Here I Stay

by Barbara Michaels

Book Overview

Here I Stay is another example of the spine-tingling yet charming talent of Barbara Michaels--released to coincide with the November publication of Michaels' Search the Shadows. Subtle, comprehensive,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061007269
• ISBN13: 9780061007262
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 339 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Michaels in high gear

"Here I Stay" is an example of gifted suspense writer Michaels at the top of her form. Part Gothic thriller, part psychological novel, in "Here I Stay" Michaels displays her easy mastery of vivid imagery and provocative character insights. The reader will be drawn in immediately, and the unusual tale satisfies from beginning to end. Highly recommended, good to curl up with on a cold winter's night, or to read on the hammock on a summer afternoon.

I've loved this novel for years ...

I read it at least once a year. I love the story, the atmosphere, and the characters--including Andrea, the main character. Many reviewers here have found her off-putting, and she certainly is at first. She's selfish, opinionated and abrasive, not to put too fine a point on it. But she evolves. The sharp tongue doesn't completely go away, but she softens--love for Martin softens her, and although she doesn't submit to it willingly, it happens all the same. There's a haunting incident at the end in which she recognizes and repudiates the way she's tried to control Jim (her brother), has tried to clip his wings, metaphorically speaking. It sickens her, and she draws back from it. Her personal growth is one of the reasons I like this book so much.

If you like ghost stories this one is for you

I have read this book three or four times, and each time I read it I enjoy it even more, this is one of those novels where the world that Ms. Micheals creates is one that you don't want to leave. It made me wish she had written another novel with these characters.

100% Enjoyable

Like all Barbara Michaels' novels, Here I Stay is a superb book. I couldn't put it down. Michaels recreates the atmosphere of a country inn in a small town with consummate skill, and the characters are cleverly drawn. If you've read this author's works before, you know that she relies on certain formulas, and most of them are again in evidence here. So what! They are formulas that work, and Michael's tale is, as always, intelligently written. Be forewarned: the heroine of this particular novel is bitter, extremely unlikable, and astonishingly old-ladyish for 31. Nevertheless, that doesn't stop her from being believable, and it shouldn't put you off from this wonderful, suspenseful book.