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Until You're Mine: A Novel
Author:
Hayes, Samantha
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PR6108.A
Print Run: 50000
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ISBN-13: 9780804136891
LCCN: 2013012545
Imprint: Crown
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Pub Date: 04/15/2014
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $24.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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355 pages ; 25 cm
H 9.53",
W 6.41",
D 1.25",
1.26 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Library Journal Starred Reviews
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Library Journal
Publishers Weekly
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TIPS Subjects:
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Suspense/Thriller
Psychological Fiction
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
FICTION / Women
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LC Subjects:
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Nannies, Fiction
Pregnant women, Fiction
Psychological fiction
Serial murder investigation, Fiction
Suspense fiction
Women, Family relationships, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Criminal investigation, Fiction
Family life, Fiction
Nannies, Fiction
Pregnancy, Fiction
Serial killers, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 01/01/2014 |
| Zoe seems like the perfect fit to help out as successful, pregnant social worker Claudia Morgan-Brown focuses on her work, but the recent rash of attacks on pregnant women and the unsettling vibe Claudia gets from Zoe could wreak havoc with Claudia's perfect world while her husband is away. 368pp., 50K, Auth res: Warwickshire |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Library Journal | 02/01/2014 |
| In British author Hayes's (Tell Tale; Someone Else's Son) wonderfully creepy thriller, a serial killer is targeting pregnant women and no one can understand why. The only clues lie in the killings themselves--pregnant bellies slit open, the mother left to perish--leaving the police to believe the killer wants a baby. Through the use of three female narrators--Claudia, the happily married, pregnant social worker; her nanny Zoe; and Lorraine, the harried detective and mother of two teen girls--Hayes not only delivers a splendid mystery, she offers insights into the inner lives of today's women and mothers in particular. Society's idea of a woman being able to "do it all" makes Lorraine barely able to hold anything together, from her investigation of the murders to raising her daughters. Claudia is in the final days of her pregnancy and worries about how motherhood will affect her life. And Zoe is obsessed with getting pregnant and becoming a mother--or is she? VERDICT Readers will find it hard to put this title down. A well-written, compelling plot, great characters, and a feminist viewpoint all add up to a satisfying read. Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD. 368p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 02/03/2014 |
| Terror lurks just below the surface in this excellent psychological thriller, the U.S. debut of British author Hayes (Someone Else's Son). Claudia Morgan-Brown, a Birmingham, England-based social worker who's happily married and is the doting stepmother of four-year-old twin boys, finally has her lifelong wish: she's pregnant, and it's a girl. With her due date weeks away, Claudia needs a nanny; she doesn't want to give up her job, and her husband's work requires him to be at sea for weeks or even months at a time. Zoe Harper, the applicant Claudia hires, appears to be the perfect nanny, with glowing references and a way with children. But Claudia comes to distrust Zoe, who leaves the house at odd hours and has blood stains on her clothes. Meanwhile, Det. Insp. Lorraine Fisher and her fellow police detective husband are investigating vicious attacks on pregnant women. A sense of menace grows as the point-of-view shifts among Claudia, Zoe, and Lorraine. The twisty plot builds to a surprising and unnerving finale. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Apr.). 368p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 04/15/2014 |
| There's a stranger in Claudia Morgan-Brown's house. The Birmingham, England, social worker has what should be an enviable life: Newly married to a wealthy naval officer, she lives in a palatial house and is step-parenting his adorable twin boys. And after a string of heartbreaking miscarriages with her ex, she's finally expecting a baby girl of her own. But there's a problem: the new live-in nanny, Zoe Harcomb. Although this apparent super-nanny has a perfect resume, something about Zoe--a childless woman who "stares longingly at Claudia's pregnant stomach"--just doesn't seem right. The tension ratchets up as Claudia's husband prepares to leave on a long submarine voyage, and a series of brutal murders of local pregnant women stumps local law enforcement. The novel's narration is shared among Claudia, Zoe and Lorraine Fisher, a police officer investigating the murders even as her marriage threatens to fall apart and her teenage daughter announces she's leaving home. As these women's lives become more entangled, the novel reveals the raw need and desperate yearning that often lie behind the idealized state of motherhood. Zoe wonders, "Would Claudia understand that I probably want--no, need her baby more than she does?" Samantha Hayes, author of four previous suspense novels, builds tension skillfully, revealing and concealing just enough to keep readers riveted. The story's twists and turns recall such female-focused suspense tales as Rebecca and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, culminating in a final revelation that is truly jaw-dropping. But it's the novel's use of iconic female fears--the loss of a beloved child, an intimate enemy under one's own roof--that really get under the reader's skin. The events of this plot may be lurid, but the emotions they're grounded in are very real. Emily Bartlett Hines. BookPageXTRA Online Review. BOOKPAGE, c2014. |
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| Booklist | 03/01/2014 |
| Social-worker Claudia Morgan-Brown has just surrendered to necessity and hired Zoe Harper to care for her stepsons and help her slog through her third trimester of pregnancy while her husband is away on British naval maneuvers. Although Zoe's references are excellent, Claudia has a disturbing feeling that Zoe's hiding something dangerous. Can she trust her instincts, or are pregnancy hormones making her paranoid? When Claudia is visited by Birmingham detectives investigating two brutal attacks on pregnant women, the doubts about Zoe turn to fear. One of the victims is on Claudia's child-welfare unit's caseload, and the detectives clearly believe that Claudia's pregnancy could make her the killer's next target. After the visit, DI Lorraine Fisher becomes convinced the attacks are linked to Claudia and Zoe, and she circles them both, determined to expose the connection. Hayes manipulates the contradictions in Claudia's, Zoe's, and Lorraine's narratives to thrilling effect while weaving in a creepy-to-beautiful spectrum of maternal love. Skillfully plotted, with several red herrings that make the satisfyingly twisted conclusion even more of a surprise. Tran, Christine. 368p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 02/01/2014 |
| Told from the points of view of three women whose lives intertwine, Hayes (Someone Else's Son, 2011, etc.) sets her new novel in Birmingham, England, and spins out a plot that twists and turns from beginning to the end. While the idea isn't new, and sometimes Hayes' writing tends toward clunky, she scores a hit in this sometimes-discomfiting story of a very pregnant woman, a mysterious nanny involved with another woman who wants a baby, and a police investigator whose marriage and personal life are on the rocks. Claudia is a Royal Navy officer's wife. A submariner, James leaves for long deployments, and Claudia has grown used to being apart. But this time, she's ready to deliver a baby and is left alone with James' young twin sons by his first marriage. They hire a nanny, Zoe, a woman with perfect references. However, Zoe is not only not named Zoe, she's a total fabrication who is desperate in real life to please the unbalanced woman with whom she once lived. And Lorraine, a police detective and mother of two girls, has partnered with her cheating husband, Adam, also a detective, to investigate cases in which pregnant women are attacked and their babies cut from their wombs. Each woman takes turns recounting the events that propel the story forward, with Claudia and Zoe speaking in first person and Lorraine in third person, which sometimes seems odd but manages to work. Hayes builds suspense gradually, adding layer after layer to her tale until the ending, which delivers both frantic, page-turning pacing and a surprise ending. However, readers may find the story contrived in places--particularly where the stories of Lorraine and her husband intersect with the other two--and may ultimately feel a bit manipulated by the author rather than entertained. Fewer red herrings would have made this a better read, but Hayes' tale succeeds despite them. 368pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 10/21/2013 |
| Claudia Morgan-Brown couldn't be happier as she anticipates the birth of her child. But she just doesn't trust her highly recommended new nanny, Zoe, and her anxiety is compounded by a series of attacks on pregnant women in the vicinity. British author Hayes, who's published four novels under the name Sam Hayes, launches a new, Birmingham-based series with this book, which has inspired real publisher love. 368p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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9780804136891,dl.it[0].title
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