Hidden

Finished January 3

Hidden by Fern Michaels

This is the first book I've read by Fern Michaels, and I was surprised how badly written it was. She is an established author with a large fan base, which led me to suppose that she was a good writer. I plan to read at least one of her earlier books to try her again to see if this is an outlier for her, but if it isn't, I certainly won't be recommending her to readers. 

This book follows a few characters: brother and sister Cullen and Luna who have broken away from parental expectations to do what they want, for him furniture restoration, for her a cafe and psychic readings. There is a lot of backstory for her, less for him. She met a police officer several years ago when a small child was lost and she helped find her, and developed a crush on him, and has worked with him a few times since, but the relationship never developed on a personal level. This part just seemed odd.With such a strong reaction from her, why did she do nothing to show her feelings. She talks much younger than she is and a lot of the conversations in the book are very stilted. 

There are a wealthy couple, stereotypically evil, but not very smart, who are looking for something that they think may be hidden in a piece of furniture they disposed of. Their actions are not well planned, and they seem to be very flat characters. They hire a detective to search for a woman, and he appears for a while and then is dropped from the plot. 

The woman they are searching for appears and she seems more normal, but still not well-developed. As the storylines come together at the end, a lot of things happen without being documented in the book and it is wrapped up very quickly, especially given all the description and backstory earlier.

Not a winner. This is supposed to be the first book in a new series. Hopefully an editor gets involved before the next one. The cover art seems to have no connection to the plot either.