Home :: Books :: Audio CDs  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs

Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Just One Look

Just One Look

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $20.37
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 6 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: couldn't put it down
Review: OK, I've read some of the other reviews and their criticisms are valid; nonetheless, I couldn't put this book down. And I love the fact that the plot is complex, and the way Coben has so many dire consequences evolve from a few seemingly minor events. That said, I agree that many of the characters are underdeveloped, although I did think Grace was well done. My personal biggest complaint was that the REALLY BAD bad guy was so much a cardboard stereotype. I know tha psychopaths exist, but this guy was pretty far out there, and also, too much of a "perfect killing machine" for my taste. It just doesn't SEEM real.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another Coben Ride
Review: Just One Look is not the roller coaster ride of Coben's other books; Tell No One, Gone For Good, and No Second Chance. This book is more a trip on a slightly rolling sea....until the last few pages when you are hit by a giant wave you didn't see coming. Pure Harlan Coben.

I agree with other reviewers that this latest adventure is not as outstanding as Coben's others. Let us not forget, though, that a good Coben novel is better than 90% of other authors' great novels.

As I'm sure you know by now, this is a story of a happy, successful couple with two children who are blindsided by someone placing a 15 year old picture in with recently developed family snapshots. The husband disappears, the wife searches for him, and a myriad of characters pop out of the pages from the past of both husband and wife. Both of whom have a serious past.

Oddly, for 2 people who have been married for years, these two know basically nothing about each other's lives before they met. That takes a bit of a leap of faith. Another criticism is that I really wasn't invested in the two main characters. Coben failed to develop them to the point where I particularly cared what happened to them. This is not to say that I didn't want to know how it all would end, because I did, and read this in one day. Unlike Coben's past 3 novels, however, I was able to put it down for minutes at a time and go about my day.

Yes, some of the characters are stereotypes and the one I came to care about most was a pure Coben twist character - a woman who is in the right place at all of the wrong times and, in my opinion, was the true heroine of a story which didn't contain many, if any, heroic folk.

This is a story of how youthful indescretions can wreak havoc and come back to haunt you many years later with the help of a few flawed personalities. It is definitely a must read, a good story, and an ending that made me want to go back and reread the whole story to see why I didn't see that big wave coming.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not his best
Review: I have been reading Harlan's books for years now. I really enjoyed his Bolitar mysteries and thought "Tell No One" was excellent. Of all his stand alone mysteries, I liked this the least, although I did read it in two days and thought it to be hard to put down. I just thought the story was too contrived and unbelievable. I thought the characters needed more development especially the bad guy.
I thought the ending was very unbelievable. Even though it was and exciting read, after I was done, it felt like a meal with all desert and no meat and potatoes- very unsatisfying. I recommend his earlier books. I am hooked on his books though and will probably buy and read the next one too. I recently read
"Persuader" by Lee Child and found it to be more satisfying

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just One Look
Review: See storyline above.

Coben's writing style has a tendency to pull you in. The pace. The mystery. The suspense.
This book is worth reading, though it's not his best. Most of the mysteries and questions were thrown at you in the last few pages (making it complex enough to make you loopy).

Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The threads of Harlan's new and exciting novel are
Review: masterfully and mysteriously woven into a tapesty of suspense. A tense thriller that will have you forgetting about the world about you and immersing yourself into the over-turned life of Grace Lawson.

Happily ensconced in the role of suburban housewife and mother, she is surrounded by a truly thoughtful and dedicated husband and two beautiful children. Like so many of us do on outings with those we love Grace captures the happy times with her camera and brings the pictures to be processed.

It takes "Just One Look" to realize that among them is one that surely does not belong to her. It was taken at least 10 years before and captures unfamiliar people grouped together...unfamiliar except for one...her husband Jack. Where did the picture come from...why was it given to her...who are these people?

She shows Jack the picture and he is so shocked that he leaves without saying a word and then is not heard from again. Grace's search for both her missing husband and the answers to the myriad questions that have arisen because of this picture is presented to us by this multi-talented writer who uses his intimate knowledge of the english language in such a way as to capture our imagination and sweep us along from page to page.

You may have to put the book down from time to time to attend to the world around you...but the story never leaves you and you know you will return to it as soon as time permits...or if you are like me; you will carve out a piece of time no matter what.

"Just One Look" is a gripping novel ... read closely and you will find allusions to some of his Bolitar characters; which I for one thought was clever. But then, I would expect no less from Harlan Coben. You bet he is one of my most favorite of all authors and his continuing success in writing complex mysteries
(as opposed to the many simplistic ones that are on the market) proves that many, many other readers enjoy his imagaination and his style. A wonderful thinking man's mystery from mystery's forever-thinking man. Thanks for another great one, Harlan!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: First introduced to harlan Coben via his NO SECOND CHANCE, I worried that the author wouldn't be able to compete with that bestseller. Boy, was I wrong!

JUST ONE LOOK is even better. With its character driven plot and svelt writing style, this book really "moves." Not in the page-turner way of some of the more commercial books, but in a thinking man's way.

I highly recommend this book, along with another great read I've come across lately: THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD by Jackson McCrae.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good beginning, weak ending.
Review: Grace Lawson is a happily married mother of two whose world is suddenly shattered when her husband, Jack, disappears. Harlan Coben's "Just One Look" follows Grace's desperate efforts to find out where her husband went and why. Did he leave of his own volition or was he abducted? The one clue that Grace has is a twenty-year-old photo that shows her husband with four other people. Who are these people and what do they have to do with Jack's disappearance?

"Just One Look" has a strong opening but it falters towards the middle and completely falls apart at the end. Many books deal with a husband or wife who vanishes without a trace. It's one of the oldest and most effective hooks, since a missing spouse is sure to grab the reader's attention and gain sympathy for the protagonist. However, in order to sustain interest, the author must also create well-developed characters and an engrossing plot. Coben does neither. Jack is a cipher, Grace is little more than a frightened and confused woman, and the villains are straight out of central casting. Two of the clichés in "Just One Look" are a mob-connected wiseguy out for revenge and an Asian killing machine who disables his victims with his bare hands.

In almost every thriller written today, the reader expects the obligatory twists and turns towards the end, and Coben dutifully provides plenty of surprises. These unexpected plot developments do not save the book because they are too illogical and melodramatic to be taken seriously. "Just One Look" promises a great deal with a very exciting opening, but the convoluted and overwrought conclusion undermines everything that has gone before.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not His Best
Review: Having devoured the past three or four Coben books, I found Just One Look to be extremely disappointing and frankly boring. I kept reading the book in the hope that Coben's signature surprises and twists/turns would redeem the book. Unfortunately, such was not the case as the storyline is altogether implausible with characters that are hardly compelling. Finally, the story simply does not make sense. Hopefully, Coben's next book will be return to his previous efforts.

If you're looking for other enjoyable authors pick up anything by Lee Child (Jack Reacher series) or Clinton McKinzie (Antonio Burns series).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I love Coben,but this is not his best
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that this book is not Coben's best. It is not in the class of "Tell No One" or "Gone For Good". There are too many characters and none of them are as well developed (this is usually not a problem in Coben books), It gets confusing after awhile. It also does not have he originality of Cobens earlier works. All in all it is still better then Most the junk I read so do not let my negative comments turn you away I am just picky. I also recommend "A Tourist In the Yucatan" fun thriller thats become an underground hit.!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A MAJOR disappointment
Review: I have read most of Coben's books and particularly enjoyed "Tell No One" and "No Second Chance".
In fact, I was so excited I ordered an autographed copy immediately upon learning of the book.
I made a mistake. This book is very shallow and just not of the caliber of previous efforts.
After 50 pages or so, I realized things would not likely get better and that proved to be accurate. In previous books, you can hardly wait to turn the page and hope the book never ends.
In this one, you debate whether to turn a page or close the book.
Just One Look is a good title, take a look and pass it by.


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 6 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates