Misery Loves Company by Rene Gutteridge

Don’t tell me it’s terrifying. Terrify me.Filled with grief, Jules Belleno rarely leaves the house since her husband’s death while on duty as a police officer. Other than the reviews Jules writes on her blog, she has little contact with the outside world.

But one day when she ventures out to the local grocery store, Jules bumps into a fellow customer . . . and recognizes him as her favorite author, Patrick Reagan. Jules gushes and thoroughly embarrasses herself before Regan graciously talks with her.

And that’s the last thing she remembers—until she wakes up in a strange room with a splitting headache. She’s been kidnapped. And what she discovers will change everything she believed about her husband’s death . . . her career . . . and her faith.

My review:
    Rene Gutteridge isn't an author that I have read many books by, but I have been impressed by the ones that I have read, and this one may be her best yet.

   I don't normally read Stephen King books, and in fact have only read one in my life (I was on vacation and bored and the vacation house had books). That book was Misery. In it, a woman kidnaps her favorite author and puts him through a pretty bad time. This book sounds like the opposite of that book, for in this book, a woman is kidnapped by her favorite author. But there the similarities end.

  Among other differences in the two books, in this one, the whole story does not involve just the author and the kidnapped woman. There are people looking for her, and they are also trying to solve her husband's murder.

  I did read this book in one sitting and had a hard time putting it down. It was very suspenseful, yet had a great Christian element to it. The plot was different enough from the Stephen King book to be original and was a real page turner. It was a book I was sad to see end, but I had that great feeling after reading a good book, that it was worth my time. Rene has outdone herself with this new novel. Great job.

About the author:

Rene Gutteridge is the author of eighteen novels, including Listen, the Storm series (Tyndale House Never the Bride, the Boo series, and the Occupational Hazards series from WaterBrook Press. She also released My Life as a Doormat and The Ultimate Gift: The Novelization with Thomas Nelson. Rene is also known for her Christian comedy sketches. She studied screenwriting while earning a mass communications degree, graduating magna cum laude from Oklahoma City University and earning the Excellence in Mass Communication Award. She served as the full-time director of drama for First United Methodist Church for five years before leaving to stay home and write. She enjoys instructing at writers conferences and in college classrooms. She lives with her husband, Sean, a musician, and their children in Oklahoma City. Visit her Web site at www.renegutteridge.com. 

Misery Loves Company is available from Tyndale House Publishers.

Thanks to Tyndale for the review copy.