This was not what I expected, but it was a very good read. One wonders why Monte was so willing to trust the promises of a stranger that he was the person that could keep her safe, but other than that it was a very credible story. The grief of the family was well developed as was Samantha's obsession about finding her sister. I was impressed by the way Monte dealt with her kidnapping and her growth in understanding the relationships she had with her family. I highly recommend this one. I received this as an arc from NetGalley and am under no pressure for a positive review.

The Far Side of the Desert by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is an excellent novel of international crime, terrorism, gun running and financial manipulations. This is a first time author for the blog. Monte and Samantha are sisters who were essentially been brought up internationally as their father pursued his various job in a US government position. They also have an older brother, Cal, and they were all getting together for a city festival in Spain, a town where they had all once lived. The three of them had continued a life of government service and/or journalism that kept them all traveling abroad, so they did not actually see one another very often. However, at the height of the festival celebration, terrorists attacked and killed 23 people, and Monte was kidnapped.

The main man of mystery in this was Safir Brahim, who led the team of people that took Monte into hiding deep into the Western Sahara, which lies on the Atlantic Ocean, wedged between Morocco and Mauritania. Safir had grown up in Spain where he was known as Stephen Carlos Oroya. He worked in the world of secret international finance, and he was trying to get information about a leading terrorist known as the Elder, an experienced fighter, but also a man who had hidden a huge fortune.

The hunt for Monte is intense across three continents, but the significant family resources to find her came up empty. Her ultimate rescue looked progressively more unlikely. Meanwhile, she was badly treated in captivity and became pregnant, but she could not be certain who the father was. That should be enough to get you interested. This is a book that gets my recommendation.

Great premise and started off strong. There's a lot going on and the writing style didn't work for me at all. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

This reader found the book to have an intriguing start with 2 sisters and a brother meeting in Spain for a celebration of a festival. One of the sisters mysteriously disappears and is thought to be the victim of a kidnapping although no ransom request is forthcoming. There is a lot going on in this novel —. drugs, arms trafficking, rape, murders and terrorists. The action continuously switches from an unspecified desert locale to Morocco to Washington D.C. to Gibraltar. It is all very confusing and not particularly interesting — especially with prose such as “…had lost the oxygen between them.”
Although I cannot recommend this book, I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel prior to publication.