No Time to Blink by Dina Silver – 286 pages
Book Blurb:
Catherine Clarke defied her family’s expectations when she married Gabriel, a handsome Lebanese businessman. After moving to Gabriel’s homeland and welcoming a baby daughter, Catherine knew she had to acclimate herself to the strange new world. Yet both her husband and her surroundings became more volatile and threatening than she could have ever imagined.
When Gabriel forbids her to return to the States, Catherine devises a plan to deceive him, but she vastly underestimates how far he will go to punish her. And after her daughter, Ann Marie, is abducted and taken deep into the mountains of Beirut—protected by family, culture, and law—the only thing on Catherine’s side is the fierceness of a mother’s love. She’s prepared to move heaven and earth to find her child.
My Review: 4 stars
No Time to Blink is a fast paced, drama packed short novel that can be read in an afternoon. The story is told by two points of view in two different time periods – a mother in the 70s and by her daughter in more current times. Both sides were equally important and similarly dramatic. Each woman is strong and portrays the fierceness of a mama bear protecting their cubs.
From the book blurb we know that the drama involves a child illegally taken to Lebanon. Immediately, I was taken back to the book Not Without My Daughter, which eventually became a hit movie starring Sally Field. I recall seeing a newsmagazine show like 60 Minutes or 20/20 featuring this topic. It is a frightening reality for some women and when the author met such a woman, she was inspired to write this book.
What made this book so unique was how the author fit the tension, suspense, angst, love and emotion in fewer than 300 pages. There’s a lot to discuss in this book: breaking the rules, abandoning your family, life abroad, friendship, family ties, motherhood, mother/daughter relationships, divorce, starting over, keeping secrets and medical issues.
Overall, this book offers a quick escape into someone else’s reality.
Quotes I liked:
Put your pearls on and fake it.”
“I will never know why bad things happen to good people, but thanks to my mother, I’ll know how to deal with them.”
-They loved each other once, madly and deeply, and despite all the ugliness from their past, maybe she thought I would need him now more than ever.”
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