Customer Reviews

The Stone Forest

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

 

 

Of the things I consider important in books, Karen Harper does two things very well, one fairly well, and two poorly (in my opinion).

Both Stone Forest and Shaker Run (an earlier book of hers) are fabulously rich and vivid in terms of atmosphere and environment, and both environments are quite unusual as well. The other thing I've really liked about these two books are her descriptions of wierd mental processes: as an example, in both books you're in a person's point of view when they are drugged by the bad guys, and both times I felt myself fuzzing out and getting really disoriented along with the heroine before I realized what was happening. Very effective!

What Karen Harper did *fairly* well in both books was develop an interesting plot with interesting character concepts. However, the concepts never really caught fire or came to life in either book, particularly not the romance portions. I just never felt a spark between the h/h in either book, and never really got interested in the main characters either time. It actually says a lot for her ability to create unusual and interesting environments that I kept reading, because I usually put a book down when I am so unaffected by the characters.

So, if you want an interesting suspense plot, with fabulous atmosphere and very unusual and interesting situations and locations, Karen Harper's one to watch, but I hope that, even though she's a part of a romance publishing line, she stops trying to sell her books as romantic suspense.

In 1985 Ridgeview, Indiana, following her sweet sixteen bash, Jenna Kirk relishes the memory of Mace Macaman's kiss even if he is the boy friend of Mandi, her older sister. That night, Mandi gets Jenna to help her reenter their home after she returns from her tryst with Mace. However, someone abducts both siblings holding the sisters for ransom inside the town's extensive caverns. Jenna manages to escape, but remembers little of her ordeal. Mandi vanishes. Jenna and Mace separately flee the town with its now nightmarish memories while her mother successfully runs for state office.

Fifteen years of nightmares and therapy propel Jenna to come home to confront what happened. From the start of her return, she receives packages and notes from apparently Mandi. Though most townsfolk believe he killed Mandi, Mace returns to town because of his father's illness. He joins forces with Jenna to learn the truth. However Jenna begins to recall what happened on that fateful evening; she wonders if she can trust Mace even if he has her heart.

THE STONE FOREST is an exhilarating romantic suspense that never eases off the throttle until the final page is completed. The story line is loaded with non stop action, but it is the lead couple that hooks the reader. As Jenna climbs out of the labyrinth of the pits of hell, she struggles between love and trust. Mace is a wonderful "victim" condemned by most of the townsfolk. Though the final twist seems too bizarre, the audience will read Karen Harper's taut tale in one sitting to learn what happened to Mandi.

Harriet Klausner

I've never read Karen Harper before and when I saw the summary of
this one I thought it looked good. I was wrong. There is way
too much dialogue in some scenes of this book and the characters
don't show a lot of emotion. This book has a few parts that were
mysterious, the rest seemed dull and drawn out. I was happy that the author didn't include profanity or any brutal violence, but instead of a classic thriller she ended up writing a predictable story. I hope her other books are better.

Well this book delivered on exactly one thing...mystery. There was absolutely no romance. A couple of chaste kisses(no detail: simply "they kissed") and a few bottom gropes do not count as romance. If you want to read a murder mystery then by all means pick up this book but if you want a romance then don't waste your money.

Three words - Uninspiring, slow, and unromantic. This book was nowhere near as interesting as I'd thought it would be. I picked this one up at a Thrift store, and when I read the blurb on the back, I thought it looked fascinating, but it ended up being pretty darn boring.

The story at it's core was interesting enough, but while reading it, it just seems to drag on and on. The plot is low-intensity, slow-moving, and just generally lackluster. There was a ton of potential for the plot, but it never materialized. I just kept thinking: come on! something exciting needs to happen! For a book that in the end was mostly suspense versus a romance, the plot needed to grab the reader's attention better. The whole thing just seemed like a series of little, half interesting events.

The romance...what romance? The love story in this Romantic Suspense was only a small step above the romance in the one and only unromantic Lisa Jackson book I read. The whole romance is based on Jenna, and the fact that she's been in love with Mace since she was a kid, but Mace had been her sister's boyfriend. When she goes back home, he returns not long after because his father has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. There's no development to this pairing. For Jenna, she just loves him, period. That's all the readers get from her. For Mace, he comes back and he suddenly wants Jenna and a future with her. There's this line near the beginning where he thinks about how during the years he was away, his sister (Jenna's best friend) told him once that Jenna had a huge crush on him and he thinks to himself that the more he thought about that fact, the more intrigued he was by it. That's it. The so-called love between them is built with little contact or anything. They just seem to be in love. During the book, they hardly spend any time together. They kiss a few times, and spontaneously tell each other they love each other. It was boring as heck. I didn't believe for a second in their "love" and wasn't inspired by their store at all. It was stupid. It just very barely qualifies as a romantic suspense.

So all in all, there wasn't anything I found particularly interesting about this book. I couldn't wait to finish it. For something with such a good blurb on the back, the end product was a total let-down.

Though "romantic suspense" novels are not my usual favorite, I picked up The Stone Forest in the airport last week looking and hoping for a light read and passing entertainment. Within 6 pages I knew I had wasted my money. The dialogue in this book is - - horrible. I literally could have done it better myself. The basic plot had potential, the writing skills and dialogue between characters are just very very bad. It's already in the bag of things to give away.

What could have been a creepy romance between the old boyfriend of a sister was actually very sweet.
Tomboy Jenna and perfect sister Amanda were kidnapped on Jenna's 16th birthday. Only Jenna was returned a few days later. 15 years later Jenna returns to her childhood home hoping to uncover clues about what happened to her sister. Also returning home after a 10 year absence is Mace, the man Jenna has been in love with her entire life. He is also the old boyfriend of her sister.

Together they begin to unravel the truth, and find out all kinds of secrets about the town and their families along the way.

I enjoyed the telling of the story. It was suspensful and romantic. The characters had human flaws and were people I could relate to. I'm already looking for another book by Harper to read.

The Stone Forest was my first book by Karen Harper and based on this, I'll certainly give her another try. Jenna Kirk, the protagonist, is struggling to make an independent life for herself, after a traumatic childhood kidnapping. Someone does not want her to achieve her goal. Is it her dead sister's boyfriend, her childhood friend, the family shrink, or an unstable townsperson? Suspects, and suspense, abound.

I picked up The Stone Forest because I like romantic suspense and it looked interesting. It took me about two years to finally read it, and that should have been a red flag. I read a lot of books, and it can take me a while to get to a book. I like to finish anything I've started and try to give books the benefit of the doubt. I've read some pretty bad books and managed to finish them (The Wish Club by Stella Cameron is one - I could not believe that anyone would actually publish it with all the plot holes and cliched writing) However, I just could not get into The Stone Forrest. I made it as far as chapter five before I just peeked at the end to see whodunit. It was not at all surprising. The characters were just flat and did nothing to raise my interest in what happened to them. And the plot bored me. Seriously. I just did not care, and nothing the author did made any difference.

Don't bother with this one is my advice.

Real page turner. I read it one day. The plot is very well shown and the book is well written. Many people say that this book isn't worth your money but it is. The chapters flow right into another perfectly. By the end of the book you are shocked to find out who the kidnappers were.