"Well worth reading"
Over two decades have passed since Grace Loring fled her
abusive husband, taking their daughter with her. They
moved in with her brother Gus in Vermont and watched her
child thrive with the loving attention she received form
her uncle. Grace became a successful author eventually
providing advice to abused women like she once was over the
Internet. Meanwhile her sibling has fully surrendered his
body to rheumatoid arthritis, turning Grace into his
carekeeper. Between her frustrations with Gus and with the
publishing industry, Grace turns more and more to her
Internet advisory services for personal actualization and
satisfaction. Stephanie Baine begins exchanging e-mail with Grace over
the latter's homepage. The messages shout loudly that
Stephanie is in jeopardy from an abusive husband. After
several weeks of correspondence, the messages abruptly
end. Grace alternately worries about what happened to
Stephanie but also begins to wonder whether the woman was
forthright with her? GRACE NOTES is an exhilarating suspense thriller that hooks
the audience because readers care what happens to Grace and
anyone under her protective wings. The tale is filled with
exciting twists, but clearly belongs to the heroine whose
emotions run the gamut and pulls the reader deeper into the
plot. Charlotte Vale Allen has written a terrific taut
tale that her fans will gracefully welcome. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 25, 2002
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Early in her marriage, Grace Loring became the victim of
her husband's sudden, unpredictable rages. Taking her
infant daughter and a few belongings, Grace got into her
car and fled the safety of her brother Gus's home in
Vermont.
Now Grace is a successful author. Devoted fans find support
and comfort in her unflinchingly honest writing and
regularly contact her via her Web site. Her daughter,
Nicky, has thrived in her uncle's happy, yet unorthodox,
home; Gus is the only father she has known and she adores
him. And Grace has become a caregiver to her brother since
the onset of a debilitating disease. Accustomed to abused women writing to ask for advice, Grace
is sympathetic when she is contracted by a troubled young
woman named Stephanie Baine. In the course of their e-mail
correspondence, Stephanie reveals details of a nightmarish
life: her terrifying abduction as a teenager and the
complete lack of support from her parents; the
psychological and escalating physical abuse she is now
undergoing at the hands of her husband. Grace's advice is
clear and to the point: Stephanie must do whatever is
necessary to escape this madman. After several weeks of an intensive exchange, the e-mails
abruptly stop, and Grace begins to fear the worst for
Stephanie. Then the e-mails resume, and what Grace comes to
learn casts doubt on everything she believed about the
person she thought she knew. Who is Stephanie Baine? Has
anything she's told Grace been the truth? Is she really a
young woman in danger, or is something else -- something
sinister, even deadly -- going on?
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