Rating:  Summary: My Friend loved It... Review: My best friend reccomended this book and said it was the best she'd read in awhile. Said there were parts that she could hardly relax in because of the anticipation of what was going to happen. I started the book, read 2 pages, fell asleep. It went on that way until I finished the book, and needless to say, I never found a good part, I just kept reading thinking it would get better. And it never did.
Rating:  Summary: Not a bad read, but not spectacular Review: I'm usually not drawn to ghost stories, and maybe that is why I've only given this book three stars. I thought it actually moved at "not a slow" clip, kept my interest, and written well. But I just didnt follow the whole ghost thing - were there 1 or 2? What did they want? Why did they "haunt" Hannah and Conary, in particular? I feel that I missed something but, as I said earlier, maybe this is why I dont do ghost stories.
Rating:  Summary: ghost stories Review: "True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen." This quote starts the book. The story is told in a flashback of an elderly woman named Hannah describing the summer she was 17 and in love with a boy named Conary. Alternating chapters are flashbacks to another woman's life more than 100 years before. Over the chapters, the two stories come together to form one gripping tale of love and ghosts. I read it in about a day. I may very well end up naming my son Conary. I loved this book.
Rating:  Summary: Haunted by the past Review: Ghosts are real in this novel, both literally and in the way violent emotions from the past can influence the future. I finished this novel two days ago and have not been able to stop thinking about it. The language is powerful, moving, unadorned. I found myself caring passionately about the people in both stories as they moved to their tragic fates. We the readers know what is coming for them but are as helpless to stop it as are the characters themselves.
Rating:  Summary: A fascinating book ! Review: I live in Maine and so I found this book especially interesting. The mystery, the love story, the ghost story and the biographical qualities were all woven together in tapestry that left me on the edge of my seat wanting more. I agree that this book can be confusing, but I found the threads were all woven together neatly....but they took time to show the full picture. That said, it was an infectous book to read. I simply couldn't put it down.
Rating:  Summary: Best book I've read in ages! Review: This is my first Beth Gutcheon novel. I'm hooked. I read it well into the night, just didn't want to put it down and couldn't wait to find out what happened to Hannah and Conary. Gutcheon's characters take on a life of their own. You can feel their silent pain, their joys in knowing what it is to truly live. Gutcheon's ability to capture the family dynamics from all angles is amazing. She enabled the reader to actually feel sympathy for the unlikeliest of characters. This book was suspenseful and spooky! The ghostly hauntings are handled well -- well enough to make me wish I hadn't read until late into the night! The intertwined love story is icing on the cake. Enjoy!
Rating:  Summary: The more I read the more I knew I disliked this book!!! Review: This book is a very quick read but it isn't worth it. Total waste of time. Too many loose ends in this book. OY! You've been warned!!!
Rating:  Summary: ditto to confusing and disappointing Review: This is the first book of Gutcheon's I've read, and probably the last if, according to reviews, this her best book. I completely agree with the review titled confusing and disappointing...the parallel stories were intriguing but I thought there would be something in the end that tied it all together. But there was never any closure on the correlation between the two stories and really left me hanging. It had great potential but lacked the 'umph' to make it a great book.
Rating:  Summary: The best book ever!!! Review: Don't listen to the reviewer from Wellesley, MA. This book was the best I have ever read. Suspenseful, thought provoking, atmospeheric, and enagaing. I'm not one to reveal the plot (like some other reviewers), so I won't go in to detail. But I will say, each time I finished a chapter I actually exlcaimed out loud! If you like great stories and intelligent characters, read this book!!! You will not regret it.
Rating:  Summary: The bond between love, life, death, past and present Review: More Than You Know is an amazing book by Beth Gutcheon. It closes the gap between past and present, by discussing a young girl's life, and referring back to a life lived more than fifty years ago. Hannah Gray is the narrator, an elderly woman who reminisces about a certain summer that she spent in Dundee, Maine, where the entire book takes place. There she revels in the love just begun between her and the town 'bad boy' Conary Crocker. The other half of the book dictates the life of an Osgood and a Haskell who wed. Claris, the girl whom always did what she felt was right in her heart, married Daniel Haskell, with support but not faith from her family. As it turns out her family was right. From there on, her life was empty and full of pain. Moving further in time, approximately fifty years later, or more, Hannah is spending the summer in Dundee, the mainland from the island that Claris and Danial had lived. Hannah hears many stories about the family, but the most disturbing is what she finds out about the house she is living in. It was a house that they had brought over the ice one winter, and the Haskell's had lived in it. As it turns out, the house was haunted. By whom, Hannah could not figure out, but she had her suspicions. This is an excellent book, and I recommend it to anyone who likes suspense, love, history, and adventure all wrapped together!
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