Secret Hour

Title: The Secret Hour
Author: Luann Rice

I was feeling a bit bored and decided to go to kak Yun's house to borrow some books for the raya holidays. going through her books, I came across this other book of Luann rice and since I was impressed with the first book I had read that she had written, I thought it would be a good idea to go for this book.

This book centres around this family of three with the mother missing after being killed in an accident along with another woman who was searching for her missing sister. The father in the family, John O'Rouke, works as an attorney, a criminal defense lawyer who at the time was defending a serial killer who took young girls as his victim. He has two children, 14-year-old Teddy and 11-year-old Maggie. his wife was killed in an accident after coming home from having a rendezvous with her married lover who is also John's bestfriend. John's sorrow in losing his wife to his friend clouded the sorrow he felt for losing the only woman he had ever loved, thus he buried himself in his work just to forget it all.

Enter Kate Harris, a woman who was in search of her sister. Her sister, Willa, fled from her home when she was caught sleeping with Kate's ex-husband. But somehow, Kate's love for her sister was stronger, thus prompting her to go search for her sister who had been missing for six months. She had received a postcard from her sister but only got it recently so she knew her sister's whereabouts during that date. However, her sister went missing after that and with the case surrounding John's client, Kate figured that there might be a connection.

When she arrived at the O'Roukes household, she was greeted with a chaotic situation where locals who didn't like John defending for the serial killer had thrown a brick in his house, causing the police and neighbour to flock around the house. Through the confusion of thinking that Kate was the new babysitter for his children, she managed to calm the siblings down, gaining trust from Teddy who didn't trust strangers who got around his sister.

The story went on on how Kate won the hearts of Teddy and Maggie when she showed them how much she also loved her sister. Teddy even invited her to his soccer match as his father has seldom went there himself eversince his wife died.

Eventually, Kate won John's trust when she told him of his sister. However, John didn't want to betray his client eventhough Kate really wanted to know if he had ever encountered her sister. Discreetly, he DID ask and found some interesting facts that made him want to investigate. However, Kate beat him to it and he found her at the spot he wanted to go.

Bla.. bla.. bla.. I guess they fell for each other at this point haha.. but the novel didn't exactly centre around the love story, which is why I liked it :p

In the end, Maggie, while on a quest to find some wildflowers to cheer up her family came across this bracelet charm which Kate instantly recognized as Willa's. Kate went to rescue Willa on her own just as John realized who was behind Willa's missing AND a recent copycat murder that happened while Merril (thats the name of the serial killer) was in prison..

Hahah.. I'm outta practice writing book reviews here but I recommend this book to those who love the Hallmark type of stories. A nice read and I'm looking forward to searching for more books from this author.

Summer's Child

Title: Summer's Child
Author: Luann Rice

Wow! Its been a long time since I last wrote a book review. Must be more than half a year. There are quite a few books I've read eversince the last time I wrote a review but things have just been getting in the way for me to really sit down and write a proper review <--lousy excuse, huh?

Anyway, my stock of books have been running out, and in wanting to go read some books, I went to kak Yun's house for a fresh supply of books. Though there were not much new books, I became interested in a few old books she had so these books are what I'll be writing about here.

The first book I read was this book. The cover was so 'English' I just had to find out what the story was about haha..

The beginning of this story was about Mara Jameson, who was heavily pregnant and living with her grandmother after running away from an abusive husband. Her whereabouts were supposed to be hidden from her husband but one day, when she went out to water her plants, she was never seen again.

Her elderly grandmother mourned the loss of her grandchild years after it happened. And the police officer, Patrick Murphy, who was in charge of the investigation was still obsessed with the case eventhough he had already retired. He still visited the grandmother in hopes of finding a lead.

The next scene, we are brought to the coasts of Nova Scotia with Lily Malone and her daughter Rose. She had opened a giftshop or something in that town and was well liked by the locals as she had come there a few years earlier. It was almost home to her and everything was calm until the arrival of another mum-and-daughter.. Marissa and Jessica. Unknown to the residents of the small town, those are not their real names. They had changed everything in order to flee from her abusive husband.

It is in this town that both woman discovered that the world wasn't built entirely out of bad people, out to hurt them and their daughters. And Lily as the more experienced one, showed that there was still kindness in this world for Marissa and Jessica. Marissa in return, who had an education to be a nurse, helped Rose who had quiet a weak heart.

There was also a Dr Liam Neill, a scientist who loved children and loved to entertain them with his stories of the oceanlife. He was in love with Lily but she though her trust in people had been restored, she was still afraid to trust a man.

One day, Murphy heard of the stranger who had come to Nova Scotia and judging form the age of Jessica, he guessed that this woman might be the missing pregnant mother of years ago. He went to the town to question her and also met with Lily who helped to shelter Marissa from anymore hurt that might be inflicted from old wounds.

Well, the story was pleasant enough, not so much romance, much to my delight haha.. not that I don't like romantic stories. But stories about families appeal me even more..

It was really surprising to find out that Lily was actually the missing Mara, and not Marissa. Murphy just couldn't believe that she had been practically under his nose all the while. just a few miles away from her home.. and as he had once suspected, she didn't really go missing. rather ran away when both grandaughter and granma heard that her abusive husband was coming to get her. The reason her grandma was sad, wasn't because she had lost her grandchild but rather because they had promised not to contact each other in fear that her exhusband would find her.

Another twist was that, Marissa's abusive husband was actually Mara/Lily's husband too. They had been drawn to that town in spite because their husband had a picture in their homes that was similiar to this town.. and as Jessica had always wanted, she got a sister in Rose!

Well, there wasn't actually no romance at all. Lily finally let Liam into her life while Murphy somehow found a way to be in Marissa's life.. Hehe, alls well ends well, eh?

Good read though. I loved the book.. in fact, I'm thinking of borrowing the book again so you guys might wanna try this book out :)