Just finished: Envy by Sandra Brown

I am quite tempted to transfer some of the posts on my previous blog here, as I've done with my entries regarding two trips to Booksale. However, this wouldn't be much of a "fresh start" if I continue transferring posts now, would it? I might just pick a few to re-post. Most of the entries I wanted to copy are about books, anyway.

In other news, I finished a book today:

Maris Matherly-Reed is a renowned New York book editor, the daughter of a publisher and the wife of bestselling author Noah Reed. It isn't often that an unsolicited submission so captivates her that she feels she must immediately meet its author. But Maris has just received a tantalizing partial manuscript submitted by a writer identified only as P.M.E., with the return address of an obscure island off the Georgia coast. P.M.E.'s blockbuster potential--and perhaps something else--compels Maris to search for him.

On an eerie, ruined cotton plantation, she finds Parker Evans, a man determined to conceal his identity as well as his past. Working with him chapter by chapter, Maris is riveted by his tale of two friends who charter a boat with a young woman for a night of revelry...an excursion from which only one person returns.

As the story unfolds, Maris becomes convinced it is more than just fiction. Disturbed about her growing attraction to Parker and gripped by a chilling suspicion about his novel's characters, she searches for the undisclosed truth about a crime committed decades ago. Then someone close to her dies, while even closer looms the presence of evil--a man who will use her, or anyone, to get what he wants...

Exploring the way love and hatred shape lives, ENVY uses both Maris's quest and Parker's novel to create a breathtaking story of suspense. Not until the shattering, surprise finale will readers guess the solution to its puzzle of deceit and murder, retribution and redemption.

Whew! Now that's one long synopsis. I'm never good at making reviews, and I don't think this passes as one. But, here's what I think about Envy: (watch out for spoilers!)

•  I like the plot a lot! A book within a book, with both stories unfurling with the same level of intensity. The stories are intertwined, and one leads to the other but one interests me just as much as the other. I think that's a big deal when it comes to book-within-a-book novels.
• My favorite characters are neither the protagonists nor the antagonist. I'm referring to Maris' father, Daniel Matherly, and Mike Strother a.k.a. Professor Radley. I like the fact that, albeit being thought of as being too old and weak (or as Noah puts it: senile), he'd outsmarted Noah and sensed the evil in him even before the whole merger issue started. I admire him for his intelligence, for being able to pass as though everything's normal when he was actually planning on Noah's destruction. He's one sly and cunning old man! Haha. He obviously didn't think Noah would learn about his doings and eventually meet his death, but even then, he won. He was one step ahead of him, the first to learn of his son-in-law's true intentions.
• He may not have done anything close to what Daniel did, but I like Mike just the same. Yes, another old man. I cannot tell what it is exactly that I like about him, I just do. I noticed though that like Daniel, he was the one who first sensed the evil in Noah.
• Some things are predictable, others not. I think it has balance between both, in both stories.

There ya go! Now on to the next book. Still deciding between four titles: