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Women's Fiction

Fortune's Rocks

Fortune's Rocks

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An alluring love story you'll be reading all night
Review: This is the first of Anita Shreve's books I have read, and I am already shopping for her others. This book effectively explores life's love, longing and hardships, and is an addictive read. Shreve captures the reality of emotion within the context of an impossible situation. You will be cheering for Olympia by the end. A must read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best ever!
Review: I read this book, Fortune's Rocks, by A.S., and thought it is her best ever! The only two that could be compared are Weight of Water, and Where or When. In this book, Shreve tells of this one girl, and her struggles and triumphs over having a child out of wedlock. I was surprised however when Haskell, came back and Pierre was returned to her(even thought she refused him). Anita Shreve's books usually end in a different way, sadly or regretfully, like some people's lives do. So maybe that is why this is my pick of her crop.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Borrow it from the library before purchasing!
Review: Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors, but she struck out with Fortune's Rocks. If you want to read her at her best try Resistance, Weight of Water, or The Pilot's Wife. The style she adopts for this book is cloying and the characters so shallow and uninteresting it's difficult to care what happens to them. This is a very disappointing addition to her otherwise five-star body of work.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Give this book 100 stars!
Review: Fortune's Rocks is the best book I've read in a while. It has a little bit of everything you'd want in a book. The main character, Olympia, seems to have wisdom beyond her years. What happens to her makes for a great story, and Anita Shreve surely knows how to tell a story beautifully. I could not put this book down, and hated to see it end. Please, Anita, write a sequel! I can also see it being made into a well-directed movie... In short, what a wonderful, beautifully-written book. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Smash Hit from Anita
Review: I have read all of Anita Shreve's books and loved each one of them and Fortune's Rocks does not disappoint. While different than most of her past books simply because it is set in the 1800's, the theme is similar to much of her past work. Once again, Anita pulls us in and mesmerizes the reader with beautiful imagery and wonderful character development. This book in unique in that it is not a quick snapshot into a character's life but it encompasses many year's in the young central figure's life.

One quickly feels Olympia's wonderment, naiveté, rapture and longing thru Anita's words. The reader also begins to despise, to pity and to long for certain characters but none of these feelings are simply spelled out by Anita, the reader actually develops these feeling from the start of the novel.

This is a book that I could not put down. Promise me - you won't want to either. Anita, congratulations on another wonderful novel.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: disappointing
Review: After reading Weight of Water, I was looking forward to reading Anita Shreve's latest- and was greatly disappointed. I couldn't turn up one character in this book that I like-- a spoiled,oversexed teenager, a wealthy,middle-aged,married doctor with an eye for young girls-these are the heroes? Between their trysts, they find the time to look down their noses at the poor with a mixture of sympathy & disgust-is this supposed to endear them to the reader? It didn't work on this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MESMERIZING
Review: A great novel - the kind you can get lost in, especially if you enjoy high romance with the inevitable pitfalls awaiting two mismatched lovers. Ms. Shreve writes a great story with interesting characters and her portrait of the late 19th century was intriguing. She is truly a gifted writer, and I did not want this one to end....I was introduced to Ms. Shreve when I read The Pilot's Wife (an Oprah pick no less) and it is also marvelous. But I must confess Fortune is even better and shows her versatility as an author. I must read her other books.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An evocative, fascinating story of forbidden love.
Review: In "Fortune's Rocks," Shreve tells a story of a fifteen-year-old girl who falls in love with a man three times her age. The girl, whose name is Olympia, feels a strong attraction to John Haskell in spite of the fact that he is married to a wonderful woman and has four children whom he deeply loves. John's and Olympia's love has a ripple effect on the lives of their family and friends. There is moral ambiguity here. Although John and Olympia are intelligent, responsible and, at heart, decent people, they throw caution to the winds because of the passion that they feel for one another. Shreve never insinuates herself into the book, which is a wise choice. It is up to the reader to decide whether or not anyone should hurt his or her family and friends for the sake of a "grand passion". Does love have its own rules? Should Olympia and John have restrained themselves to save their reputations and to avoid hurting their loved ones? The reader must decide. "Fortune's Rocks" has several great strengths. Shreve's depiction of the characters is sharp and the dialogue sounds very realistic for the time period (the turn of the century). The character of Olympia is beautifully drawn. She is a person of enormous personal strength and dignity. She is willing to take the consequences of her choices and she maintains a kind of integrity throughout the book. The reader cannot help but be sympathetic to her. One of Shreve's other strengths is her description of landscape. This book takes place, for the most part, on the coast of New Hampshire. Shreve knows this world well, and she makes the seascape part of the fabric of the novel, adding to its beauty and power. "Fortune's Rocks" entertains and holds the reader's interest until the last page.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply a Wonderful, Wonderful Book!
Review: This was a marvelous book that evoked many beautiful, powerful emotions. It made you reflect about an array of feelings. I wondered throughout what it must have been like at that time (1900) and how things would have been handled today. I do hope Ms. Shreve continues to honor us with upcoming works.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do yourself a favor....
Review: Once in a while a novel comes along that reminds me of why I read in the first place and what I'm searching for, namely a story I can lose myself in and to. FORTUNE'S ROCKS was, for me, that kind of experience. I couldn't put it down, nor could I bear for it to end. I was a dishrag by the last page, but an entirely satisfied one. Brava, Ms. Shreve.


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