Islands

Rating:
Summary: Surprise ending...
Review: ...if you can make it that far. It took me - ready? - over a month to read Islands. I'd read a chapter, get bored and put it down, pick it back up and read a little more, get bored again...and I skipped ahead a lot to see if the story was ever going to pick up. It didn't.

Basically this is the story of how a pack of over-indulged snobs from Charleston grow into crotchety over-indulged snobs at a beach house. That's it - that's all that happens. People die, houses burn down. The story picks up a bit once Gaynelle comes on the scene but that happened long after I lost interest.

I should just post the spoiler and save you all the cost of the book.

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable
Review: Although Islands is by no means as good as Outer Banks, Colony or some of ARS's earlier books, I do feel that this is better than her last few. I bought the book because I love ARS but I was worried that I would not enjoy based on several of the reviews. I found it to be a very enjoyable read and more true to her style of writing.

Rating:
Summary: It's All In There
Review: Anne Rivers Siddons' very best double decker family saga. You won't be disappointed.

If you're looking for a different and exciting novel, read LUST OF THE FLESH by Beverly Rolyat. A story about district attorney, Nick Allapapalaus, who finds himself caught up in a web of lust, deceit, mystery, suspense, betrayal, murder and sex galore. Is he really the biological father of his ex-wife's promiscuous teenage daughter's infant son? Or has he been set up? A compelling, riveting, engaging, pageturning novel. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: BORING
Review: Before I left for the holidays, I picked up a few books to read. I remembered one of my relatives highly suggested Siddons' "Colony". The store I was in did not have Colony so I picked up "Islands". While I love to read all kinds of books and relish the different writing styles, this book was an absolute torture. It's about a group of spoiled, completely self absorbed adults with no aim in life except to 'be'. The story is incredibly shallow, yet with an enormous amount of silly details that don't tie into anything within the story. All along while reading, I kept saying to mayself this has to get better, NOTHING can be this bad...folks, it NEVER does. Actually, I found it got progressively worse with each page turned. If, indeed, Siddon's other works were decent perhaps this one was simply written to ride on the coat tails of the previous successes for nothing else but quick release and quick $. Not worth folks. One of the worse reads I ever spent time on!

Rating:
Summary: perfect beach read with quite a twist at the end!
Review: I am a fan of Siddons' books and while this isn't my favorite, it still is a good read ideal for summertime.

Anny is 35 and still single. She meets Dr. Lewis Aiken who is near 50. The two become a couple and he introduces Anny to the "Scrubs", his longtime friends and life companions of sorts. Anny becomes involved with the group and one of them quickly.

Siddons weaves a tale rich in description of the Charleston and surrounding islands area. The writing is very good but does lag in parts. There are numerous sadnesses and there is quite an ending that surprised me.

Overall a nice book. Give it a try! You might find your self heading to the beautiful Charleston area after reading it!

Rating:
Summary: nice sense of place; sloppy craftsmanship
Review: I am not a regular reader of Ms. Siddons' work, so I can't compare this book to other titles as some reviewers can. I found the book moderately enjoyable. I appreciated the sense of place that Siddons created, especially when describing the creeks and marshland.

I thought the characters were fairly well fleshed out, though I was not particularly drawn to any of them. The book would have benefited if Siddons had given the reader a bit more foreshadowing, making Camilla's action toward the end of the book seem more plausible.

I was aggravated and distracted by several examples of pure carelessness. On page 274 of the paperback edition, Lewis Aiken's first name is spelled Louis. Then there's Rusian (yes, one "s") dressing on page 263. Henry's eyes are hazel when Anny first meets him at the beach (page 79). When he returns from the Yucatan, they are described on page 290 as "sunken blue eyes." These instances of sloppy writing are just the ones that happened to jump out at me; I bet there are similar errors that I overlooked. I find this carelessness disappointing in such a well-known writer.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Siddons
Review: I am not going to summarize the book, amazon does that quite well! So just my review...
I am a huge fan of Ms. Siddons', I have been reading her books from the first. She is the type of author that you take her book and not just read it, but wrap it around you, and you become a part of her story. This book was no exception. I really liked the characters. Of course the setting, as in so many of her books, was another character.
I gave it four, (really wanted to give it four and a half), instead of five only because of the ending. Something happens at the end,that I think needed a little more story. I felt like maybe her editor told her to hurry up. Overall though, a really good read, and well worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: I first read Anne Rivers Siddons many years ago when I came upon Fox's Earth and The House Next Door, which I throughly enjoyed. While I continued to buy this authors books, it wasn't until I read Up Island that I revived my interest in reading her other books. Shortly after this I read and eually enjoyed Up Island, Low Country and Colony which continue to be one of my all time favorite books. Then word reached me that a new book, Islands, by this author was going to be published and I could hardly wait to buy it. I even saved the book for a while before opening it and finally read it this past week. Early inhto the book, though, I wondered what happened to one of my favorite authors. And now that I finished the book I'm afraid to say that at this point in time Islands is my least favorite book by this author. For all of the reasons why I usually love Siddons books, her wonderful characters and poignant scenes, this book was truly disappointing.

Islands is the story of a group of life long friends called The Scrubs.As the book begins Anny is a 35 year old woman who meets a doctor named Lewis. When they marry he brings her into his group of friends as its newest member. Always a nurturer, at first Anny feels rather out of place in the group but in time she becomes a solid member of the clan. She not only loves the other members but is loved by them in return. Through the years the four couples spend time together at a beach house they co own and form a family they all prefer to their own blood relatives. But then tragedies befall several of the Scrub members and the friends must weather these storms.Again they renew their vows to always there for each other. And they are as members of the group struggle with their grief, the passing of time and illnesses They seem to form a cocoon around each other which as long as they continue to be together will protecxt them from the outside world. But things aren't always as they appear and old events and resentments will cause another near tragedy and one in which the remaining members of the Scrubs will learn a very bitter lesson about their long standing friendships.

On the surface this should have been an endearing book about a group of people and places in and around the Charleston area. And desptie that Siddons descriptions of the area are worthwhile to read about, I had a hard time with the characters from this book. None of them ever really came alive to me and I couldn't feel too much for any of them eventhough they certainly had things happen to them which should have elicited some emotion on my part.I guess to some readers the ending was very surprising but to me it was as if Siddons changed her genre and offered her reader an ending worthy of a suspsense novel rather than a contemporary fiction novel. I almost feel as though the author wanted to finish the book and therefore came up with a shocking conclusion. But it made little sense to me cosnidering allthat came before and wasn't the resoltion I thought appropriate. On the plus side Siddons does a fine job of decribing the areas where these people spend their time and I did feel as though I was there when she described Anny sailing with the dog Gladys or dancing with Lewis at Booters, a friends clam bar.

Despite what I have written I did give this book an average rating. I also plan on reading Peachtree Road, one of Siddons older books, in the fall with my book group. I still consider Siddons one of my favoriter authors and chalk this book up to one title book I just didn't like. I know this happens from time to time to readers but hope this is the only book of Anne Rivers Siddons I didn't enjoy. I know that I will continue to read her older titles I haven't read and her new books in the future. And I will continue to recommend those books of hers which were mentioned in this review when asked about a favoties author's books.

Rating:
Summary: It took much disipline to finish reading!
Review: I have been a big fan of ARS for a long time. I've read most of her books, some of them were so good I could hardly put them down. I have lived in several of the locales she has written about and could relate to the people, climate,etc. Ms. Siddens, what happened to you this time? I was bored the entire book but kept reading thinking that it HAD to get better-----It never did. Ms. Siddens, I have to say you really missed the mark with this one, it is awful.

Rating:
Summary: Not One of Her Best
Review: I have been an avid reader of Anne Rivers Siddons books since "Homeplace", written in the late '80's. Her last three books, have been very disappointing to me including "Islands".
While Siddons still has a "feel" for the Carolina Lowcountry, where I live, she has lost her ability to make her characters seem plausible and alive. Her plot in this last book is disjointed and boring. I almost put it down without finishing it but then read about the strange ending so I perservered and sure enough, the ending was terrible. Upon closing the cover I had to pronounce it a waste of time and the ending disjointed from the plot. It made no sense to follow these close friends through years of ups and downs only to find out one is a murderer! I sincerely hope Ms. Siddons can and will return to her writing style that was present in "King's Oak", "Colony", and the "Outer Banks". These, to me, are her best efforts.