Now You See Me, by Tina Wainscott

I finished Now You See Me, by Tina Wainscott, today. I started it Monday morning, right after watching a programme about profilers on the History Channel. I know, there are no profilers on this book, but what I mean is this show made me feel like reading something really Romantic Suspense, preferably with serial killers or something like that.

Olivia was eight years old when she was trapped in the twisted fantasies of a kidnapper. Escaping with her life, the trauma left her blind, and her innocence shattered. But Olivia would escape with something else-a psychic gift that has become her greatest weapon...

Sixteen years to the day, it's happened again. A little girl named Phaedra has disappeared. Olivia saw it happen. In her private darkness came the visions: the toys...the chloroform...the scissors...the cage...

Olivia shares the stark fear in the young girl's eyes, and the terrifying fate only Olivia can stop. But to find the fiendish killer and save Phaedra means returning to the terrors of her own past-and opening her eyes to an inescapable new nightmare.

This book was definitely a page-turner, but ultimately, it required much too much suspension of disbelief for me. As information started being revealed about who exactly the kidnapper was, it became more and more farfetched, until I just stopped believing in the plausibility of it all. I've got to admit, though, that Wainscott was flawless at setting up the stories, giving us just enough clues to solve the case (in my case, I did so only a little ahead of the final confrontation).

Olivia and Max were very likeable characters, and their conflicts and problems were believable and interesting. However, these two were the only remotely likeable major characters in the book. The rest (except Stacia, Olivia's dog), were really annoying and/or obnoxious.

The romance was very light, and it might have made for an even better book if it had been kept even lighter. This book has an extremely short time-span, and the relationship felt like it developed too fast.

My grade for this book is a C+. I don't regret reading it, but it wasn't really satisfying.