Rating: 
Summary: Great!
Review: Alright I can relate to a lot of you highschoolers who are pressured by the SAT. I, too, have a vast collection of SAT books preparing for my test later this year. Although the math section comes naturally to me, it is the verbal section that proved difficult for me. I have two verbal books: Word Smart and Tooth and Nail, and I can candidly say that Tooth and Nail easily tops Word Smart for several reasons. Firstly, Tooth and Nail provides the reader with contextual vocabulary practice -- which is a part of the verbal section -- whereas Wordsmart is simply a list of words memorize. Secondly, it Tooth and Nail is smartly presented in a novel. Yes, okay it is a cheesy novel but it is better than the insipid lists of WordSmart. Thirdly, I find it is easier for me to recall the words through the book because I can remember a part of the plot thus helping me remember the words. In sum, the SAT preparer is left with a choice: The never ending lists of vocab words or the smartly presented, slightly cheesy novel Tooth and Nail...though choice...
Rating:
Summary: Just like the book says..."A novel approach to the new SAT."
Review: Awesome book! Great plot... lots of vocab! It gives you a chance to see the words in context while enjoying a well thought out mystery. If you need help on the Verbal section of the SAT... this book is enthusiastically recomended.
Rating: 
Summary: don't waste you time
Review: For all you students out there who are trying to improve you SAT verbal score, do not get this book. It was impossible to follow because of to many vocab words crammed into one sentence. I desided to stop reading it because doing something that I really didn't want to would not improve my score. I thought I would be able to muscle my way through it, but the bland boring nature of the plot and charecters made consider jumping out of a window. If you want to help yourself get an online course or take a class, but this book is not a good idea.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent way to study for the SAT!
Review: Get rid of those old word lists and dig into this amusing mystery! The most important SAT words are used and defined so students can have fun, read, and study all at the same time
Rating:
Summary: maybe fun but not helpful
Review: I don't see how this book is supposed to help prepare you for the SAT. It's a funny mystery with vocabulary words in it that may or may not be on the test. Wouldn't it just be easier to study from a normal SAT guide that explains the test? Those books also give you vocabulary words so you don't haver to hunt for them in some story.
Rating:
Summary: This is the MOST ENTERTAINING part of prepraing for the SAT
Review: I found this book to be most helpful. It brings you along in such a fun way that you never even realize you are learning the words until you find yourself using them daily. I could not think of a better guide. This one definitely works.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, bad format
Review: I just finished reading the book Tooth and Nail. The reason I've chosen to review it is to warn you of the annoyance to come. Yeah, the mystery story line is an Ok touch, but having to continue going to the back of the book to look up the boldfaced words is so stupid and time-wasting. When I first started reading the book, I was learning a couple words because the bold ones didn't appear so often. When there were as many as 5 or more boldfaced words on one page, I got sick of flipping to the back of the book, trying to find the word in the glossary. This really messed up the purpose of the book: to better your vocabulary skills. I think that the publisher should have put the definitions of the words at the bottom of each page that it had the words on. This would have been much more efficent. All in all, I'd say if you can't study your SAT words any other way, this book should be one of the last choices you turn to.
Rating:
Summary: Had to quit b/c tape quality was so bad!
Review: I love Charles Harrington Elster and his Verbal Advantage series and I think I would have loved this format but the tape quality was so awful I had to stop the tape altogether.
Big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: doesn't help much, unless you want a synonym for wink
Review: I read this book and I don't think it helped much. I already knew what the words meant, save for "nictitate". All the others I knew. The story itself is mediocre. Some liberal school. Some goofy detective crap. This "Novel" approach to the SAT really isn't novel. If you want to read something loaded with SAT words try Herman Melville's stories. How about perusing Times or a National Geographic. How about doing it the hard way: memorizing word lists. That's what the SAT verbal comes down to. You have to memorize some obscure terms like circumlocution, pedant, philology, and sarcophagus. Arcane, rarely used lexicon. But there's more than weird vocabulary to the SAT Verbal. The Critical Reading usually doesn't have tough vocabulary. But the Critical Reading is what messes up my score. On a recent SAT verbal I made a 660. Reason? I missed 10 Critical Reading questions. Why? Because it was about irrelevant [stuff]. I really didn't care that day about ugly art or some [guy's] travel log about Bohemia. So what's the solution to the SAT verbal? I would personally say that after knowing your material, attitude plays a big part. Another book that is good for SAT, Up Your Score, says the same.
You have to psyche yourself up so you can be interesting in "celery development" or "the development of the theory of evolution". Believe me, it's usually that same boring [stuff]. Never anything interesting. So that makes "Tooth and Nail" a useless book. All they do is plop some arcane SAT words into a detective story. Most of the words they use are superfluous. Other words would work fine.
So this book failed. I didn't get the score I wanted. It was just a stupid story that I just read because I wanted to know what happened at the end of the phony mystery. What happened? It's silly: they figure out the mystery and the girl and dude smooch. I will never forget the last word of the book though. Nictitate. Not that it will ever be useful though. Just like this book. If you want to do well in SAT verbal, get a practice workbook. Do the practice questions. Do the real thing. It will get you confident and work better. Don't waste 20 hours reading this junk. It's not going to affect your score much.
Rating:
Summary: A Complete Waste of Time
Review: I read this book for an english summer homework assignment. Although the back description and introduction allude to an interesting and valuable read, do not expect much. This book is a sore disappointment for anyone who possesses a genuine love of reading. The plot is unbelievably simplistic and unoriginal and it was difficult for me to believe that two well educated scholars wrote it. I was bored to tears after the opening paragraph of the "story" and have had a tough time finishing it. If it weren't for the fact that I will be tested on this, I would have gladly exchanged it for a more engaging read. In terms of SAT prep, it was not entirely helpful there either. Many times throughout the book, it seemed as though the authors exchanged simpler words for complex, lesser known SAT words. The problem was that the SAT words did not fit the context and were spoken by characters that would not have had any clue about the word. The characters were dull and 2-D without ever developing or being explored. The dialogue was unreal and forced.
All in all, this was a horrible book that did not teach me any new words. It was torture to read. Like a previous reviewer said, for SAT prep words read some classic novels where you will be entertained as well as educated. For a REAL mystery, try "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown.
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