The Unknown Daughter

by Anna DeStefano

The Unknown Daughter by Anna DeStefano released on Sep 24, 2004 is available now for purchase. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373712340
• ISBN13: 9780373712342
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Harlequin Special Releases
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Fresh treatment by debut author

Carrinne Wilmington needs a liver donor to save her life. But her only known blood relative is her sixteen-year-old daughter, Maggie, and she refuses to allow Maggie to risk her life. There is one other possibility--Carrinne's father, whose identity she never knew. So Carrinne returns to her hometown of Oakwood, Georgia, to retrieve her mother's diary, in which she is sure her father's name must appear. Oakwood holds many unhappy memories for Carinne, and she hopes to not have to deal with them. But one of those memories--former bad boy, now Sheriff Eric Rivers--catches her trying to break into her grandfather's mansion. Eric doesn't know he has a daughter, because back when she was conceived, he broke up with Carinne declaring he wanted no responsibilities. The secret-baby plot is a familiar one, but Ms. DeStefano gives it a fresh treatment. Rather than milk the central conflict until it's been sucked dry, she blends it with other conflicts--with Carinne's ambivalent feelings for her dying grandfather, her daughter's rebellion, and the complex emotions regarding Carinne's own mystery father. All of the different forces bombarding Carrinne make what could have been a predictable story leap off the page with freshness and originality. This is Ms. DeStefano's debut novel, and I look forward to more from this author.

Flawed but still good

For a first time author-this was admittedly a good book. The writer's writing style is smooth and entertaining. I do recommend this book, however, be prepared for a high unbelivable factor in the story. A Sheriff department who can obtain financial records of everyone close to or associated to the heroine without warrants is laughable, same goes for obtaining cell phone records. He didn't even know her cell number or her provider but presto he has the records faster than any city cop could get them. A small town hospital with surviellance cameras-not likely and I live and know of a lot of small Georgia towns. But when it comes to dealing with emotional angst and emotional tension-yeah the book is dead on. It's just the investigational stuff that kept jarring me out of the story.

Moving tale of loss...and rediscovery!

Carrinne Wilmington left home seventeen years ago. She left behind her family, the boy she loved. She left with a secret. Now she's back, determined to find an answer to the old question...who was her father? As she searches she discovers more than just that truth...she rediscovers a love that never really died. And is forced to admit some truths of her own. Anna DeStefano's first book is an amazing story of long buried hurts and of newfound understanding, of forgiveness and second-chances.

entertaining contemporary romance

Though her memories are bad, Carrinne Wilmington must return to Oakwood, Georgia to learn the identity of her father because she needs him for the transplant. Her plan is to avoid her grandfather and the man she loves Eric Rivers who both rejected her and drove her from town. Besides not wanting to see the two gentlemen who rebuffed her, she wants to hide her teenage daughter Maggie from the duo especially Sheriff Rivers, the father. Carrinne's effort to sneak in without detection fails from her first effort to get in and out as she is caught by a silent alarm and Eric. Worse someone wants the secret identity of her father left secret and is willing to kill the nosy Carrinne to accomplish this deed. Carrinne must give up on her quest, take her chance on surviving a killer, or rely on Eric to keep her safe although she does not trust the man she disappointingly still loves. This entertaining contemporary romance is a five tissue box tale filled with angst and perhaps too much tear jerking yet fans will want even more. The cast keeps the tale from going over the edge into soap opera city as Eric sees a second chance, Carrinne and her grandfather has an opportunity, and then there is magnificent Maggie, perhaps older than her teen years suggest. Readers will appreciate Anna DeStefano's debut except perhaps tree lovers as an awful lot of tissues will be used. Harriet Klausner