Rating: 
Summary: Wasn't this book written in 1900 under a different title?
Review: Say one of those dime novels with a title of "The Undoing of an Unfortunate Family (or the Perils of a Physician and His Lover)". Nah, it couldn't be because while it is stilted and predictable, a bright, loved 15 year old with every advantage who SEDUCES a respected physician with a loving wife and three children after only a few encounters is ridiculous. The book goes on with our heroine defending herself because it was "love and will ever after be" was insulting to me.The trite ending which resolved in a few page was inane and the
"happily ever after" for the two who ruined everyone else's happiness made me gag. Yes, Ms. Shreve, we get it. "Fortune's Rocks"...the ship crashes on the sharp rocks and people's lives are lost...Olympia and Dr. Haskell have "fortunes" and they love their reputations on love's "rocks". I had to keep looking at the cover to make sure I wasn't reading a Harlequin novel. If you want a beach read, get it but stop halfway through...skip to the ending. You won't miss anything and once you read the ending, you'll be glad you didn't waste anymore time on it.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite book in a long while...
Review: My husband & I listened to the audio version of this book read so eloquently by Blair Brown...audio books being our way to spend our daily commute. Now it must be read and savored. We both enjoyed this book immensely. Not since the Poisonwood Bible has an author so completely drawn her characters to be as completely faceted as your most intimate friend. The reader is swept back 100 years ago, when men wore moustaches (plural) and women had fringes (not bangs!) and both wore bathing costumes. Shreve could be a contemporary of George Eliot, in both consummate knowledge of the human heart and the ability to portray a time and place. I disagree with the reviewer who states that Olympia's use of family money to solve her dilemma spoils any feminist bent, since a portrayal of Olympia as a feminist was not the point. I think it only further demontrates the author's mastery - Olympia is not an ideal woman, but a total and true one, since in "real" life we would use any means available to regain an estranged child. Someone also mentioned the "pat" plot twists, but I find them intriguing, in a John Irving king of way. Also enjoyable: Haskells' disovery of passion in middle-age, the courtroom drama and subsequent resolution, and the social condition of factory workers and immigrants. Now reading The Pilot's Wife, finding it not as satisfying (yet), the best part is revisiting Fortune's Rocks and remembering previous inhabitants.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Read
Review: Fortune's Rocks is about a young girl who during the summer of her 15th year shames her family by falling for an older man. She is exiled to a boarding school, where she thinks about nothing but what she lost. We follow Olympia into her 20s and find that she is a very strong woman who will fight for what is rightfully hers. The ending is just extraordinary and the perfect closing to a wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you ready to give up a weekend?
Review: If you're an Anita Shreve fan, you'll probably agree that this is one of her best -- a roller coaster ride of a love story involving a 15 year old beyond-her-years girl at the turn of the century who meets up with a (married, sigh) physician of 45 with a wife and children and what appears to be a happy marriage. But never fear...the two are drawn to each other like magnets and the rest is, well, in the book. Even though I thought this an excellent book, I can't give it 5 stars -- a little suspension of belief is necessary in buying into the idea that a responsible, respected and nearly middle-aged physician in a highly-structured world full of taboos would throw nearly everything to the dogs to pursue pubescence. I recommend it anyway. It's a heckuva read, full of twists and turns and surprises. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing from cover to cover.
Review: Shreve successfully transplants the reader to turn-of-the-century New Hampshire. This book deftly combines a coming of age story, with a tale of "difficult love," as one of the characters so aptly describes the romance of Olympia Biddeford and Dr. John Haskell. Add a strong historical thread and a courtroom drama and you have the makings of a first rate page-turner. The depth of characterization in this novel is remarkable. It has to be, or it would be impossible for most readers to empathize with a fifteen-year old girl who embarks on a torrid affair with 40-year old married man. Shreve is able to get the reader inside the heads of her characters so thoroughly that the reader is able to understand what motivates Olympia and Haskell to embark on an affair that would be considered unacceptable, not to mention illegal, even today. The story is well crafted, the characters memorable, and the language is authentic to the time period. This is Shreve's best effort yet.
Rating:
Summary: So satisfying, it rocks your reading hours!
Review: Not expecting much from Fortune's Rocks, after reading The Pilots Wife, I was pleasantly surprised that the book held me in thrall all the way to the end, so much so that I finished it in two days. Why?
Besides the seductive power of a deeply passionate, illicit relationship, the character of Olympia is one that every woman can relate to, whether they are mothers, aunts or precocious school girls. There is thankfully no moralising about the sins of the flesh or the evil of underage sex, even if the scandal does involve a sexual relationship between a 15 year old girl and a 40 + year old man with children and an ostensibly happy marriage.
Olympia is a passionate 15 year old, but older than her years or her peers. The attraction when she first sights Haskell is strongly brought out. Probably in this day and age, Haskell would probably go to jail for having sex with a 15 year old, but in the 1800's apparently he did get away with it.
The child born out of this relationship, the exile of Olympia and the surprise endings - leave a good tase in the mouth, because sub consciously the reader does want Haskell and Olympia to get together, each having sacrificed so much for the other.
Shorn of multi voiced narrations, the story moves ahead with only Olypmia as the protagonist/narrator. I guess the power of the characters is brought out by the fact that even as wives/mothers we may shudder at the thought of our husbands carrying on with teenagers and throwing caution and family to the wind, at the end of Fortune's Rocks, you can help but smile at how beautifully it all ends for the actors in this passionate tableau.
Rating:
Summary: Worth a fortune...
Review: I had only read one book by Anita Shreve (The Pilot's Wife) prior to picking up Fortune's Rocks, so I wasn't really expecting anything phenomenal, just a good, decent story. Was I ever pleasantly surprised! Fortune's Rocks was way more than your average book -- the historical setting by itself was enough to keep me reading. Fortune's Rocks tells the story of 15-year-old Olympia Biddeford and the summer that changed her life. While vacationing with her family in Fortune's Rocks, New Hampshire, Olympia notices something different about herself. She does not feel like a little kid anymore, but more of a woman, aware of her surroundings and the looks she receives from the boys on the beach. But it isn't just boys who find themselves drawn to Olympia -- at a dinner gathering, Olympia's father's guest, John Haskell, a 40-something doctor and writer, feels himself drawn as well. Soon, Olympia and John embark on a love affair despite their age difference -- and despite the fact that John is married and the father of four small children. And this affair, although true love for Olympia and John, only proves to be disasterous for all involved. Set in 1899, the historical era of the novel is its best asset. I love historical fiction, and I believe this aspect is what made the story so involving and good. Anita Shreve's writing is very complementary to the time frame -- I really felt I was dropped in the midst of 1899 while reading. Fortune's Rocks was less predictable than Pilot's Wife, and I was actually surprised a few times at the direction the story was taking. I highly recommend this novel -- especially to those who love historical fiction.
Rating:
Summary: When Good People Do Bad Things
Review: As I began Anita Shreve's Fortune's Rocks, only to find that the novel's premise was the development and consequences of a turn of the century affair between a 41-year old man and a 15-year old girl, I thought "here we go again", a chick book filled with despicable male characters. After finishing The Pilot's Wife, Shreve's previous work, in which the pilot is found to have lived a secret life in another country, complete with second wife and family, my reaction was that the depth of such evil and deceit, while plausible in the plot of a novel, was a little fantastic for most to consider. And now in Fortune's Rocks, we face another quite improbable scenario. But I kept reading, almost helpless to stop. Anita Shreve is a fine storyteller and as a native of the New Hampshire coast, I am a sucker for novels set there. I think she does a fine job of getting it right. It was also easy to picture the fictitious textile mill town and its immigrant population just miles from the coast that plays a major role in the story. It was more than the landscape of Fortune's Rocks, however, that kept me hooked. A novel centered on an inappropriate and tragic affair is populated with very likable, even normal characters (save one, almost comically obsequious dweeb). And when these likable people step off the edge with disastrous consequences, readers, at least this one, ponder their own edges walked each day...maybe a secret friendship hidden from a spouse, or power exerted over an employee or family member that goes a little beyond appropriate, or a deceitful business relationship, or...? What is it that keeps most of us on the safe side of the edge? And how safe is that safe side? In Fortune's Rocks, Anita Shreve moves freely into this reader's discomfort zone, yet this move seems somehow non-intrusive. There seems to be a way out. Her characters seem to do all the right things after the catastrophic event. And should any of us fall off that edge, it may be too much to expect that almost everything turn out so right at the end. For life is not a novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Average Stuff
Review: While this is by no means an awful book, nor is it in any way memorable. The relationship between Olympia and Haskell - which the entire book revolves around - seems to spring out of nowhere, with a lack of build-up that dramatically decreases the reader's sympathy for their struggles. Despite having fallen for an older, married man myself, I felt a startling lack of any kind of connection to Olympia, which I assumed would be a given due to the similarity of our situations. I was in no way moved - the characters seemed to lack true depth and appeal, with a severe lack of tertiary or even secondary characters to contribute to the plot. The happy ending is also a let down, and inconsistent with Olympia and Haskell's constant mantra from the beginning of the book that no good can ever come from their affair. I was quite disappointed with what could've been an intriguing read of a difficult situation, and I would not recommend this book to the discriminating reader.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite Shreve book
Review: I almost skipped reading this book when I read the synopsis on the dust jacket. The idea of a 15 year old girl having an affair with someone her father's age did not appeal to me. But Shreve masterfully tells this story and once you are wrapped up in it, any and all "ick factor" disappears. What you find yourself reading is a sensual and painful tale of forbidden love and its consequences. Shreve's brilliant description of life in 1899 is wonderful. I wish all historical fiction would pay as close attention to detail and make it feel so real as Shreve was able to do. This is a wonderful read, from first page to last!
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