Rating: Summary: Great! Review: I found this book to be absolutely fantastic. I had read the Pilot's Wife, and the Weight of Water. I found this book to be right up there with the Pilot's Wife. The storytelling is definitely something unique, in that it goes back through time. The characters are impossible not to identify with, and you find yourself engrossed in their tale. Every detail of this plot is explained throughout the novel, and makes it impossible for the scenery not to come alive. The ending was fascinating, an actual surprise that I didn't see coming! A Great Read!
Rating: Summary: Quite Shocking Review: This book kept me turning the pages as I got more interested in the love affair between Linda and Thomas. Shreve paints the the story so clearly that she draws the reader right into the plot. Eventhough I enjoyed the story, the ending just didn't cut it for me. The story was too rich with detail and emotions to have ended the way it did. I think the author needed to give the reader more clues throughout the story in preparation for the for the ending. If she would have done this, maybe the ending would have made more sense.
Rating: Summary: Don't waste your time nor you money Review: It is rare that I am so disappointed in a book that I can't find much to redeem it. This is one of those instances. This was the choice for my book club. Right from the get-go I had problems with the way the author writes the dialogue. I guess that should have been a clue as to what was up, but I missed it. It was just irritating. The there was all the coincidences in Linda and Thomas meeting at various times. I hate when someone tells too much of the story in a review, so I won't go into too much. I shall say this - the author let me down as a reader. What she does at the end, she may feel is a new "gimmick", but it has made me determined to not read another of her books. If you are so inclined to read this, or as in my case it is your book club's selection, I would suggest checking it out at the library. Also, don't get too involved in caring about the characters. It will be sure to save you money and the agony of feeling what a waste.
Rating: Summary: Everlasting Love Review: I thought this book was a beautiful love story. I really got wrapped up in the love the two had for each other. The book started slow at first, but it soon draws you in. Using the flashback technique kept you wondering what had happened, but overall, I think it was a good approach. I was somewhat dissapointed with the ending, but I think it presents a good point about everlasting love.
Rating: Summary: Hated the ending Review: I enjoyed the book, but think that the ending is a terrible betrayal of the reader and the characters. Its just doesn't fit. Like she didn't know how to end the book and took the easy clever way out.
Rating: Summary: Definetely keeps you guessing Review: I thought this book was fantastic. Great suspense in writing the book in reverse order. The reader can really feel the love and passion between Linda and Thomas. The ending is so shocking but well worth the wait. The parts about Africa were written and described so beautifully I felt like I was there with them. I highly recommend this book for the anticipation, passion, and emotion of the whole thing. Great read...
Rating: Summary: You won't be able to guess.... Review: This book is one that keeps you up at night. It's interesting how she takes two people and "rewinds" their life, as opposed to the usual moving forward. I have to admit the last third of the book was a surprise, she did a good job of keeping the reader guessing.
Rating: Summary: An interesting, painful narrative Review: I can understand the reviewers who feel betrayed by the end of this novel, since it DOES draw the reader in and make them feel connected to the characters. The ending feels like a terrible betrayal of human opportunity and possibility. I think, however, that that is exactly the point that Shreve was trying to make. The characters are lost here, before they even get a chance to begin, and the loss of them and their wise and weak human longings and choices is painful. This novel has a lot of echoes of other Shreve novels--there is a strong sense of place, as in The Pilot's Wife and The Weight of Water, and the sense of passion as such a powerful force that it distorts logic is similar to what the characters face in Fortune's Rocks and Where of When, which this novel resembles in many ways. This certainly won't make me want to stop reading Anita Shreve's work (in fact, I have Sea Glass waiting for me on my large pile of books to be read), but I am waiting to see what she does next and to see if she can come up with someting that omoves beyond the territory she has very painstakingly carved out for herself.
Rating: Summary: No More Shreve For Me Review: I was looking forward to reading this latest novel of Anita Shreves. I loved Strange Fits of Passion, but this story doesn't even come close to that. As other reviewers here have said, it took a while to become involved in the story line, and the chapters that took place in Africa were sometimes grueling to get through. But, because I liked Linda and Thomas I plowed through the boring parts expecting the book to have a plausable ending (who would have thought it wouldn't?). The ending was, to say the least, a shock, and not at all plausable. I also agree with a reviewer here who stated that this was a "mean trick to play on the reader". Was that Shreve's purpose? Did she want to have readers sit staring at the last page totally dumbfounded. Like another of the reviewers, I am also a mental health professional, and I have to ask myself, why would an well-loved author play a nasty trick like this?
Rating: Summary: great ride, crash ending Review: Wow! I was so drawn in and involved with the characters as I was reading, only to be shocked and dismayed by the ending. Frustrated! I completely agree with "Speechless's" review below, and I won't be reading another Shreve. Dang.
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