Kiss

Ted Dekker teams up with his longtime editor Erin Healy to deliver a thrill ride readers won't easily forget. You could have just said that and millions would buy it. Well, all you really needed to say was Ted Dekker. Period.

She steals more than your heart...

All she remembers of the last six months is her name. Shauna. Not her loving boyfriend. Not the identity of the mysterious figure who keeps showing up. Not the secrets of her abusive family-- no, those are just out of reach. But she soon realizes she's in danger. Her only weapons are her fractured mind... and something too frightening to comprehend.

All in all, this is a very nice bit of writing. The suspense of Dekker's writing is ever present, but the innermost thoughts of the heroine get more screen time here. The style is more subdued, allowing for a slower build to a somewhat subtler climax. That's not to say the book isn't exciting. Because it is. It's exciting and intriguing, and there's at least one moment that's quite chilling. I'm not going to give away the Big Twist (every Dekker novel has one), but it's very cool, and the repercussions of it are nicely handled.

The book is described as heart-pounding meets heart-warming. For the most part, that's right. Dekker, with the help of Healy, gets into the mind and heart of the female protagonist, and it provides for a great character study. Sometimes, the two don't mesh together completely, as one of the major relationships in the book didn't work convincingly for me, but it's a lot less than you'd expect from such a risky venture. It's an interesting concept well-exectued, and although it's not quite up to some of Dekker's later work, it's worth a read.

My rating: 8.5/10

Coming Soon: Burn.