Review by Booklist Review
Maris Matherly-Reed, an executive at Matherly Press, the publishing house that her father runs, is going through the slush pile of unsolicited manuscripts when she encounters one that intrigues her. But the author has submitted only the prologue and has put only his initials on it and the name of the island off the coast of Georgia where he lives. To the befuddlement of her husband, Noah, a writer who only published one novel and now works at Matherly Press, Maris is determined to pursue the manuscript. Maris has been concerned by her husband's inattentiveness and lately has been feeling dissatisfied with their marriage. Impulsively, she decides to go to Georgia to find the author, now identified as Parker Evans. At first, Parker puts off Maris--he's rude, abrasive, ruggedly handsome, and wheelchair bound from an accident he won't discuss. Nevertheless, Maris is totally drawn in by his novel, the story of the friendship between two young men that ends tragically when only one makes it back from a boating accident. Nor can Maris deny her attraction to Parker. Meanwhile, her two-faced husband, Noah, is back in New York, trying to secure a deal that will essentially allow him to sell Matherly Press out from under Maris and her father. As her marriage crumbles and her attraction to Parker grows, Maris finds that Parker and his novel are much more closely related to her life than she could have ever imagined. Suspenseful and satisfying, Brown's latest novel is sure to please readers, just as her many previous ones have. --Kristine Huntley
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Style and form are usually the least of prolific bestselling romance/thriller writer Brown's concerns, but in her latest effort she takes on an unusual challenge, setting out to craft a novel within a novel within a novel. The onion begins to peel when editor Maris Matherly-Reed plucks a prologue from the slush pile and finds herself hooked by the steamy prose. The author has furthermore titillated her by breaking the rules: no SASE, no cover letter. Maris knows only that his initials are P.M.E. and he lives on St. Anne Island in Georgia. (How does she know P.M.E. is a man? She... knows.) Gutsy, idealistic, deliciously sexy, Maris is married to philandering sociopath Noah Reed, who runs Matherly Press with Maris and her father, Daniel, last of the silver-maned gentleman publishers. As for P(arker) M(ackensie) E(vans), he's a bitter, wheelchair-bound, first-time novelist or is he? Is he using Maris to avenge himself against Noah, or does he love her madly or can the answer be all of the above? Cutting back and forth between the ubernovel and Parker's autobiographical novel about a purloined novel, Brown stages one dramatic scene after another. The narrative voices don't change much (although the typefaces do), but Brown's loyal legions frankly won't give a damn. (Aug. 28) Forecast: Brown could probably write a novel in blank verse and still hit the bestseller lists, so her experimentation here (mild, in any case) won't throw readers. The book is a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selection and a BOMC alternate, and major TV, radio and print media ad campaigns (plus New York transit ads) will blanket the country. Expect the expected: a blockbuster. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
A best-selling author hides behind a pseudonym, but a dark secret is about to come out. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
With over 46 New York Times bestsellers, Brown (The Alibi, 1999, etc. etc.) has few to envy among living authors, nor does the plot of Envy seem based on Brown's shortfall in literary esteem. Her heroine, Maris Matherly-Reed, who heads a highly literary independent publishing house, receives in her slush pile a prologue to a novel she can't refuse. The novel: Envy. And as Maris's pursuit of the slippery author speeds on, we are given additional chapters of Envy as they are being written by Parker Evans, a Georgia island recluse, secretly the bestselling author Mackensie Roone. As it happens, Maris has married Noah Reed, the one-book author of the celebrated The Vanquished, a book actually written and completed by Parker whom Noah let drown at sea. Or so Noah thought. Now Parker tells the true story of Noah's attempted murder, sucking in Maris chapter by chapter when she comes down to Parker's lonely island to urge him on. Harmless bedtime stimulant. Not The Aspern Papers. Literary Guild/Doubledy Book Club main selection; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
