The Most Wanted - Softcover

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000651118X ISBN 13: 9780006511182

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

A naive teenage girl in south Texas falls in love with her prison pen pal. The object of her affection--a charming, dangerously handsome young felon who romances her through his letters to her. After a love affair that defies all conventions, they marry and have a child while the father is still imprisoned. But when he escapes prison to claim his wife and child, what started as a passionate romance turns into a terrifying ordeal of obsession and desire. The young girls only hope is a fiercely dedicated public aid lawyer who is more of a mother figure than the girl has ever known, and the only one who can avert disaster for mother and child!

About this title

Review:

Arley Mowbray is a drop-dead gorgeous 14-year-old, who, with her long, muscular frame and mature, collected manner could easily pass for 18. And pass she does. On a dare from her outspoken best friend, Elena Gutierrez, Arley writes to convict Dillon LeGrande in prison and convinces him she's a college student (though she hasn't made it out of junior high). Therein begins an ill-fated love story that myths are made of and men die for--except that's not what Dillon has in mind. Living in south Texas in a poor Tex-Mex community, Arley dreams of a less provincial life and secretly begins a love affair with Dillon via correspondence, which produces a flurry of poetry and achy-breaky love songs. Against the wishes of family and friends, Arley weds her amour, who promptly fathers her child, breaks out of prison, and mysteriously disappears. Fortunately for Arley, she has found a guardian angel in the form of Annie Singer, a straight-talking public defender from New York. Annie becomes the mother Arley never had, protecting her from Dillon and a love-starved home. Despite the strength of their bond, both underestimate Dillon's determination to get his child, no matter the cost. Jacquelyn Mitchard's first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first to receive Oprah's benediction, instantly making it a bestseller and thrusting Mitchard into the halls of literary stardom. Oprah's picks tend to stay within the thematic boundaries of overcoming dysfunction, harping on the nitty-gritty details of abuse. However, The Most Wanted boldly strides away from this and examines the many dimensions of motherhood, realistically depicting the ties that bind women, while supporting beyond debate that, yes, good girls do fall for bad boys. --Rebekah Warren

About the Author:

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of the bestselling novel The Deep End of the Ocean and of two nonfiction books, including Mother Less Child: The Love Story of a Family. She has been featured on NBC?s Today Show and CBS This Morning, and has been profiled in such national publications as People and Newsweek. A contributing editor to Ladies? Home Journal, Mitchard and her five children live in Madison, Wisconsin.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 000651118X
• ISBN 13: 9780006511182
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 418