Rating: 
Summary: A very disappointed reader of Anita Shreve's books
Review: I had to plod my way through this romanticized version of an 18th century English novel. Unfortunately Anita Shreve fails to achieve any resemblance of a well crafted plot. I found the novel slow,the pace crawls and the material childish. I have enjoyed Shreve's other books and am surprised at her latest one. Fortune's Rocks should have remained in New Hampshire by the sea.
Rating: 
Summary: Balderdash
Review: I couldn't even finish this book. Somewhere before the inevitable exposure of this preposterous romance between a 15-year-old girl and a supposedly respectable and trusted 41-year-old married man and doctor I gave up and fast forwarded to the details of what I predicted would be a happy ending. The settings are very lushly drawn and pleasant, but the writing itself seems stunted and contrived. Why romanticize and glorify a relationship that could land a present-day John Haskell in the slammer?
Rating: 
Summary: fortunes rocks
Review: I found Fortunes Rocks to be the best book yet by Anite Shreve. She takes us into the intimate life af a late victorian young lady. With her usual expertice Ms.Shreve brings the era of 1899 to life and shows us the intricate changes in society as this young woman attempts to become independent both intellectually and emotionally in a culture where women are to be seen and not heard.
Rating: 
Summary: Lighten Up!
Review: Please, all of you puritanical narrow minded reviewers out there, remember - its only a book. I found this latest Anita Shreve novel to be as enchanting and transporting as all of the rest of her books. For anyone who would like a beautiful "comfort read" for this time of year (dead of winter), this is you pick.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read! Don't miss this!
Review: Like a cup of Earl Grey tea with a plateful of cookies on a cold January day, this book is a perfect read. The prose is lovely, the characters absolutely addicting, and the plot just keeps you turning the pages. Olympia Biddeford and the life she ultimately creates for herself (don't worry -- I won't spoil it) is something I'd like to hear more about. Shreve is so good at transposing the reader into her fictional world. More, please!
Rating:
Summary: Fortune's Rocks is very rocky
Review: This book is so contrived, so awkward and fabricated, I felt as if I were being tugged along by an undertow. Puh-leez. A respected doctor willing to be swept away by a bit of jiggling silk-swathed flesh.. and risk everything.. career, family, respect.. and, of course, what is done sticks.. and there is a child.. and yearning despair.. and difficulties galore.. or so you were supposed to think, which I never could. I could not get into the time or place or spirit of this novel. The main character never semed to gel, and as for the doctor, well, he seemed less weighty than a grain of beach sand (where so much of said jiggling occurs - the main character likes to remove her stockings and run about the beach dampening her garmentry and losing hairpins.) So much of this novel seemed pared to fit into a ninety-minute Movie of the Month plot, details chopped up and glossed over. Which perhaps Shreve had in mind when she word-processed this untidy tiresome tome.
Rating:
Summary: TOTAL DRIVEL
Review: I can't remember a bigger waste of my time. A hard to believe story about the affair of a privileged 15 year old girl with her father's 40+ year old respected doctor friend at the turn of the century. And the language - "Strain as if at stool" - has anyone in any century ever spoken such a stilted sentence?Of course, there's a happy ending. No permanent repercussions for what these people have done to their families and friends. And isn't sex with a minor a crime? Love conquers all as if a spoiled child of 15 knows what love is.
Rating:
Summary: I can't say enough good things about this book!
Review: I read Ms. Shreve's last book, THE PILOT'S WIFE, and liked it very much. But this one has just blown me away. I've enjoyed it so much that when I reached the end, I just started all over again. I haven't read a book that has given me so much food for thought in ages. Thanks Ms. Shreve. Keep 'em coming!
Rating:
Summary: DISAPPOINTING
Review: I have read most of the reviews on this book and I am really surprised about the raves for this story. I, too, am an Anita Shreve's fan and love the books I have previously read of hers, but this book was not at all up to her previous writings. I am most surprised that none of the reviewers mentioned the fact that Olympia was 15 years old and had a relationship with a man almost three times her age. In this time and age the man would be put in jail forever for commiting a crime against a minor. I thought the main characters were extremely selfish in their complete disregard for their loved ones. The fact that they could not use any restraint and seemed to have no control over their actions was scary...imagine if people everywhere gave into their passions and did not act upon what they knew were morally right. The book was well written, as all Shreve's books are, but it was way too lenghtly, in my opinion. It would have been a better book if it were shorter and more to the point. I still would read Anita Shreve any day, but I thought this book was disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Good Love Story
Review: Very well written, an entertaining story. I read it in just two sittings. I found it a little easier to get into than her previous novels. It had a believable heroine, and I enjoyed the plot, which had several twists and ended happily.
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