Title: Bringing Maddie Home Series: Mysteries of Angel Butte #1
Author: Janice Kay Johnson
Published: November 5, 2013
Genre(s): Romance: Suspense
Page Count: 384
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:There's always one case…
The moment police Captain Colin McAllister sees her on TV he knows. She may call herself Nell Smith, but she is Maddie Dubeau—the girl who went missing from Angel Butte, Oregon, years ago. She's haunted Colin, and now the adult version of her is so captivating, he can't stay away. He wants to help her recover her memories—even solve her case—without crossing a professional line.
But distance becomes impossible when the threats against her escalate. It's clear someone is determined that Nell never remembers what happened to Maddie. Colin must keep her safe so that he can finally bring her home…to his home.
Listen, I know we love to tell people not to judge books by their covers, but with this book: REALLY DON’T DO IT. Whatever kind of cutesy small-town Christmas romance you think you’d be getting based on that cover, I am here to tell you that Bringing Maddie Home is not that book.
The prologue opens with a teenage girl locked in the trunk of a moving car. She escapes at a gas station, but has no idea who she is, where she came from, or who put her in that trunk. Jump forward 12 years, and Nell Smith has made a life for herself as a library tech in Seattle. She still has no idea about her identity prior to waking up in the car trunk, but she knows she is very afraid of opening up her past.
Enter Colin, police captain in Angel Butte, a small town in central Oregon. He’s been obsessed with finding a missing girl, Maddie Dubeau, for the last 12 years. When he happens to see Nell on TV, it’s obvious that he’s found her. So, naturally, he convinces Nell to come home and try an reconnect with her family and hometown.
Except…whoever assaulted Nell the first time seems to be eager to finish the job.
Now. Did you notice the above description? It sounds like a really great book, right? Very mysterious, not a totally illogical use of an amnesia plot. Bringing Maddie Home is a very good book. No doubt. But maybe you also noticed that the above description doesn’t include anything about Nell and Colin’s relationship.
And that’s because this is not really a romance novel. It’s a mystery/suspense with a side-helping of romance. I don’t believe that the developing relationship between Nell and Colin was ever, at any point, a central focus of this book. All at once, Bringing Maddie Home is a great book and a terrible romance novel. Weird, right?
I really have no critiques of this book. Janice Kay Johnson is a very good writer. Her characters were likeable and well-developed. She writes a good suspense plot. The amnesia aspect didn’t come across as overly cliché or silly. It was all very well done.
It’s just that, sorry not sorry, this is not a romance novel, really. It’s a story about a woman suffering from amnesia who returns to her hometown to try and reconnect with her past. Aside from one sex scene and a kissing scene and a declaration of love at the end, the focus of this book was always about figuring out what happened to Nell/Maddie. And that’s fine! Except when I pick up a kissing book, I expect…kissing.
Really good book! Really bad romance.
Yeah, this happens sometimes with Janice Kay Johnson. She writes dynamite conflict but sometimes the romance gets lost under all that dynamite conflict (one of my personal favorites, Mommy Said Goodbye, has a similar issue – great story, great mystery, pretty blah “romance.” The sequel, Revelations, fires off a bit better as a romance – although it is “closed door.”)
As much as I like her Supers, I’ve never understood why her agent and/or publisher never talked her into writing, what I call, “book club fiction.” Something that could be published in trade paperback, with a women’s fiction-y vibe that could be marketed towards book clubs. I think she’d be GREAT at that. And maybe it will happen now that the Super line is folding.
Stronger romances that I liked from JKJ are Snowbound, The Man Behind the Cop, and Someone Like Her. She’s got a ginormous backlist so I’m sure there are others and if you ask on Twitter – you may get more suggestions 🙂
I agree—this is exactly the kind of book I’d expect to see *outside* of the romance section in the bookstore. And I would totally read it! She’s a great author.
And thanks for the recs, I was going to try the next Angel Butte story, since I really do like her writing and storytelling, but I think I’ll try one of the three you suggested instead.
Yeah, this happens sometimes with Janice Kay Johnson. She writes dynamite conflict but sometimes the romance gets lost under all that dynamite conflict (one of my personal favorites, Mommy Said Goodbye, has a similar issue – great story, great mystery, pretty blah “romance.” The sequel, Revelations, fires off a bit better as a romance – although it is “closed door.”)
As much as I like her Supers, I’ve never understood why her agent and/or publisher never talked her into writing, what I call, “book club fiction.” Something that could be published in trade paperback, with a women’s fiction-y vibe that could be marketed towards book clubs. I think she’d be GREAT at that. And maybe it will happen now that the Super line is folding.
Stronger romances that I liked from JKJ are Snowbound, The Man Behind the Cop, and Someone Like Her. She’s got a ginormous backlist so I’m sure there are others and if you ask on Twitter – you may get more suggestions 🙂
I agree—this is exactly the kind of book I’d expect to see *outside* of the romance section in the bookstore. And I would totally read it! She’s a great author.
And thanks for the recs, I was going to try the next Angel Butte story, since I really do like her writing and storytelling, but I think I’ll try one of the three you suggested instead.