Customer Reviews

The Ugly Duckling

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The back cover of "The Ugly Duckling" asks: "If fate suddenly made you more beautiful than you ever dreamed possible, would it be the beginning of a fairy tale, or your worst nightmare...?" However, that rhetorical question does not even come close to scratching the surface on this thriller by Iris Johansen because by the time Nell Calder is transformed into a beautiful swan she is already living a horrible nightmare. As a little girl it was pounded into Nell's head by her mother than she was never going to be the swan, always the ugly duckling. As an adult Nell is married to a handsome executive and has a four-year old daughter, but the doubts are always there. Then there is an attack on a party at which her husband and child are killed and Nell is horribly scarred. Yes, she emerges as a stunning beauty, but inside is that creature of doubt, transformed not so much by the amazing surgery but by the brutality of events.

If this is a fairy tale then Johansen is clearly writing a very grim fairy tale. Because Nell was not just an innocent bystander, she was a target of the attack and the killer is still after her. As much as Nell would like to know why this is still happening to her, the more primal part of her sees the opportunity not just to fight back but to claim revenge for her loved ones and finally get back at those nagging voices her mother put inside her brain. With her new face, Nell has effectively disappeared from the killer's radar. But then she figures out that the only way to catch the killer is to let him think he has caught her.

Surely this book is in development somewhere off in Tinsel Town with actresses fighting over the role and trying to figure out how they will make themselves look like the "before" Nell. I like a story of revenge as much as the next person and this one delivers just desserts to all of the characters. "The Ugly Duckling" is not great fiction, but it is a first class, fast moving thriller where the psychological dimensions of survival are given as much play as the physical. Of course, if you stop and think about it, most fairy tales have their nightmarish aspects, so maybe that back cover blurb was not off as much as we might have thought.

This is a story that shows a woman's transformation from an unattractive, submissive wife into an assertive and lovely woman who knows what she wants and is willing to pay the price to get it.

Nell Calder isn't born beautiful, a fact that her unfeeling mother informs her of. How she was able to grow normally in a home with an unloving mother was a tribute to an inner strength that she didn't know she had.

She married well, but at a party in a European city, her husband, Richard, a banker, and her precious four-year-old daughter, Jill, were murdered. Nell fell from a balcony during the struggle with the killer and was so badly injured that she needed plastic surgery.

After the reconstructive surgery, Nell's appearance changed to that of a lovely woman but inside, she was a shell. When she learned that her family had been murdered, she became depressed.

Nicholas Tanek was at the party and felt somewhat responsible for the killings. He tells Nell that the man responsible is Philippe Gardeaux, and that the killings were carried out by Gardeaux's man, Paul Maritz. Gardeaux is a criminal attempting to gain prestige and position with the Columbian drug lords.

After learning who the man was who ordered her family murdered, Nell has a new reason to live, revenge.

The author does nicely in describing Nell's development into a woman possessed with the desire for revenge. We also see Nicholas bring out a softer side of Nell, as an artist. However, she keeps this in the background as she is undergoing physical strengthening and learing offensive skills to use against the killer.

Nicholas is a criminal of sorts and a rival of Gardeaux but he doesn't deal in drugs. He brings Nell to his ranch to train and admits that he is an adversary of Gardeaux and will continue to pursue him for Nell but she insists that she wants to be a part of the revenge, with his help.

This is a fast moving novel with a number of interesting characters. At one point, Nell signs up for training in a para-military facility in Florida. She meets a young man named Paul Drake who is a childlike person mentally and was sent to this camp by his father to toughen him up. Nell's relationship with Paul, in the form of a big sister, is a pleasant sub-plot.

I enjoyed the novel and the plot development. The author provided a surprise toward the end that was well done but perfectly logical.

An enjoyable and fun read.

After a rough start, our hero, who had been a plain-jane all her life, is now remade into a beauty. No one who knew her would recognize her. Such Power! And to put it to good use, to bring down the bad guy, to face the man who dumped you, to fit in with the crowd who teased you ... never having been pretty, I wonder what my personality would have turned out to be had I been one of the drop-dead gorgeous women instead of the ever pudgy woman I am, was, and ever will be.
For sheer thinks, this book is worth it, but the story holds you. The think stays, the story keeps your mind working, and this one tends to stay after finished for quite some time.
Applause, I would say!
For anyone with vision problems, the Iris Johansen novels I have read have had a font that is easy one the eyes, leaving less strain, and more time for the actual story.
The older I get, the more important that becomes!
So ... what would You do???
~Mariance

Iris Johansen is becomming one of my favorite authors. I didn't want to put it down! It is a book I wanted to read again right after I finished it. The characters were such strong people in the book. This book really keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am normally a fan of historical romance, but this book is now my favorite book. Nell Calder is an incredible character with such stength and bravery. Being a mother myself, losing a child would be the worst, and Iris Johansen depicts Nell's feelings of loss well. I like the description of Nocholas Tanek being compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger, then finding out more about him and his ranch. Nell's husband got what he deserved for how he treated Nell. This book has a little bit of everything. Even touching on corruption in the DEA. Iris Johansen is an amazing author. The details she puts into her books is outstanding!

I haven't heard of this author before reading this book. But one day, in the book store, I saw "The Ugly Duckling", the cover is very attracting, so I read a bit about the book, and I was hooked. I bought it and I couldn't put it down, I spent all my time that night to finish it. This book is amazing, the way Ms. Johansen describe the characters, so powerful, so real, the appearance of the characters, the details about the environment, the feelings of the characters. When you are reading the book, you can actually see the image running over your head. The way she developed the suspense, it really makes you hooked and just keep reading. This book has suspense, romance, everything. And I just keep recommending this book to all of my friends. Trust me, read this book, and you won't be disappointed.

wonderful book I read 3 or 4 of her books before this one which I did for an English report and it was wonderful. The mystery/suspence was top. some places had you right there on the edge of your chair. Highly recommended. I LOVED it. Nell's character was so catching that I just enjoyed reading the book because I saw some of my friends in her. Tanek was also a wonderful character. He was compassonate when he knew he shouldn't have been and he had a catching personality.

The promise of the book kept me reading through the first ten or so pages, which I found stiff and boring. To much information given away in dialogue that the characters obviously knew. I almost put the book down, but thankfully didn't, because when I got to meet Nell and the interplay between her and her daughter Jill midway through the first chapter, I was hooked. Sadly, Jill dies with her father in the violence that leaves Jill disfigured.

As a child, Nell's mother told her over and over that she was the Ugly Duckling. However after a murderous attack on a Greek island, wealthy Nick Tanek flies her to the States where she is transformed into the Swan her mother told her she could never be. Beautiful now, Nell works on her body, getting it in shape to go after a killer, but to get him, she has to put herself at risk.

I loved this five star thriller, my only fault with it was the slow beginning, but once through that, I couldn't put it down. I particularly loved how duckling Nell was transformed. And I loved the revenge aspect of it. I can't recommend "The Ugly Duckling" highly enough.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

THE UGLY DUCKLING was the second thriller by Iris Johansen that I read. After reading AND THEN YOU DIE, I immediately picked up this book and began reading.

THE UGLY DUCKLING was captivating from the beginning and nothing like the fairy tale for which it is named. The story of Nell Calder, an average looking woman who was told how ugly she was all of her life and came to believe it, is thrown into the middle of murder and mayhem. What she didn't realize was that she was at the center of that nastiness. She miraculously survives an assassination attempt, while everyone else at a party is murdered, including her daughter. She comes through, but is so badly injured she requires a completely new face, compliments of the world's top plastic surgeon. All of the recovery is arranged by Nicholas Tanek her self-imposed guardian angel, or is he?

This book is a great thriller with a little romance thrown in for balance. Johansen has once again written a winner and does it with her unique style. Her novels are more exciting, and have more twists and turns, than a roller coaster ride. Just when you think you've figured it all out, she throws a monkey wrench into the works, and you're back to square one.

I have a term for a book that is impossible to put down: "a stoplight book". That's what I call a book that you have lying on the front seat of your car, and you read a few sentences or a paragraph while waiting for the stoplight to turn green. Now some of you may think that's pathetic, but you know it's a great story when the book calls your name while you're at a red light on your way to work or running errands! THE UGLY DUCKLING is definitely "a stoplight book".

One of the things I admire about Johansen's writing style, is the fact that you never really know who the bad guy is until the end. You may have an idea but her characters are never clearly evil or good, but a mixture of both. Maybe that's why her books seem to mimic real life (it could be real life) and draw you in from the first page.

This book should definitely be placed at the top of your reading list. You're gonna love it!!

What if you had lived a life of suppression and been constantly passed over? Suddenly, your comfortable world and everything that you hold dear are stripped away from you and you are brutally attacked. Through cosmetic surgery you are given an exquisite face and seek nothing but revenge. This is the premise that Iris Johansen presents in THE UGLY DUCKLING.

This was really a good book. It was not quite as "gruesome" in terms of the specific details as some of her novels, which I appreciated.

I especially enjoyed that she referred to a scene (that reminded me of the movie as well) as remeniscent of the movie, TRUE LIES.

I also really enjoyed the singleness of purpose as Nell strives to make herself strong.

So many things work with this novel. We are given an insight into Nell Calder's childhood as to why she is so submissive; we are given a glimpse into the dynamics of her marriage; we are even a party to the horrible dreams that she endures night after night.

The supporting characters are some of the best from Johansen. Tania, a woman who truly understands what Nell has been through and Peter, the young man who stands by her through adversity were two of my favorites.

A great book from a great author.

This was an excellent book! I could not put it down! It was very exciting, and I loved the transformation of the character from "ugly duckling" to "beautiful swan." It's definitely a great read...just enough suspense, mystery and romance combined. I highly recommend this book!