Running Scared

By: Lisa Jackson

Narrated by: Jack Garrett

Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Lisa Jackson gives her fans what they crave—taut suspense melded with blistering romance. Running Scared follows a young single mother desperate to preserve the life she’s built with her son. Fifteen years ago Kate Summers adopted a little boy in secret and fled to a small town in Oregon. Today, she has a wonderful life and believes she has outrun her past. But a mysterious figure is searching for her and threatens to destroy her happiness.

©2010 Lisa Jackson (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Hearing a bad episode of Dynasty or Dallas.

Ok, I'll admit that unless a book is exceptionally good or really, really bad - as is the case with Running Scared - I generally don't take the time out of my tight schedule to write a review. Rate - yes. String sentences together - too painful a process for a non-writer. For the record, I'll dispense with any and all comments about this being a rewrite as I am unfamiliar with the original early career favorite. I selected this book for two reasons: 1) I'm a romantic suspense junkie and 2) the prospect of spending 18+ hours under the magical spell of Jack Garrett's take-me-away vocal talent was something I wasn't about to miss.

The wealthy Sullivan family and their kin are a lot of mean spirited, malicious, vindictive users of friend and foe alike. And the few that aren't have the chemical makeup of walking, seldom talking, spineless doormats. Flocked wallpaper has more going for it. It was like hearing a lengthy and sometimes badly scripted day or nightime soap opera. The too frequent trips down memory lane were like navigating emotional land mines, never knowing what was coming but sure, it would be sickening, interrupted the story flow and eventually killed my interest in the main characters and the plot.

But people I'm telling you this is an absolute waste of a credit that could have been enjoyed elsewhere. No matter how interesting the performance, Jack can't change what's in print. A better example of his work can be found in
Anna Jeffrey's "Salvation, Texas." Judging by the number of pages in both the original book "Wishes" and that of "Running Scared" this can only be labeled as a bad case of over writing. A much more cohesive, not to mention entertaining, read this could have been with brutal editing.

Frustrating

I'm not an expert on audible books, but I do listen to quite a few. This book made me roll my eyes atleast 20 times. If "in his minds eye" or "in her minds eye" was said one more time my itouch would be thrown into the fireplace! Running Scared by Lisa Jackson seems like a rushed write and edited even quicker. The man narrating this book could be the next Guy Smiley or some other game show host. Easily, one of the worst listens I've had in a long time.

Trite and Ridiculous--Don't waste your time

Jackson uses a limited plot, repetive vocabulary, and flat characters that limp along to her cliched resolution. On the upside, she uses the word 'b*st*rd' upwards of 30 times, although her next concession to vulgarity is scared 'spitless'.

waste of money!

i usually like lisa jackson, but this was so bad i couldn't wait for it to end. she must have pulled it out of the attic from her college years.
the characters had little depth and the whole story was just 'hokey' for lack of a better word.....way below her writing level.

mk

Running Scared

This was an interesting love story, but not the suspensful action usually prominent in her books.

Gratuitous Violence

Even though I read this novel years ago, I thought it would be fun to listen to it. I vaguely remembered an interesting plot with a rich Boston family as key players. I guess when you read something you can skim distasteful scenes. Long, brutal beatings, 3 rapes, gay and straight incest, murder and epic family dysfunction--all described in vivid and excruciating detail. The sneering voice of the narrator underscored the lack of a sympathetic character and not in a good way. Violence and sex extended a plot that could've been satisfying in a much shorter novel.

Snoozer

The description of the book and what you hear not even in the same hemisphere.

Not a fan!

Did not appreciate the bad language or story line. Not the type of Mystery thriller that holds your interest.

The narrator has limited character voices.

Great story! I could not put it down! I wouldn’t expect less from Lisa Jackson. My only con is that the narrator has only two different male voices to cover a range of a dozen male characters. It was a bit annoying but I was never confused as to which character was speaking.

Cheesy AF

Predictably unoriginal and cheesy, made it all the way to the last couple pages and had to stop all together because the cringe got overwhelming.