmy Keith no doubt continues his escapades in Washington. Does Vince really have the guts to "get rid of him"? What happened to Dora? Wouldn't she be outraged about Josh & Anne, and go after Anne with a vengence? Shoudln't Rita apologize? I think this book calls for a sequel. It would be worth purchasing.

3.0 out of 5 stars Great start, lacking somewhat..., May 18, 2007

By 

Reader10 "Reader10" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeping Beauty (Mass Market Paperback)

Book is vividly written with sometimes hard to read details of sexual abuse.. I could actually feel the emotions from the characters and felt drawn into the story. That was the greatest part.... when Anne was raped you felt her horror, the shock and the betrayal.. It actually made me tear up....

Now the bad.... I felt it dragged on and on in the middle, at times it was pointless and pretty dull. I thought the heroine could've had her HEA little sooner so that we as the readers could have seen her happy. This book was draining, however worth every minute I spent on it.