|
Publisher:
1stBooks Library |
Release
Date: May 2003 |
ISBN:
1-4107-3108-1 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Hardcover |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fiction – Chick Lit |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
Reviewer
Notes: Kristin Johnson, the founder of PoemsForYou.com,
released her second book, CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING,
co-written with Mimi Cummins, in October 2003. Her third book,
ORDINARY MIRACLES: My Incredible Spiritual, Artistic and Scientific
Journey, co-written with Sir Rupert A.L. Perrin, M.D., is now
available from PublishAmerica. |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
|
A
Mirror Image
By Lynette Butler
Borhman
It’s
ten o’clock. Do you know what your sister is doing right now?
Think you don’t have a sister? So do Chelsea Lane Tanner and
her twin sister, Serena Wilcox Shepherd, both married on the same
day to husbands who absolutely go mad with desire.
Trouble
is, Serena (born Christy Lane), finds that her husband Adrian’s
lust only kicks in if he can rape her and beat her senseless before,
after, and during sex. On the flip side, Chelsea’s temper
flares all too quickly for a newlywed bride of an adoring and near-saintly,
if lascivious, husband, Tristan. In addition, Chelsea sees and hears
Serena in her mirror, and suffers mysterious physical trauma from
Adrian’s abuse of Serena and to Serena’s heartwrenching
miscarriage. While Adrian displays complex moments of neediness
and abandonment, he is otherwise the perfect, handsome, sociopathic
monster, or the Devil as Serena calls him.
Chelsea
and Serena/Christy are the classic doppelganger figure. Serena’s
abused-wife nature, planted by her adopted mother who stole her
at birth and kept Serena sheltered, and her meekness seem to be
absent in the firebrand Chelsea. The scenario is reminiscent of
the classic “Enemy Within” episode of the original “Star
Trek” series, in which Captain Kirk becomes split into two
halves: a kind, gentle, and compassionate wimp and a passionate,
commanding, but amoral and abusive jerk. While Chelsea is loving
and caring, she does have the tendency to go off on beleaguered
“knight in shining armor” Tristan, whose name echoes
his gallantry and his insatiable desire for his wife. Like the classic
Tristan, this hero momentarily suffers weakness when another woman
(there are two Isoldes in the story) enters the picture, but love
of course conquers all, and sisterhood is forever. Interestingly,
Chelsea falters when Adrian threatens her life while Serena at last
recovers courage the way Josephine Muscat does in “Chocolat.”
At the end of the novel, all is hastily and happily resolved, and
balance is restored to the universe.
While
melodramatic at times, A Mirror Image, with its story of
love, family betrayal, and triumph, does indeed make you appreciate
your sister. |