Bonne Femme
Bonne Femme Bonne FemmeTrust Betrayed and Dark ObsessionThree people Two former soldiers, each with a mission, each waging a campaign At the center of their conflict is a vulnerable young woman, alone and far fro
Bonne FemmeTrust Betrayed and Dark ObsessionThree people Two former soldiers, each with a mission, each waging a campaign At the center of their conflict is a vulnerable young woman, alone and far from home.Richard Carter has come back to Cartier trying to pull his life together, while Jill Belbenoit has come to finish her degree He has seen her on campus, but doesn t k Bonne FemmeTrust Betrayed and Dark ObsessionThree people Two former soldiers, each with a mission, each waging a campaign At the center of their conflict is a vulnerable young woman, alone and far from home.Richard Carter has come back to Cartier trying to pull his life together, while Jill Belbenoit has come to finish her degree He has seen her on campus, but doesn t know her When a former squadmate from Somalia, Mic Boyd, turns up unexpectedly and assumes a friendship that never was, Richard allows himself to fall into what he hopes will be only a brief association The last thing he wants is a reminder of his tour in the famine racked squalor of Africa.Mic inserts himself into Jill s life as well as Richard s As attractive women must do, she has learned to deal with unwanted male attention Unable to disengage from one man, however, she obligates herself to the other Now she must navigate out of both relationships Jill reproaches herself for both her naivet and her manipulativeness Soon she will have much greater concerns.Memories, dreams, and flashbacks torment Richard as he tries to discover if what he fears is real, while Jill must decide if he is only a damaged soldier suffering from PTSD, or dangerously delusional and obsessed with her.Is his nightmare vision the product of a fevered imagination tortured by his war experience and his guilt Or does he see what no one else can Is he averting a horror or perpetrating one Where does Jill s real danger lie Can she trust him Is the godforsaken pile of rocks called Bonne Femme a refuge from peril or from reality Get A Copy Kindle Store StoresAudibleBarnes NobleWalmart eBooksGoogle PlayAbebooksBook DepositoryAlibrisBetter World BooksIndieBoundLibraries Download eBook Or buy for Kindle Edition, 458 pages Published July 19th 2013 by Acorn Moon Press first published June 19th 2013 More Details ASIN B00DI4UN4I Edition Language English Series The Richard Carter Novels 1 Other Editions 1 All Editions Add a New Edition Combine Less Detail edit details Friend Reviews To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up Reader QA To ask other readers questions about Bonne Femme, please sign up
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Lists with This Book This book is not yet featured on Listopia Add this book to your favorite list Community Reviews Showing 1 44 Rating details Sort Default Filter Mar 22, 2014 Liv rated it really liked it Overall This book was unsettling, which is good considering it s a thriller It was extremely captivating as well, and I found myself looking up and realizing it had been hours since I last checked the time I love the changing of perspectives between Richard and Mic It showed you how thoroughly thought out Mic s actions were as well as Richard s intentions Especially on the island, I found myself start to question weather Richard was really doing the right thing, but he meant well Jill was Overall This book was unsettling, which is good considering it s a thriller It was extremely captivating as well, and I found myself looking up and realizing it had been hours since I last checked the time I love the changing of perspectives between Richard and Mic It showed you how thoroughly thought out Mic s actions were as well as Richard s intentions Especially on the island, I found myself start to question weather Richard was really doing the right thing, but he meant well Jill was such a strong character, and I love strong female roles In this type of book, the common female typically relies on a male to save her, but I felt Jill could have handled herself well I found the dialogue a bit choppy, which may or may not have been the intention since English is not Jill s primary language The only thing that bothered me a little is how untouchable Mic was He committed countless murders and didn t leave a single clue, footprint, fingerprint, anything at all, EVER, to indicate that it was him Even when he first started in high school It was flabbergasting Other than that, I found the plot action packed and quick, never a dull moment The setting was well described Jill and Richard s relationship was so adorable, even when it wasn t supposed to be Their chemistry and interactions, while at first awkward, slowly became relaxed and comfortable The author did a fantastic job with this overall, loved most of this book, it only minor issues for me Characters Again, Jill was strong and amazing Richard was so sweet and protective of Jill, I loved it Mic was so creepy and smart That sounds weird, but to be able to pull that off he had to be amazingly intelligent Marta was hilarious and independent like her friend Jill As far as character building, I would have liked a little background interaction between Jill and Marta vs Jill and Mic Richard, however every other major relationship was well described.Quotes Since I read this on my Kindle, I have to type the quotes out There is no such thing When you take it into your own hands, it stops being the law There s never be justice in this world, Dave But there is mercy, I suppose.Recommend Yes I give it 4 5 stars If you want to have a little trouble sleeping at night, this is the book for you Huge thanks to the author for sending me a copy to read and review Salaam,Lived One Thousand Lives flag 1 likeLike see review May 22, 2015 Stacie rated it really liked it Shelves reviews Bonne Femme is a chilling thriller about a young woman who is catapulted into a violent nightmare that goes from bad to worse in the blink of an eye.Jill Belbenoit is a college student from France She s intelligent and focused, until that fateful day when a lack of judgement leaves her fighting for her life Richard Carter and Mic Boyd were in the same Marine Squadron and experienced the unthinkable in Mogadishu Richard doesn t consider Mic much of a friend, but when Richard sees that Jill is Bonne Femme is a chilling thriller about a young woman who is catapulted into a violent nightmare that goes from bad to worse in the blink of an eye.Jill Belbenoit is a college student from France She s intelligent and focused, until that fateful day when a lack of judgement leaves her fighting for her life Richard Carter and Mic Boyd were in the same Marine Squadron and experienced the unthinkable in Mogadishu Richard doesn t consider Mic much of a friend, but when Richard sees that Jill is drawn to Mic he decides to tag along Richard has had a crush on Jill since the first moment he laid eyes on her, but of course she falls for Mic However, when things with Mic go south Jill seeks Richard s help in getting Mic to leave her alone Richard soon learns a sickening truth about Mic and must make a rash decision that will leave Jill wondering who her real enemy is Bonne Femme is a frightening tale filled with horrifying crimes with danger lurking at every turn The characters are complex and the plot disturbing, yet powerfully consuming The author is a skilled storyteller and easily draws a reader in and keeps them on edge until the very end Just when I thought a killer would be caught, the author would add a twist shocking than the last I felt the story was well organized and never short on action I am looking forward to reading other books in this series.I would recommend picking up a copy flag 1 likeLike see review Sep 05, 2015 Dorthy Contini rated it it was amazing Great book I don t usually choose to read suspense novels, but chose this because it s written by my former high school teacher I thoroughly enjoyed it and will download of his books flag 1 likeLike see review Dec 04, 2016 Pearl Kirkby rated it it was amazing My sincere apologies to the author for neglecting to post my review on other than my blog before now Just a note As I have stated in several other reviews, there are genr s which I don t normally read because of certain life experiences I have endured during my time on this earth crime novels are amongst those genr s However, this story revolves around two former Marines one of whom was released from service under a General Discharge Those of us who have have been married to as I was My sincere apologies to the author for neglecting to post my review on other than my blog before now Just a note As I have stated in several other reviews, there are genr s which I don t normally read because of certain life experiences I have endured during my time on this earth crime novels are amongst those genr s However, this story revolves around two former Marines one of whom was released from service under a General Discharge Those of us who have have been married to as I was or have experience with a member of the Armed Forces who suffers from severe PTSD have unique insight and understanding to the mindset of either the protagonist, Richard, or the antagonist, Mic, in this book Fortunately, my husband was a Richard , rather than a Mic.My take on the story Richard Carter is basically a good and honourable man who became as entrenched in the mindset that War is Hell as any other combat veteran has The horrors that he witnessed are not uncommon, and nor is his revulsion to those memories and diminished feelings of self worth as a returning warrior As part of his solution to trying to re integrate as a civilian, he is pursuing an education in criminology at the local college.While there, another student a captivating young lady from France Jill Belbenoit catches his eye Convinced that she would not be interested in him, Richard pines for her at a distance It is during one of his moments of distraction that a former squadmate from his deployment to Somalia shows up Mic Boyd, whom Richard has always disliked on an instinctual level Nonetheless, when he is approached, Richard accepts Mic s invitation to join him for a beer at the local pub, just to catch up on things.At about this point, the author inserts some of Richard s troubling memories of Somaliaand here, dear reader, is the first indication that something is very wrong, and extremely dark, about Mic.Mic shows up on campus again, and this time notices Richard s infatuation with Jill Mic s ensuing comments about women in general are another clue into his disturbing psyche He adopts an almost competitive attitude about how easy it would be to have his way with Jill he introduces himself and Richard, as a sort of side kick and proceeds to seduce her Despite his apparently low opinion of women in general, he has a certain bad boy vibe which seems to attract them Richard, of course, is chagrined when, very quickly, Mic and Jill become a couple.It is only a matter of time that Jill breaks things off with Mic We are not apprised of the reasons why until later in the story although the reader is given a good idea of what those reasons likely were , only that Mic is not about to accept her decision she finally turns to Richard to intervene This does not go over well with Micand things only get worse from here When Richard confronts him, Mic details the violence he will perpetrate on Jillbefore he kills her.Richard goes to Jill and tries to convince her just how seriously she should take the threat, but for some reason she simply will not believe Mic is that dangerous She refuses Richard s help in keeping her safe even though he pleads with her to accept him in a protector s role She insists that such extreme steps are unnecessary and nearly rebuffs him completely, even as the friend she has begun to regard him Even so, the friendship continues, albeit tenuously.Mic continues to taunt Richard with verbal images of what he has in store for Jill, until finally he Richard decides to take protective measures, whether Jill agrees or not He would kidnap her and take her somewhere remote, isolated and uninhabited and keep her there until either she understood the danger, or the danger was past He abducts her and carries her to the island of Bonne Femme.And here I stop the summary, else I give it all away.The way that Mr Simmons paints images with his words is skillful to the point of being able to physically impact the reader I cannot remember any book that I ve read that instills such graphic images, without the verbiage to go with it And even though there is the occasional point of view switch between the characters, it all flows smoothly He has a way of easing those transitions not only by his talent with syntax and structure, but also by delineating between memories and internalized thoughts through the use of in text formatting.There are very few issues non issues, really that I have with Bonne Femme For one, the blurb introduces the three main characters as Two former soldiers, each waging a campaign and a vulnerable young woman, alone and far from home In this, we are given a brief description of the protagonist, Richard, as a returned soldier and Jill, as the potential victim, but there isn t any hint of the darkness in the antagonist, Mic If I were to rely strictly on the blurb, I m not so sure that I would have chosen to read Bonne Femme unless Crime Thriller was my usual reading genr However, with the author s talent for weaving suspense, I m sure that he might be able to prickle our senses by adding even a single, ominous line to the blurb, should there ever be a 2nd Edition The other issue is the character of Jill, who just seemed a bit confusing She has a strong spirit, dogged determination, a highly developed moral sense and great intelligencebut seemed to have a significant lack of common sense, something like a cross between Erin Brockovich and Snow White While I really LIKED her character, sometimes I just wanted to slap her silly Maybe a little bit of that internalized thought process for why she refused to believe her life was seriously in danger sorry, AR I have followed the author, A.R Simmons, for some time now in my humble opinion, the fact that I was able to read this entire book even though the criminal element of the story is very discomfiting to me without skipping any pages at all is proof that here is one author who knows what he s doing.I look forward to reading Book 2 Cold Tears and following up on Richard and Jill flag Like see review Nov 11, 2013 Philip Newey rated it really liked it Bonne Femme, is a thriller, featuring the character Richard Carter It is the first in a series of novels, but is a self contained story We are introduced to Richard, who is an ex marine Richard becomes strongly attracted to Jill Belbenoit, a French student studying at the college in which he is enrolled to study criminology To his surprise a former colleague from the marines, William McCulloch Boyd Mic , who served with him in Somalia, also turns up in town Richard does not particularly li Bonne Femme, is a thriller, featuring the character Richard Carter It is the first in a series of novels, but is a self contained story We are introduced to Richard, who is an ex marine Richard becomes strongly attracted to Jill Belbenoit, a French student studying at the college in which he is enrolled to study criminology To his surprise a former colleague from the marines, William McCulloch Boyd Mic , who served with him in Somalia, also turns up in town Richard does not particularly like this man, and suspects him of having done some fairly questionable things while in Somalia Nevertheless, he spends time with him Although Mic clearly has a nasty side, he is also able to turn on the charm when he desires, and he and Jill become involved for a time When Jill wishes to break it off with Mic, she approaches Richard for some help, and the drama unfolds from there.There are some very good things about this book The characters are complex and ambiguous Richard, in particular, is not your typical hero type He is deeply troubled by his own past, seems to have no clear purpose in life, and his behaviour borders on the obsessive and irrational at times Jill is slightly less well rounded, perhaps evidence that the author is at home in a male rather than a female mind The point of view adopted is third person intimate, but swaps between the three main characters, Jill, Richard and Mic, sometimes very quickly The author takes us inside the mind of each of these characters, and, occasionally, one of the minor characters I sometimes felt uncomfortable with the thoughts that the author put in Jill s mind At other times I found her quite believable Perhaps the thing I found least plausible was Jill s apparent status as a virgin Nor did I understand why this was necessary for the plot Mic is presented as a fairly typical, grandiose psychopath, with a charming exterior covering dark deeds and thoughts.I need to say about Richard s character I found myself a little unsure about how the author wanted the reader to see him I have said that he is not a typical hero Some of his behaviour appears to me to be irrational, obsessive and unjustifiable I also found his attitude towards the women in the story than a little creepy At the very least his attitude is paternalistic and controlling, seeing himself as their protector and defender Witness these thoughts Despite what she said, Richard knew that failure to respond to the provocations would weaken her faith in his ability to protect her It also ate at his self esteem A man had to fight when his woman was threatened By and large, he is not particularly good at protecting them I was not sure how the author viewed him Were we, as the readers, expected by the end of the novel to see the events on the island the Bonne Femme of the title I won t give the plot away as necessary if unconventional Were we and Jill expected to dismiss them as a minor mistake I suppose I am disappointed that the author lost sight of the potential for making Richard a potentially much darker and ambiguous character By the end of the story he has become much the conventional if flawed hero.If I have quibbles with the plot, this is probably because the novel is simply too long I think the pace and quality of the novel would have been greatly improved if some of the fat had been trimmed The earlier scenes on the island go on for far too long, and become somewhat repetitive When that episode is finally brought to an end, it is not clear to me why this happened at that particular time What makes this the right time And what, in the end, is achieved by this episode It dominates the novel for several chapters then this major event is permitted to simply fade into the background as other events overtake the protagonists From about two thirds of the way through, I felt that the story became much less interesting as a psychological drama and began to morph into a much traditional thriller detective story Some of the investigative scenes were probably superfluous There were also a few minor details of the plot that could have been better handled One in particular stands out At one point in the story, Jill and her friend Marta make a trip to Europe As far as I can recall there was no prior discussion of this It comes out of the blue Further, Jill is away from only the 10 September to 13 September, which is hardly enough time for such a trip Having made these observations, some of the individual scenes, particularly those involving Mic the psychopath, are very well written, with a high degree of suspense, tension and real and potential violence The final scenes between Mic and Richard are very good indeed I suppose my biggest disappointment with the novel is with the central character Had this not been the first of a series hence we know that Richard lives and goes on to tackle other cases the author would have given himself much room to play Richard could have been killed or he could have turned out to be almost as deeply disturbed as Mic These were at least possibilities with which the author could have toyed There was the potential to bring the reader to the edge of his or her seat, to introduce surprising and terrifying twists and turns to the plot Because the reader knows that Richard will make it through, these opportunities were lost As always, I find the scoring process difficult There is much in this book that lifts it above average But there are also serious flaws Oh for half stars I want to give it 3.5 stars the question is, do I round it up to 4 or down to 3 On balance, I think it falls slightly on the plus side Four stars flag Like see review May 10, 2014 Richard A Peters rated it it was amazing While this story is much longer than it needs to be, the author makes up for that with some of the craziest, yet realistic characters I ve read in a while The reader isn t led to feel a particular way about anyone, just given a wealth of detail maybe too much and left to form their own conclusions You really get wrapped up in their plotting and borderline insanity Exotic locales, strong females, not so evil villains and irrational heroes a lot of fun to read.As is standard practice in this While this story is much longer than it needs to be, the author makes up for that with some of the craziest, yet realistic characters I ve read in a while The reader isn t led to feel a particular way about anyone, just given a wealth of detail maybe too much and left to form their own conclusions You really get wrapped up in their plotting and borderline insanity Exotic locales, strong females, not so evil villains and irrational heroes a lot of fun to read.As is standard practice in this industry, I received a free review copy flag Like see review Sandra Ward rated it it was amazing Nov 17, 2013 Roy Huff rated it it was amazing Mar 28, 2014 Margaret rated it it was amazing Feb 20, 2017 Clare rated it it was amazing Mar 14, 2014 Cynthia Ward rated it liked it Jul 18, 2017 Jennifer rated it it was amazing Apr 13, 2015 Apr 08, 2017 Lynda Kelly rated it did not like it Shelves deleted I didn t need to read very much of this one to realise it was in no way for me It is a VERY blokey book going into what marines jobs entail and war stories, etc There was nothing in the synopsis to let us know we d be visiting Somalia during the famine and I d not have downloaded it in the first place had I realised Another big complaint is that is in no way intended for a Brit audience, nor any other readers aside from Americans or Mexicans, I would say It s chock full of American slang I didn t need to read very much of this one to realise it was in no way for me It is a VERY blokey book going into what marines jobs entail and war stories, etc There was nothing in the synopsis to let us know we d be visiting Somalia during the famine and I d not have downloaded it in the first place had I realised Another big complaint is that is in no way intended for a Brit audience, nor any other readers aside from Americans or Mexicans, I would say It s chock full of American slang Some I managed to find explained on Google, some I didn t and I was getting cheesed off needing to keep on stopping to look in the first place.He talks about a truck that Jake braked Turns out it should ve read jake braked No wonder I was baffled I was scouting about wondering who on earth Jake was Then brought his speed up until the big Merc planed her off, He wondered where they were when he was in the Mog, he flicked out the coal and field stripped the butt and finally We were searching the hooches These examples of English are like no English I ve ever read He lost the apostrophe in appearance sake but that was it for punctuation mistakes which was commendable flag Like see review gregory marbut rated it really liked it May 12, 2016 Kaye Kelly marked it as to read Sep 01, 2013 Betsy Ashton marked it as to read Sep 22, 2013 Louise BDGG marked it as to read Dec 11, 2013 Em marked it as to read Dec 26, 2013 Joel Jurrens marked it as to read Feb 21, 2014 Deb marked it as to read Feb 26, 2014 Jennifer marked it as to read May 22, 2015 Angel marked it as to read Sep 05, 2015 dee felker is currently reading it Apr 17, 2016 Angie marked it as to read May 01, 2016 Sadie Forsythe marked it as to read May 01, 2016 Sheila marked it as to read May 01, 2016 Twilightwatchers marked it as to read May 01, 2016 barbara pint is currently reading it May 05, 2016 BookishBelle added it May 08, 2016 Louise purfield coak marked it as to read May 20, 2016 Tonica marked it as to read Jul 23, 2016 Nici Zalliski is currently reading it Nov 20, 2016 Peter marked it as to read May 02, 2017 Sherry Cockerham marked it as to read Mar 26, 2018 Chris Huntley marked it as to read Mar 27, 2018 Tamara Lyles marked it as to read Aug 07, 2018 rebecca marked it as to read Sep 29, 2018 Mary marked it as to read Jan 02, 2019 paula shaffer is currently reading it Jan 14, 2019 Brian marked it as to read Jan 21, 2019 Davin marked it as to read Jan 23, 2019 Garrett Dreyer marked it as to read Jan 25, 2019 Joy marked it as to read Jan 26, 2019 April Shuffler marked it as to read Jan 29, 2019 new topicDiscuss This Book There are no discussion topics on this book yet Be the first to start one Share Recommend It Stats Recent Status Updates About A.R Simmons A.R Simmons 46 followers AR Simmons writes The Richard Carter Mystery Suspense series Obsession drives each of his monsters, and monsters they are PTSD and OCD drive Richard himself as he evolves from a damaged soldier, to amateur sleuth, to professional criminalist albeit in a small and underfunded rural Ozark sheriff s department AR no punctuation was born in Chicago, but his roots run four generations deep in Miss AR Simmons writes The Richard Carter Mystery Suspense series Obsession drives each of his monsters, and monsters they are PTSD and OCD drive Richard himself as he evolves from a damaged soldier, to amateur sleuth, to professional criminalist albeit in a small and underfunded rural Ozark sheriff s department AR no punctuation was born in Chicago, but his roots run four generations deep in Missouri Ozark soil He uses the area s culture, language, and small town s to tell stories both quaintly old fashioned and as timely as the worst of today s headlines Blue Creek is Everytown , and Richard is an Everyman who learns, that Man is positively inclined to evil Other books in the series The Richard Carter Novels 1 10 of 12 books
[AZW] Bonne Femme º A.R. Simmons
A.R. Simmons
About Author
AR Simmons writes The Richard Carter Mystery Suspense series Obsession drives each of his monsters, and monsters they are PTSD and OCD drive Richard himself as he evolves from a damaged soldier, to amateur sleuth, to professional criminalist albeit in a small and underfunded rural Ozark sheriff s department AR no punctuation was born in Chicago, but his roots run four generations deep in Miss AR Simmons writes The Richard Carter Mystery Suspense series Obsession drives each of his monsters, and monsters they are PTSD and OCD drive Richard himself as he evolves from a damaged soldier, to amateur sleuth, to professional criminalist albeit in a small and underfunded rural Ozark sheriff s department AR no punctuation was born in Chicago, but his roots run four generations deep in Missouri Ozark soil He uses the area s culture, language, and small town s to tell stories both quaintly old fashioned and as timely as the worst of today s headlines Blue Creek is Everytown , and Richard is an Everyman who learns, that Man is positively inclined to evil
A.R. Simmons
says: