Isabella Moon

ISABELLA MOON Para Thriller Kate Russell Kentucky Cont PoorBenedict, Laura 1st bookBallantine Books, 2007, US Hardcover ISBN 9780345497673First Sentence Kate was surprised when the stern looking young woman at the duty desk told her to take a seat instead of just asking her name and sending her on her way when she announced, in a voice she could barely keep from shaking, that she knew where they could find the body of Isabella Moon.Kate Russell has been seeing a small child The problem is that i [...]

When I picked up this book at a thrift store, I was excited a literary ghost story murder mystery what s not to love Unfortunately, I loved nothing This character driven story was barely a ghost story, and the crime elements were weak at best Not much was made of the reveals of the various murderers they were sort of thrown toward the end of the story, but it didn t really matter because any mystery aficionado could have figured it out about a third of the way through the book No surprises here. [...]

Any of you city slickers who imagine small town life is dull ought to read Laura Benedict s suspenseful, sexy, and haunting debut novel, Isabella Moon, as this book set in Carystown, Kentucky, proves otherwise It s a page turner that is just as much about character as it is about plot In fact, the characters are richly, artfully drawn with Benedict s deft hand And just who is Isabella Moon Well, she s the missing girl who comes back to haunt the novel s protagonist, Kate, and reveal her secret B [...]

Laura Benedict does an excellent job of getting into the minds of her various characters, particularly control freak Miles He was downright scary and gave me nightmares She also handles the intricacies of the story well there were a few plot twists that I simply did not see coming That s hard to pull off.

This should have been an interesting and suspenseful mystery, but in the hands of this author, it was just a mess too many storylines, distractingly bad soap opera ish names, and after wasting my time reading 351 pages, I m still not sure what the point of it all was.

This wasn t a bad read, can t say that it was my favorite but I did like the different plots going on in the story I was a bit puzzled through most of it I couldn t ever decide what the main point was A little girl s life cut short in such a meaningless way A woman being abused by a husband A woman making the wrong choice in who she slept with I never did quite figure it out, but the character development was ok, and I thought the ghost was cool If you re looking for a story with a happy ending, [...]

While the reviews for this book weren t great, I really enjoyed it I thought the soft, meandering pace of the story suited the rural Kentucky setting perfectly The characters are a little Springeresque, but Kate s story grabbed me at the beginning and I was willing to forgive a lot for it It s also a nice change from most small town mysteries that present the country as an idyll the reality of rural life is closer to the meth damaged poverty of Carystown than the shiny scrubbed view presented in [...]

A little romance than I usually like in mysteries but I enjoyed this book Interesting characters and a ghost who seems less spooky than spunky.

The title of this book caught my eye at the library I am glad I did I truly enjoyed it and couldn t put it down.

review by SusanAshlea Warning possible spoilers ahead I picked up Isabella Moon because the author is local I like to support local artists Since it s paranormal fiction, I knew I could get into it, and it s set in Kentucky, which isn t far from where I live I ordered the book from and waited patiently for 3 weeks to get the book I had originally wanted to read and review it back in December but that didn t work out I finally got the book, read it, took a few weeks to think about it, and alas, h [...]

Every so often, I read a book so powerful that it pervades my soul, lingering there far longer than most Laura Benedict s debut novel, Isabella Moon, is just such a book Few words exist that measure up to the task of describing this story, but evocative, soulful, and exquisitely heartbreaking certainly top the list.Two years ago, nine year old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school For two years, Sheriff Bill Delaney and his deputies conduct a fruitless investigation, until Isabel [...]

Ok, I gave this book one star because the story had potential, but this book frustrated me like not many do The storyline had so many holes I m not talking unanswered questions I m talking the characters would mundanely have conversations about something that was going to happen and the next thing you know the conversation would happen and the reader wasn t any part of it It was soooo frustrating Then I would have to go back, thinking I missed something when it turned out it was not me, but the [...]

Kate Russell, who has only been in the small town of Carystown, Kentucky two years, awakens to find a little girl in a yellow coat outside her window She follws the girl until she disappears and realizes it is Isabella Moon, a girl who has been missing for just over two years So Kate goes to the police to tell them where to look for the girl s body.It s a great begining and soon there are an overdose and a poisening to go with first mystery I didn t mind that the point of view switched around, b [...]

I enjoyed this book There were several plots twisting and weaving together yet all having to deal with the one major murder in the book It seems everyone in the book had something to hide either from there past or something presently such as a hidden affair I was shocked at the brutality of the murders and often shocking descriptions I wasn t ready for the dirty cop and the scene that played out and exposed the person was confusing to me I did not like the ending however It felt unfinished The o [...]

Isabella Moon was awful The review sounded so great I needed a book for the airplane After I finished it, I felt like you feel when you eat a doughnut I can t believe I ate that whole thing, I feel terrible and it didn t even taste good Benedict just writes without any regard for her characters or her readers You get the feeling that she had scenarios up on a dart board and choose her plot through a series of misplaced hits I was so mad at this book I started to leave it on the plane and then I [...]

I just finished Isabella Moon and I loved the book the switching back and forth on who was telling story didn t bother me like I have seen in other reviews quite a lot of twists and turns which equals surprises the end did feel abrupt but when you take a moment afterwards you realize all characters had been covered with an ending probably in the last 2 chapters if I understand it correctly the nook kindle version has an updated ending so if there were bad reviews posted at first publication then [...]

Horrible I hated it I read the whole thing, because even though I didn t like it, it flowed okay There were some characters that stuck with mebut there wasn t as much about the little girl as I thought there d be Lots of sex out of nowhere Like the part when the cop was watching the main character out of suspicionddenly he gets hard, realizing she reminded him of his wife What the heck My husband read it and hated the whole thing as well He was weirded out by how every other scene was sex or dru [...]

Kate Russell has lived in her small town for 2 years, hiding from her secret past The book is interesting in the beginning with firends Lillain Francie The life of Sheriff Bill and the station Kate s secret is told in flashbacks throughout the book Then, half way through, the book wanders off course and never gets back on The last part of the book was rushed, the plot and character backstories are never fully developed and the end was confusing to me Very disapointing after a promising beginning [...]

A little girl disappears without a trace A newcomer to town begins to have visions visitations which lead to the discovery of her body Unlike LULLABY this book had characters that I wanted to know about Not necessarily because they were likable, but because they were interesting Each new chapter brought on another aspect to the characters keeping my interest peaked The ending was a surprise too It did not really take me to where I expected in this case a good thing

This book was not what I expected It was well written so I quickly fell into the captivating pace of the story The murder mystery kept me intrigued while the supernatural elements somewhat fit this time of year It held a bit too much gore, violence and drug use to be a great read but it was something different for me And the characters were fairly deep and well connected.

Happy to be pulling down the curve on this awful novel with my lowly one star rating How could anyone publish this Worse still, how in the world did I justify finishing this terrible novel I m both puzzled by my actions and ashamed, and heartly sorry to all the wonderful books I could have been reading.

How far would you go to escape an abusive husband Kate Russell changed her identity and moved to Carytown, Kentucky, and was living a quiet, relitively happy life until she was visited be Isabella Moon s ghost Though it reminded me of Jodi Piccoult s early books, it is entertaining, though far fetched in many ways It was a pretty good read.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, but ended up disappointed I thought it would be about Isabella Moon, but it was about everyone elsed most of the characters have few redeeming qualities.The story reminded me a bit of the Julia Robert s movie Sleeping with the Enemy I guess I was looking for paranormal and didn t get that.

I loved this book from right at the very beginning to the bitter end So many things going on and yet I was able to keep up with it all Very nice suspense and kept me wanting to go pick it up again to see what would happen next and then I didn t want it to end.

a very compelling, dark read about a woman visited by a dead girls ghost while she deals with her own ghosts the ending is ambiguous but that fits well with the mood of the book definitely not a satisfying ending though.

This book literally kept me up at night reading finish with a not outstanding conclusion 3 and half stars I d award it, but I ll give it four because it s a first novel and because I ve been thinking about it all day It s a spooky ghost story murder mystery southern gothic tale.

This was similar to a Jodi Picoult book and I love her writing Also reminded me of Lovely Bones and Sleeping with the Enemy.

Good little mystery wife hidng from an abusive husband, a little girl s ghost and the gossip of a small town I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this book It was an interesting yet easy read I was pulled in by the characters and the story kept me going This book was a joy to read I would highly recommend it.

This is really like a 2.5 It started out ok And it was engaging enough that I managed to finish although it took me seven days I thought there was a bit too much going on Too many mysteries, too many twists most that were predictable , and what happened to Janet She just gets away with killing the girl What happened to Kate I didn t like the way her character disappears Did she die Did she run away I m assuming death bc she goes off with Isabella but it was too much of a cliffhanger for my likin [...]