Crows Over A Wheatfield

Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: I really didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I found it a very enthralling, believable read. The characters were so real and loveable, while some remained hated, it's what made it real.

This was not a book drenched in legal terms, I would have expected a book by a lawyer to be very legal and politically correct. This was a story about Melanie Ratleer finding out who she is, during her childhood with an abusive father, to her adulthood following in his professional footsteps. In the present, Melaine is a newly appointed judge, who upon repeated trips back home to her step family sees abuse in others, and people who do things about it through any means necessary.

This was a very well written novel, that kept me very interested. I would definitely recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A good book with awesome characters
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. I am looking foward to the next Paula Sharp novel (I Loved You All)that I've purchased. I would recommend this book very highly. I think you will enjoy this book even if you do not agree with the point of views that are a big part of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Moving, funny, beautiful book with amazing characters
Review: This is definitely a five-star book. As an attorney who works in the Ohio courts, I found Crows over a Wheatfield amazingly accurate - we're lucky that someone who knows the courts writes so well, too. The portrait of Mildred Steck's abusive husband Daniel is ingenious - he really does talk and act like such people do. I love the way he contradicts himself without even realizing it, the way he seems completely disassociated from his own nastiness. In real life, I think men like him would probably be more dangerous, although I can see why Sharp would have wanted to rein him in a little, to draw a more subtle portrait. My favorite character in this book is Daniel's wife, Mildred. I like her because she defies all stereotypes of battered women - she's just an ordinary person who had the misfortune of marrying someone who was not so ordinary. Mildred is so full of life and humor - the best thing about this book is the way Sharp, astonishingly, keeps you laughing even in the worst of times. The novel's fourth book, in which Mildred starts an underground railroad for battered women, was the best of the four books of the novel. The detailing of how the railroad was set up was so ingenious, and its architects and philosophy so wry and amusing. Quite an indictment of the legal system. Anyone who ever thinks they might end up in a matrimonial court case should read this book.