I really enjoyed this book. Great pacing, interesting characters - the development of Monte in particular was very well done. My partner grew up as the child of State Department employees so it was fun to get her take on some of the descriptions of growing up in that environment. Definitely recommend!

Whoa! Talk about an amazing action-packed story! The Far Side Of The Desert by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is riveting! Once you start, you won't be able to stop reading for anything. I grabbed a huge cuppa and dove right in. I didn't put my copy down once. I mean it, this book will grab you right from the first page and won't let go. It's that damn good.

Two sisters vacationing in Spain get separated during a terrorist attack. One gets kidnapped and brutally abused, while the other one searches high and low to find her. It's heartbreaking, frustrating, and maddening. Alongside this family's nightmare, we get politics, spies, smuggling, and terrorists - all of which make for quite a tense and thrilling read. And, that is all I will share about this story - you have to read it for yourself to find out what happens. It's a must-read! Make sure to get your hands on a copy of The Far Side Of The Desert by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman - you won't want to miss out on this one!



Thank you to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

This action-adventure story kept me reading. With its fast pace and a lot going on in it, I was reading as fast as I could just to keep up, some parts are hard to read due to the happenings in the story. Terror is not an easy subject to read. All in all, It is a nice premise that gives us a story about personal growth and a story about region and culture.

Attending a festival in Spain, Monte and her sister are awaiting the arrival of their brother when several bombs explode. Samantha is a television correspondent and she rushes to file her story. Monte is a foreign service officer. In the confusion she is kidnapped and transported to a camp somewhere in the Sahara. Joanne Leedom-Ackerman’s story alternates between Samantha’s desperate search for her sister and Monte’s brutal treatment in harsh conditions. Time passes and no ransom request is ever received. Safir, Monte’s kidnapper, believed that she would not be held for several weeks. As the months pass he realizes that she will never be released alive and he helps her escape. When she is returned to her family it is difficult to adjust to life as it was. There are also secrets that she is keeping from everyone. Rumors hint at an imminent terrorist attack by the people who held Monte. From Spain to Morocco and finally the Rock of Gibraltar it is a thriller involving finances, smuggling and espionage, but there is also a strong family element. There are some tense moments, but after Monte’s return the story wanders a bit. Some of the scenes during her captivity are disturbing. It was, however a good premise with some interesting characters. I would like to thank Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley or providing this book for my review.

This book grabbed my attention right away and held it throughout the story. Sisters Sam and Monte are on vacation in Spain. They’re attending a festival when terrorist attacks happen. The sisters are separated and Sam eventually realizes that Monte is gone, but what happened to her? The rest of the book describes Monte’s kidnapping, her struggle to get back to her family and how she copes with everything that has happened. This was a fast read for me and I was engrossed in the story completely. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Far Side of the Desert was an interesting idea with a less than interesting execution. The writing seems to be in rough draft form. It is sometimes entertaining and sometimes preachy. I had to push myself through this book. I was expecting an exciting thriller. It didn't keep up the pace enough to be satisfying.

American author Joanne Leedom-Ackerman's latest novel, The Far Side of the Desert (2024) is another international spy thriller. Two sisters, Samantha and Monte Waters are holidaying in Spain and expecting to meet their brother, as their busy professional lives leave little time for catch-ups. A terrorist attack rocks the city and the sisters are separated, leading to a frantic search. As the months pass, with no sightings or ransom demands, Monte (an American foreign service officer), endures kidnapping, being held captive in the desert and suffering horrific abuse (content warning for graphic descriptions and potential triggering). An ambitious thriller with international terror and the personal consequences thereof are played out against a variety of locations including Washington, Gibraltar, Morocco and the Sahara desert. More a family-focused tale than a spy thriller that fails to deliver sufficient tension and is a three stars read rating. With thanks to Oceanview Publishing and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

2.5 rounded to three.

Some lovely passages, mixed with prose that edges toward preachy. I enjoyed the opening, specifically the festival, but once Monte got captured, things steadily went downhill from there. I think the blurb was misleading, but anyway, especially with today's news, I did not really enjoy an emotionally brutalizing read leading to Stockholm Syndrome and then an ending that was pretty much all over the place. Others may find it more enjoyable.

I tried very hard to like this. I have been to Santiago de Compostela, so when I saw that was the setting for this book, I was quite intrigued. I could very easily visualize what was happening during the fiesta. The book had me engaged up until Monte returned home. Then it felt like the writing was all over the place and I just lost interest. I set the book aside with the intent on trying again in a few days but when I realized I just didn't care about what happened I decided to declare it a "Did Not Finish."

I received a digital ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publisher

This is a messy story, if it can be called a story at all. The prose isn't any good, either, so not an entertaining book.

The Far Side of the Desert by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman. I was intrigued by the story description and thought it may be a sort of espionage related thriller. And while there minor elements in that regard it was really a story about a woman being kidnapped and held hostage. Her inhumane treatment and the struggles her family suffer in trying to find and rescue her. The writing is fine but was not I had been expeting.

A family comes together. A terrorist attack and one disappears. Despite searching no one can find her. Then she returns but there is more to this. Enjoyed this from start to finish would recommend.

When a kidnapping by terrorists make the new we are appalled. Yet the news cycle changes and we forget about the captives. This book gives a close look at the fallout of a kidnapping. Family is affected, her children thrown into chaos of the unknown. Then there are the siblings that are in a position to dig into the details and hunt for her. The book is full of details of her life and the siblings searching for her. Then what happens to the terrorists. It saddens me to think people out in our world are that evil. I was engrossed in the story. Well done!

The Far Side of the Desert by Joanne Ledom-Ackerman. From the moment Monte recognized that she was the person targeted to be captured and held as a hostage to the very last page of the story I loved and cheered for Monte. I hoped she’d be rescued and find her way home to her children. This is a wonderful, although pain-filled story. It’s definitely a reading experience not to be missed.

Enjoyable, and believable page-turner about a US diplomat who is kidnapped in Spain, and taken to somewhere in the Sahara. Her treatment is not good, but she survives. The chapters alternate between her experiences, and those of her family who use their extensive resources, but to no avail.

The characters and locations are both realistic and engaging; and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading.

With thanks to NetGalley and Oceanview for an ARC.

While visiting Spain for the annual festival in Santiago de Compostela with her brother and sister, Monte is kidnapped and held hostage somewhere in the remotest part of the desert. She is repeatedly abused and raped until her abductor comes to her rescue, treating her as a fellow human and not an object. Although it took me a while to get into the story I was captivated by the end of part one and couldn’t wait to read the rest. Then as part two started Monte had escaped and was living in the United States. I felt cheated. It felt like a major part of the story had been skipped entirely. The story did pick up again, however, and kept my interest until the end, with some of the missing pieces filled in. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

The premise of this book sounded SO intriguing for me, unfortunately it fell really flat for me. The writing itself wasn't at all compelling and didn't allow me to connect to the characters at all. The story itself was fine, I just felt like it was a project trying to work through this book.

terrorism, international-crime-and-mystery, money-laundering, correspondent, siblings, sisters, abduction, drug-trafficking, drugged, arms-trafficking, torture, terrorists, multiple-murder, hostages, Arab-world-view, Arabic-culture***

Interesting premise and writing, but only a little worse than life on some streets in the world. Definitely not an escape from the realities of the day.
I requested and received an EARC from Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley.

This is the story of a woman taken hostage in the desert, leaving behind her husband, children and her sister and brother who searched for her. This is the story of the aftermath of that, it is both a story of personal growth and purpose and a story of a region , riddled with drugs, crimes and the relationship to various terrorist groups, some of the historical, mythical and political stuff was less interesting to me and at times , felt like more than I wanted but if you are interested in Arabic culture, you will enjoy it.

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.