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Summary: Seduction, Mystery, Intrigue, Romance,
Review: This book has them all. It is the story of a woman, Iris Greenfeder; an almost writer, an almost professor, and an almost wife. An urge to write a story told to her nightly by her mother, leads to her quest to find out more about her late mother, who died in a hotel fire, registered under a different name. Under the pretenses of writing her mother's memiors and looking for her mother's lost manuscript, Iris becomes manager at the hotel she lived in as a child. She finds love in an unlikely place, as well as a renewed love for the hotel she grew up in as her parents worked in the hotel. The writing in this book is beautiful. The imagery in both the fairy tale and the rest of the novel, jumps out of the book and paints a picture of the time and the place. The author's characters are real people- not "fairy-tale" people who live perfect lives. Every time I had to put the book down, I could not wait to be able to pick it back up again to finish it. It was a very satisfying story- and I will be sure to check out Goodman's first book- and her new book.
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Summary: THE BOOK FOR YOU IF YOU LIKE GOTHICS!
Review: This book is written in present tense - and I usually avoid these like the plague -- but after just a couple of pages, I didn't even notice it any more, I was so into the story. Iris Greenfeder is a woman in her mid 30s, as aspiring writer and professor who is the daughter of a well-known fantasy author who died suddenly after only having the second book of a trilogy completed. She is contacted by her mother's agent who is sure there is a third book somewhere. Circumstances allow Iris to spend the summer at the hotel on the Hudson River where she was raised where she will spend time looking for the manuscript. There's romance (Iris has been "involved" with a man for the last ten years and then meets a younger man - and ex-con- who is one of her students). There is Irish folk legend (the story of the Selkie which is the foundation for Iris' mother's books), mystery involving the disappearance of items stolen in WWII, and an almost-gothic feel to the book during the part that's set in the hotel. Even though I had figured out one of the "big" surprises very early on, the writing and the story kept me reading into the wee hours. Despite the fact that the ending was pretty melodramatic and a bit over the top, I really loved this book and plan on reading the author's book THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES soon and will buy her third book very soon.
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Summary: Quality and Quanity
Review: This is a quality work from an author from whom writers on the best seller's list could take a graduate course in creative writing.
Most reviews tell of the plot and whether or not the reader found the characters interesting and if the plot was plausable. This review instead will inform you of the journey in quality writing that you are about to experience. The skill at which Goodman weaves the signifigance of fairy tales into the plot is masterful.
The main character's interaction with the supportive cast is not the issue. Nor is whether this work should be classified as a mystery, or romance.
What is important is that the author delivers a lesson to us all with the ultimate in creative writing. Only a master of it could organize and control this unique format and come up with honors.
I highly recommend this book to people who read for enjoyment as well as those who read to learn how to write. Savor the passages.Reread paragraphs as Goodman describes with exceptional prose captivating the reader right into the scene.
Rating: 
Summary: Not seduced
Review: This novel has a lot of possibilities-a heroine with lots of conflicts and a number of confusing romantic options, a setting and characters that could be colorful, an economic resurrection component, and a literary mystery. So why doesn't any of it work? "The Seduction of Water" is flat and lacking spark. The characters do unconvincing things, and there are far too many coincidences. There's a layer of gloss so thick that it sticks everything, motionless, to the page. So why bother to review Carol Goodman's second novel? Because of those possibilities. There are so many elements that are almost there, that almost add up to a charming, funny tale with enough depth to describe it as literary. I'm looking forward to Carol Goodman's breakthrough.
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Summary: EXcellent!!! Engrossing and captivating from the start!
Review: This was a wonderful book. Once I started I couldn't put it down! One reviewer wrote that it is like a weekend retreat, I totally agree. I felt like I was living the story with the characters, and the reference to fairy tales give it a mesmerizing feeling of atmosphere. Lots of twists and intriguee-highly recommended!
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Summary: The Seduction of Water
Review: This was one of the best novels I've read this summer. It's haunting, intriguing and a thoroughly enjoyable story. I liked the story within a story format and the character development was superb. Highly recommend this book!
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Summary: Best book that I have ever read!!!!!
Review: This was such a great book that I can't stop talking about it to everyone that I come into contact with. It is the perfect mix of mystery,love story and fairy tale!! This author has a way with words that no one should miss!
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Summary: No Sophomore Jinx Here!
Review: When a writer's debut novel is a smashing success, he or she is subject to second story scrutiny. Such is the case with Carol Goodman whose first book, LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES, is an atmospheric page-turner set at a girls' school in upstate New York. Her new novel, THE SEDUCTION OF WATER, inhabits the same spot on the same geographic location, but traverses the terrain from a completely different point of view. This time readers will find themselves at the Equinox Hotel, which is, according to the author, modeled after The Mohonk Mountain House, a historic landmark hotel in the Catskill Mountains. As the novel opens, Iris Greenfeder is living her ABD (All But Dissertation) life as a part-time writing instructor. She teaches a group of émigrés in an ESL class, a different set of students in an art school and a number of inmates at the Van Winkle Prison. Here she meets Aiden Barry, a very intelligent and charming felon who turns up on her doorstep one rainy night after he's paroled. Of course "lightening strikes" these unlikely lovers, but that comes later. Iris grew up in The Equinox where her father was the manager for fifty years and her mother, a former maid, wrote two bestselling fantasy novels. One night, when Iris was ten, her mother took off to attend a conference at The Algonquin Hotel in the city. She never got there. And, the following day, she was found dead in the ashes of a motel fire in Brooklyn -- a tragic accident or a vicious murder? What was Kay Greenfeder doing in that motel? Why was she registered as Mrs. John McGlynn? Whom was she meeting, if anyone? Was the third book in the trilogy in the works? Did she have a draft of it with her? If she did, was it stolen or did it burn up in the fire along with her body? Iris is haunted by these questions even after thirty years. Mystery and speculation continue to surround the tragedy that took her mother's life and, despite her best efforts, she cannot tame the gremlins that invade her sleep and force themselves into every memory of her mother. Thus, when a series of coincidences (?) result in an offer for her to write a definitive biography of Kay Greenfeder, Iris is determined to unearth the truth behind the events of her death in order to discover who her mother really was and why she died the way she did. Where to start? Iris decides to analyze the world created in her mother's fiction. Slowly she begins to realize that the stories might be a map to the hidden landscape of Kay's reality; the triptych that can expose why her fantasy fiction was so complicated and so personal an escape device. Surely the stories must hold clues to the "real" woman beneath the facade of seemingly devoted wife, doting mother, hotel hostess extraordinaire and successful novelist. The tales are based on an Irish legend about the Selkie Girl: a seal-woman who pays a dear price when she morphs from one "skin" to the other and, as events unfold, she must abandon her daughter in order to save her own life. Iris is convinced that, when she unravels the metaphors, the symbols and the allusions that comprise the rich text of her mother's novels, she will find parallels to the family's life that will bring her to the heart of things. Once this decision is made, she returns to The Equinox to search for the third manuscript her mother was allegedly writing; to question the people still at the hotel who remember Kay; and to put the demons of the past behind her while taking control of her life in the present. The Equinox is a failing enterprise when the book opens. A hotelier of international fame and fortune buys the dying hotel and makes it the latest "jewel in his crown" of his upscale convention resorts. As it happens, he knows this particular hotel and its history from his sojourns here in the halcyon days of the past. He is a suave, smooth and savvy businessman who dazzles Iris and the staff. But who is he really? And why would he buy an old facility that is off the beaten path with little to offer besides some hiking trails and a spectacular view? THE SEDUCTION OF WATER is a bildungsroman --- the script of an odyssey imbued with a phantasmagoric setting, full of dead-end leads, nasty people, lies, deception, betrayals and a murder or two. Carol Goodman takes readers on a journey as rich in questions as it is in answers. Her writing is dramatic and accessible. She has a facility for moving back and forth from the past to the present, then from fairytales to Iris's real life that serves the reader well. Fans waiting for her second novel will not be disappointed. Those who don't yet know Goodman's work will delight in finding a new voice with a resounding talent as a storyteller. --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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