Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Spiral Path
    Spiral Path
    Spiral Path
    Audiobook13 hours

    Spiral Path

    Written by Mary Jo Putney

    Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    As she did with The Burning Point, Mary Jo Putney crafts a stirring tale of modern relationships. Director Raine Marlowe needs a star for her first film. Although Raine's marriage is crumbling into a divorce, her action hero husband, Kenzie Scott, agrees to take the role. But when the skeletons in Kenzie's closet are mirrored by the movie character's dark secrets, Kenzie knows he must either confront his past or lose the one woman he'll always love. "Bravo! Putney proves she's every bit as good writing contemporary romance as she is with historicals."-Booklist
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJul 20, 2012
    ISBN9781470324858
    Spiral Path
    Author

    Mary Jo Putney

    Mary Jo Putney was born in upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. After earning degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, she became a ten-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA, has published over forty books, and was the recipient of the 2013 RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

    More audiobooks from Mary Jo Putney

    Related to Spiral Path

    Titles in the series (3)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Spiral Path

    3.5/5

    48 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Mary Jo Putney proves that she does not need to writing a period romance to have a powerful story with compelling characters. I was surprised at how moving this book was, especially the last few chapters.
    • 2/5
      Well, that was a shot in the dark! I don't normally read 'romances' - and now the reasons are many, and all too painfully clear - but I couldn't resist the references to The Scarlet Pimpernel in this hokey novel, and so decided to cast taste to the wind. I was not rewarded for my bravery.Is the whole genre this unrealistic and corny? All the characters look great, have stacks of money, are the best in the field at whatever they do, overcome cliched obstacles - I noted child abuse, rape, paedophilia, emotionally withdrawn parents and absent fathers, and that was just the H and h - before living Happily Ever After in Romancelandia. And the reader is simply told all of this, and forced to accept the author's word - no insightful interactions or subtle dialogue. The H, Kenzie Scott - and I forgot to add unbelievable names to the list - is an award-winning, naturally talented actor, who is stunningly good-looking but not vain, loaded but generous (he gives to charities and patronises disabled children - 'There are jobs that can be done from a wheelchair'), and - of course - a Tortured Soul (TM). Yes, Kenzie has issues, more issues in fact than IMDb credits or zeroes in his bank account, and they are big, life-stunting SERIOUS issues. So basically, Kenzie is overly sensitive, selfish, and spends most of the novel whining. He doesn't need a wife, he needs a mother figure or a counsellor, which is handy because Rainey (Rainbow!), his almost ex, is quite happy to be just that. Does he want comfort sex? OK, no strings. He doesn't want sex, he can't handle the intimacy? That's cool, Rainey will settle for spooning and soothing his fevered brow.Raine Marlowe, in case you were wondering, is an equally famous actress, who now wants to direct her first movie (a Lawrence of Arabia period piece about a traumatised soldier), and turns out to be a first-rate, ball-busting director too. Only all the descriptions of Raine artificially supplied by the author - strong, tough, determined, independent, etc. - don't actually apply. At one point, Raine in all honesty ponders why the 'self-sacrificing nature' of Sarah, the Victorian heroine in her film project that only Raine can possibly play, should irritate her so much. And I was thinking, because your own behaviour towards Kenzie is not self-sacrificing - or irritating? Who is kidding who?The plot is also overflowing with happy coincidences - the New Mexico retreat Kenzie falls in love with is miraculously for sale, the lead actress of Raine's film drops out at the last minute - and trite solutions to devastating issues. (I hate when real-life traumas become fashionable angst in novels.) Kenzie finds peace by plotting out his own labyrinth, to follow the 'spiral path' to closure, then 'journalling' his inner feelings, and Raine even randomly recites a psalm at one point! When everything turned out right at the end, complete with the mother of all Oscar acceptance speeches, I felt I had been force-fed so much sugar that my teeth were rotting.Oh, yes, The Scarlet Pimpernel. I appreciated the nod to the 1982 film version with Anthony Andrews ('Why another remake?'), and the fact that Raine has 'apricot' hair like Marguerite ("This red-gold is your natural colour?"), but Kenzie and Raine are far, far from Sir Percy and Marguerite - and most especially Benedick and Beatrice, whom they also play on stage - and Mary-Jo Putney is not a patch on Baroness Orczy when it comes to romance and troubled heroes.
    • 4/5
      Kenzie Scott is a famous actor and currently divorcing Raine Marlowe. They loved each other a lot but now they're both pulling away. She wants to direct an adaptation of a book and wants him as the lead. He agrees before he reads it and when he realises that some of the story will rip open old wounds he tries to back out, she refuses to let him.Working together also makes them look again at their relationship.It's pretty predictable but it's a fun read.