Rating: 
Summary: "The Best Laid Plans" Falls Through
Review: A woman who is beautiful, highly intelligent, extremely ambitious, and initially vulnerable. A man who betrays her. Some scandal, some vengeance, and a lot of politics. That sums up the novel that had a lot of potential, but somewhere along the line, Sidney Sheldon gets the plot of the novel scrambled worse than eggs at the Waffle House. Sheldon usually follows his established template to write his novels: successful and beautiful woman gets hurt, then finds a man who loves her. It didn't happen this way in "The Best Laid Plans". This may have been expected by his fans (especially myself) because it is what he does so well. Sheldon may well have been trying to create a plot twist, but instead he leaves the reader with mouth agape and wondering: what the heck?? The ending leaves a bad taste in the mouth, with an unresolved seething at the President who seems to have gotten away with it all, and confusion at the lack of character development with many of the characters. Unlike "Windmill of the Gods" with its surprise twists in plots and character, or "Memories of Midnight", "The Best Laid Plans" is a perfectly marinated hen that hasn't quite had enough time to roast.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm fooled.
Review: I like Sidney Sheldon's books very much. So I didn't hesitate when I saw it in book store. I bought this book in 97 while I was in SF for sightseeing. I didn't read it until now I got time to read it through. It begins with Lesile Stewart and end up with Dana Evans. The plain story started netting and put it all together in the end. Quick and simple. A little regret for Lesile Stewart, I thought there was account for her future or something. The story reminds me the scandle of president Clinton. I wondered it was implying it. Maybe it's just a coincidence. ^^ The scandle is keeping in mind when I read it. However the end was really surprised me, I am fooled, I admit. The skill of Sidney Sheldon seemed a little bit regress. It's regrettable. It seems the inspiration is dried up. There are few good authors here have same problem. Anyway, I look forward to see good pieces again from Sidney soon.
Rating: 
Summary: The best laid plans
Review: Sidney Sheldon as Sidney Sheldon. Like any of his novels this too was interesting and finished in one day. Readin Sheldon's novels I found it is just like when you eat peanuts. Once you start you can't stop. Anyways... HE needs help and SHE does her best to help him. then
He falls in love with her and SHE falls for him too. then
HE asks her to marry him - SHE gives him a happy "YES". - then Out of the blue...SHE hears that HE married someone else - for the sake of POWER - but man, is he wrong??? - The rest = REVENGE
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: This novel tells a wonderful and exciting story. We meet a politician on his way to a bright career. The only thing that stands in his way is a powerful ex lover. After having her heart broken, she will see to it that Oliver Russell's political and personal life are ruined. In so doing, she will make for a great novel. At the start of the book things are slow moving. You tend to get the impression that the novel may be romance genre. This impression holds true until a key turning point in the book. From there, it becomes a story of revenge and exciting political fiction. If you are a fan of either type of story, then you will want to read this book. It is truly exciting, and will be commited to memory for years to come. My only complaint is that the ending lacks punch, and is not at all what you expect or want to happen. Otherwise, this is a great read. With it's vividly described characters, semi-wonderful plot, and talents of Sidney Sheldon, you can't help but want to read it. In closing, I think the best laid plans would be to buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: He did it again!!!
Review: As a long time fan of Sydney Sheldon, I have enjoyed all of his books including this one. I'm glad I purchased it on a Friday because I had all weekend to read it. The book was very exciting and I can say that I was glad to see both Leslie and Oliver get what was coming to them. I feel that what happened to Leslie in the finale was a bit hard, but I guess a hard head makes for a soft behind. In addition to "what i think", the only problem i had with the book was the extremely coincidental nature that President Russell and his Chief of Staff had in common regarding women, timing, and ecstacy. Overall, though, the book was quick enjoyable reading. As a side note, i was happy to hear Sheldon was born in Chicago. If he ever reads this, it would be GREAT if he could write a book where the primary setting was in the Windy City!!!! That would probably be the one to blow me away!!!
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Enjoyable Reading
Review: This book was a definite page turner. It was well written and never boring. The writer did an excellant job with the plot and with the characters. This was the second time that I read this book and I plan to read it again in the future.
Rating:
Summary: The Power of the Press
Review: As with all of his novels, Sidney Sheldon's "The Best Laid Plans" intrigues from the start and compels the reader to continue reading until the very last page is turned. His use of true-to-life dialogue delivered by larger-than-life characters and unhampered by dense paragraphs of meaningless description moves the story along at a fast enough pace to make this the perfect escape for that day at the beach or airplane trip.
The plot is triggered by the actions of a triumvirate of interestng characters: Leslie Stewart, attractive, ambitious and overly intelligent, has been left at the altar by gubernatorial candidate Oliver Russell. Oliver, with his good looks and voracious sexual appetite is wooed away from Leslie by Kentucky-Fried Chicken look-a-like, Senator Todd Davis who orchestrates the marriage of Oliver to his daughter and simultaneously begins his campaign to make Oliver the next president of the United States. When the jilted-bride calls on Senator Davis for a favor, he, believng he will be well rid of her, has no problem providing her with her requested introduction to a wealthy owner of a newspaper in Arizona. But Leslie has other plans -- she is intent on destroying the reputation of Oliver Russell and she is going to use the newspaper as the instrument of his destruction and her revenge.
Along with this mesmerizing trio, the secondary cast gives the story legs--as we applaud Leslie's single-mindedness and her growing acquisitions, we are entertained by the reporters and editors that unwittingly help her set her masterplot into place. We are privy to the spectaculor rise of television journalist, Dana Evans, who acts as an interesting foil for Leslie---Dana, so committed to making a difference for all the right reasons, and Leslie, so committed to making a difference merely to salve her wounded ego.
Bottom Line: The easy-to-follow plot, fast-paced dialogue and changes of venue from Kentucky to Washington to Bosnia pair well with aerobic activity achieved while listening to the novel on unabridged audio. Sheldon easily keeps his triumvirate in the spotlight while he adds and subtracts players that power pack the plot with reality and fuel the reader/listener to go the extra mile simply to listen to what is going to happen next. Recommended to all fans of Sheldon and to anyone who is in the market for a fast satisfying read with the revenge undertones of "The Other Side of Midnight."
Rating:
Summary: Big Surprise
Review: The Best Laid Plans stands out to me as the best of the Sheldon books I have read so far - he has had many intriging plot ideas in other books, but this one really threw me for a loop and had me quite surprised at what was really going on. He did a good job of fooling me! I won't say too much, don't want to ruin the story for you, but here is a short synopsis of the story - Oliver Russell proposed to Leslie Stewart and backed out of it at the last minute, suddenly marrying someone else. Leslie wants revenge, and Oliver's new father in law wants him to be President of the United States. He gets there with his help. He needs to be careful, he has descreet personal life on the side...hopefully no one will find out. Leslie plots revenge - and ends up buying the Washington Tribune newspaper, where the headlines can say whatever she wants. Things really get interesting when a teen girl dies in a suite of a hotel, and no one is sure who she was with.
Sheldon has a knack of keeping you reading - try him out with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Overall a excellent book of women power
Review: This book has a age-old plot of the man leaving and betraying the loving woman for another. But there's a twist. Leslie Stewart is not going to stand by while she suffers humiliation from everyone everywhere. No way. She's too clever for that. She begins a unending mission to destry Oliver Russell. Thus begins the story of her vengeance which also is connected to the other woman of interest, Dana Evans. This book is excellent in its protrayal of the betrayal and pain that Leslie goes through and the result from it. I think that it has a lot of interestin g ways that it shows women are much more clever and seductive than ever. One thing I had a problem with was that character development adequate, it didn't have a realy satisfactory ending. I have read this book more than 3 times, and each time I wish it had some sort of ending for Leslie, it just feels like it's been climaxing for this moment, but you never really experience it.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD BUT,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Review: A great novel to start with, great charachters very syncronised and well mingled, and this is a real upputdownable, the twists are too much to ask for and are numerous, and yes one character that holds the story togather is Leslie, the heroine of the story, but this novel has one flaw, that is a untimed parllel story of the reporter who is just used for compiling more pages and give it a big look, and one more problem the end with the heroine is unexpected and the story takes a turn from there and what everyone thought about the happy ending with the heroine vanishes,,but still if you have not read sindney yet, go for this,,and if you have already, you can never afford to miss this.
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