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Summary: sacrifice for love
Review: Wonderful love story set in Victorian New England. The main character will captivate you with her strength and determination.I Read this book in two nights, couldn't put it down!Wonderful book to curl up with on a snowy weekend! This work proves that true love has no boundries. A must read!
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Summary: AMAZING HISTORICAL ROMANTIC DRAMA
Review: I admit I am a bit biased, I consider Anita Shreve one of the best writers of the last two decades. She has a voice within her writings which make them closer to literature than simply fiction. Even with a small child, a business that I own and a busy calendar, this book was one I couldn't put down. She has a wonderful way of taking emotionally charged and intense subjects and coming around to the moral high ground. This was a very worthwhile read and is enthusiastically endorsed.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I wanted to love this book and didn't. I'm a big fan of serious historical fiction and was looking forward to the read. Frankly, I found both Olympia and Haskell unsympathetic; it was completely unclear to me why either of them fell in love at first sight and what they found so earthshaking in each other, and the sexual magnetism seemed totally missing. The trial was the best part of the book for me, as well as the touchs of social history. But this couple was no Heathcliff and Cathy, not legendary lovers of any kind. And the conclusion was so pat; exactly like a movie made for television. I know Shreve can do better.
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Summary: Slow starter, but well worth the wait!
Review: While reading the first few chapters, I kept wondering why I needed so much detail about the house, the family and the beachside community. When I was ready to give up on this book, Olympia and "Haskell" began their relationship. At that point, all of the details became critical to put into perspective the shame she caused her family and to explain her father's reaction to the events that unfold. Once the relationship started, events occured rapidly and the book became one that I did not want to put down. Shreve develops Olympia's character so well, I found myself cheering her on like I have not done before with a character in a novel. This is definately not a book to give up on. Wade through the seemingly dull details in the beginning, it's worth it!! Now one of my all-time favorite novels.
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Summary: Aspires to Bronte But Can't Make the Seven-Ten Split
Review: The main character is patently uninspiring...a beautiful, well educated, doted upon, priveleged 15-year- old who gives up...well not much, to get the middle-age, adulterer of her foolish dreams. I knew exactly where this book was going by the middle of chapter two and just skimmed the rest... If you want a good read, stick with Bronte and Austen.
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Summary: Sentimental, overwrought dreck
Review: The author's style displays more determination than grace, and you can see every join and rivet in her machine-like plot.
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Summary: EVOCATIVE AND PROVOCATIVE...
Review: This is a well crafted and lyrically written narrative, evocative of an era gone by. It tells the story of Olympia Biddleford, the unusually erudite and well educated fifteen year old daughter of a Boston Brahmin. One hot and steamy summer in turn of the century New Hampshire, she falls passionately and utterly in love with her father's friend, forty one year old John Haskell, a physician and man of letters, who has a wife and four children. Captivated by his intelligence and crusade on behalf of exploited mill workers, she and he, drawn to her youth, intelligence and beauty, leave all thought of propriety behind and, breaking every moral and social taboo of the time, enter into a forbidden, illicit love affair, that is ultimately doomed, with cataclysmic ramifications for all whom the affair touches. The book explores how this young woman copes with the loss of her life in a larger social milieu, once the affair enters into the public domain, through the machinations of another. She, the doctor, and their respective families are tainted with scandal and presented with the fruit of that illicit love. The book explores how Olympia must reconstruct the tatters of her life into one in which she is finally able to expiate her youthful indiscretion within the context of the mores of the time. In doing so, she goes on a voyage of self discovery. Yet, through it all, she never once renounces her devotion to the man who introduced her to the throes of a passion so deep and profound that she gave herself over to it, body and soul. How these star crossed lovers finally come to terms with their grand passion is a story which the author seamlessly weaves into a book that will hold the reader in its thrall.
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Summary: Anita Shreve's Best!
Review: I've read all of Anita Shreve's books and I found this to be the most compelling (and have to say least depressing). I felt I was was reading an Edith Wharton novel and not one from a contemporary writer. This book kept me interested from the first to the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This book is incredible. I could not put it down, and could not stop thinking about it for days after I finished it. I wished I had a whole pile of books that would be similar and as fulfilling. This story is about true love, passion, and it opens up questions of morality, trust and honesty. Anita Shreve portrays this time period so well, and builds the characters amazingly. She creates compelling people who you truly get to know and will be sad to see go. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: What a treat!
Review: I enjoy audio books as I travel to and from work. Sometimes I wonder what I am missing by listening rather than reading. But Melissa Hughes talent added to Anita Shreve's fascinating story. Shreve's writing style contains deep thoughts and nuances that can quickly be passed over if one is a fast reader. Hughes' reading was expertly paced and every thought and nuance was easily caught by the listener. I appreciated Hughes' talent for distinguishing the voices of the characters. Not only did she do this by pitch and tone, but through various regional accents of the upper and lower classes, as well as the accents of native French speakers speaking English. Shreve did not disappoint. I savored every moment of the story as it unfolded. Her characters were very real and sympathetic. The ending was unpredictable and yet very satisfying. I highly recommend this book and audio experience.
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