Rating: 
Summary: Weak main character, hard to get through the book
Review: Carrie is one of the most weak and pathetic fictional individuals I have ever "met". I got halfway through the book and had to force myself to read the rest, hoping she'd find her backbone or some sort of respect for her once-fiance and her best friends. I was very disappointed by the book, not by the ending but by the weak-heartedness of the main character. She depressed me and I wanted to throw the book out my window when I (finally) finished it.
Rating: 
Summary: An engaging story, but one that doesn't really go anywhere
Review: This is a well-written book with an engaging story: Carrie, a young engaged woman, has started to become disillusioned by her relationship with Mike, her high school sweetheart. As she wrestles with this while she and Mike are picnicing with friends on Memorial Day, Mike takes a fateful dive into shallow water and is paralyzed from the neck down. Mike's accident throws Carrie further into turmoil--she can't leave him now, can she? But she does leave, escaping to New York to begin a new relationship with the enigmatic Kilroy, who she has only met once. Carrie's confusion continues, and although she reaches a point of resolution at the end of the book, the reader is left wondering how exactly she got there.One of the main problems I had with this book is that the characters were not particularly likeable. In particular, Carrie's ambivalence comes across as selfishness, and although the reader might be able to sympathize with her situation, it is easier to feel annoyed with her than to feel sorry for her. Furthermore, it is difficult to understand Carrie's motivations throughout the book; her actions make little sense, even in the face of tragedy. Kilroy is a mystery who is portrayed as so cold and distant that the reader is unlikely to care about him at all. With the exception of perhaps Carrie's mother, the supporting characters come off as hard and judgemental; I just didn't enjoy reading about them. This book has a thought-provoking premise, and the author did a good job of portraying Carrie's ambivalence. Unfortunately, the question I was left with was "so what?" But Packer has enough potential that I would still be willing to give future novels a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Waiting for more from this author
Review: This is a sincere effort by a strong voice. I will certainly read this new author's next novel. Her descriptions of tired but enduring relationships rings so true it made me want to call up every childhood friend I've ever lost touch with to tell them how much they've meant to me and my personal growth. Her descriptions of the painful rift between Carrie, the protagonist, and her best friend Jamie were gut-wrenching and honest. This is a writer who likes her characters and treats them with dignity. I thought her descriptions of New York were on the money. I realize that a native New Yorker might find them trite and midwestern. But she perfectly captures the wide-eyed wonder those of us not from New York feel the first time we go there.
Rating:
Summary: A Danielle Steele romance novel with literary pretensions...
Review: ...that Ms. Packer can't quite live up to. Oh, she writes well (which kept me going the first hundred pages or so), but her main character is such a passive, ambivelent person that it's very hard to care what happens to her. And Kilroy is a real pain in the butt, a completely bogus character. As a lifelong NY cynic myself, I saw nothing in the guy that was in any way authentic. He's a writer's pretentious idea of what a deep, troubled intellectual must be like. I kept waiting for Carrie to slap him and tell him to get over himself, but no such luck. Mike, for all his confinement, is the most active person in the book. Ultimately this is nothing more than a plain, old-fashioned Harlequin-type "women's novel," tarted up as literature. I lost interest half-way through and skimmed the rest, and I'm glad I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Great reading!
Review: Loved this book, it absorbed me, the 'travel' of the main character, finding out where she belongs. In in between this great surch also an easy read, pulling me from one page to another.
Rating:
Summary: Had big hopes for, but still hoping...
Review: I am currently reading this book, and already struggling to get through it. I had also read all of the reviews, and was excited to begin reading. However, halfway through and I am already wondering how long it will take me to finish it. The beginning had promise, with the underlying currents in Mike and Carrie's relationship, the hot-headed best friends Rooster and Jaime, but I feel like the book is now wandering. All of the sudden Carrie is in New York hooking up with someone she met once in Madison. Huh? I am sure I will end up finishing this book, but I don't anticipate it being an outstanding reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to get lost into
Review: I loved this book. It held my attention from the first word all the way to the end. It is really a book a person can get lost in the story and find themselves unable to put the book down to get to the end. I was a little disappointed in the ending, though. Seemed a bit cut off, but all in all a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it - despite contrary opinions
Review: I loved this right from the start. Why? I found each character believable, attractive and vulnerable. It's that vulnerbility that hooked me. I think Carrie acted in a way that many 26 year-olds would have acted. Many would have handled it much worse. I think everyone has run away from a person or situation in their lives that had them feeling trapped and fearful.
The beauty of this story lies in its ability to mirror real lives of real people. I cared about each character - I wanted to know them BECAUSE of their flaws - not in spite of them. That's what makes life so unpredictable, spontaneous, challenging and fulfilling.
Rating:
Summary: You had me until the end
Review: The premise of the book was an interesting one to me: We met Carrie, dissatisfied with some nameless something in her life and her relationship with Mike, her high school sweetheart. Before she and Mike can air the problems, he dives into shallow water and is hopsitalized. The real flaws of the book are truly in the last section of the novel. The choice that Carrie makes doesn't address her issues with her life. They don't answer any of her questions--what to become, who to be. She had issues with everyone in her life, not just Mike. She was growing apart from her best friend, Jamie, as well as her peer group. None of those things have really changed at the end of the book. I was so disappointed with the end of this book, that I went to bed trying to dream an alternate ending. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but I will I say that the ending was disappointing b/c it didn't feel like an ending. Her decision seemed pointless, number one. And number two, as a reader... there is no way this is the END of Carrie's story. I mean, then what???? I had difficulty around chapter 3-4 some where along there, I began to question how interested i could be in the novel. Past that point, the book picked up and I was intensely interested in Carrie's story. I can see the point one reviewer makes about the New York section, however, I'm not sure the novelist intended to imply that EVERYONE in NY was like these particular characters. At any rate, it's not the best nor the worst book I have read this year. Not a bad offering from a first time author.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: An enthralling read, from the first until the last page. It grips on to you and I found that I could not put this book down and was disappointed to finish it because I became so consumed in the way the world inside the book was portrayed.
The ending may disappoint some people but I actually thought it was the perfect ending because it left the door open... there was no definitive ending. The lead character took turns within the book that I did not agree with but I enjoyed seeing the world from her perspective.
A fantastic read.
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