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Read Out Of The Dark (2006)

Out of the Dark (2006)

Online Book

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Rating
4.03 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0778324028 (ISBN13: 9780778324027)
Language
English
Publisher
mira books

Out Of The Dark (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

Beautiful artist has been on the run with her male BFF ever since she was 12 when they escaped from the commune where her mother abducted her to & where she was used as a child prostitute. Her painting of her mother was bought by someone who brought it to her estranged father attention. Her father hires private-investigator Hero to bring her home. Per the encouragement of her best friend, reluctant & mistrustful heroine goes home to her father with Hero. But coming home not only brings a happy reunion with her father & start of a romantic relationship with sensitive Hero. Loss & a shaking-up of the main culprits involved in her child abuse also follow.I was expecting to like this Sala book due to other Sala/McCall books I've read & the recommendations of other romance readers. I unfortunately found this book lacking.The major hole in this book is heroine's emotional dysfunction & immaturity. She was still very traumatized by her child-abuse experiences at age 24. She got through life after their escape with her sanity & person intact only b/c of her best friend. Heroine was chronically dependent on her best friend. She wouldn't sleep without him, had to be constantly reassured by him, & wouldn't get close to anybody but him. I don't think she had a lot of inner strength at all. She suppressed her memories & regressed. She was lucky to have strong, protective figures helping her. As soon as she got back home, her best friend past the torch of responsibility for heroine on to Hero & her dad. Basically, her emotional immaturity was enabled by the male figures in her life(i.e, her BFF & Hero called her "baby", her father was happy that she called him "Daddy" (versus just "Dad') & to see her sleep with her baby-blanket like she did when she was 4). So, when she decided to have sex with Hero, it felt really inappropriate & off. Her best friend whom she was very dependent on for 12 years just died, she's had daily nightmares about her sexual trauma, & she didn't start therapy yet. Her having sex with Hero without much trouble was just unbelievable & weird. Heroine needed lot of therapy sessions before she could realistically get to this point of sexual comfort & confidence. Sala should've worked better on her timing. Romance was a bit corny. I think it's because the r/s was not equal. Hero was the big protector & heroine was this needy, helpless child. She was a big vat of need & hero mollycoddled her. I couldn't stand some of their dialogue. Hero talked to her like she was a baby (& even called her "baby") and kept of reassuring her with "I love you"s. Action-suspense part was too contrived. The main culprits were all caught in no time & too easily for it to be realistic. Caution: uncomfortable read due to heroine's child abuse trauma. I recommend Mary Jo Putney's [[ASIN:B004OL2NV0 The Spiral Path (Circle of Friends)]] instead for better handling of child-abuse trauma with the romance.

What a story! Absolutely fabulous, but not for someone who likes sweet romance! I found this book on an Amazon Discussion as an "make you cry like a baby book". Just know what you are getting into before reading this story, their is lots of bad stuff, pedophiles, sexual abuse and awful people that turn your stomach, but the story has some beautiful relationships and is very uplifting as well.Out of the Dark grabbed me right at the beginning. The heroine Jade has had a horrific young life. The story begins back in 1977 where free love and drugs were the way of life. So Jade, 4 years old, is woken up in the middle of the night by her mother and taken from her loving father to join a cult, The People of Joy, which is run by a con man and is a front for under age prostitution. Jade's father is devastated and spends boatloads of money and 10 years trying to find them without ever a clue being discovered. (There were a few holes in this part of the story, but I just went with it) Jade's mother dies when she is 6 and Jade is thrown into this cruel existence from age 6-12 yrs old of being pimped out to pedophiles. Even though the book is very mild in description of sex, both in the romance and the heinous acts that happen to her in her young life, it is heart breaking and unsettling. At age 12 she is rescued by her best friend, Raphael, who is only 15 at the time, and also living this same fate. (view spoiler)[The book then moves to 20 years in the future where Jade is still living a terrible reality. Her and Raph have no money and are always on the run thinking the past might catch up with them. Their sole income comes from her artistic talent as she draws portraits at street fairs. It is at a street fair in San Francisco where she is selling a large portrait of her mother she did years ago that a dear friend of her father recognizes Jade's mother's face and buys the portrait. When the father sees it he contacts his best friend Luke to find the artist. When Jade and her father are finally reunited Jade is so broken, but Sam, her father, has such strength and faith in her. There is much publicity over the reunion and this alerts the bad people to Jade's location. This is where the suspense and action begin. (hide spoiler)]

What do You think about Out Of The Dark (2006)?

This is not a new book for me, nor is the author new to me. This one has been on my 'keeper' shelves for some time. I finally got some reading glasses yesterday ... since the paperback print seems to keep getting smaller the older I get. I wanted to try them out and grabbed this book to re-read.This is not a sweet romance story, although romance does play a part, but the story itself is Jade. Jade was taken by her mother to a cult. As you can imagine what a young child's life is under these circumstances, we're talking pedophiles, selling or renting young children. It's not for the faint of heart. It's a sad portrayal of things that happen all too often.Jade makes a friend .. Raphael ... who is also a child of the cult. He has no parents..not even a last name. He saves Jade's life and they go on the run. Years later, they are still together .. he is her protector, her guardian. Due to strange circumstances, she finds out that her father is still alive and has been looking for her for 20 years. And it happens at a time when Rafael learns he is dying. He's not afraid of death, but it scares him to think of leaving Jade behind. She needs someone to show her how to live her life without all the fear.It's all about Jade .. her ability to learn to trust again. To have someone love her without the pain. She is portrayed so perfectly. She's like a young child growing up for the first time while an adult. Jade is a lot stronger than she thinks. And she's met a good man who's willing to give her space to grow up, to know that she can make it on her own, but she doesn't have to.There are moments that I had to grab some tissues. You just cannot read this without shedding a few tears along the way. And Luke is the man we all wish we could meet.I am so glad I happened to walk by a display of reading glasses. They work wonderfully and they made re-reading this wonderful book so much easier.
—Linda Strong

Sam Cochrane has never given up hope of one day finding out what happened to his daughter and wife twenty years ago. When a new lead is found by a family friend, he sends close friend and ex-cop Luke Kelly to see what he can find on the artist who painted a picture of his wife.Jade has spent her life in hiding with her best friend Raphael, they both share the same horrific pasts and when a woman questions them about one of Jade's paintings it starts a series of events that leads Luke to finding them. When a reuinion between parent and child goes awry and Jade's life is put at risk, Luke will stop at nothing to protect her.Powerful story. It was filled with emotion, I cried almost the whole book as Jade relives her past. There is a lot of tragedy in this book, but there is also a lot of hope and promise for the future. Jade'a transformation as she begins to heal is brilliantly written. I could go on and on but I don't think I could possibly find enough words to give this book the justice it deserves.
—Emily

When Jade was four, her mother joined a cult and took her with her. Her mother died when she was six and for the next six years, she was pimped to child-molesters by the cult leader, Solomon, until her friend Raphael, a boy three years older than her who was also being abused in the commune, took her away. After that, they lived on the streets mostly, Raphael contracting AIDS during this time. Jade is a talented artist and manages to keep them fed by selling her paintings, but when a painting she did of her mother falls into her father's hands, he sends Luke, a private investigator and ex-cop, to find her. Luke finds her and persuades her and Raphael to go to her father's, but the reunion gets the attention of the media and some of Jade's abusers recognize her, leading to murder attempts to keep the scandal from coming out.I was so excited when I read this book's summary, but it was a big disappointment. Jade's moments with her father were rushed and not as poignant as I would have liked. There could have been so much there. I know it's a romance novel and all and that it's expected for the focus to be on Jade and Luke, but their relationship could have been so great. I didn't enjoy a single scene she had with Luke. Luke wasn't a very interesting character and they had zero chemistry. And as always, even though she's been so horrendously abused, she's mysteriously attracted to Luke almost from the start. The sex came way too easily, and even though her best friend is dying of AIDS, they don't hesitate to do it without protection.There was a scene in which a police officer is asking about why someone would want to kill her and Raphael, and she bares all. I hated this scene. There were a lot of cheesy, melodramatic lines, and I hated the way it wasn't just her and the police officer, but her dad, Luke, and some shrink are also present. Awful, awful read.Oh, and Luke at one point tells Sam that all these bad things are happening because Sam's wife abandoned him and abducted their child. Didn't anyone watch that movie Enough? It's not kidnapping when the mother takes the child.
—Rhapsody

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