Rating: 
Summary: Terrific Book!
Review: This is my first book by this author. It was wonderful. The author's exposition of the various characters was unusual in its depth. I read it too quickly - didn't want the story to end. The plot device of the letters between Caroline and Joe was so romantic and so very effective. This is a very special book. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Best book of the summer!
Review: This is now on my top ten list! Luanne Rice writes with passion and energy so throughout the book you can almost feel the characters emotions. With amazingly descriptive scenes, this book is magnificent and exciting! I recommend it to all!
Rating: 
Summary: Break out the prozac
Review: This is the first book I have read by this author. I have to say that Luanne Rice knows how to depict the tragedies of life. All good stories need conflict and sometimes tragedy is a conflict. This story was dripping with it. Page after page, each character seemed to be drowning in despair. Even the dog (an old forlorn golden retreiver who had one paw on a banna peel and the other in a grave) seemed to have emotional issues to deal with. I wondered how many times was he going to go into the forest to die. In all honesty, this author can truly write about human error and loss. She has a knack for analysing and potraying her character's thoughts and behavior. This book is well written, it was just a downer for me. I invest in a book to make myself feel better. I was glad to put this one down. This lady writes well enough though, that I will try another book and hope it isn't the pattern of all her books.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: This was my first Luanne Rice novel, and I was disappointed. In fact, I had a hard time finishing the book. Rice has received such glowing reviews that I really expected something on the order of a Jodi Picoult or Patricia Gaffney book. I don't get the "elegant writer" description so many reviewers have accorded Rice. I found the writing to be choppy and fairly ordinary. Some of the situations were so far fetched and made the characters involved so unsympathetic, I found it hard to care about them. The sisters were well-drawn, except at times I wanted to smack Caroline for being such a martyr. But that mother of theirs! I was actually wishing she'd die. She sacrificed her daughters' wellbeing and emotional health because she was a stupid woman who allowed her obsession with her worthless husband to dominate her existence. Sorry, but I don't go along with the myth that artists are above the rules and that we mere mortals must humor and indulge their every wish. I think a mother has a moral obligation to protect her children, and this woman didn't. In fact, this woman put her children in danger and never lifted a finger to stop it. As far as I'm concerned, no amount of "realization" at the end justifies the way she led her life. I guess the bottom line is, I didn't like a lot of these people so really didn't care what became of them. I do have two other Luanne Rice books sitting on my bookshelf and I will give her another try. I only hope they're better than this one was.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as "Summer Light"
Review: Too much unnecessary violence and profanity. It seemed like all the characters were made into alcoholics for the sake of character conflict.The romance of Caroline Renwick and Joe Connor is complicated by a shooting that involved both their parents years ago. Caroline and Joe began writing letters when they were teenagers, so there's a lot of backstory told through letters. This novel feels a lot like Nicholas Sparks's "Message in a Bottle" what with taking place near the ocean, and lots of old letters remembered. "Firefly Beach" has lots of stuff about deep-sea diving and oceanography, as the Connor brothers are scuba divers looking for lost ocean treasure--very similar to the diving instructor in "Message in a bottle". However, Luanne Rice's Connecticut shoreline is nowhere near as compelling as Nicholas Sparks North Carolina shoreline in "Message in a Bottle," which I might rather read than "Firefly". Luanne Rice's other novel, "Summer Light", the one that came after "Firefly", was the better one of the two Luanne Rice books.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as "Summer Light"
Review: Too much unnecessary violence and profanity. It seemed like all the characters were made into alcoholics for the sake of character conflict. The romance of Caroline Renwick and Joe Connor is complicated by a shooting that involved both their parents years ago. Caroline and Joe began writing letters when they were teenagers, so there's a lot of backstory told through letters. This novel feels a lot like Nicholas Sparks's "Message in a Bottle" what with taking place near the ocean, and lots of old letters remembered. "Firefly Beach" has lots of stuff about deep-sea diving and oceanography, as the Connor brothers are scuba divers looking for lost ocean treasure--very similar to the diving instructor in "Message in a bottle". However, Luanne Rice's Connecticut shoreline is nowhere near as compelling as Nicholas Sparks North Carolina shoreline in "Message in a Bottle," which I might rather read than "Firefly". Luanne Rice's other novel, "Summer Light", the one that came after "Firefly", was the better one of the two Luanne Rice books.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: What a bad book. The characters had no depth and the story was repetitive. I had difficulty getting through it and only finished it for my book group. By the way, no one in the group liked it either.
Rating:
Summary: Good plot idea; poor follow-through
Review: When I read a book, I like to become submerged in the plot, but I never was able to get beyond the glaring editorial errors and mediocre writing. A couple of examples: The Vietnamese river rat incident just about did me in...it's totally unbelievable that this vicious animal would sleep serenely all night, sharing a pillow with a young girl and two cats, and then suddenly cause the devastation which took place the next day. I also found it hard to accept that a mother would actually allow her husband to send their three young daughters into the wilds alone overnight to learn survival skills! ...And the youngest could feel snakes writhing under her tent floor? Come on!
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