Find Me (Kathleen Mallory, #9) by Carol OConnell

Find Me (Kathleen Mallory, #9) Reviews

• 
  Woman Reading

  
  3.5 Stars- taken for a wild ride along Route 66
  
  Find Me is O'Connell's 9th installment in her Kathleen Mallory police series, normally set in New York City. Although it can be read as a standalone, I wouldn't recommend this as one's introduction to the enigmatic and brusque Mallory.
  
  Find Me's initial crime involves Mallory's house guest found dead with a bullet wound to the heart and a "love is the death of me" note. Mallory is not available for questioning, despite the corpse marring her otherwise minimalist-decorated condo. Her partner in NYPD' s Special Crimes unit is Riker, who tracks Mallory and soon realizes that she's heading for the Mother Road, the historic Route 66 that covered 2,448 miles between Chicago and Los Angeles.
  
  Indeed, Mallory has souped up a VW convertible with a Porsche engine that would be the envy of any nostalgic driver rolling along the mythic American interstate. This is the first of many hyperbolic aspects to Find Me. Mallory has her own reasons for her road trip. She encounters an oddly staged homicide in Chicago and then a caravan of parents whose point of commonality is that they have lost a child. The major crime under investigation in Find Me is the identity of a serial killer who had killed 101 little girls and who now turns to murdering the bereaved patents.
  
  So in addition to an extremely successful serial killer, O'Connell goes overboard in depicting Mallory as a sociopathic monster. Not only do her police colleagues cover for her, but even the FBI doesn't blink when she assaults an agent to exact payback for a grievance made against her deceased foster father. We've left reality because this is easily a federal crime committed in front of witnesses - other FBI agents. Yes, the FBI agent deserved it, but this episode contributes to the over the top portrayal of Mallory as a near invincible comic book level superhero.
  
  I'm a bit torn as to how to rate Find Me, because O'Connell is an extremely talented writer. But there were too many exaggerated elements for me to respond to O'Connell's blatant emotional manipulation from the pathos arising with the caravan of parents, especially the Finn family, to the book's finale as O'Connell tantalizes readers with how her sociopathic Mallory may finally change for the better. I am neither a fan of comic book superheroes nor of melodrama.
  
  This is the fourth Mallory book I've read. O'Connell was ahead of her time with the creation of Mallory. I'm drawn to the trio of Mallory, Riker, and Charles Butler as these other recurring protagonists elevate the Mallory mysteries far beyond the simplistic characterisation of another female sociopath - Eve of BBC's "Killing Eve" series.
  
  #1
  Mallory's Oracle 3 ☆
  #4
  Stone Angel 4 ☆
  #6
  Crime School 4 ☆
• 
  jo

  i think i'm being generous. i think this book could easily get two stars and it would be okay. yet i loved it for long stretches, and got turned off only towards the end. still, endings count. in the mystery genre, a book that weaves a very complex web but lets you down at the end is a seriously flawed book.
  
  this started losing me when the intricacies of the plot became so intricate that i started losing the ability to suspend disbelief. also, o'connell plays with red herrings and misleading/confusing side-plots a bit too close to the fire. i got burned.
  
  for most of the book, though, i shamelessly rooted for mallory. she has the potential to be a very good character. maybe the previous books of the series show her in a less preposterous light. maybe future books will. i have read neither.
  
  now i'll talk about the mystification and de-mystification of the female loner. literature, high and low-brow, has male loners galore, but the other characters don't spend quite as much time worshiping them at a distance, tiptoeing around them, discussing them, analysing them, worrying about them. above all, they don't call them "the kid." male loners are cool. this female loner is cool, too -- definitely portrayed as such -- but for some reason o'connell felt the need to endow her friends with an insistent, sticky brand of avuncularism that, at the end, does get on one's nerves. leave well enough alone, already. the woman on the pedestal is a mainstay of heroic representations of women since homer, and plenty people have made the argument that it actually diminishes women. i am not telling o'connell to get with the program, but i'm telling you that it would help a lot with my enjoyment of her books if she did.
  
  maybe carol o'connell is not too worried about the diminishment of her character, though. and here's another observation. i am no mystery expert, but my tiny exposure to the genre has led me to observe that women writers love to put their female characters in situations in which women and or children get massively brutalized. i understand the exorcising function of this fantasy, the drive to turn terror into pleasure. it's primal and common and i buy it. and maybe male writers do it too, and maybe only the three or so women mystery writers i have read do it.
  
  ** SPOILERS **
  
  having covered my bases, though, i'd like to say that in this 21st century of ours it might be nice for women writers to move on from this specific exorcising fantasy and be a little less transparent in their desire to come to terms with violence against women and children. i mean, do you HAVE to get ONE HUNDRED LITTLE GIRLS brutally slaughtered?
  
  the small mercy, here, is that there is no sexual violence. the annoying fact is that the killer must be über-phobic of touch with a live human being in order for this fact to be supported by the narrative.
  
  i get frustrated by the way in which this culture of ours thrives on the brutalization of children. i know we are all terrified. i know we are battling powerful frontier fantasies of treacherous enemies and the great unknown. i also know that the strongly religious fundamentalist roots of our cultural, with their accompanying demonization of sexuality, make us angry and repressed. but, com'on. it's the 21st century. it's okay to lay the beast to rest. it's okay to walk close to it and realize that it isn't that bad after all. it's okay to let our kids walk to the grocery store on their own, play in the front yard unsupervised, grow up a little less frightened.
• 
  Amanda Patterson

  O’ Connell has set herself apart as one of the finest psychological crime writers ever.
  ‘Love is the death of me.’
  Detective Riker reads the suicide note found next to Savannah’s corpse. The gunshot victim is lying in his partner, Detective Kathy Mallory’s apartment.
  Is it a suicide or a homicide? Mallory has disappeared.
  
  If you aren’t acquainted with Kathy Mallory, do yourself a favour and change that. There has never been a character like her in crime fiction.
  Mallory is the most beautiful, most heartless, most terrifying heroine you’ll ever meet.
  Until the final page of Mallory’s last outing, Winter House, and now in Shark Music, O’ Connell used the enigmatic third person viewpoint. She turned us into intruders who watched Mallory. Mesmerised voyeurs, we never knew what she thought or what she felt.
  
  Did Mallory, in fact, feel?
  In Shark Music, we enter her mind, and the torment and tension of being there is almost unbearable.
  Far away from New York, the corpse of a man lies on Route 66. This road has become a burial ground for a number of bodies – all of little girls, aged between five and seven.
  
  Mallory’s mother died when she was six. She never knew her father. She became a street child marked by cold truths and ruinous logic. Her chilling manipulation of technology boggles the brain. She is literally the ghost in the machine.
  Why then has she left a paper trail for Riker to follow?
  He knows that she filled her car with fuel in Pennsylvania and Ohio. She follows the eerie caravan of parents searching for lost children, led by the enigmatic Dr Magritte. She finds items belongings to her lost father. She looks at photographs of him and sees the electric green eyes that belong to her.
  
  This complex novel rips apart the hopes and despairs of lost parents and lost children. It enters the place that no human being wants to go. Ever.
  And you know, as you read, that it can only end in tears. And still you read.
  
  From the mystery and malice of Mallory’s Oracle to the brain numbing fear in Flight of the Stone Angel, O’ Connell has set herself apart as the finest psychological crime writer ever.
  
  Shark Music surpasses all that has gone before. It is a masterpiece.
  
  Amanda Patterson
  Rating: 5/5
• 
  Pamela

  This is the first/only "Mallory" book that I have read and I found it to be quite good. Although a little long, it was worth the time to read it. I don't know where this numbers in the list of books, so I don't think I would backtrack, but I would read more of these. I'll have to try to find the next one in the series.
• 
  Annie

  A most excellent 5 star read!
• 
  Kimba Tichenor

  Although the ninth book in the series, it is the first one for me. For most of this book, I was torn between 4 and 5 stars. It has a complex plot, well-developed characters, and a great sense of place. Everything that you are looking for in a great mystery. So what went wrong? A disappointing anti-climatic ending and in a mystery, a good ending obviously counts for a lot. Still, I would certainly try another book in this series by this author.
• 
  Kris

  4.5
• 
  LARRY

  As posted in [
  http://www.amazon.com]:
  
  I got this book as a gift since it is known among my friends that I love Grafton's Kinsey Millhone and Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta. So, I thought I'd love Kathy Mallory. Not!
  
  I am aware that there is a series of Mallory's "adventures". I am aware that one needs to read a couple of other books of the series before rendering a verdict. However, this book alone was enough for me to decide that I won't be reading another book by Carol O'Connell.
  
  In this series, Mallory hits Route 66 for two purposes. One, to find her father or rather, to find pieces of his life. You see, Mallory was a "feral" child before she was caught and adopted by, now deceased, Lou Markowitz, a legendary cop/detective. Two, she's in search of a serial killer who abducts, kills and buries children by the edges of Route 66.
  
  Initially, sounds interesting. However, the Mallory character is hard to relate or sympathize. You could say that despite of it all, Mallory is still feral. She's unapproachable, brash and has a big chip on her shoulder. Sure, people can be tough...but show a little humanity.
  
  Nah. I'll stick with Kinsey Millhone and Kay Scarpetta any day.
• 
  Lydia

  For those of you who have read the previous 8 Mallory novels, you will love this one in particular for the new insights we get into Mallory's life and history. As far as the action goes, it does not disappoint. The story once again has so many twists and turns that you have no problem being just as confused as Charles Butler is when he can't figure out what's going on - and YOU get to hear ALL of the story and not just his segment!
  
  I can't praise these books enough. They are wonderful. Laugh-out-loud funny at times; heart-pounding page-turners at others. My only problem with them is that they are my introduction to crime novels - and I doubt many others I read will stand up to Carol O'Connell's work. The mysteries filling the shelves at the library can't possibly all be as good as these books...can they? Fellow readers of the Mallory novels, what other crime novelists are as good as this one and therefore worth my time?
• 
  Linda Robinson

  Read this through one night, and remembered, a long time ago my Dad said you can get by with hardly any sleep as long as what kept you awake was a good time. I only regretted the lack of sleep a little. Mallory elevates her whackness (including chipped nail polish, begob), Butler's got his groove back, and Riker is just as entertaining and frumpy, with better skills displayed. Didn't care for the FBI, which I'm sure O'Connell is perfectly happy with. Wonder what the history is there? The parents made me anxious, as parents can sometimes do. The kids were excellent. The premise and duelling story lines were O'Connell's usual superb, but the ending was bolloxed. Feels like she ran out of deadline time, and had to wrap up by the weekend. Still, O'Connell writing not at her best remains far and away better than most. ACK! This is the last written Mallory novel! Have to find another addiction right away. Again.
• 
  Mackay

  I am really bored with the trope in mystery/thriller of the damaged savant detective. This was the first Kathy Mallory I've read, and it'll be the last. Mallory is that damaged savant, and beautiful (she's described as possessing a "perfect" face, whatever that means), and she is so out of control that no respectable police force would hire her, promote her to detective, or put up with her. But she's nuthin to the FBI agent who is the true villain of the piece. Oh, puleez.
  
  The authorial manipulations of the reader are interesting at first, but the inability of any of these 2-D characters to talk to one another just makes the device more and more and more tiresome. Don't bother.
• 
  Barbara Bryan

  Ninth in a series with Kathy Mallory NY detective, former homeless waif. I prefer to start at the beginning and I heard this wasn't one of the best. I will try again, Listened to it and found it fairly hard to follow, jumped around alot and had a lot of characters, may have been easier to follow in written form.
  Caravan of cars with parents of missing children drives along Route 66 where dead children are being dug up. Killer is part of caravan, psychiatric priest knows who he is but wont tell due to confessional. Load of crap, people keep getting killed, it's ridiculous.
• 
  Lianda Ludwig

  I can't believe I actually finished this book. EVERY character was like a cartoon character. The story went on for ever, with implausible interactions between these cardboard characters. I think the only reason I finished it was I didn't have another book to read. I would never read another of her books.
• 
  Avid Series Reader

  Find Me by Carol O'Connell is the ninth book of the Kathleen Mallory mystery series set in the late 20th century. This story takes us all along Route 66, America's legendary "Mother Road". We gradually learn of three parallel journeys along the road: Mallory on a very personal quest, the FBI and state police searching for buried bodies, a caravan of parents searching for lost children. Kathleen Mallory is an NYPD homicide detective extraordinaire, a genius computer whiz/hacker, antisocial, fiercely driven. Very few people know her, by her own choice. Detective Sergeant Riker, her partner at NYPD, has been clocking her in and out for the past few weeks, wondering why she's been AWOL from duty. His anxiety peaks when Savannah Sirus, an apparent suicide, is found in Mallory's apartment.
  
  Mallory is driving a custom-made speedster (Porsche engine, Volkswagen body). A sheaf of decades-old, well-read letters dictate the landmarks she must find on her route. She starts at the Chicago end of Route 66, sees it's a grisly crime scene, notices a key detail, alerts law enforcement, and goes on her way. That evening, Mallory helps a lost driver avoid a stalker. The woman is trying to join up with a group of people traveling along Route 66 showing photographs of their missing children in desperate hope of finding them. Next day, Mallory notices a suspicious vehicle at a roadside diner, insists that local police investigate. When the feds arrive and make a mess of the crime scene, she tips off her Chicago law enforcement contact.
  
  When Riker learns Mallory is reporting crimes to police & FBI, it relieves his deepest fear; a murderer fleeing a crime wouldn't call attention to herself. He and Charles Butler (wealthy genius) pursue Mallory along Route 66 in Charles' Mercedes.
  
  The FBI continues to find long-buried bodies; a serial killer adds new victims (from the caravan); Mallory presses on, locating the landmarks lovingly described in the letters; Riker and Butler in pursuit. Although Mallory is intensely focused on her own primary mission of discovery, she cannot help but observe a serial killer is systematically attacking the caravan. She often thwarts the killer and assists law enforcement, but always on her own terms, always continuing on her way.
  
  It's essential to read the previous books in the series before this one, to fully appreciate Mallory and her road trip. 101 missing children, feds vs. state/local PD squabbles, and the serial killer are side distractions; Mallory is traveling Route 66 in her father's footsteps.
• 
  LJ

  FIND ME (Suspense-US-Cont) – Ex
  O’Connell, Carol – 10th book
  Putnam, 2006- US Hardcover – ISBN 0399153950
  *** There is a dead woman in her apartment and NY detective Kathy Mallory has taken off in a VW Beetle with a Porche 911 engine to travel old Route 66. At the beginning of the highway, the intersection of Adams and Marshall in Chicago, lies a body with it’s hand pointing down the road. As Mallory is in search of her past, her friends Riker and Charles Butler, are after Mallory and join with a caravan of cars driven by the parent s of missing children brought together by the discovery of children’s graves discovered all along this famous road.
  *** Reading O’Connell is such a pleasure. In Mallory she has created one of the most interesting female characters written and then added Riker as her friend and partner who loves her as she is, and Charles who just loves her, much to his detriment. In her usual style, O’Connell gives us a layered story of Mallory’s search, the parent’s plight and the battle of jurisdiction and corruption of the lead investigator. There is tragedy on many levels, humor to lighten things along the way, twists to keep the reader on their toes, and the metamorphosis of Mallory. Is this the end of the series? I certainly hope not, but as long as O’Connell keeps writing, I could bear it. I enjoyed everything about this book, include Route 66, some of which I have driven, and highly recommend it.
  
• 
  Ann

  I enjoyed every moment of this ninth book in the series. Skillfully written and intricately plotted, the journey Kathy Mallory takes in this book was much more than a mere trip down the old Route 66, the search for a missing child was so much more than the search for one missing little girl. Highly recommend the series; the revelations about  Mallory continue to peel away the onion to reveal more and more of the character. The cat and mouse game is multi layered and keeps you on the edge of your seat; enjoying the history of the dying highway and second guessing as the the missing clues are revealed.  
• 
  Karla

  LOVED. A true mystery, jam packed with suspense. Deserves a 4.5 star rating really, but I am getting stingy with my 5 star ratings.
  
  For the first time EVER, this book is one that I would read again. Carol O'Connell will be added to my top 5 favorite authors and I can't wait to start at the beginning of this series and get caught up.
  
  This "who done it?" is also filled with historical trivia setting along Route 66. The female detective is the brilliant quiet, type that puts fear in everyone around.
  
  I won this in a First Reads Goodreads giveaway.
• 
  Carolyn Goodrich

  I love this entire series but this one is a can't put down until you are finished book. I forced myself since I bought this one and have a bunch of library books to read and I am trying to maintain a home life. The main character, Mallory, is not your usual feminine detective. She is a ball breaking b__ch. The flaw in this book is the author allows her to do things Mallory would never do. The plot is her following her father's journey down Route 66.
• 
  Bernda Bacani

  Mallory reminds me of a tamer version of the female lead in the Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. Mallory is a brilliant but haunted soul. She is looking down Route 66 following letters her late father had left in letters. She gets involved with a caravan of parents who have lost a (murdered) child. I liked it a lot but found it rather intense since I had read another book in this series immediately before this one.
• 
  Cindy Grossi

  Thanks, April - now I have another series I HAVE to delve into. Mallory is an intriguing character and the writing is very good. This title is not the first of the series, but actually a goo jumping off point. I am going back to the first of the series now because my daughter just gifted me with a Kindle copy!
• 
  Heidi

  The last book was definitely the best of the series... sorry it seems to be over. If you love interesting mysteries and characters with lots of back story... check this series out... but start at the beginning... you'll be hooked!
• 
  Kirsten

  I enjoyed this character and a few really delightful lines. I wish I'd discovered the series sooner. This particular volume seems to reveal a lot of backstory and answer questions about the main character, which makes me reluctant to go back and read previous entries in the series.
• 
  Mary

  I really like this series, and I liked this reader. (Not crazy about it when they switch readers in later books; so going back and re-enjoying the early books.) This is a great road-trip book, and a good one to dip into if you haven't read the rest of the series. (Read the rest though!)
• 
  Pisces51

  FIND ME [2006] By Carol O’Connell
  My Review 4.5 Stars****
  
  This is Book 9 of 12 in the author’s popular Mallory Book series. Initially published over a decade and a half ago it was only this past January that I discovered this wonderful author and her riveting, addictive novels that feature NYPD Special Crimes Detective Kathleen Mallory and the recurring cast of colorful characters who populate her universe. The plot of each book is unique but the stories are continued with the same characters. Readers who like continuing characterization and following the character arcs of a fantastic assortment of a supporting cast will love the entire Mallory series.
  
  FIND ME begins with Mallory leaving New York City in the rearview mirror of a customized Volkswagen Beetle ragtop convertible. Fans of the series will be more surprised by the car she is driving and her leaving her sterile home office disorganized than by the discovery of a woman’s corpse with a fatal gunshot wound.
  
  This installment is singularly special in that it is the second time Mallory has sped out of the city, but more significantly this time around she is following a map and guide written by the father she never knew as she travels along mythic Route 66. The first time was chronicled in STONE ANGEL where Mallory goes home to settle the score for her mother’s murder. In FIND ME, the author fills in still more of Mallory’s back story when she leaves the NYPD, her partner Riker, and everyone else behind to search for her father.
  
  O’Connell’s plots are invariably highly imaginative, incredibly original, compelling, and complex. The storylines are multi-layered, often with subplots, and always with a narrative style that manages to mix poetic prose, scintillating dialogue, sardonic humor, and a relentless yet perfect pace. Mallory’s “tricked-out” VW Beetle with the racing power of a Porsche engine provides some wicked humor. Mallory’s face-offs with other police personnel, FBI Agents, and other characters in the book always injects a dose of satisfying adrenaline. There are two parallel story lines that weave throughout the novel, and the layers of the narratives are gradually peeled away as the book unfolds. Mallory’s across country drive along Route 66 collides with the hunt for a serial killer who is equally obsessed by the historical road and has been littering along its path by discarding the bodies of female children for several decades. The two parallel stories merge when Mallory discovers a caravan of haunted parents and family members still searching for their lost children. They are led by an aged psychologist who was there at the beginning of the nightmare to counsel the devastated families. It is at this juncture that Mallory joins the hunt for a remorseless child killer whose body count is likely to be a hundred little girls. It is likely because the child killer changed his MO and has now begun to “pick off” adult members of the grieving families.
  
  Riker and Charles are amidst the fray, but they are not in sync with Mallory. Riker had been essentially “shadowing” Mallory because of some erratic behavior she exhibited before abruptly leaving town. Charles had been in Europe nursing a broken heart after he had proposed to Mallory. The two men who love her are assisting with the manhunt for the serial killer on the fabled Route 66. There are lot of pieces to the puzzle and the author was perhaps a little too ambitious with at least one of the threads, specifically the lead FBI Agent and his machinations, as well as motivations. In the case of this novel, just set aside a fantastical element and enjoy the ride down Route 66 which is truly an unforgettable journey.
  
  The most riveting aspect of this novel is the underlying question of whether Mallory’s own father is a suspect in this hunt for the prolific serial killer who has preyed upon victims along Route 66 for decades. The reader is anxious to learn the secrets behind the dead woman left in Mallory’s apartment, and Riker learns that Mallory has a cache of letters written by her father in her possession. She is following the mythical route her father loved and stopping by each of the landmarks described in his letters. Her journey intersects with an all-out manhunt for a ruthless killer of children and more recently adults. The answers to the most pressing questions are not answered until toward the end of the book. Mallory figures out the identity of the killer, and the showdown between the two is electric in its intensity and unforgettable in its execution. If the climax as just described was as intense as any meeting of hunter and prey I have ever read, then the author’s conclusion was ingenious.
  
  This installment was met with some controversy when it was first released to its adoring fan base, but having the advantage of reading it long after it was published, I feel that its strengths far outweigh any valid minor criticisms. FIND ME serves to flesh out the enigmatic Mallory’s familial history while she remains a beautiful and perfect predator whose psyche defies categorization.
  
  WORTHWHILE INSTALLMENT IN O’CONNELL’S ENTRALLING MALLORY SERIES
  
• 
  Carmen

  There was so much to like about this book with great characters and a good storyline.
  I downgraded it to 3 stars, however, because some of the schtick the author uses to define Mallory, a "feral" child who is now a NY detective.
  1) She lacks simple manners and responsiveness. Sorry, we know she's great and all, but that's no excuse
  2) Her main friends are afraid to be themselves around her because she might shoot them. Nope, not ok.
  3). A NY detective going rogue across the country and it's ok .. in fact she intimidates the FBI who are a bunch of incompetent nincompoops (what??). So they let her do whatever she wants and kiss her feet. Yep, that's realistic. In fact, she is drawn in such extremes I cannot "picture her" in real life.
  Maybe she's supposed to be like Jack Reacher with "hands the size of Thanksgiving turkeys"?
  
  Other than that, her trip across the country to try and recreate her father's journey along rte 66 is kind of nice (though, really, really, long, and at times boring). Along the way she runs into a caravan of people who hope to find their dead children. A lot of folks in the caravan are drawn well. I like that they clean up after themselves.
  It's easy to see who the children killer is .. if you think about why on earth a serial killer would care about distance, time, and intersects.
  All in all a good read, but not great.
  
  
  
• 
  Amarjeet Singh

  Shark Music promises much in the first few pages-but which serial killer novel doesn't?-and delivers an exceptionally high dose of virtually nothing. At times the distinctions between antagonist and protagonist are so rapidly blurred that Kathleen Mallory might as well be the elusive serial killer she's hunting for (given her background she might as well be in the habit of chasing her own tail). After the middle point, it becomes a strange amalgamation of hybrid Nightmare on Elm Street vs. Michael Myers vs. Jason Voorhees with a few churches thrown into the midst and kind-hearted priests leaving us with the impression that maybe O' Connell too likes to run around in circles.
  
  At the end, an updated jousting match is concluded when Mallory literally impales the serial killer with a metal pole-points for innovation? Anyone?-and we find out that the serial killer was disguised as a parent traveling with a caravan of parents whose children were killed by him.
  
  Two stars because while the genre and the first part of the book promises much; it delivers nothing other than a migraine.
• 
  Martip

  "Rewarded" myself for a solid school year with this book. It kept me guessing guessing guessing! I don't recall exactly when I read it, but has to be in the last two weeks or so. I JUST finished reading O'Connell's title Bone by Bone less than an hour ago. THAT is a solid 5 or 10 out of 5 or 10 for me. Bone by Bone just resonated more deeply with me than Find Me's Route 66 scheme did. The ending? Now, I have to tell you, as an English teacher, I can give you under 5 author names who regularly START a story sizzling hot...... Even fewer authors end a story in an unforgettable way. Find me, now THIS book has one of my all time favorite book endings. Go Carol. Go Carol.
• 
  Gabriel Lichtenstein

  Boring, boring, boring.
  I almost *always* read a book through - from begining to end. With Find Me I tried hard to continue reading, but succumbed in the middle.
  The story went on f o r e v e r .... then the sticky romantic story of that peyton-savannah-cassandra.
  
  I would never read another of her books!!!!!