Rating: 
Summary: Another Wonderful novel by Brown
Review: I love her suspense and wasn't sure about the romance type. I couldn't put this book down - I had stayed up all night to finish it! I just couldn't put it down and have read it about 5 times since!
Rating: 
Summary: Sweeter Than Expected
Review: I must admit, when I first read the back cover of "Bittersweet Rain" I was not expecting to enjoy this book too much. I just could not imagine a love story where the heroine is first married to the father of the hero. Being a Sandra Brown fan, and I buy all of Sandra Brown's releases, I went ahead and bought it. I must say I was not disappointed. The plot turned out to be very good, and kept me interested. The book was also a double treat of romance, with not only Rink and Caroline, the main couple, but with Steve and Laura Jane (Rink's sister). I fell in love with this couple just as much as Rink and Caroline! I would most definitely recommend "Bittersweet Rain". It was a quick and very sweet read!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but some holes
Review: I usually prefer Ms. Brown's newer suspense books, but sometimes I pick up a romance for a light easy read. I thought this story had a powerful plot leading up to Roscoe's death and his stunning confession. However, after that there were a lot of holes in the story. A situation would build up but then just fall flat. There were also loose strings flying all over the story - things that could have easily been tied up but weren't. For example - an annulment is an obvious solution that would have solved almost every problem!!
Overall the story was sweet and touching. This was a great romance from Sandra Brown. But I still prefer her romantic suspenses for more mental involvement and plot depth. I also recommend Linda Howard for romantic suspense.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: Okay, so I read this book because I read three others by Brown. I was motivated to do so by the fact that each of the previous books had at least one great sex scene in it. This book has one pretty good sex scene, but is negated and made all the more unlikely by everything that happens later in the story. My biggest problem with the book though is Brown's characterization of women. There are two main female characters: one is a virgin (and complete idiot) who marries the father of the man she loves for no apparently good reason other than to live in his big house; and, the other is a mentally retarded(but in a "endearing" way, i.e., as long as she's being told what to do, she's happy), makes me wonder if its not Brown's intention to propagate the myth that women are all a deficient sub-species when it comes to getting along in life. Brown's main female character in this book wants love under the ideal (i.e., the right) conditions, but needs a "good" man to calm her down, relax her into the groove, and open her eyes to the subliminal realities that can arise from "great" sex even when life is less than perfect. Hogwash! Only the mentally retarded woman seems to understand what joys may be had on the wings of pure desire, and only the mentally retarded one is ready to get down anywhere, anytime with her lover, which, of course, she does not get to do because she couldn't possibly know what she's doing. "What if she has an orgasm?" -- is the question uppermost on the minds of the family. Her big brother decides to let her try sex (by getting married first), but vows to kill the new husband (a crippled man) if sex hurts his little sis. And all the while I was reading this, I was wondering - how'll he find out? Will there be regular debriefings or as long as she's wandering around blissfully oblivious, is everything supposedly fine? Anyway, the main female character, Caroline, is boring, easily manipulated, dumb (as opposed to being legitimately brain damaged), and totally unbelievable. Nobody...I repeat...nobody could be as unaccountably indecisive as this woman. Half the time she's heaving and sweating over the man (his name is Rink?), the rest of the time she's running away from him because she's worried about anything and everything except working things out with him. She's so insubstantial, she's sickening. The male lead sounds delicious sometimes, then he'll say something so stupid you want to throw the book out the window. I'm supposed to be reading these books for fun; nibbling on them between re-readings of Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton. Mind candy, however, has to at least be palatable, or whats the point? If you like your romance with a little reality, drop Brown like a hot rivet. Start by NOT reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Ms. Brown keeps surprising me with her amazing talents.
Review: Only Sandra Brown will put together the most unexpected couple, step mom & step son. But the story was so beautifully woven that I don't mind at all the weirdness of the situation. Although Caroline was married to Rink's father, she had been Rink's lover even before she got acquainted with Roscoe. Only years after Rink left her to marry somebody else, did she chose the father. For those who are familiar with SB's other books, the relationship between Caroline and Rink resembles Schyler & Cash in "Slow Heat in Heaven"; the secondary characters, Mary Jane and Steve are Janellen & Bowie in "Where There's Smoke" only for Mary Jane and Steve, SB went deeper with their love story. Quite a treat for the readers. Two romances in one book - you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: sandra brown is always great!
Review: the joy of falling in love for the first time is something you will remember for all of your life. of course the first time you feel your heart break, you'll always remember that too. this is probably the best book ive read dealing with both of those issues. sandra brown has the ability to bring the same sort of excitement to the reader that the characters are going thru as well as the let down. in bittersweet, we have two different love stories going on. the first dating back to childhood between caroline, the daughter of the town drunk, and rink, the son of the towns most wealthy family. the second, between laura jane, rinks sister, and steve, the hired hand. sparks fly between rink and caroline, mostly because of rinks dad, carolines HUSBAND! laura jane and steve are absolutely wonderful. i didnt want this book to end. ive read reviews where people say things like "they felt like friends that i had to say goodbye to when the book was over" but until this book, ive never really understood what that was like. this one is a keeper ::smile
Rating:
Summary: one of my all-time favorite books
Review: This book was my first Sandra Brown, and it's one of my favorite books because of the way it made me feel. The whole time I read it, my heart was just aching for Rink and Caroline. I have to admit, like other reviewers, I wasn't too sure about the plot before I read it, but Sandra Brown really makes it work without it getting ugly. I actually cried at some point in this book, though I may have been tired from staying up reading, I'll never know. The whole book is so sweet, and sad, and you really feel for Rink and Caroline, because it seems like they can never get back the love they lost. This adds a poignant edge to the whole book that just makes it more beautiful. One thing that readers might object to though, is the character of Rink's father. I found it hard to believe anyone on this planet could be so evil and go through such great lengths just for pure spite. It seems like such a petty and totally unreasonable thing, and not quite realistic (I don't believe many people are entirely bad). However, while it seems strange, I can overlook it because the love story is so beautiful. I sincerely recommend this book to anyone who likes love stories and it might get you started on Sandra Brown, like me.
Rating:
Summary: Synopsis
Review: This is one the first books by her I read- it still reads well almost 20 years later- the timeless love story is fantastic! The Ties That Bind... Caroline Dawson had married Roscoe Lancaster, a man 30 years her senior, and she had been a loving wife to him. But the deepest love in her heart was reserved for his son. Rink Lancaster had broken teenaged Caroline's heart, and now he seemed destined to break it once again. He returned home for the first time in years to satisfy his dying father's final wish, and came face-to-face with a Caroline who had grown into a woman beyond his wildest dreams. She was now the only woman he would ever want - and the one woman it seemed he could never have
Rating: 
Summary: More bitter than sweet
Review: This was my first Sandra Brown Book. Maybe the many good things I had heard and read about the author had raised my expectations too much or maybe this is just not one of her best works, but I was fairly disappointed with this book. Sure Mrs. Brown adheres to the 411 of romance writing and the basic story is not without originality. But the characters and their actions are as real as the ones in a cheap soap opera, complete with all the tears, screams and cliché stances (his cornering her, hand against the wall, her walking away turning her back, his standing rigidly, head forward, tight fists by the sides). The heroine was given more maturity with 15 than with 27 and the lead couple was more likable in those flashbacks (these were however well interwoven with the main story). Also, the couple's reasons to stay apart until the end of the book, her concern about her reputation in the town and his pride are really weak. This and some of the character's other flaws kept me from ever relating to either protagonist. Additionally, some of the plot twists were unconvincing (Caroline's sex life with Roscoe); others were easily reconizable crutches to give the couple more time together and later vanished into obscurity. Some promising threads were never tied up. The sexual tension was overbearing and the prolific sex scenes dragged on too long, all for the price of some deeper character exploration. So if you just start out with romances or with Sandra Brown for that matter you can probably make a better choice than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!!!!
Review: This was the first book I've read by Sandra Brown and I just bought 4 more!!! I bought this book mostly just to see how on earth she could make the step-mother/step-son scenerio work and I was amazed. It started off alittle slow, but it picked up and boy...I didn't want it to end. And if the story about Caroline and Rink wasn't enough, there was a secondary romance between his sweet little sister Laura Jane and Steve going on. This book stirred my emotions with the cruel Roscoe (I was furious!!),Caroline's years growing up with the town drunk, Rink's first wife and her daughter that he missed...there was just so much. I couldn't put it down once I got about half-way and stayed up until 2:30am this morning to see how it ended. I'm glad I did.
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