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.
Rating: 
Summary: Siddons Fails To Maintain Intensity Of Her Usual Novels
Review: I have read all of Siddons' books over the years and some were better than others. One expects an author to become more adept at suspension of disbelief and capturing the reader in a web of tendrils from which we do not want to be let go, even to not putting the book down till we are finished.Not so this time. The first half of the book literally sings with Siddons' usual command of our senses as we experience Charleston and the low country once again. She makes one yearn to be there with her, to feel the warm sand under bare feet and to experience the heat and humidity as well as the graceful and langourous people she populates her books with. But something goes wrong in the second half of the book: one begins to sense what is coming; what the secrets are, and it is hard not to see the comparison between Anny and Maud in COLONY, as well as the same scenes simply reworded but not entirely disguised. This is expecting the reader to have forgotten a plot turn of another book or else to agree it is fine to use it again. I found Siddons' best works to have been FOXES EARTH, COLONY, and OUTER BANKS. This book is good but not great, in my opinion. I will continue to read each new book of hers and hope to find again the one that holds me in her spell till the last word.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite author seems to be losing it.
Review: I have read every one of Anne Rivers Siddons's books. Some I have read twice because I like them so much. I have even finished the last page of one of her books and turned back to page one and started over again because I didn't want to leave the characters. When I started to read Islands, I had just finished reading Low Country and was very disappointed with it so I was hoping that this would be the work of the author that I loved. It started out badly. The quick way she met, married the doctor and was accepted into his old childhood group was not believable. After that I wondered at times if I was reading a novel or a travel brochure. Since she had no plot, she filled the pages with descriptions of the beach, the ocean, Charleston, the food they ate, ad nauseum. And I won't even mention the ending which was totally unbelievable. That's two in a row that I didn't like. I wonder if I will buy another one of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Siddons Disappoints
Review: I have read every one of Siddons' books and eagerly awaited the arrival of this book. This book is probably her worst. It starts off okay - Charleston, the beach house on Sullivan's Island - the places she's so good at writing about. But the book was boring. The writing was uninspired and insipid. The ending was so bad that I began to wonder if Siddons wrote it or if someone else finished it for her. This book was supposed to come out in the fall of 2003 and finally came out in the spring of 2004. Now I know why - she struggled with it. Die hard fans (such as myself) will read it, but get it from the library - it's not worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Who cares about any of the characters?
Review: I have read most of Anne Rivers Siddons previous books and was looking forward to this one. I was extremely disappointed in the lack of character depth. I never felt any compassion for or real interest in any of the characters. Often I found myself saying, "this is ridiculous". Actually I didn't think the ending was any worse then the rest of the book, which isn't saying much. I bought the book to read and share with my daughter, another Siddons fan, but I told her not to waste her time. I recommend the other Siddons books, but not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as others
Review: I have read other ARS books; this one was not as good as others. THe middle and ending definately did not live up to the beginning.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: I love Anne River Siddons' books ~~ my favorite is Colony as that was my first introduction to her descriptive narrating style ~~ as if she's sitting in her rocking chair sharing with us an old story, taking us to that place. She did the same with this book ~~ however, it falls flat at the end, so be warned. I wish I was warned that ~~ all it did was leave more questions hanging instead of answers.
This book is delightful for me even though I am not middle-aged. It talks about a group of friends that have known each other for years and years ~~ ever since childhood. It's a middle-aged version of that popular TV show, "Friends" ~~ for awhile. Then the members started dying off ~~ first it was Camilla's husband, Charlie. Then it was Henry's wife, Fairlie. Then it was Anny (the main character of the novel) who lost her husband, Lewis in a boating accident. Lewis, Camilla and Henry all grew up together on the Island. They did everything together ~~ swam and fished, hunted for treasures and so on. They had the idyllic childhood that most people wish they had. Then Henry married Fairlie and Camilla married Charlie ~~ even though Charleston society long assumed that Henry and Camilla would marry one another.
That is the first part of the book ~~ and the second part of the book is about their middle-age adventures and of grief and loss. Anny then becomes mired in the midst of a storm that is coming ~~ and she doesn't seem to be aware of it though the reader can predict it coming. The second part of the book also talks about losing friends and spouses ~~ and welcoming new friends to the family.
This is not one of her better books ~~ but it's well-written and entertaining. I've waited for a long time for this one to come out ~~ as I have always enjoyed her writing. She's a classic story-teller.
1-3-05
Rating:
Summary: Islands
Review: I love Anne Rivers Siddons. I start hoping for her next book as soon as I finish reading her latest. I loved "Islands" and thought it reminiscent of "Colony." The only reason I'm giving it a four star rating instead of a five star rating is because I don't think this book, or any of her later novels, are anywhere near her work in "Peachtree Road." I keep hoping for her to do something as magnificent again. With Charleston's rich history this may just happen.
Rating:
Summary: Even if you enjoy it, you don't have to like it
Review: I love Siddons's books. I'll read anything that has her byline on it and I'll enjoy it whether I like it or not! How can that be, you ask? Well, she's a pictoral writer. By that I mean her words conjure mental pictures of characters and scenes in the reader's mind. The setting she writes about in ISLANDS (the coastal South) is beloved and familiar to me. She has the ability to create a charming world for the reader that is a delight to experience. All that said, although I enjoyed reading ISLANDS, I felt the story was weak. The ending seemed dux ex machina and the characters were too familiar to avoid the feeling that they were cliches. She's still my favorite author and I'll read every book she writes, but ISLANDS strikes me as a book written by someone who no longer has anything to say. Ms. Siddons has lived in her world so long and written it so well that it's time to stretch her talent with something new.
Rating: 
Summary: Anne Rivers Siddons is Queen
Review: I rarely write reviews because I am loathe to criticize anyone. And, this review is not to criticize ISLANDS but to remark on the reviews left by others. Anne Rivers Siddons is the undisputed Queen of Southern Letters and I just have to say that I think some of these reviews are gratutiously unkind. That's all. I think that if Anne left her grocery list on my kitchen counter it would fascinate me for days and weeks. I read ISLANDS and thought it was wonderful for a whole host of reasons. Maybe she was trying to say something beyond the story line. Maybe some of the readers expected something else. But there is no reason to be so judgmental - for writers, more than the average person, words mean a lot. All that said, ARS is still the Queen in my book. People who read are generally great folks. What's up here? I have no idea!
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