Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and compelling
Review: Once again, Anita Shreve has written a book that not only teaches us something (about grieving) but entertains us and startles us as well. I had to keep reading until the end! Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't think it predictable at all.( and I don't consider myself naive). Because this novel is all over the place with its reviews (some love it, some don't)I would have to say you must read it for yourself and decide. Don't let others fool you.....this is story you don't want to miss.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened?
Review: After having read such wonderful books like "The Rapture of Canaan" and "I Know This Much Is True" where on earth did this book come from? I was intrigued by the story line, but this book fell flat. The characters were one-dimensional and the writing...I was bored and disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Mind-numbing, Boring, Cure for Insomnia
Review: I didn't care about any of the characters - they were all so uninteresting. I'm glad that this was a short read, so I didn't have so suffer long. The author really wasted what could have been an interesting plot. So flat and two-dimensional. After reading She's Come Undone and Where the Heart Is - I guess, I overestimated Oprah's choices. A waste of time...
Rating:
Summary: A read until it's read book
Review: This is the best book I've read in ages and I'll definitely be reading Anita Shreve's others. In addition to skillful handling of grief, it brings up the scary idea that we don't know the person we know best as well as we thought we did. Shreve is excellent at dropping hints that you don't notice until later--the marble bench in the garden that makes no splash in your consciousness until it turns out to be an altar, Jack being good at surprises (buying the house). It you really want to see how well this subject is handled, watch the movie Random Hearts. Spouses dying in plane crash leads to discovery of affair. Wife wants to forget the whole thing; husband wants to be angry. Lasts over 2 hours.
Rating:
Summary: a plainly told story of betrayal and healing
Review: I can't say that I enjoyed the book. It did make me think though. Shreve takes the question "how well do we really know anyone" and allows this story to take shape. I did feel that characters weren't delved into nearly as deeply as I wanted them to be. I felt sympathy, but it was the sympathy I'd feel for a stranger because I wasn't given the opportunity to know the characters very well at all. Aside, the story did make me think, and I admired the authors description of the British woman's home. Shreve has a talent for taking side remarks and past conversations and making them glow with so much meaning.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional journey, I loved every minute of it
Review: The love story here didn't have the power or mystery of the chemistry between Wilson and Gabrielle in my other favorite of the year, The Triumph & Glory, but Shreve made up for it with a riveting plot. A very good book!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Wait To Put it Down
Review: This Oprah pick must have been done with a blindfold. I am so happy that Anita became a millionaire but I don't think it will make her a writer. It is intolerable what passes as literature these days. It is a good thing Kathryn's husband died in a plane crash because once the light bulb went off over her head that he had another wife she would have had to kill him anyway. (Maybe that would have made a better book) Married to a woman and from the IRA no less..for god's sake. This so called terrorist woman seemed more worried about her interior decorating than the next arms run. I am all for suspending belief but this goes too far.Kathryn suspected nothing? What does he have to do leave bread crumbs? Anyway I think Oprah goes more for screenplays for made for TV movies not literature. Why isn't she reading Penelope Lively or Barbra Kingsover or any other of the brilliant writers about today? I think her book club is starting to look like Queen For A Day and frankly I am grateful. Now when I see her faux gold, embossed stamp of approval I know what to avoid!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, transparent story
Review: I am writing this review simply in hopes of bringing the average customer rating of 3 stars down to where it should be! This book was transparent start to finish, (of course she gets the man...) mildly intriguing attempt to tell a story of the husband's strange other life, but not nearly enough information about WHY he would chose to do that. After this one I am leary of trying any other from this Author.
Rating:
Summary: discrepancy
Review: on page 36 Julia is seventy-eight...but on page 154 she is seventy-fou
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner!
Review: I read it from cover-to-cover in one sitting because the mystery intrigued me. I had to defend this book at my book club because most of the members found it "depressing" but they missed the point. Yes, it was a sad story but it gripped me because it was so EMOTIONALLY SCARY---How well do you know your partner??? Whew! What an intriguing story idea and Shreve pulls it off well. I'd love to see this made into a movie.
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