THE REVENGE OF THE SISTERHOOD BOOK 13: UNDER THE RADAR
Fern Michaels
Performed by Laural Merlington
ISBN: 9781441816948
9781420106831 (Mass Market Paperback)
October 1, 2009 (Unabridged Audio Book)
June 1, 2009 (Mass Market Paperback)
Kensington Publishing/Zebra Books/Brilliance Audio
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Mass Market Paperback and Unabridged Audio Book

The seven women making up the Sisterhood have just returned to their mountain command center when their chief coordinator, Charles Martin, and mentor, Myra Rutledge, are called away in the middle of the night for a family emergency. Shortly after they leave, the Sisters receive a phone call from former judge Pearl Barnes who has just happened across a stranded bus full of pregnant teens. As it turns out, these girls are part of a polygamist sect. The Sisters step in to aid in rescuing the teens and plot to take down the leader of their sect in a scandal ripped from today’s headlines. It will take everything they have to handle this case, especially with the head of their operation incommunicado.

I liked the premise of Under the Radar and it started out in typical Sisterhood style with a little bit of fluff, several empowered females and adventure to spare. However, once the Sisterhood gets to the compound, everything falls apart. I have a whole laundry list of issues with the book, which can only be presented in atypical style for me.

1. It’s camouflage!” not “speckled suits.” I find it extremely hard to believe that a presumably intelligent man (a lawyer or reporter – I forget who it was in that scene) in his 30s (what I’m estimating the age) would have never heard of camouflage and not know what to call it.

2. I was highly offended by the derogatory impression given of the National Guard in Under the Radar. The characters referred to them as “pretend soldiers” who never do anything, are all overweight and women who put on makeup with a trowel. What is this… propaganda? I almost quit the book right then and there.

3. If one more character snarled or gave an evil laugh or an evil smile, I think I would have screamed! Not to mention all the “love of his (her) lifes” used throughout the novel.

4. I was appalled at the way the Sisters treated the women in the cult compound. The women in the compound have lived there for their entire lives and were subject to such severe brain washing and emotional abuse that they didn’t know how to respond any other way than they did. Yet the Sisters kept calling them stupid, calling them other names, insulting them, and physically abusing the women for living the only life they knew how to live. The women in the compound truly did not know that what they were doing was wrong. That was all they’d ever known. They have never lived outside the compound so they had no way of realizing that their way of life was so horrible and what they were doing was so terribly wrong. Yes it was wrong, I don’t ever condone that type of behavior. However people subject to that kind of torture would have absolutely no idea of that. To have the “heroines” treating them so abusively actually disgusted me. I don’t care if the book is fiction or not. The Sisters’ behavior was anything BUT heroic in the second half of the book and I was repulsed.

5. Can someone explain to me how someone who has never driven an 18-wheeler in their life would be able to climb up into the cab, with a full trailer attached and just drive? There’s no way they’d be able to steer and maneuver it properly to get it where they wanted it on the first try. Impossible

6. Enough about the pumpkins already! There was absolutely no need to keep talking about the blasted pumpkins and have them as a part of the “plan.” I was so sick of hearing about them that if I had read Under the Radar at Halloween time, I’d not even be able to stand seeing them in the stores I was so sick of hearing about them!

I was so turned off by Under the Radar I don’t know as I even want to continue in the Revenge of the Sisterhood series after this one. I’m sorry Fern Michaels but this book was so far below standard for you, it should never have been published like this! If this is the future of the series, then it is best ended right now.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, March 2010. All rights reserved.

Reviewed By:

I have been reviewing since 2001 and got started on it completely by accident. That accident turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I discovered a hobby I thoroughly enjoy and an outlet for my opinions about the books I love... or love to hate. Now I don't think I'll ever stop! I live in the DFW area with my three "children" of the four-footed and furry variety, Sheba, Aker, and Amun, affectionately known as cats. I work as an environmental contractor for the Army Reserves, a job I've had since 1997 in which there is never a dull moment and no two days are the same.

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