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Summary: Bright Lights, Big City Set in Africa
Review: This is a terrible book about petty, self-absorbed people who go around feeling cool about living in Africa. The high point is when Esme gets pregnant by a guy she likes, kind of loves. She suddenly feels she has a purpose in her life (we were wondering since this is half-way through the book). When she loses the baby, she is sad, but more than anything miffed at her ob/gyn for snubbing her. The best thing I can say about this book is that it makes the most ordinary of us feel profound and heroic for taking out the trash compared to these cardboard cut-out characters. The editorial reviews were very misleading. One reviewer compared Ms. Marciano to Jean Rhys. Anyone who has read The Wide Sargasso Sea would consider that a howler.
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Summary: SHOULD BE RETITLED RULES OF MARKETING
Review: That a reviewer would actually dare compare this vapid "Melrose Place in Africa" with a book like The English Patient shows how desperate the state of publishing is. Is the reviewer trying to get the film rights? This is sad drivel. If you want a good romantic read, choose the English Patient. Already read it? Read it again. Save your time, money, and intelligence. Marciano should write travel articles with a romance twist for Cosmo.
Rating:
Summary: Awful!
Review: Shallow, narcissistic characters living directionless lives. A disconnected sequence of events that cannot be called a plot. An ending that introduces loads of new information and doesn't jibe with the established motives and substance of the characters. It stunk.Actually, the characters were the worst. I disliked them and their self-absorbed whining almost immediately and couldn't wait to get away from them at the end. Guess I finished the book out of sheer determination.
Rating: 
Summary: This book grabbed me from the first paragraph...
Review: This book grabbed me from the first paragraph... "In a way everything is always secondhand. You will inherit a car from someone who had decided to leave the country, which you will then sell to one of your friends. You will move into a new house where you have already been...You will make love to someone who has slept with all your friends. There will never be anything brand-new in your life" It's a novel about an Italian woman who finds herself in East Africa and discovers her inner rawness (while sharing it with the reader). The author captures you and takes you on a safari that is the character's life with observations that will enlighten you about your own.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Review: "Rules of the Wild" is romantic, lush, descriptive, and a little maddening. Marciano's style takes me right back into Nairobi, and aptly captures the feeling of being a foreigner there. At the same time, Esme's imperfect character, so fully portrayed by Marciano, makes the feminist in me want to reach into the world she lives in and help her get over her desperate need for companionship. The irony and symbolism in the book are captured by the emotions it evokes in me. Somehow my feelings for Esme parallel my feelings for Africa: affection and respect, mixed with frustration and futility.
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Summary: Who needs men?
Review: I thought this book was disgusting. I can't believe people (especially women) still read this kind of trash. I can't believe women STILL think they need a man to be happy and that this is still being written about. It is so degrading and demeaning to women who have a brain and a life...
Rating:
Summary: Well worth it!
Review: This book will transport you to Kenya and the exotica of nature and wilderness. This romantic novel will then follow you well after the story ended, leaving you with some kind of unfinished business. By that time, you will want to recommend this book to all your friends. And that is why you are reading this...
Rating:
Summary: Searching for Closure
Review: I will most definitely read this book again. The book left me feeling unsatisfied, though. I wanted the story to continue. I wanted to find some closure in the protagonist's life. I want this question answered: Did Esme become involved in a relationship with the man she watched the sunrise with at the end of the novel? The characters stayed with me long after I finished reading the book. I realized that Hunter had only used Esme, and that Esme and Adam were using each other to find fulfillment in life. This mirrors the entire plot. The expatriates in Africa were using Kenya to find fulfillment in their lives. I would like Marciano to write a sequel. I look forward to her upcoming literary work.
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Summary: Expatriate Life in Kenya
Review: I am a former expatriate in South America and could relate to the community that forms in an isolated, developing world area. I thought she had some astute observations of the tight-knit community that forms in a situation like that. I have never been to Africa and I liked her descriptions of the country. It was a bit too female oriented, but of course she is a woman. Good read, hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, easy to read; nothing deep but enjoyable nonetheless
Review: Marciano's prose is simple and to the point. The plot isn't difficult or twisted, and the characters don't hide much. But this novel is enjoyable, as an easy read. Marciano offers a romantic look at Kenya in the '90s and while the reader doesn't sweat too much over the few plot twists, the book is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.
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