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    Tainted
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    Tainted
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    Tainted
    Ebook423 pages4 hours

    Tainted

    By Brooke Morgan

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Brooke Morgan makes her dazzling debut with Tainted—a novel of unrelenting suspense that immediately rockets her into the upper echelons alongside Joy Fielding, Tana French, Mary Higgins Clark, and other masters of everyday terror. Evocatively set against the seemingly placid backdrop of Cape Code, Tainted twists and turns and constantly surprises with the story of a single mother, her sensitive daughter, and the mysterious man who takes over their lives. Shocking, unexpected, and absolutely riveting, nothing in Tainted is quite what it seems.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 1, 2009
    ISBN9780061986949
    Unavailable
    Tainted

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    Reviews for Tainted

    3.5/5

    63 ratings16 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is more of a beach read than a psychological thriller. It reads quickly, thought it's about 400 pages. Pick it up if you like chick lit.
    • 3/5
      I initially thought this might be an average chick lit book, but it developed into a fairly good suspense novel. However, I found it difficult to believe that any caring mother would not be alarmed at the very clear "red flags" and protect her child accordingly. I also had to suspend disbelief at how quickly the romance developed and then went to marriage since Holly was a prudent, thoughtful woman with a child to consider. Also, how could so much activity take place in the middle of the night without Holly eventually realizing it?
    • 4/5
      This was an utterly engrossing book, heavy on the suspense and creepiness. While I was reading, I was completely drawn in by the characters and their actions. I think this is a testament to the quality of the writing, which I never found obtrusive (this is probably how I'd define what I like in a writing style-- effectively captures my attention while never forcing me to pay attention to the actual words).When I stopped reading, I found myself questioning the story. Did I find Holly realistic in her reactions to the events that unfolded? (yes) Was I convinced by Jack? (that answer kept changing over the course of the book, I'm still not certain now I'm finished with the book). These characters stayed with me, as did the secondary characters of Katy (the daughter, occasionally in danger of being more of a plot device than a person, but whose personality does come through), Henry (Holly's grandfather and support system, a crotchety but loving father figure), Anna (Holly's childhood best friend) and Billy (the deadbeat dad).I liked how the book was primarily told from Holly's point of view, but we'd get chapters that were glimpses inside other heads. I want to give this book a Warning: Child in Jeopardy label; since I know several people that would not want to read Tainted due to that aspect of the story. I found it disturbing, but that didn't stop me from liking the book.
    • 3/5
      I will warn you Tainted starts off slow, but my rule is 100 pages and by that time the story picks up and sucks you in!! The characters are all well developed and you can definitely feel for Holly and envision her overcoming all her problems. The writting once the author found her flow was beautiful and the rich detail to visuals....fantastic!!! I thought the story while flawed in some ways really flowed well mixing between Holly and the other characters. For sure a charming read watching one overcome inner stuggles.
    • 4/5
      Tainted is a great story about the consequences of a young woman’s poor judgment. Or perhaps it’s a story about the consequences of a born criminal’s evil intent.I enjoyed Tainted, Brooke Morgan’s nightmarish first novel. Holly Barrett is young and almost unbelievably naïve. Jack Dane is handsome, outgoing, has a lovely accent, and loves Holly’s daughter, Katy. What’s more, Holly’s protective grandfather loves Jack. What young woman wouldn’t feel she had struck gold in a big way? Holly starts to get warning signs that something is wrong very early in the relationship, small signs that she chooses to rationalize or ignore. Only Billy, Katy’s estranged father, suspects Jack is not everything he says he is, and Billy’s got his own axe to grind. Holly doesn’t believe him, and pays dearly for her stubborn loyalty to Jack.What happens is unpredictable and engrossing, and kept me reading till the very last page. Yet I left the book feeling something was slightly off. Jack is a villain extraordinaire, yet somehow remains likable, and by the end, even pitiable. Holly is the perfect victim and has suffered trial after trial, yet her naivete makes it hard to completely like her. She’s just too gullible. Yet the book kept me reading from the beginning to the end. Overall a good read.
    • 5/5
      I started reading this book a few months ago and it takes a while to get interesting, so I had set it aside until recently.I'm glad I picked it back up. Like I said, it takes probably a couple hundred pages before it really starts to get interesting and then it really keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what Holly's new boyfriend Jack is hiding.They soon end up married and Jack's behavior becomes even more odd and chilling. He plays catch with Holly's 5 year old daughter, Katy, very late at night and also takes her for drives and plays other games with Katy after Holly has gone to sleep.The only person who is initially wary of Jack is Holly's one-time fling and father of Katy, Billy. Since he has decided he wants to be part of Katy's life after 5 years of not being a parent to her, everyone just thinks that Billy is jealous of Jack.Closer to the end, everyone but Holly can see that there is something wrong with Jack. Since Jack treats her wonderfully, Holly doesn't see it until it is too late.At the very end of the book you see (from the point of view of two other characters) two different points of view of Jack. It really makes you wonder if he was as terrible as he seemed or if he was perhaps even worse.I really liked the interview with the author after the story also. She tells where she got the idea for Tainted and it's very interesting. I had the review copy so I don't know that this was in the final version, but I would recommend this story. My only complaint is that it took so long to get interesting.
    • 3/5
      Holly is a terribly shy 23-year-old single mother who has never had a boyfriend. Her beautiful daughter Katy was conceived with Billy, her best friend's ex-boyfriend, during a one-night stand on the beach near her parents' summer home in Shoreham, NY. A couple of years after Katy was born, Holly's parents died. Holly retreated from Boston and moved to the summer home permanently. Her grandfather Henry lives next door and takes care of his girls. Holly is lonely for romantic companionship and Henry worries about how isolated she is. That changes suddenly when a handsome, English stranger sits next to her on a bus trip from Boston. When Jack asks her out on her first ever date, Holly is swept off her feet. She gives into the warmth of being loved and cherished, overlooking the fact that she knows nothing about him. At what cost does she give her heart away to a stranger?Here are my thoughts about Tainted:Tainted is a cautionary tale about moving too quickly into a relationship. Holly is the prime target for a controlling man: she's shy, she lacks self-confidence, and she's lonely. It is such a relief to her to have found love that she puts up with behavior other women might not. Men who would take advantage of this seem to pick up on that so quickly. In that respect, I found Jack and Holly's relationship very realistic. It made me think of how important it is to instill a healthy self-esteem in our daughters.When I thought of Holly, these lyrics from U2's "So Cruel" kept coming to mind:Desperation is a tender trapIt gets you every timeKaty and Henry were the characters that made this novel for me. I loved their relationship. I can see a lot of my father-in-law in Henry as a person and as a grandfather. I also wish that my father lived close enough to be that close to my daughters. Grandparents and grandchildren are such treasures to each other.Up until last night if you had asked me how suspenseful I thought this novel was, I would have said somewhat. There was enough suspense to keep me reading, but nothing that would keep me up at night. Subconsciously, it really did get to me:First, I was reading the book and about 2/3 of the way through around 11:30 the other night. Allison woke up with a growing pain in her leg and knocked on her bedroom wall to get our attention. The girls do this all the time, but I was so startled that the book flew out of my hand and landed on the other side of the couch.Second, I had a dream last night about going along with two friends on their honeymoon to make sure that everything went okay. Bizarre!There were a couple of things that didn't work well for me in this novel:My biggest issue was with internal dialog. Every time a character talked to his or herself, it was printed in italics. There was a great deal of internal dialog in this book and I found it very distracting. As the story picked up, I was able to get past it. Still I couldn't help noticing it even on the last page.I had some difficulty with the way that characters seemed to overreact to things. It was as if everyone was unnaturally on edge from the very beginning of the novel. The example that comes to mind is when Billy, concerned with how little anyone knows about Jack, calls his friend, Jack's boss to find out more about him. While Billy was invading Jack's privacy and putting his friend into a tough spot, it was overkill to have this friend tell Billy that he was acting "creepy." In some ways, this took away from those things that truly were concerning.It took me a while to get into this book. About a quarter of the way through, the story picked up substantially. I wanted to know what made Jack tick. I wanted to see how long it would take Holly to open her eyes. I was truly concerned for Katy and needed to know what happened. It was a quick read and I am glad I finished it.Despite a few quirks, I enjoyed reading Tainted. As this is her first novel, I think that Brooke Morgan has a lot of potential.
    • 5/5
      Holly Barrett has lived a hard life. She was never popular, always somewhat of a nerd. She was not noticed until she got pregnant in high school by a guy who didn’t speak to her after she told him about the baby. Little Katy was a blessing, but a few short years later, Holly’s dad died of a heart attack and three days later her mother was crying so hard driving down the road, she lost control and also died. Holly moved into her parents summer home right next to her grandfather, Henry, and things were going… well, just going. That was until she met Jack Dane. Gorgeous, English, need I say more? They have a steamy date but Jack tells her he can’t see her anymore when Holly tells him about 5-year-old Katy. A little trickery goes a long way when Henry asks Jack to go fishing. 6 weeks later and the couple is married and things get fishy. Katy’s father comes back into the picture and questions Jack. There’s just something not right about him. When Henry starts believing and uses Google to find out Jack’s past, it gets messy.I got this book from Librarything.com. When I got it in the mail, I actually forgot that I’d signed up for it and had to re-read the back cover because I had no idea what it was about. The synopsis reminded me a lot of the J-Lo movie Enough which I absolutely loved. It’s a book that makes you question your judgement. You always hope that the charming guy you fall for isn’t a murderer, but people are sneaky and sometimes, you don’t know until it’s too late.The book was absolutely amazing. The copy I had was 400+ pages. I started it late Friday and finished it up by Sunday. I just couldn’t get enough. For the first few chapters, it keeps you reading, but once the drama is revealed, it just keeps coming. Even the very last line in the book made my jaw drop.There were characters you’ll love in this book including Little Katy AKA Chicken. But then there are also characters you’ll start to hate then love like Billy and one that you’ll surely love at the beginning because your heart is pitter pattering then hate by the end.I was just talking to a co-worker about this book and realized that the one I have is an “uncorrected proof”. I am going to have to track down the final copy and see if any changes were made in the end. For the books sake, I hope not. I loved it the way it is and think Brooke Morgan did an amazing job. I will definitely keep my eye out for her books in the future.You should know by now, Tainted is getting 5 bookmarks! Go out, find a copy and read it NOW!
    • 3/5
      Brooke Morgan's debut novel, Tainted, is a thrill ride in a small, shoreline town in Massachusetts -- Shoreham -- as Holly Barrett meets the man of her dreams on a bus. Jack Dane is dashing, charming, and British -- an accent to die for -- but there is something below the surface that is not so inviting."Tell your heart lies enough times and it will fashion them into the truth." (Page 34)Holly's had a tough youth from getting pregnant at a young age to losing her parents and struggling as a single parent. Jack swoops in and casts a spell that she is unwilling to break, despite the objections of her family and friends and only knowing him for about three weeks. Morgan's writing is upfront and engaging, though at times chapters shift from the point of view of Holly, her five-year old daughter, her grandfather, and others."'Jesus, Holl. You're traveling faster than the speed of love.'" (Page 106)Readers will eat up these pages, trying to uncover Jack's dark secrets, while at the same time wishing they could shake Holly into her right mind. At times, Holly is very naive about Jack and moves too quickly into a relationship, which can be attributed to her inexperience with men and her self-imposed isolation. However, there are a number of occasions where Holly sees clear red flags in Jack's behavior and chooses to ignore them, reminiscent of abused women. Morgan's debut novel, Tainted, is a solid thriller with many twists and turns that will have some readers guessing until the very end.
    • 4/5
      There was a lot of suspense in this story-so many twists, I couldn't put it down wondering what Jack's plan was and what secrets were in his past. I didn't want it to end and was left wanting the story to continue. Look forward to more from Brooke Morgan.
    • 4/5
      Holly Barrett is a single mother to her 5 year old daughter Katy. They reside in Cape Cod near Holly's grandfather and, although her life isn't ideal, she is definitely a survivor and has made the best out of her situation in life. The three of them are a family.Then one day Holly meets handsome, Englishman, Jack Dane. She is utterly charmed by him and after a whirlwind courtship he moves into her home and they are promptly married. Everything is fantastic for Holly... not only is she in love, but her daughter and grandfather both love Jack just as much as she does. But then Katy's father comes back into the picture and he is quickly suspicious of Jack's true motives. Where did he come from? Where is his family? Who are his friends? By the time Katy realizes something is amiss, it just might be too late.I will forewarn you that Tainted starts off at a slow pace, but about 100 pages in you become quickly enmeshed in Holly's struggle to take control of her life. The characters Ms. Morgan creates are all fleshed out and you can definitely envision them as being someone you might know. Her descriptions of Cape Cod were fascinating.I thought Holly was a great character although she did have her faults. I found her frustrating and too forgiving at times. There were many red flags indicating that Jack might not be as "wonderful" as he seemed but she carelessly looked them over. I did feel that she matured throughout the story, redeeming herself in my eyes. I also really liked some of the secondary characters. Holly's grandfather, Henry, was a favorite of mine. He was old and grumpy, but still a loving and caring fatherly figure towards Holly.I was definitely taken in by this story and found myself at the edge of my seat... and I will confess that I found myself having a hard time putting it down... I mean, I had to sleep, but I picked it right back up the next morning and didn't put it down until I finished it. I thought the ending was superb and made up for any flaws I found along the way. This is a fantastic read for lovers of suspense and one I would definitely recommend.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of Holly Barrett. She is a single mother of a five year old daughter. Her parents are dead. She lives next door to her Grandfather who has raised her as a daughter since her parents' death. She meets handsome Englishman, Jack Dane. She falls in love and marries within a month. Then the people in her life notice strange things about Jack. Holly defends him until the bitter end when she shoots Jack and he dies. The way Ms. Morgan wrote this story. I really felt like part of the family and easily felt all of the emotions of the main players. I could not put this book down and can't wait until her next book is published.
    • 4/5
      Holly made a mistake at 17, but the mistake resulted in Katy, her precious daughter. Five years later, Holly lives in her deceased parents' beach house on Cape Cod, just down the beach from her beloved grandfather, Henry. Together, the three of them have created a peaceful existence.Then Holly meets Jack, a handsome and charming Brit. They fall in love; Jack moves in quickly and even more quickly, they are married. All seems wonderful, with Katy as much in love with Jack as Holly.But Holly's friends become suspicious as they wonder where Jack came from, where his family is, who his friends are. Katy's father, Billy, begins to investigate and convinces Henry that there is something wrong. And now Henry, Katy, and Holly will pay the price for Jack's past crimes.Highly suspenseful, "Tainted" explores the idea of what could happen if a woman unwittingly married a man who was a criminal. Fast read for those who like suspensse.
    • 4/5
      Holly Barrett meets Jack Dane on the train from Boston to Shoreham. She is instantly attracted to him and totally surprised when he seems equally interested in her. To make things better, her grandfather, Henry, and her daughter, Katy, both seem to love Jack. But Katy's father, Billy, doesn't trust Jack and he is appalled when Holly and Jack marry. Jack seems perfect on the surface, but Billy suspects that he isn't all he appears to be.The book starts a little slowly, but really picks up speed along the way. The characters and setting are well-developed and the plot is very suspenseful, with an unexpected but totally relevant ending.
    • 3/5
      Holly is an extremely insecure young mother who lives an isolated life in Cape Cod. Her parents died unexpectedly, and her inheritance is such that she is not required to work. Her only family is her grandfather Henry, who lives nearby, and her five year old daughter Katy, the result of an unexpected sexual encounter with her best friend's ex-boyfriend who has no interest in seeing his daughter. One day she meets an extremely attractive Englishman Jack Dane, who sweeps her off her feet. After a whirlwind courtship, they marry. Katy's father has returned seeking a relationship with his daughter. He doesn't trust Jack, and Jack's odd behavior toward Holly and epecially Katy is such that even Henry begins to investigate his past. Is Jack misunderstood or a monster?The writing is enjoyable. I thought Ms. Morgan created an interesting group of characters. Unfortunately for me, Holly is the weakest link. I didn't understand her choices and therefore lost interest in the situation she creates for herself and her loved ones. [Warning - The Rest of the Review May Be a Possible Spoiler] The courtship was ridiculously fast, especially with all the red flags Holly chooses to ignore. For example, when she first meets Jack he quickly berates an exhausted young mother who is struggling to control her unhappy toddler. Holly sees the mother is trying and knows how embarrassed the mother is, but she still finds Jack charming when he calls the mother "bloody useless" as she is apologizing to him for her son's behavior. Most mothers I know would sympathize with the mother and quickly lose interest in Jack after the scene he makes. Instead, Holly is giddy that he wants her to move with him to another section of the bus. Another time, Jack complains that Katy is just being a drama queen when she complains of an earache and demands that Katy shut up and Holly not "baby" her with medication. Again, most mothers I know would show Jack the door. Holly doesn't. I lost interest in Holly's dilemma when she is so deliberately clueless and reckless with the lives of her loved ones.
    • 4/5
      Holly, an insecure single mother meets Jack Dane on a bus. He is gorgeous and witty. They start a relationship and quickly get married. Holly thinks she has everything she has ever wanted. Then the father of her child, Billy shows up. He quickly sees that something isn't right with Holly's new husband. Holly's friend Anna visits and notices odd behaviour around Katy, Holly's child. They speak with Holly's grandfather and he starts investigating Jack's past. Holly is so in love, she doesn't want to believe anything bad about her new husband, but things start adding up and they don't look good.