Every Waking Moment by Brenda Novak
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(Mass Market Paperback)
- Pub. Date: July 2005
- 378pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: July 2005
- Publisher: Harlequin
- Format: Mass Market Paperback, 378pp
- ISBN-13: 9780373770458
- ISBN: 0373770456
Synopsis
Emma Wright has finally escaped the dangerous man who's controlled her every move for the past six years. Taking her five-year-old son, she has fled across the country--seeking freedom, safety and a fresh start. But Max's father isn't giving them up so easily.
Preston Holman understands the lengths a parent will go for his child. He's given up everything to pursue the man he believes killed his son.
When Preston meets Emma, he wants nothing to do with her or the boy who reminds him so much of his own child. Yet he can't abandon them--and as he's drawn into the danger that surrounds them, Preston begins to wonder if he's finally found something to live for beyond revenge.
Publishers Weekly
Novak's personal experience with juvenile diabetes puts a poignant spin on this tale of a mother's daily struggle to care for her diabetic son while on the run from her wealthy, abusive boyfriend, Manuel. Emma Wright is armed with a new identity, a teaching degree and a couple of thousand in cash when she leaves Manuel's California mansion with her five-year-old son, Max. Unfortunately, Manuel is hot on her heels, and he has the help of powerful and shady connections. After Emma's car is stolen while she's picking up supplies at a Nevada Wal-Mart, Emma throws herself on the mercy of Preston Holman, a man she'd met briefly at a motel where she and Max were staying. Preston wants nothing to do with the pair; he's still hurting from his divorce as well as the sudden illness and subsequent death of his own young son. Inevitably, Novak's reluctant hero comes to Emma's rescue-and becomes emotionally entangled in the process. Anyone who has seen the movies Sleeping with the Enemy or Enough will anticipate every plot twist, but Novak (A Home of Her Own, etc.) knows how to relate a suspenseful tale. When Emma isn't reeling from a near brush with Manuel, she's frantically trying to keep her son's blood sugar levels stable, and her almost palpable fear fuels this gripping tale. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and RecommendationsBiography
Most writers say they've had stories running around in their head since they can remember, but that wasn't the case for Brenda. She grew up thinking she didn't have a creative bone in her body. She considered herself "left-brained," with talents in science and mathematics, and even went to school for business.
It wasn't until she was 29 and married with three kids that she discovered writing--and if not for a difficult situation that prompted her to find a way to make money from home, she might not have started even then.
Brenda was a loan officer for a mortgage company when she caught her in-home daycare provider drugging her children with cough medicines and Tylenol to get them to sleep while she was gone. They'd been waking up several times in the night and she couldn't figure out why. Except for the baby, they were too old for that. But once she found the medicine in her baby's bottle, she suspected the baby-sitter had been doing this for several months.
No longer able to trust someone else with her children's well-being, Brenda quit her job to stay home with them--but her husband's business was failing and she needed to find some way to help him financially. That's when she decided to write a book.
It wasn't the "quick fix" the Novaks were hoping for. It took her five years to teach herself the craft and to finish her debut novel, Of Noble Birth, published in November 1999. But it introduced her to something she loves to do more than anything else. Shortly after she sold Of Noble Birth, she sold three books to Harlequin's Superromance line, the first of which, Expectations, came out in February 2000.
Now she has fivechildren; three girls and two boys, and juggles her writing career with softball games and field trips, carpool runs and homework sessions, and trying to keep up with her active husband. Fortunately, her family is as involved in what she does as she is in their activities. Her husband or one of her daughters sometimes go to conferences with her, they put stamps on the postcards she sends to her mailing list when she has a new book come out, and they come to all her book signings.
Her oldest, Ashley, throws her backpack down when she gets home from school and immediately joins Brenda at her computer, wanting to hear the latest installment on her current work in progress. Ashley gives Brenda valuable feedback, and so does her husband, who hears the same pages when he comes home from work. Now, as a family, the Novaks look back on those hard times when Brenda was just starting out and are grateful that something so good came out of it.
Brenda loves to hear from fellow romance enthusiasts. You can contact her at P.O. Box 3781, Citrus Heights, CA, 95611 or via her web site at www.brendanovak.com.
Customer Reviews
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Every Waking Momentby Anonymous
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July 11, 2005: Manuel Rodriguez kept Vanessa under tight control. Oh, he had to abuse her sometimes, but he figured he was simply using 'tough love'. Though they never married, Manuel knew he could always use their six-year-old boy to manipulate her into whatever he wanted. He never expected her to have the guts to PLAN an escape from him, much less succeed. But he would find her. She could not have much money. Once he got her back, she'd pay big time. She would never even THINK of running off again. .................. Vanessa had ID in the name of Emma Wright. Her son was now called Max. With luck, they could reach Iowa to live a nice, quiet life there. Even as Emma prayed that would happen, she knew Manuel was hot on her trail. ................... Preston Holman was hunting down the man he believed killed his son. He had only to find proof. When he met Emma he wanted nothing to do with her. Her son, Max, reminded him too much of his own son. But he knew they were desperate, running from something or someone, and he could not abandon them. He vowed to keep an emotional distance from the pair, drop them off in Iowa, and forget about them. Yet his heart knew better. ........................................... ***** Author Brenda Novak has proven, once again, that she is one of the top suspense writers of our days. This one is a breathless romantic suspense novel that will keep her readers' attention from the first page until long after the last has been turned. The characters seem to actually come alive from the pages and I found myself holding my breath at a few points. An outstanding book that I highly recommend! *****
Midwest Book Review -- Mayra Calvaniby Anonymous
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June 29, 2005: Brenda Novak?s gift lies in grabbing the reader mercilessly by the throat and not letting go until the very end. Her latest romantic suspense, Every Waking Moment, is one of those special books which will make readers so deeply involved with the story and characters they will laugh, scream and even shed a few tears. On the surface, Vanessa Beacon leads the kind of life most women would be envious of?she lives in a luxurious mansion, drives a Jaguar, and wears ten-thousand dollar studs on her earlobes. Many would say she has the perfect boyfriend?the arrogant, handsome and successful Manuel Rodriguez, with whom she has been living together for five years and who happens to be father of her young son, Dominick. But Vanessa?s life has a much darker side. The lovely mansion she lives in is, in fact, her prison, and her handsome boyfriend, her captor. Suspicious of her every move, Manuel obsessively controls everything she thinks and does, and even goes to the extreme of having her constantly followed wherever she goes and denying her any kind of economic independence. Deep inside, she knows Manuel is a dangerous man, and his ?business? dealings more than dubious. To ad to her predicament, her son Dominick suffers from diabetes and she must care for him constantly, administering insulin and checking his blood levels several times through the day and night. But abuse situations sometimes reach a limit?and today Vanessa is leaving Manuel. With the housekeeper?s help, Vanessa and Dominick are able to escape? but for how long? Haunted for the past two years by a tragic event in his life, Preston Holman is obsessed with a deadly mission, one he will fulfil or die trying. When his destiny clashes with Vanessa?s, the last thing he wants is getting involved with her?especially with her son, whose sight constantly brings a torrent of heart-wrenching memories. Besides, their presence will complicate his plan. But how can he not help her, when she seems so terrified? Preston tells her he will bring her as far as Iowa, no more. But as they move from state to state in his van, and stay in motels at night, the emotional and physical attraction between the two become irresistible. To complicate matters, Preston begins to feel attached to Dominick, and vice versa. With Manuel and his men close behind on a death wish, will Vanessa and Dominick ever be able to find freedom and happiness? What about Preston?s mysterious mission in Iowa?will he bring it to fruition and still survive? Fast-paced scenes filled with sparkling dialogue, romantic tension, and a series of pulse-racing plot twists bring the story to a heart-stopping climax and a conclusion that will form a knot in most readers? throats. The hero and heroine, as well as the little boy Dominick, really stand out, casting their magic to maintain a continuous suspension of disbelief. An exciting, compelling, entertaining read, Every Waking Moment comes highly recommended from this reviewer.
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