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56th out of 402 books
—
1,491 voters
This Time You Lose
by
Chris Stralyn (Goodreads Author)
What would you do if street thugs invaded your home? What if you’re a daycare provider, caring for a dozen children at the time? Lisa Kaamp, a most unlikely heroine, faces just such a nightmare in This Time You Lose, the suspense driven story of one woman’s struggle to survive when she and the children she cares for become victims of a home invasion gone terribly wrong.
Li...more
Li...more
Paperback, 294 pages
Published
October 8th 2011
by Createspace
(first published 2011)
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FIRST READS GIVEAWAY: This spark-plug of a novel had me up late reading under the covers. The dialouge is quick and snappy, the setting clostrophobic and tense, the writing style uses an economy of words that I admire yet the prose is finely tuned. Tense, exciting and rendered with style and panache, Stralyn is an author I will be following in the future.
Great read, I was rooting for her the whole way. It's a little graphic in places, but I do feel it needed to be. I enjoyed this.
"This Time You Lose" by Chris Stralyn is one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time, both in concept and in plot. Imagine you spend a night living out your worst nightmare when four men invade your home, do the unthinkable to you, and have no plans to leave. Then imagine you wake up the next morning to find that the situation has actually gotten worse.
That's what happened to Lisa when her husband and son go out of town. She wakes up after a night of torture to find that the four men are...more
That's what happened to Lisa when her husband and son go out of town. She wakes up after a night of torture to find that the four men are...more
Nov 26, 2011
Rachel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of the movie Alpha Dog & Melissa George's character in The Betrayed
Wow! This story takes off with a bang as you basically wake up alongside Lisa and are instantly thrust into her living nightmare. The tension is there throughout the entire book and it has the feel of watching some horrible hostage situation unfold on the news before your very eyes. This book actually gave me goosebumps at times! I was definitely on the edge of my seat, biting my finger nails. I admit I even had to walk away from it a couple of times because it got so uncomfortable as I felt the...more
4 likes · like · see review
A lot of authors published the traditional way through publishing houses seem to believe that us self-publishers are somehow less than them. In some cases, they're right. But it goes both ways.
In this case, Chris Stralyn is far beyond many big-name authors.
Lisa, a well-respected and well-loved daycare provider, finally gets a weekend alone when her husband, a police officer, takes their son fishing. She plans to catch up on her reading and enjoy the quiet, but plans change when a gang of men, le...more
In this case, Chris Stralyn is far beyond many big-name authors.
Lisa, a well-respected and well-loved daycare provider, finally gets a weekend alone when her husband, a police officer, takes their son fishing. She plans to catch up on her reading and enjoy the quiet, but plans change when a gang of men, le...more
This book popped up on my recommended reads on amazon and I didn't really expect anything of it so thought i'll read the sample and see what it's like. OMG best decision i've made in ages once i started reading that sample i bought the book straight away. I haven't read a crime thriller so well written in a long time. To be honest I had actually got a little bored of the genre but this book yanked me back in so fast I never found my feet. It was fast paced but didn't scrimp on details once, I co...more
Mar 02, 2012
MobileMinx
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
suspense seekers
Recommended to MobileMinx by:
Bookplex
Shelves:
bookplex-giveaways
** I won this book from a Bookplex giveaway **
This Time You Lose is the perfect choice for a suspense seeker. If you want to have a tense, tight and terror filled read from practically the first page to the last, you've found the right book.
The story relates the occurrences, over a day, in the life of child care provider Lisa Kaamp. She is accompanied by many supporting characters and one seriously sadistic antagonist. It is difficult to discuss my experience of this story without revealing key...more
This Time You Lose is the perfect choice for a suspense seeker. If you want to have a tense, tight and terror filled read from practically the first page to the last, you've found the right book.
The story relates the occurrences, over a day, in the life of child care provider Lisa Kaamp. She is accompanied by many supporting characters and one seriously sadistic antagonist. It is difficult to discuss my experience of this story without revealing key...more
Very rarely do I give out five stars to a book. For me four usually signifies it was a favorite. However, This Time You Lose definitely deserves top marks. I could not stop reading. From the first page I was hooked.
It has everything an avid thriller fan may want in a book: tension, suspense, twists and a fast pace. The characters were believable, quirks and all. I could easily envision the scenes. The bad guys ranged from pure evil who you just wished would die quickly to ones who got caught up...more
It has everything an avid thriller fan may want in a book: tension, suspense, twists and a fast pace. The characters were believable, quirks and all. I could easily envision the scenes. The bad guys ranged from pure evil who you just wished would die quickly to ones who got caught up...more
An exciting page turner. Although from the beginning you expect there to be some mystery involved, in reality, this is a story of survival. The characters (adults and children) are incredibly well written. The tension of the hostage situation is non-stop and there were many times when I thought things were going to go one way and went another. There were no slow sections to this book, and as it's a little on the short side, I read it over the course of only two days.
I am not a parent, or a care...more
I am not a parent, or a care...more
This review is also published in my blog below:
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...
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Note: This is a book review based on a free copy from the author. Many thanks go to the author for this generosity.
There aren't many thrillers which I enjoyed, and Stralyn's This Time You Lose immediately becomes one of them when I started reading it. The sense of danger exuding from the pages are more real than Dan Brown's or Michael Crichton's...more
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...
------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This is a book review based on a free copy from the author. Many thanks go to the author for this generosity.
There aren't many thrillers which I enjoyed, and Stralyn's This Time You Lose immediately becomes one of them when I started reading it. The sense of danger exuding from the pages are more real than Dan Brown's or Michael Crichton's...more
The story, which covers approximately 8 to 10 hours in real time, begins as Lisa Kaamp awakens to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the realization she is being held hostage by four strange men. As the horror from the night before comes into focus, Lisa struggles to free herself and soon learns that the children who attend her in-home daycare, along with several of the parents, are being held hostage as well.
This Time You Lose, by Chris Stralyn, is a well-written, fast-paced read that wil...more
This Time You Lose, by Chris Stralyn, is a well-written, fast-paced read that wil...more
“Shut up!” I yelled. My 16 year old daughter has brain chatter, so normally I might have gave her a look, or expressed an exasperate sigh, because she had already asked me a half dozen questions all within the span of having read about two sentences. We busted up laughing. Through the whole book, “This Time You Lose,” by Chris Strlyn my daughter had been unusually quiet, but now, the tension of the climax made her mind shove back to take a break. She had stopped doing dishes and was sitting on t...more
From page one I was engrossed in the storyline in This Time You Lose! Imagine being awakened from a sound sleep to be eye to eye with not one but four intruders. After being attacked and brutalized it doesn't register until it's too late that the children in your at-home daycare have arrived. Now instead of a terrible home invasion, there's a hostage situation that is terribly out of hand!
Author Chris Stralyn does a great job making the reader feel as if he/she is right alongside Lisa as she str...more
Author Chris Stralyn does a great job making the reader feel as if he/she is right alongside Lisa as she str...more
Can there be anything more terrifying than shooting awake in the dead of night to find a group of armed intruders in your home? Imagine then that you have a dozen children in the house along with you—children who have been entrusted to your care. This is precisely the nightmare Lisa Kaant is plunged into in this gripping debut.
This Time You Lose is a tension-filled novel packed with action and emotion, which had me biting my nails the whole way through. More than that, however, it’s the story of...more
This Time You Lose is a tension-filled novel packed with action and emotion, which had me biting my nails the whole way through. More than that, however, it’s the story of...more
Wow!
I was hooked from the first page.
I read this in one sitting. I couldn't put it down!
I was hooked from the first page.
I read this in one sitting. I couldn't put it down!
1 like · like · see review
I felt as if I'd held my breath while reading this story until the very end - phew - not being sure what was going to happen next. It was certainly fast-paced, filled to the brim with action and extremely well-written. I also thought it was a wonderful exploration of what constitutes as evil - and Lisa found it in spades.
That's all I will say about the plot, I don't give spoilers, but if you like suspense and to sprint along with the characters at a an amazing pace, then you'll love this tale of...more
That's all I will say about the plot, I don't give spoilers, but if you like suspense and to sprint along with the characters at a an amazing pace, then you'll love this tale of...more
This book was excellent -- intense -- but excellent. From the first moment your heart is racing and you are wondering what will happen next. I think one of the things that makes it so compelling is that you can really picture it happening ... it is not so far fetched that you think, "well, this would never happen to me." Then you wonder, would I be as strong as Lisa was in the same situation. Bottom line, I read the book in two days ... would have read it in one if work demands had been differen...more
Great story! Keeps you wondering how in the world hostages can save themselves from their kidnappers and how exactly the police can make a move without threatening the lives of the innocent. I loved how the beginning of the book isn't wasted on long introductions of characters, we start out with the main plot itself. Through short paragraphs we get a point of view of a few of the hostages and how they come to be at the day care. The heroine is amazing. Although she is known to be quiet and shy,...more
1 like · like · see review
Daycare owner, Lisa, wakes up in her bed to discover that she’s been the victim of a home invasion the night before, and the four men who attacked her are still downstairs – along with a dozen children and the parents who unwittingly delivered themselves into the hands of the thugs as they tried to drop off their little darlings to Lisa.
I read that “This Time You Lose” was named a finalist in the TNBW Strongest Start Novel Competition and I say, “Well earned,” but after the story cycled through...more
I read that “This Time You Lose” was named a finalist in the TNBW Strongest Start Novel Competition and I say, “Well earned,” but after the story cycled through...more
This Time You Lose is an awesome thriller. I read it non-stop. It sure kept me on the edge of my seat. The whole story was very good. This book is well written. The sad truth behind this story is that it could happen. What would you do? Lisa is definitely a woman to learn from. She grew as the story unfolded. Her love for the kids and devotion were evident. I love the way she held her own and stood up for herself and the others. I highly recommend this book. You won't be disappointed.
There's no lengthy introductions in this book. I love that as soon as I started reading, the problem has arise and that I have to keep reading what happened that led to the situation. I personally like this book and this is different from the rest of the thriller books I have. I like how the writer decided to write this book the way it is. I definitely will read more from the author.
The entire book except for the epilogue takes place in one day. But what a day! The reader is catapulted into a dangerous hostage situation and feels the fear and the suspense, wondering how this can possibly end any way but tragically. The bad guys talk like bad guys, but the profanity was integral to the characters and not used frivolously.
I downloaded this book because it was free, and I was curious to try a new author. Wow! About sums it up. A page turning thriller that has the reader on the edge of their seat, eyes wide, heart pounding, as they can't turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens. I will definitely read more books by this author.
A very well written novel that kept my reading into the night. The characters were well written along with the story line. The situation to very well happen to anyone.
Lisa Kaamp runs a successful inviting day care center. All that changes one day when the kids, their parents and her are taken hostage in her home. The story is written around their nightmare and what they try to do to save themselves from the nightmare.
Chris Stralyn writes a very believeable story line and you will fall inlove wi...more
Lisa Kaamp runs a successful inviting day care center. All that changes one day when the kids, their parents and her are taken hostage in her home. The story is written around their nightmare and what they try to do to save themselves from the nightmare.
Chris Stralyn writes a very believeable story line and you will fall inlove wi...more
Fell in love with this book at first sight, BRILLANT cover art! I'm thinking of ordering 2 more (: before Christmas and I am now a fan of Strayln's novels. I truly hope theres more to come from this author! Even the website for This time you lose is amazing. I have to give a donation and a gift to Chris Stralyn.
Thank you
Thank you
Very good, but very violent. Not for everyone. Would be robbers hold a woman and the children who attend her daycare hostage along with several of their parents. There is violence directed at women and children, but if you can handle that .. it's a very fast paced read with an exciting story.
This book was excellent. This story had me on edge waiting to see what would happen next. I admire the character Lisa, her strength is very admirable. No matter how much beatings she took, she kept right going. Not a lot of people have that strength, woman or man.
Oct 28, 2012
Stacey
added it
Really enjoyed this book,would have preferred it to be longer because I'd gotten so involved with the characters that I just wanted to read more and ended too quick for my liking.
Brilliant storyline and great characters, old and young.
Brilliant storyline and great characters, old and young.
Great book! So easy to read. I felt that the pages flowed together so well I couldn't put the book down. I hadn't read a book like this before and was absolutely I intrigued by every little detail. This is definitely a must read.
Great book. I would actually rate it about 4.5 stars. Hard hitting and full of action from start to finish. A great "fake out" at the end that sure fooled me. Just the right length; tells the story with no fluff.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basically Books!: ARR # 52 - THIS TIME YOU LOSE by Chris Stralyn | 11 | 75 | Oct 21, 2012 07:37am | |
| Goodreads Authors...: Thank You for your Support! | 2 | 120 | Jun 23, 2012 11:23am | |
| Tips for Self Pro...: 12 Days of Christmas Sale! | 1 | 5 | Dec 14, 2011 04:23am | |
| Giveaway | 1 | 7 | Nov 22, 2011 01:22am |
Chris Stralyn never intended to be a writer. Short-order cook, security guard, safety officer, childcare provider, and teacher were all titles she'd worn - but never writer. Then she entered an essay contest for "The Worst Vacation Ever" and won.
Writing became her new hobby, and soon she had several articles in print with local publications. This was followed by a short story, The Khaki Pants, wh...more
More about Chris Stralyn...
Writing became her new hobby, and soon she had several articles in print with local publications. This was followed by a short story, The Khaki Pants, wh...more
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Nov 29, 2011 04:24am