Review: Stolen Obsession

Title:  Stolen Obsession

Author:  Marlene Bell

Format:  Paperback*

Publication Date:  June 30,
2018

Genre: Mystery, romance

My Rating: 3

 

Synopsis

People die, but legends live on.

New York antiquities appraiser Annalisse Drury
recently lost her best friend to murder. The killer’s identity may be linked to
her friend’s expensive missing bracelet—a 500-year-old artifact that carries an
ancient curse, one that unleashes evil upon any who dare wear the jewelry
created for the Persian royal family.

Weeks later, Annalisse sees a matching necklace
at a Manhattan gallery opening. She begs the owner to destroy the cursed piece,
but her pleas fall on deaf ears—despite the unnatural death that occurs during
the opening. With two victims linked to the jewelry, Annalisse is certain she
must act.

Desperate, Annalisse enlists the gallery
owner’s son to help—even though she’s afraid he’ll break her heart. Wealthy and
devastatingly handsome, with a string of bereft women in his wake, Greek
playboy Alec Zavos dismisses Annalisse’s concerns—until his parents are ripped
from the Zavos family yacht during their ocean voyage near Crete.

Annalisse and Alec race across two oceans to
save his mother, feared dead or kidnapped. When the killer changes tactics and
goes after Alec behind Annalisse’s back, can her plan to rescue Alec’s mother
save them all?

Hold on for a heart-thumping, thrilling
adventure through exotic lands in this fast-moving romantic suspense mystery by
Marlene M. Bell.

My Thoughts…

Let’s start with what I really like about the
book.  The story is so good, with so much
potential and intrigue.  The characters
travel the world, experience great loss, find great love, and survive epic
danger.  Not to mention, they solve a
murder mystery involving a cursed object. You can definitely tell the story was
well thought-out and developed by Marlene Bell.

What I didn’t like were minor character issues
and the dialogue. I will save the character critique for the character section,
so first let’s tackle the dialogue. 
Sometimes, the dialogue didn’t make sense to me.  I found myself rereading paragraphs sometimes
pages later because I was lost in the action. 
I’m not sure if this is totally a dialogue issue, though.

I also felt like there wasn’t enough description
between the dialogue of each scene for me to truly understand or appreciate
what is happening.    Sometimes, it feels like the story moves
forward but I haven’t caught up yet. 

Have you
ever gone to the bathroom during a movie? 
When you get back, you ask your friends what you missed, they give a
quick summary, and you think you understand. 
Then a few scenes later, you realized they didn’t fully describe what
happened, missed some detail, and now you’re a little lost.  Not really lost, but just a little behind and
need to connect a few more dots to figure out everything that is happening.  That’s what happens to a few scenes
throughout this book.  I just could have
used a more information here and there.

Also, I have to say this because it stood out to
me.  There is a lot of writing that I
really loved.  Marlene Bell has a
definite storytelling voice; however, there is a line that I absolutely
hated.  So much so, that I am wondering
if I am reading this wrong, and it has a different meaning than I interpreted.  Here it is: “’Again. Like that. So. Good.’
Annalisse’s words had the sharp bite of a babe in the throes.”  This line took me completely out of the
story.  Maybe it’s the word babe used to describe
a grown woman.  Maybe it’s something about
the visual.  I’m really not sure, but it
could be entirely a personal preference thing.

The Characters…

Annalisse has a lot of great qualities, and is
very passionate, I just didn’t connect with her all of the way.  She seemed so smart, but acted like everyone
should trust her about a cursed necklace and act accordingly.  Maybe I just needed her to understand that
the people around her don’t have her history with this necklace and may need to
be convinced. I feel like she should have acknowledged how bizarre her requests
must sound, but how important it is to follow her guidance.

Alec is written as a very attractive playboy who
is more than meets the eye. I liked him, I just wanted even more of his back
story.  With just a little more
development, Alec could have been a truly great hero.

Overall, you can tell how good the plot is and
how much Marlene Bell has to say. She showed me a pretty picture, that I felt
like I didn’t get to see all of.  With
just a little tweaking, she coud have something truly beautiful.

* Special thanks to Marlene M. Bell, Ewephoric Publishing, and iRead
Book Tours for providing a copy of Stolen Obsession in exchange for an honest review.