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Finders keepers / Fern Michaels.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, New York : Kensington Publishing Group, [2023]Copyright date: ©1998Description: 455 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781496739315
  • 1496739310
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "Raised in a magnificent Charleston house, Jessie Roland wants for nothing. But as she grows into young adulthood, all she feels is loss and a desperate need to break free from the stifling possessiveness of her "parents." Somewhere, in the deepest part of herself, Jessie believes that the world she has always lived in is not the one she came from ... or belongs in. Now, at nineteen, she has escaped to Washington, D.C., where no one knows her, and where she is swept into a whirlwind marriage to a Texas senator's son. But the past will not release Jessie, who is still haunted by a sense of lost happiness, of simple, tender gestures buried in her memory. Only in Luke Holt, a reclusive rancher, will she discover the strength to penetrate the darkness, and find her way back to a place she can call home ..." -- Amazon.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection MICH Available T00865835
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In a moving, unforgettable Southern saga of lost and found, a woman who was stolen as a toddler from a poor but loving family must journey through a maze of heartbreak before she can reclaim her true identity.

Now in trade paperback for the first time!

Raised in a magnificent Charleston house, Jessie Roland wants for nothing. But as she grows into young adulthood, all she feels is loss and a desperate need to break free from the stifling possessiveness of her "parents." Somewhere, in the deepest part of herself, Jessie believes that the world she has always lived in is not the one she came from . . . or belongs in.

Now, at nineteen, she has escaped to Washington, D.C., where no one knows her, and where she is swept into a whirlwind marriage to a Texas senator's son. But the past will not release Jessie, who is still haunted by a sense of lost happiness, of simple, tender gestures buried in her memory. Only in Luke Holt, a reclusive rancher, will she discover the strength to penetrate the darkness, and find her way back to a place she can call home . . .

"Raised in a magnificent Charleston house, Jessie Roland wants for nothing. But as she grows into young adulthood, all she feels is loss and a desperate need to break free from the stifling possessiveness of her "parents." Somewhere, in the deepest part of herself, Jessie believes that the world she has always lived in is not the one she came from ... or belongs in. Now, at nineteen, she has escaped to Washington, D.C., where no one knows her, and where she is swept into a whirlwind marriage to a Texas senator's son. But the past will not release Jessie, who is still haunted by a sense of lost happiness, of simple, tender gestures buried in her memory. Only in Luke Holt, a reclusive rancher, will she discover the strength to penetrate the darkness, and find her way back to a place she can call home ..." -- Amazon.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

To escape a possessive mother, 19-year-old Jessie Rowland loads her car with her favorite belongings and joins her best friend, Sophie, in Atlanta. There, the two plot Jessie's new life. Both girls are extremely rich, so money is not a problem, but Jessie wants to work to support herself. Sophie uses her contacts to get Jessie an interview with a senator in Washington, DC, and soon Jessie is involved in an exciting job and a whirlwind courtship with the senator's son. Susan Ericksen provides two different readings for this novel. In the abridged version, her reading is slower while still conveying the essence of Michaels's work and the main characters' individual personalities; the unabridged version is more rapid-fire to pack in the details and shows the range of Ericksen's voice as she effortlessly captures the tone of the main and supporting characters. Both versions would be worthwhile additions to popular fiction collections.‘Melanie Duncan, Washington Memorial Lib., Macon, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Michaels (The Vegas Trilogy) packs her pages with the iconography of the rich and miserable. Empty Georgia manses, loveless Texas ranches, deeds to Greek Islands and death-by-sports-car in France all help form the backdrop for the Jessie Roland saga. Adorable toddler Hannah Larson, only child of poor but decent Grace and Ben, is sitting in her stroller outside a Tennessee gas station when baby-starved Thea and Barnes Roland pull in for a cream soda. Thea snatches the child, Barnes puts pedal to metal and Hannah becomes "adopted" Jessie, doomed to a life of smothering love and material overabundance in Charleston, S.C., while her birth parents suffer and hope. On her way to NYU (instead of her parents' pick, Georgia Tech) Jessie detours through Washington and talks herself into a job as secretary to powerful Texas Senator Angus Kingsley, who has an icy wife, Alexis; a dying mistress, Irene; and a gorgeous son, Tanner. Jessie, of course, marries Tanner, and the trouble really begins. Long on episode, short on motivation, the novel offers scant payoff even in scenes that ought to tug the heartstrings, such as Jessie's reunion with her real parents. (A fine exception is the detailed, layered scene in which Mrs. Kingsley trashes the Other Woman's apartment.) The most vivid character in the book is Jelly, the yellow-haired dog who was guarding little Hannah and nearly died trying to track her. Not surprisingly, the funny bonus story at the end of the book ("A Summer Surprise") concerns a feisty woman vet who goes easier on her 11 pets than she does on her man. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Spoiled rotten and with more dollars than sense, Thea Roland refuses to be thwarted in her quest for motherhood when her young daughter dies. She sees a baby girl in a stroller parked outside a service station and snatches her up. Thea's doting husband, Barnes, helps her get away with the dastardly deed, which has left a devoted working-class family devastated. They fake an adoption and raise Hannah, now renamed Jessie, as their own pampered child. As Jessie grows to adulthood, Thea's over-protectiveness and obsessive love make her eager for the day she can leave. Glitz and glamour with all the elements of a soap opera, including Machiavellian extramarital affairs, family feuds, domestic violence, and mysterious disappearances, make this a terrific beach book despite the clunky dialogue. Dog lovers will particularly like the gallant Jelly, and though this does not fit the classic romance formula, fans of the genre will be pleased by the bonus of a romance short story involving a wealthy cosmetics mogul and a veterinarian. --Diana Tixier Herald

Kirkus Book Review

Smashingly successful soapster Michaels (Vegas Sunrise, 1997, etc.) takes on Charleston, South Carolina, and the story of wealthy young Jessie Roland--old soap in a new wrapper. What can you say about Jessie's bony adoptive mother, Thea Roland, who--thrice miscarrying, with two stillborns and a dead baby daughter--lights a cigarette on page two, drinks from a gold flask, then blows a smoke ring, and--stunning themŽimprobably announces to her surprised doctor and husband that she's a drunk? Next, Thea kidnaps a golden-haired baby from a filling station and cries, ``FINDERS KEEPERS!'' as her husband drives her and her new treasure home. Years pass. Kidnaped baby Jessie becomes a solemn schoolgirl equipped with a $100 book-bag and a three-room playhouse, then as a college girl splits from tearful Thea, who replenishes Jessie's trust fund by selling, one by one, her 73 Greek tankers. When Jessie becomes pregnant, she marries lover Tanner Kingsley but loses the baby during an accidentŽa baby she hopes will be cared for in heaven by Sophie, the best friend who committed suicide and has left her a fortune. When Thea dies, she leaves her tell-all diaries to Jessie, who discovers the identity of her real parents and, after reuniting with them, leaves for Nairobi. Paralyzingly ladylike junk thatŽs bloated with redundant dialogue and that, going by MichaelsŽs record, will sell.

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