Although Holding Me Here is not Conrad's best novel, it nevertheless displays her virtuosity as an author. In addition to her gift for creating highly individualized characters, she also is a superb storyteller. All of her novels are characterized by fast-paced, action-filled plots that build power as they speed to their climax. Holding Me Here is no exception.

Organized as a flashback, the novel opens with Robin's musing over the traumatic events that occurred in an unidentified November and December and what she learned from them: "Who ever said life was simple? Not me. Not anymore, that's for sure." Immediately, the reader is hooked and jumps on the roller-coaster narrative that cuts back in time for a chronological unfolding of the events Robin has so cryptically alluded to in the opening paragraph of the novel. The plot of Holding Me Here covers only two months in...