A voracious reader and prolific writer from childhood, Maggie found herself without a book to read while coddling the colicky child. So instead she began spinning a tale of her own, creating a plotline that evolved in her thoughts until, a few days later, she sat down and wrote the story in longhand.
Now the author of more than forty novels, ranging from stories about Witches, vampires, psychics and ghosts, to bone chilling, edge-of-your-seat romantic suspense and beyond. The genres she has mastered include women’s fiction, category romance, romantic suspense, and paranormal fiction. Maggie has honed her lyrical prose and made a name for herself on the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon.com, B.Dalton, Booksense, Ingram’s, Barnes and Noble, and Waldenbooks (where she reached #1) bestseller lists.
Maggie is the winner of numerous awards, including two Romantic Times Bookclub Career Achievement Awards, the National Readers Choice Award, and the coveted RITA Award, for which she was nominated twelve times before finally winning.
She has also written for CBS daytime dramas, Guiding Light and As the World Turns. One of Maggie’s novels, Eternity, has been optioned for film.
Sleep With the Lights On
Brown & De Luca Book #1
by Maggie Shayne
Publication Date 9/24/13
Synopsis:
Through the eyes of a killerRachel de Luca has found incredible success writing self-help books. But her own blindness and the fact that her troubled brother has gone missing have convinced her that positive thinking is nothing but bull.
Her cynicism wavers when a cornea transplant restores her sight. The new eyes seem to give her new life, until they prove too good to be true and she starts seeing terrifying visions of brutal murders crimes she soon learns are all too real.
Detective Mason Brown's own brother recently died, leaving behind a horrific secret. In atonement, Mason donated his brother's organs, though he's kept the fact quiet. Now he wants to help Rachel find her brother, but when he discovers the shocking connection between her visions and his own brother, he suddenly has to do everything in his power to save her from a predator who is somehow still hunting from beyond the grave.
*eARC Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Maggie Shayne's Sleep With the Lights On was a darkly seductive psychological thriller with a heroine you cannot help but love, a hero that immediate grows on you and who you both feel for and root for, a story that sucks you in immediately and allows you to be utterly immersed in the unfolding arc of the tale, a unique villain that inspires roiling in the gut, and an ending with a surprise worthy of the best murder mysteries.
O.K, now that I enticed you with that lovely run-on sentence, let me try to break it down. :)
Rachel DeLuca is, by far, one of the best heroines I've encountered! She's so very 'real'; one of those no holds barred ladies who says what's on her mind no matter what. A beautiful,intelligent, independent, strong, and sassy alpha-female who isn't afraid to just 'be'. And if that wasn't enough, Maggie, as Rachel in her POV, will have you laughing out loud in the first handful of pages.
Mason is a stubborn cop, a loyal family man, and a slightly damaged soul. The things Maggie puts him through in only the first 1/4 of the book are enough to break anyone, but he rebounds with grace and ends up being one of those subtle alpha males who you just want to give a big hug to.
The brilliant and unique premise - latent evil being transferred to multiple hosts via the receipt of an organ donation - is one that begs for attention! You can't help but be sucked in by it and set your mind racing with the 'what ifs' and 'what's nexts'. It's an epidemically spread case of evil, but through a means of infection that is utterly benign, thus making it even more disturbing. And the fact that one organ donor can affect up to 50 people makes this book, and ultimate series, one that has limitless potential.
I adored this book. I have been a Maggie Shayne fan for longer than I can remember, but this new side of Maggie is absolutely ingenious and made me have even more respect for her astounding talent and ability to capture the hearts and minds of her readers. I cannot wait for more DeLuca and Brown!
Sleep With the Lights On
No comments:
Post a Comment