Desperate Journey

by Julie Ellis

Caren met Marty, an Iranian, at college. Young and idealistic, they fell in love. But when family duty recalls Marty to Tehran, he starts to change. Gradually, he turns into a tyrant. Imprisoned in a loveless marriage, in a society hostile to Western women, Caren flees. Together, she and son Danny escape to the States, where she hopes to rebuild her life, and create a loving home for Danny provided Marty cannot track her . . .

214 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

From the inside cover of the Kappa Books edition of Eden:

Julie Ellis was born in Columbus, Georgia. She moved to New York at age 16 with her parents, after her high school graduation. Julie studied drama, and was part of the mid-'50s Off-Broadway scene as actress/playwright/co-producer. Seven of her plays were produced Off-Broadway and presented on the summer hotel/bungalow colony circuits. She wrote 76 sides of children's records (hitting BILLBOARD'S Bestseller List). Her first paperback novel was published in 1960 and between 1960 and 1974 she wrote 143 contemporary, gothic, romantic suspense novels and 3 non-fiction titles that were published by major paperback houses.

Julie has written one hardcover/softcover bestseller per year (a number of early paperback originals now being re-published in hardcover in the United Kingdom). Ellis is published in thirteen countries. A favorite among library readers across the country, Julie regularly appears on LIBRARY JOURNAL'S "Pre-publication Bestseller Lists." In 1993 she made the United Kingdom's Registrar of Public Lending Rights List of the most-read authors in the United Kingdom Library System (minimum of 300,000 loans per author).

A single mother since 1972 (first separated, then widowed), Julie considers her major productions her daughter Susan and her son Richard. Julie is a passionate environmentalist whose convictions appear regularly in her novels (the devastation of our Northwest forests in LOYALTIES, the unnecessary deaths caused by the tobacco industry in LASTING TREASURES, gun control in COMMITMENT). Julie is a vegetarian with occasional lapses due to social circumstances. She alternates between her Manhattan apartment and beach house in Montauk.

Reviews

[JM Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read and believable subject matter.

[Lucy Appadoo]

I enjoyed this book as it outlined the terrorising life of a woman married to a dominant middle eastern man, with no freedoms of her own. In the end, she left her husband with her son for the USA where she was originally from. Romance develops but all with the fear of whether her husband will locate her whereabouts, and potentially kidnap her son. It's engaging and the characters are interesting. It's well worth a read.

[Tyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't know what to say about it. It was the kind of book that would make a great airplane book. It held my interest but I was embarrassed to be reading it at the same time. I knew pretty much how the book would end and sure enough, I was right.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story.