Rating: 
Summary: Creative Story!
Review: "Popped" by gifted writer, Carol Higgins Clark was such a good story...creative and fun!When someone turns a reality show into a nightmare, P.I. Regan Reilly must deflate a cunning crook's plan before the high-flying finale in a hot air ballon turns fatal. Fun book. Fun Writer. (Buy the book!) (Recommended Reading!)
Rating: 
Summary: If her name weren't Higgins Clark....
Review: ...would she ever have gotten published? I rather doubt it. I have never been impressed with her writing, and her grasp of grammar is tenuous at best, but some of her books have been at least entertaining. Not so in this case--I'm having trouble getting through this slender volume. The story is simplistic, the characters superficial. The author gives us glimpses into her supposedly bright heroine's thoughts, but she seldom does more than state the obvious. There is something that has been bothering me about this series, but I haven't been able to put my finger on it until this, latest entry. The setting is supposed to be contemporary, the heroine youngish. Yet, the feeling and tone is not comtemporary, and the language and syntax of the thirty-something characters is much older. I'm not saying I want to hear a lot of bad language--I don't, but the lack of timeliness is jarring to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: UP, UP, AND AWAY!
Review: Carol Higgins Clark's POPPED takes us on a fast, fun, action-packed ride through the gritty, gaudy streets of Las Vegas, then it lifts us up, up, and away to a cliffhanger in the New Mexico skies. Ms. Clark's vivid imagination and effortless writing style breathe life into the delightfully wacky assemblage of characters that inhabit the pages of this clever mystery. From cover to cover, a delightful read.
Rating:
Summary: Popped
Review: Having received this book in a package of three from my book club, and being too lazy to send it back, I read it. I've not read any of Ms. Clark's books, and if this is an example of her work, I will not read her again. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the excellent writers I am in the habit of chosing to read, but if this lady can get publised, then my dog, Bob, has an excellent chance. The characters are cartoonish and one- dimensional, the setting and plot are ridiculous, and the writing juvenille. I've read better dialogue in children's books. I slogged through it, however, mainly so I could know what I was talking about when writing this review. And in the words of Bart Simpson, it was "craptacular". Next time, I'll make that trip to the post office before I ever read anything else by this woman.
Rating:
Summary: We need a zero star rating
Review: I agree with most of the previous reviewers. This was poorly written, laughably plotted (and not in a good way), devoid of characterization, and an utter waste of time. How does the author continue to be published?? Could it be ... nepotism?
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I have read all her other books, but I just am not able to finish this one. Every other chapter brings a new suspect. The characters are not likeable or well developed. And, as another person wrote, I don't care who did it. Boring and dumb.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh
Review: I picked up this book at a bookstore because I needed a book to read on a 6 hour flight and had already read all the Mary Higgins Clark novels available. Hoping that writing talent was genetic, I picked up this book. Quite frankly, it made me want to jump out of the plane. MARY HIGGINS CLARK FANS: do NOT assume that just because CHC is the daughter of a brilliant writer that she is a brilliant writer herself, because her books are shallow and awful. Terrible plot, terrible storytelling, and the "mystery" isn't mysterious at ALL.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could have a "negative" star
Review: I read this all the way through because I have never started reading something I didn't finish. I can say one nice thing - it is a great guide book of how NOT to write a book.
The plot was weak, the characters, well, you couldn't care less what happened to them and sometimes wished something WOULD, and then on the fringes this boyfriend occasionally pops up. He is only introduced so that this book could end the way that it did - as the fulfillment of some 13 year old girl's fantasy. I work in a library and have always read a lot and this is truly the worst book I've ever read in 37 years.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst fiction I ever read
Review: If there were a "zero" star rating on the Amazon system, that zero still would be too good for POPPED. Really, I am pooped from reading POPPED. Yet since it was the only book that I had with me on a plane trip, I was stuck with it.
The only mystery with POPPED is how a reputable publisher would dare to sell this nonsense to a trusting public, and that mystery is solved by a single word, "nepotism." Obviously, if author Carol Higgins Clark were not the daughter of best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, she would be waiting tables, not writing novels.
Nonetheless, since the publishers must be making some money marketing mysteries under the "Higgins Clark" name, could they not justify assigning an editor to Carol's manuscripts? POPPED contains some of the worst grammar and syntax that ever has appeared in print.
Conceptually, POPPED must have had potential. The setting of the balloon festival in New Mexico--a setting which, of course, is not fully explored--should have been appealing. Everything in POPPED either is sketchy and unrealized or much too easily resolved.
The characters are so forgettable that, even while in the midst of reading this stupid story, I had to refer back to remember who was who. And the outcome was a surprise because there was not a single clue to lead a patient reader to the result. Oh, puh-lease.
Even Amazon's "Number One" reviewer ought to be ashamed of herself for giving POPPED a five-star review. There's a word for what Number One has become as a result of awarding this rating, and that word isn't nice.
It is sad to think of all of the decent authors struggling to sell their own novels when this piece of garbage, attached to the surname of a successful author--but not written by that successful author--is foisted on to an unsuspecting public.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, quick read
Review: More than anything else, it's the setting of Carol Higgins Clark's new mystery novel, "Popped" that will draw readers into it. The setting is on the set of a possible reality show about hot air ballooning--with the payoff coming at the Alburque Balloon festival. What will keep you turning the pages is the novel fast pace and quirky characters. And what will leave you feeling a bit let down by the story is an ending that just rings a bit hollow, with an odd twist that should have been better foreshadowed by the events that come before it. All in all, this is a fun novel to read, but it's not necessarily a great story. The central mystery is intriguing enough, though it lacks a really great twist and resolution to make it truly satisfying in the end. The novel also suffers from a bit of predictablity--especially in the final few pages. Honestly, I wish this one had been a bit longer. The first two thirds of the book do a nice job of setting up the circustances and the quirky characters only for the second half of the book to rush to a resolution. It's a shame really because the book is a fun, fast paced read, but it does leave you hungering for something more once the final page has been turned.
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