Wish You Well

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying Read!
Review: I recently went on a trip to visit family and while there my mother in law had just finished reading Wish You Well. Having a rainy afternoon with nothing to do I picked up the book and started to read and I could not put it down. It was very enjoyable. I read it every chance I could get and fell in love with all the characters. (Except for George Davis of course!) I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, heartwarming story.

Rating:
Summary: sensitive & beautiful
Review: David Baldacci's thriller fiction is typically pretty simplistic, but ok. I gave up on him after a couple of books because he seemed to be a "one trick pony." However, I read this book because the description on the back intrigued me. It is a wonderful book with people you can see and feel, especially if you've ever lived in the back country of Virginia or West Virginia. The book is about hope in the face of hopeless situations. What an unexpected treasure and a book I will keep forever.

Rating:
Summary: MUST READ 4 EVERYONE
Review: When Lou's father died in a car accident, she and her brother Oz are sent from the big city of New York to the mountains of Virginia where their great-grandmother lives, a place without electricity or water.

From here, the novel takes on many inexpected twists and turns, even the reader itself will not be able to guess what will happen next. What does happen will come as a surprise.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone. It teaches us all a valuable lesson of life.

Rating:
Summary: Life in the hills of Virginia
Review: A refreshing change from the usual love stories (Steel, Rice, Belva and Nora Roberts) It takes place in the forties and spans a few years. You feel a great sense of satisfaction when you learn of life as a poor family in the mountains, yet so rich in family values. I felt like I knew the entire family, and the people in the small town. Its like a history lesson, that was a lot of fun to read.....I didn't want it to end. Its a quick and easy read for all.

Rating:
Summary: A bit dry, but pleasant enough.
Review: Though I would not race right out and buy this book, perhaps you could borrow it, as it IS an easy-paced, well-written story. Lou and Oz are orphaned at ages 12 and 8, their father has died in a car wreck, their mother is hopelessly comatose. They have no family except a great grandmother, Lou's namesake, living in the Appalachian Mountains. She is thrilled to take them in, but Lou and Oz must adapt from a New York City lifestyle to that of mountain folk, whose chores are endless, and where nothing you need is ever store-bought. Lou harbors a deep resentment of her comatose mother, blames her, in fact, for her father's death, whereas 8 year old Oz adores his mother, and believes with childlike faith that with enough attention and love, his mother will get better. There are a couple of side conflicts to entertain you, but not much excitement. Even if it doesn't keep you up at night, it will occupy a few lazy summer afternoons.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed the change from Baldacci
Review: Wish You Well is a different style of novel from writer David Baldacci. I have read many of his thrillers and was wary of reading his new attempt at nostalgic fiction. But I ended up really enjoying the story. The story is centered around the lives of Lou, a twelve year old city girl, and her younger brother Oz, who are suddenly thrust into country life without either of their parents. The story is suitable for readers of all ages. The natural flow and rythm of the voice makes it easy to read and understand. The voice of this novel was undeniably nostalgiac. It provided an underlying innocence to the lives of Lou and Oz and the people they meet in the country. Baldacci's voice in this novel is different from what we are used to reading from him. This shows his range and ability as a writer. All of his novels are well written, but this one has a sentimenatlity that is interspersed with deep emotion and vivid detail.
Overall, though this story may not be as suspensful as Baldacci's other novels I thought it was still a very entertaining read.

Rating:
Summary: Wish You Well
Review: Lou and Oz have suffered the loss of their father, through a car accident, of which has left their mother in a coma. From the city, to the Virginian Appalachians. Lou has always wanted to be her father, but when she moved her future changed, for she now had chores and had to wake up early to finish the farm work in order to get money. In the end she found her future, not to be what she thought it would be.

Rating:
Summary: As my first David Baldacci read I loved it.
Review: I found the book Wish You Well to be quite inspirational, more so than I initially thought it to be. I found Louisa's character to be annoying and spoiled at times, similar to the way a sibling can be. I felt the struggles Louisa Mae had to overcome were unbelievably difficult. The strength she and brother Oz had in order to overcome the death of their father was almost questionable to myself as to whether I would have that strength. I enjoyed all of the lifestyle changes she had to endure. The detail involved in the setting of the mountains and the farm made an indescribable visual for the majority of the book. The changes that Louisa Mae's character underwent were predictable, yet surprising at times. David Baldacci also threw in some legal issues, which added even more to Louisa Mae's struggles. With his previous legal works being my initial reason for reading his novels, I found the connection between the childhood Virginia homeland and the adult law-making career very original. I couldn't put the book down for all of the two days it took me to read. It was very compelling yet tragic, but I found it to be original and thought-provoking, because of that I rate this book a 5 and would recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet images but little depth
Review: Baldacci's intentions were good, and being a native of Southwest Virginia, I can relate to his emotion about his homeplace and his need to write nostalgically about it. However, the book is overly sentimental, entirely predictable, and thin. In his departure from thrillers to attempt more substantive material, I believe Baldacci over-extended himself with Wish You Well.

Rating:
Summary: WISH YOU WELL
Review: LOVED THIS BOOK. I AM A NATIVE VIRGINIAN AND IT TOOK ME BACK IN TIME AND SPACE. LOVED HIS CHARACTERS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN COUNTRY. HIS STYLE OF WRITING IS EXCITING.