Baggage

Rating:
Summary: Okay...too neatly wrapped up
Review: Baggage is a mystery novel about a British girl that has been running from the law for 10 years. Lina now lives in the outback of Australia and thinks she is safe. Her new life is perfect; she is pregnant, her husband is sweet and her adopted son loves them both. But, when a friend from the past shows up everything turns upside down. This story takes a bit to get going. It is also a challenge at first to get the writing style. The story gets pulled together chapter after chapter not all at once. This is a wonderful story that is a great fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Great suspense from a new author!
Review: Baggage is a suspenseful and complex novel about a woman who thought she had escaped her painful past. Lina Pritchett has finally found the normalcy she's always craved. She's an elementary school teacher in a small Australian town, has a loving husband and an adorable adopted ten-year-old son. However, her ordered world shatters when she reunites with an old friend -- a friend who had left her for dead years ago. What is Lina hiding? And will she be able to escape her past again? To make matters worse, she is pregnant. There are various twists in the novel.

Emily Barr is a great new voice in fiction. Baggage is readable from cover to cover. I devoured it in two days. I look forward to reading Backpack, her first novel.

Rating:
Summary: Suspense filled until the end
Review: Daisy Frasier has left her old life in England and has taken on the identity of Lina Pritchett and living in Craggy Rock, Australia. She has completely started her life over with a job a local school teacher, married with a baby on the way. Now this girl really had some baggage that she left behind, but you will have to get the book to find out exactly what it is she is running and hiding from ...I'm not giving it all away. This suspense filled book will keep you turning pages right up until the end....will the now Lina keep away from her past or will it finally catch up with her? What a page turner!

Looking forward to reading Emily Barr's other book: Backpack

Rating:
Summary: Not able to put it down.
Review: During a vacation I needed a book to read. When I came upon this book, I had never heard of the title or author, yet it interested me. After reading it from start to finish in four days I can honestly tell you that this is a truly fun book to read. I took it everywhere with me and loved every minute of it. It is well paced with witty writing and dialog. Emily Barr is a good author that can appeal to both teenagers and adults. I will be definitely looking out for my books by Barr.

Rating:
Summary: A twist on British chic-lit
Review: Emily Barr's BAGGAGE delivers a strong first half: the protagonist, Lina Pritchett, has successfully hidden her past from her husband Tony, son Red, and the rest of Craggy Rock, Australia, a dusty and desolate town in the Outback. Newly pregnant, Lina feels that her future is bright and secure; her past is something she can ignore. However, when a group of backpackers arrive in Craggy Rock, everything Lina has carefully constructed begins to crumble.

Once Lina's secret is discovered by the public mid-way through the book, the suspense dies. Because the characterization has been superficial, nothing remains to keep the reader interested in what happens to Lina and her family. Instead, too many pages are devoted to the press outside Lina's door, to the obvious implications of her being discovered, and to the shallow, often-unbelievable actions of the journalists. Tony remains conveniently behind in another town, arriving only for a bland scene or two that do little to prepare the reader for the disappointing epilogue. Eleven year old Red questions little and understands even less. As Lina closes herself in her mother-in-law's guest room, she becomes not only psychologically but also physically inert, resulting in a story that feels more like a plot outline than an expanding novel.

I read this book to the end only because it demanded so little of me. Lina's voice is smart, realistic, and easy to like. The point-of-view of Lawrence, the journalist who uncovers Lina's secret, is less successful. I found myself wishing that Barr had entered into these lives a little more fully, exploring the complexities of their ethics perhaps or the intricacies of their relationships. Unfortunately, Barr never takes her characters past the obvious. Other reviewers have commented on the inappropriateness of the cover; I can only say that it must represent the self-absorbed and inconsequential navel-gazing of the second part. On the whole, the book is light and unchallenging, fluff with a modicum of suspense.

Rating:
Summary: Always watch your back
Review: i found this book to be exciting, leaving the reader always wondering what is next. This suspensful stroy of a woman on the run always leaves you curious to know what she could possibly be still hiding. After a contributing factor in a deadly crime, Daisy Frasier, now Lina Pritchett fakes her own death is now on the run... Now, ten years later Lina has settled in a quiet town in the Outback, Craggy Rock. Married, mothe of one and one on the way, Lina feels she is in the clear until she stumbles on a friend of the past who just may end up exposing everything she has worked so hard to cover up.
I would defiantely reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for adventure and suspense without the blood and gore. it is definately a modern book, with very recent references. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Weekend reading
Review: I should start this by saying that I am overly picky. That said, this was a quick and enjoyable enough book for some light weekend reading. The premise is interesting, and the author manages to keep the story light and enjoyable even given a potentially serious storyline. My three complaints: 1) Without giving away the ending, I found it disappointing on some, though not all, counts. 2) The book switches narrative between first person accounts of the protagonist and antagonist, with little success. The protagonist's voice is clear, humorous and enjoyable, but the author never quite succeeds with the antagonist's voice. The antagonist sounds like an idiot, even from his own inflated perspective, and he never becomes interesting, just sort of annoying. 3) The cover picture is gratuitous. There isn't anyone in the book that is described as wearing something like this. The main character is PREGNANT for chrissake. But I suppose a pregnant belly on the cover would sell less books...
Still, a good enough read.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing book
Review: When I picked this book up, I thought it would be a typical chick flick ~~ it wasn't. Much to my surprise, it's somewhat of a mystery book ~~ and I enjoyed it immensely! At least, I have a better idea of what Australia is like!

Lina is preoccupied with hiding her pregnancy from the villagers of Craggy Rock, a desert town in Australia. She hasn't even told her 10-year-old son yet ~~ and the next day, her whole life changes upon a chance meeting with an Englisher who was insistent that Lina is her best friend, who had disappeared ten years previous. Lina insists that she's Lina, wife to Tony and mother to Red ~~ is she hiding something more than she is willing to let on? And Barr writes convincingly of a woman with a past ~~ how the past catches up with her and the sleazy journalists who swarmed over the sleepy desert town just to get the hottest story of the year.

It is a quick read ~~ perfect beach read ~~ and it's not one of the fluffy chick lit either. Don't let the cover fool you. If there were sex scenes in that book, there weren't that many and it wasn't graphic either. The characters were more preoccupied with alcohol than sex ~~ which is an unusual change of pace for me! But it was an enjoyable read ~~ Barr is one author I would like to read more on...