Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, suspenseful, powerful
Review: This book is one of the best books I have ever read! I read it in one afternoon because I just had to know what would happen with Patty and Willy. Tucker expresses so well how a mother's love for her child can inspire her to reach for the stars (or the moon). Patty is such an endearing character. I rooted for her success and cringed at the roadblocks presented by her mother, those mean band members and especially Rick! I can't wait for my daughter to be old enough for me to share this book with her because the ending is perfect. I don't want to give anything away, but to me it has a strong feminist message and Tucker avoided the pat ending about a man being the ultimate happy ending. Way to go Lisa Tucker!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Overall Read
Review: This book started off a little slowly, but once I got into a few chapters, I really started to enjoy it. Some of the relationships were a bit predictable but emotionally moving just the same. I loved Patty's character by the end of it. I didn't want the story to end.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and page turning
Review: This is a fineexample of a literary page turner. It has a fast moving and moving plot, extremely well drawn characters, a strong and meaningful theme. For long sections I forgot I was reading at all. And then I'd read a sentance that would be so insightful about love or music that I'd force myself to stop reading so I could think about what she was saying. I think if I had to compare it to anything it would be the more powerful examples of Joyce Carol Oates fiction.
Rating:
Summary: worth reading
Review: This was a good book with some unexpected events.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Though she knows that her ex-husband drug dealer Rick will soon be released on parole, Patty Taylor wants nothing to do with him. That part of her life is over and for that matter so is, she hopes, washing dishes or become an alcoholic piece of trash like her mother. Instead, she feels her life and that of her two year old son Willie has taken a turn for the better since Fred Larsen hired her as a female singer to help the Jonathan Brewer Quartet make money. While the band categorizes Patty as cotton candy, she works hard to learn the business especially jazz. When Rick is freed, he ignores that his parole agreement means remaining in the Kansas City area. He is coming for his wife. If she refuses to return to him, he will kill her to insure she knows her proper place. In Paducah, Kentucky, Rick and Patty meet for the final confrontation. SHOUT DOWN THE MOON is a clever exciting drama that avoids the pitfalls of a simplistic Perils of Pauline tale by making the heroine seemingly so genuine on several levels. Not only does Patty want to make it for her son's sake so he does not have to grow up like her, she finds her confidence rising as she begins to understand jazz. Her relationship with Jonathan is deftly handled as important yet not overwhelming and less of an impact than that of she with Rick, who she once loved and wishes he would get his act together (just without her). This is an in-depth character study of a person who cannot totally shake off her past. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: simply amazing
Review: What a story! I stayed up until 4 AM reading Shout Down the Moon because I had to know what would happen to these characters. Now I need to go back and read it again to savor the writing. Best book I've read this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have researched kids
Review: While I found this an engaging book, three year old Willie is simply too unusual to be true. Each time I settled into the story, this superchild would dress himself in overalls or remember details from the past or make observations a three year old simply isn't capable of. Maybe it's just me, but those inaccuracies made this book less enjoyable than it might have been otherwise.
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