Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Standing Still: A Novel
    Standing Still: A Novel
    Standing Still: A Novel
    Ebook292 pages3 hours

    Standing Still: A Novel

    By Kelly Simmons

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Journalist and suburban mom Claire Cooper suffers from panic disorder. Most of her anxieties seem irrational, nothing that can't be fixed with the help of some Xanax. But late one stormy summer night, when her husband, Sam, is away on one of his frequent business trips, Claire's fears come to life. She discovers an intruder has broken into her young daughter's bedroom. She watches helplessly as he picks up her sleeping child from her bed. Desperate to protect her family, Claire puts herself in the line of fire and utters the plea that will undo her: "Take me instead."

    As she drives away in the kidnapper's car, Claire fears for her children, but not for herself. And she can't help noticing the reversal in her marriage -- for the first time in ten years, Sam will not know where she is.

    For the next week, Claire is tied to a bed in a strange motel room, the intruder her only com-panion. She is forced to lie still and contemplate the reasons for this assault on her family. Is this just a random crime, or something more sinister? Has the shadowy past that she tried so hard to leave behind finally caught up with her? Day after day, she goes deeper into herself, reevaluating her marriage and her role as a mother, and unburying the source of her crippling anxiety. In seven days she will step out to the very brink of her soul -- perhaps never to return.

    A riveting debut novel that will appeal to fans of Sue Miller and Janet Fitch, Standing Still is a powerful exploration of the darker side of mother-hood and marriage.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtria Books
    Release dateFeb 5, 2008
    ISBN9781416565123
    Standing Still: A Novel
    Author

    Kelly Simmons

    Kelly Simmons is a former journalist and advertising creative director specializing in marketing to women. She lives with her family outside Philadelphia. Please visit her website at ByKellySimmons.com.

    Read more from Kelly Simmons

    Related to Standing Still

    Related ebooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      September’s BOOK CLUB

      Aug 4, 2022

      It’s been a decade since Hannah was at Oxford, yet she’ll never forget it. Her room-mate, April, was killed by one of the university porters. Now he’s dead and Hannah wonders if she helped send an innocent man to prison. But if Hannah digs too deep,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Michael Robotham

      Jul 29, 2021

      Last year, Michael Robotham saw his 2017 novel The Secrets She Keeps turn into a six-part psychological thriller drama TV series for Network Ten, starring Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael. “It was fascinating, exciting and slightly surreal seeing m

      1 min read

    • Article

      'We Finally Put A Name And A Face To This Monster.' Illinois Officials ID Killer Of 16-year-old Girl In 1976. Man, Now Dead, Believed To Be Linked To Other Cases.

      Jan 14, 2020

      WHEATON, Ill. - An unsolved string of killings of young suburban Chicago women in the 1970s frustrated police for decades. Now authorities in DuPage County, Ill., believe that by cracking one of those cold cases, they may have uncovered the trail of

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Deadly Affair

      Aug 6, 2020

      A Deadly Affair
      4 min read

    • Article

      Musings On My Father

      Aug 8, 2022

      Musings On My Father
      5 min read

    • Article

      22 Hours Of Torture

      Aug 18, 2022

      It was 9.30am on a Sunday morning in August 2019 when 32-year-old Joshua Burgess casually walked into his local police station and told officers he wanted to turn himself in. Assuming it was a petty crime, they asked for his name so that they could s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Rising Sign

      Feb 4, 2021

      Rising Sign
      10 min read

    • Article

      No Place like home

      Aug 14, 2021

      No Place like home
      3 min read

    • Article

      Jason the Heat Guy

      Jan 11, 2021

      Jason the Heat Guy
      11 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Announcing The winners Of Our FLASH CONTEST

      Feb 29, 2020

      I sever the first two fingers of my left hand on a Tuesday. They fall to the ground at my feet, causing a momentary confusion as I wonder what tree has dropped this odd fruit. Then I see the crescent scar left behind by a fish hook and know that thes

      8 min read

    • Article

      Mothers As Makers Of Death

      Aug 14, 2018

      Mothers As Makers Of Death
      8 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Honestly

      Jan 8, 2024

      Honestly
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Fortune Teller

      Jul 10, 2021

      My head has a liquid feel to it as I stumble down the street. The bottle of red wine in my belly making it seem like my limbs have become balloons, and at any moment they might float away. Next to me, Michael has a stupid whiskey grin stretched acros

      18 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 30, 2019

      Summer Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Standing Still

    3.5/5

    48 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      I found this book well written but far too predictable.
    • 5/5
      Another gripping novel by Kelly Simmons. This story is about Claire Cooper who suffers from panic disorder and who is kidnapped. What a master storyteller Kelly Simmons is! I can't wait to read her new book!
    • 4/5
      Just when I think I can not find a good book to read, up an author pops up that blows me away...With a twisting plot, people that you can picture in your mind, and want to know what happens to them...I never talk about the story line, as I feel that it changes your mind. I will say just read it, or run quickly away....Read this do not run away. Next I am reading her new book "Bird House". Keep on writing Kelly Simmons.
    • 4/5
      I read this in one day...couldn't put it down! I loved Claire's character, and even grew to love her kidnapper! There are a lot of surprising twists and turns to the story....this one is definitely a page-turner.
    • 3/5
      I loved this book. I was with our heroine, a woman riddled with several panic disorders and a hidden past that lent them a legitimacy that they would otherwise not have. Simmons spun her tale out beautifully, effortlessly, allowing us glimpses when she needed to but leaving much of it to our imagination.All of that is precisely the reason that I felt so betrayed by the ending, like Simmons was scared to go the extra mile, like all the ugliness I’d been embracing was a trick of the light and nothing risky at all. All that lovely wishful thinking was not only entirely unbelievable, but it completely negated everything that came before it, and left me regretting the whole thing entirely.
    • 5/5
      Sucked me in from the very first chapter!Most books, even thrillers, take some time to get into, but I didn't want to put down Standing Still by Kelly Simmons even though I had only been reading it for a few minutes. I was fascinated by the story of Claire, a woman suffering from a panic disorder whose worst imagined fears come true one night. Her house is broken into and she comes face to face with the intruder as he is poised to take her daugher. Claire pleads with him to take her instead, and he does. What follows is an intricate tale where the secret of Claire's past--the incident that lead to her paranoia--is as much of a mystery as whether Claire will escape her tormentor--or whether she wants to.Fans of thrillers that delve into the fears that cloud our minds will love this one, I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I read the first 40 or so pages of “Standing Still” n New Years Eve as I was waiting for stuff to happen. The morning of New Years Day, I woke up earlier than planned and decided to read a bit more until I was ready to get up. Next thing I knew, hours had passed and the book was finished!“Standing Still” is the story of Claire, a mother and journalist who suffers from panic attacks. After years of fearing an intruder whenever her husband was not home at night, Claire hears a noise and finds out her worst nightmare has come true; there is a strange man standing in her daughter’s room in the middle of the night. After begging the man to leave the girl and take her instead, Claire finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom.As much as the plot sounds dramatic, most of this book was primarily internal. What made it so interesting were Claire’s thoughts and feelings about what was happening to her, particularly as her relationship with her captor evolved. I also loved the way that Simmons drew the reader deeper into Claire’s past and psyche, to discover what turned a vivacious reporter into the shell of a woman she became.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book from beginning to end. The pace of the book moved smoothly and kept my interest throughout. The tension built with hidden secrets that in due time were revealed kept the story moving. I enjoyed the premise of the book that showed how all of us have secrets and insecurities, but through trust we can live a fulfilled life.
    • 5/5
      There was almost minute by minute detail through the days of the kidnapping. Having more than one mystery to follow made this a page turner --- I was totally curious about how the author would solve the problems she presented. The ending was still a small puzzle of questions that could be followed up in an epilogue or....a sequel---especially since this was written some time ago and this was the author's debut novel.

    Book preview

    Standing Still - Kelly Simmons

    Ҫabook_preview_excerpt.html[ђF>Sc+ƶ=KvH 464 E=G}efuYmzD@wuUVVV:)o7s/_/Uӓ }zncoӟػCל|l0w7˳OM|MM0wnՄIazwpas3}um]Ř>|}d6|3\Oͼߖk5ƹ OnfͶ9?CCG =z/!{#밁󢽣=a ` Oi0Ȍ???{̟a_G"vч_4{p &H,kGxWB}).Xw\Ư!O {Hn{Xrk#r=@ Wd|2`K'߫?M=ψ>n۸rH"Xa7V@!ݦG Ow=o,8ea2Fq0;z@4Υ ׅytp9]UtKDYj˭v>rǗ43HArDmUP٥y|cbk>bp_s~Ŵv蹌WlO㟸+kkwgJbH??@2 z5eGmؤF IA2J~! $oEG2N_S\%NqfAc[;[C]/bN'VG]gINqa<,O04;f:RSn?aRYH% Iz$ B-,XK&'K~?A(K pO h651>^?<~fUox/wW/1uX,??%>(u?ƓJ=C&G063H!L!J9@DCt9;y U"܀=,˃_ss%Pàt3ΐ}4'OQDb-gq0Kdҧ i_LgcW"û<ˋז RJLFhCw[Wt.vЊbk@ k5[.tW؈pqvU +rvfcGQ%DqH` yqCm;dnsDE/',u<-R 'e" kA6<) Jtq]E&\Ϗ %,˸)5]N߻K 2 p&Ɓd]M0Hj|\gyBٺ(`_ 9l#G^lقLX79{7;-' $j [^?zmK&٘mhBY5l(p ]uT$8xp))O&:U=9=.FbE &ڡݎ{~JH90Hgi 操a} c@{*cb~ dne{ -.4EX&ٝ~ۏ7|[Ͽ /P >s1>Zbp1Z[efd8%g̡;;p֪j߷LA&DYviBrW_MLB.:s Q7dvUTwj$\j# 0lO(,/h] zg$a[!1lw`|ZPNʹddٌmyܕ:p39tȽ28,ݺzF1A ,U5Ը7QsK "R6iswK_-I_ɚŎtOS+ڒZׇ4[DK'֩zz>ɇ쉳ʒ4UL#~AA;/B2E*#5krf0oum|vv,2ꇏյCʞDSlCJlTGX$X)5eB\'B| ɪBe|RP) D7}{+.>tvBY(Ayҧ p QH/R֣c#ՓvYy=]]umg:SƢtkfz+w:2ls_E:)gR vn:.,ityqw`:=UTwIE y%""*捑*U>!f` zޗ132|D&"QZgF/P\J[1HZZ^" <܇i >yZf7'/Q`;0sn=Xg_%O,~'7^Z.c)ڝUSt ARt;nan#3QmQMGÔǰR|\U|+l81bɺ9jsݍUǪu39P3d5V-8,fp* OL.8Jpwi_P4&xr(npqg \s0KD/1ۙvaJR-mўdNI~iJSuF#y[NY[XfulQ9wWKqvV,eݕT;V֗"CSYh1 0_$bS(3ZVh5s׋9 m[Fy"%|YtGXX@95uj+|@!ʴ\PE<%iR=a4K&dIam\4A|J&%0%J. |sֆVJKoLL@.ɀ)L\ Գ'\k*, ;v"]CA΢$K 9cAup=|kѰ 7?]n >E$1r']ZVfGZI G͖.q8GQ)-̮LOadKsIV$: }rh]\ЖU4ôO mTKKK˭`[xgd>}`KJI}-``ɾt^KiVoUO99W\c=mWVV Ёo0]x Cf%MxlM3I:AkQ{_}qMMD22e/jon/wJPDݙ0V1h64S׾ؤ{(gO7O$JkGBMZ$ێC8atDA_Y.k\g:H*tU  jf%17e|([UI\MGھ|kƅ|)lB,DhBDAk{$}* Epç~lGQϤ2gzhqj#8Xg[8Vm#O&*j^_Fz6q_Fxe6\nGPZymFcVę̾>V(f*a(|iP?8Kq猀42XaLἲj>/:'6RH#$OS\K[>PY/|,U~qu-I)RF;Q+q'0;!g)b=s %.їWaPK~;nf*7ְ+9 !hP:ڿ0g#<;iW H9$v܆=eJ1A06eh*vնM %k}"eXЮtre=Z*ӰV}H&sV4nc SkX41'ވ/&P R'D~jsnbowsm狅<^G0| b/9O J 1T J21?@D4'H ?\_"¸0ޠZ@ A_4TWe\4<:(QXoz.Rī^_ڐ«޲NG-Ϙ?;aeoף`ԝboEGXuai^]djLL2& N4q_әt} Bk] CJ* OYɜ+׾:.PC9NU= 'so>/:MPFa뙨 |;xʸ2z›òX/g>?MC?)l2˭\Y\]HOL6]TB`.)1Űfd6!|0ڜᡉ)ispm=zl<R A+QNɓp2~vY<߭gry_~JᅷNdN D6Oԉe=^cb5=@f ]1X v׹߾y7b LlT9dR=gI{mT;sɥ#ʨ0lpk~aMW)>Jb:b7ʟt R2r0V/T:ɡ@=FFb 8QQTT>0LXmlԼ>QS~j26${Ekfma}$Q>u6ur .6w4PS휕­߹0Kgv[]ԩ__/SE0[j X !y@dK 0}G`=2Vvlig]TdG15Gm .FdQ5=!#@fd-r[4tWU4"vC03ѹr`-pG1KX: w^yAQ`&,.l R 9\J֘ɳ!K(k":[Q@ GQ"Z j{ W=*Η\Fbq]Gqww)o^ڲ,Z_'bRiRjtZtWD&SPht.i2"W7/(Oh{S1hƹzQUr WȳɚCظgAfOp4H7qvBQ 35淅eQwx]e8 HT_$?{-7 >S׷0N\֚D_̛+ *n(a,lU<-tT{2Biteυ[i_۔(^kZ. @l@Wxʱ8}S[4i Esh 5!$"pOfF
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1