A Year of Samantha

Rating:
Summary: Warm, funny, and highly readable
Review: If you are looking for a fun, entertaining yet meaningful book to curl up with this winter, I would strongly recommend B.D. Gardner's debut novel A Year of Samantha. A Year of Samantha tells the story of 27-year old Samantha Van Holt, an assistant manager in a clothing store who is currently undergoing a somewhat chaotic year of her life. Who knew 27 could be such a difficult age? Fortunately (or is it?) she has plenty of male admirers to choose from - there is the very married Gordon, and the sweet, marriage and commitment enthusiast Cedric, and the night janitor who Samantha suddenly finds exceedingly attractive. While trying to figure out her love life, Samantha's boss Guido appears to be up to a no good embezzling scheme that might get everyone (including her) in trouble. Add to that the usual family chaos and problems, and you have a recipe for a pretty difficult year of life, but the makings of a solid novel.

This book is slightly different than some of the other more fluffy and airy chick lit. It has real substance and is delightfully realistic. It will also keep you reading into the night to see what happens next! I highly recommend "A Year of Samantha".

Rating:
Summary: Bad, bad, way bad!
Review: It is not often that I give up on a book without finishing it -- but with this book I had to. Too many details, unbecomming characters, full of typos, and nothing that really sets the hook. Having read quite a bit in the chicklit genre -- this should not be included in the same classification. Yes, the main character is a woman. Yes, she is 20 or 30-something. But the similarity stops there. Don't bother with this one ladies. It left me frustrated and needing to find a good book quickly to make up for lost time spent with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Trash with class
Review: Once I picked it up, I read it in a week! Loved the characters and now reading the sequel, Another Year of Samantha.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating!
Review: Sam - you go girl! This is not your ordinary romance novel! The main character, Samantha, has beauty, strength, spirit, and is not afraid to go after what she wants. A refreshing change from the typical, predictable, and boring novels of late. B.D. Gardner brings Samantha alive and makes you care about hat is going to happen next in her life. I read the entire book in two days and can't wait for the next one! Bravo!!

Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: The author of this book emailed me to see if I would add this book to one of my listmania lists. This is really strange for me since I am only 17, but not the first time this has happened.
This book sounds like a Wendy Holden book and one I would like to read.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't like it
Review: The author sent me this book, and that was very nice. It sounded like it would be really good and I was really looking forward to reading it. It bored me to tears. The book was two thirds of Sam trying to get her money back. And the Cedric character was pathetic. I couldn't wait for it to end. A lot of parts seemed to drag. But the parts I wanted to go on longer ended very quick. Sorry but I wouldn't recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: Bad, bad, way bad!
Review: This book has got to be THE WORST book I've ever read in my entire life. I've had the book for over 2 months and I still can't get past chapter 18. Each time I try to read the book, I can only get past a few pages before I put the book down in disgust. The character development is horrible and you can't relate to any of them. I guess you're supposed to feel bad for Samantha since her partner is stealing from her, but besides complaining about how busy it is in the store, she doesn't actually do any work...asides from getting manicures and taking lunches. Samantha's just egotistical and shallow. And I guess you're supposed to feel sorry for Cedric since he's in love with Samantha, but he's just a stalker who shows up at her store everyday. Does this man not work? I don't know, since the author is too busy describing minute details instead of laying down a foundation first.

Aside from the horrendous characters, the writing itself is just horrible. Gardner describes too much, especially people's thought processes, and leaves nothing for the imagination. For each line of dialog, Gardner needs to use a paragraph to describe the thought process and the reason why that line was used. The description gets incredibly tedious, and on top of that, the dialog itself is unbelievably stiff. No one talks like that in real life! The editing is terrible, with spelling and grammatical errors everywhere!

All in all, this was a horrible book and I wish I could give it negative stars. Please! Spare yourself the pain and do not buy this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: Horrendous
Review: This book has got to be THE WORST book I've ever read in my entire life. I've had the book for over 2 months and I still can't get past chapter 18. Each time I try to read the book, I can only get past a few pages before I put the book down in disgust. The character development is horrible and you can't relate to any of them. I guess you're supposed to feel bad for Samantha since her partner is stealing from her, but besides complaining about how busy it is in the store, she doesn't actually do any work...asides from getting manicures and taking lunches. Samantha's just egotistical and shallow. And I guess you're supposed to feel sorry for Cedric since he's in love with Samantha, but he's just a stalker who shows up at her store everyday. Does this man not work? I don't know, since the author is too busy describing minute details instead of laying down a foundation first.

Aside from the horrendous characters, the writing itself is just horrible. Gardner describes too much, especially people's thought processes, and leaves nothing for the imagination. For each line of dialog, Gardner needs to use a paragraph to describe the thought process and the reason why that line was used. The description gets incredibly tedious, and on top of that, the dialog itself is unbelievably stiff. No one talks like that in real life! The editing is terrible, with spelling and grammatical errors everywhere!

All in all, this was a horrible book and I wish I could give it negative stars. Please! Spare yourself the pain and do not buy this book!!!

Rating:
Summary: I didn't want it to end!
Review: This book is great. Light-hearted, funny, sweet, yet very real to life. I laughed a lot reading it. If you read funny Chick Lit and you're looking for a nice summer read, this one is really good.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly one of the WORST books I've read
Review: This book was absolutely terrible. The writing was stilted and not at all engaging. The characters were poorly developed and alternately pathetic and spineless and a heartless self-involved loser of a "heroine". Just awful-don't waste your time or money on this book.