13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slow to start but excting at the end, April 13, 2007
Everyone else has summarized this story so I won't get into the content of the book. I was debating in the beginning if I should continue reading this. It was a very slow and somewhat confusing start. Then suddenly--Bang----it went into full speed ahead and twisted around corners with a lot of fast paced excitement. I was rooting for Ridley and Jake, then for the FBI agent, Dylan Grace and hoping Max was really a "good" guy. But things kept changing. It's not a book to do power reading or fast skimming. You must read every line or you'll miss some of the action. Honest. And you don't want to miss any of this action----up until the very end.
Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and enjoy every word. It's a great read-----a fun ride.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5) "There is a golden chain from my heart to yours. Trust me. I'll always find you.", January 7, 2007
After a harrowing year of unexpected revelations that turn her life inside out, Ridley Jones is still adjusting to her new reality. The relationship that has served as her emotional support is crumbling, affection turning too often into heated exchanges. Jake, the handsome sculptor who came on the scene just when she needed him most, is bedeviled by his own issues, obsessed with his own need to come to terms with a harrowing past. Ridley has learned that she is a Project Rescue Baby, a child given up by a mother who could not protect her; but there is more to the stories of such victims, a dark side that hints of helpless children removed from unsafe families and sold to wealthy ones, a bartering of lives for profit. For Ridley, this information has been cataclysmic, her parents not her parents, her real father dead in a tragic accident.
As a freelance writer, Ridley has an innate curiosity about people and their hidden agendas, but she also has a disastrous love affair with denial and a strong streak of stubbornness that is the occasion of more than one life-threatening encounter. At loose ends after a shocking series of violent events, Ridley is slowly coming to terms with the impossibility of her relationship to Jake, although the physical attraction is still irresistible. Just as she is reclaiming herself and a changed identity markedly different from the one of her youth, the FBI appears, looking for answers to questions Ridley cannot bear to entertain. Is her real father still alive? Was his death a sham? And is he, in spite of her memories, more monster than man?
Overwhelmed by too much information, Ridley is torn between needing to know the terrible secrets of the past and her increasing desperation to deny the ugly truth. Unfortunately, she doesn't get a choice; it seems there are a number of nefarious individuals who are asking the same questions, but with a far different intent. Suddenly the world is filled with menace, Ridley unsure who to trust. Events spiral out of control, Ridley both the pursuer and the pursued, barely one step ahead of the law and the lawless. Her challenge is to gather whatever information yields results in a nerve-wracking quest to learn the fate of her real father, knowing this knowledge will bring a terrible truth that she cannot bear to face or escape.
A sequel to Beautiful Lies, in which this whole nightmare is partly revealed, Sliver of Truth suffers some of the same problems: Ridley's over dramatization of every aspect of her life and an irritating inability to deal with the moment without sabotaging her own best interests, not to mention romancing a grotesque figure. Still, overall, both novels work well, Unger writing with a kind of jagged energy that both frustrates and fascinates, her protagonist driven to go on in spite of the flashing red lights. In a framework riddled with unsavory people, untrustworthy friends, technological advances in communication and a criminal society that trades in innocent victims, the bodies are piling up. Ridley can't figure out why she's left standing. Unless, of course, her father is alive and she's the bait. Luan Gaines/2007.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More of the Same But Still Fun, March 13, 2007
Jake's sexier than ever, and now he has competition from Dylan Grace. Ridley's still a little too self-pitying but ultimately resourceful and clever. She keeps stumbling into the middle of adventure allegedly against her will and then seems all too unwilling to turn things over to the "proper authorities," which sometimes strains credulity. But Lisa Unger has a great, compelling style that makes this book a fast, fun read. I was a little disappointed at how much of the plot turned out to be a rehash of "Beautiful Lies" - we're still obsessing over the evil adoption ring and there's more bad stuff about Ridley's real dad. I would have preferred to see Ridley dealing with some mystery outside her own orbit, but maybe she'll get a little less self-absorbed in the third book. There's a surprising twist about Jake that creates a lot of wonderful angsty scenes between the two of them. Despite his revelation, I'm still hoping to see more of him in Book Three - assuming there'll be one.
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