Rating: 
Summary: Good for reading on a plane
Review: Although this story was a tad implausible, it held my interest. Psychiatrist Kate Sinclair is a master at helping strangers straighten out their issues, but she has quite a few on her plate. She is also untrustworthy. I didn't like Kate at all. Kate is yet another loathsome female protagonist - to wit, we have Gail, who was truly loathsome from "Life Penalties" and Jess of "Tell Me No Secrets" and Nicole of "The Other Woman" infamy.Her half sister, JoLynn has taken up with a murderer. Her older daughter Sara goes through the worst of adolescence and bratty younger daughter Michelle is a favored, pampered little queen. (I didn't like Michelle). I felt Kate was unfair to Sara and I didn't like the way she just took it for granted that Sara would go along with her [Kate's] just taking her room to install her terminally ill mother. Poor Sara must have felt displaced. I also hated it when she slapped Sara. I was glad Sara hit her back! It was unfair of her to threaten to throw Sara out if she ever struck Sara again. I wish snotty Michelle had been slapped. She was phony and two-faced and every bit as loathsome as Kate. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when nasty Michelle took up smoking (a singularly VILE vice) and Kate wised up to the kind of obnoxious liar Michelle really was. Kate was singularly odious. I had trouble with JoLynn's murderous lover. Instead of a cliche ending, the lover steals JoLynn's Toyota Camry and kills her. That made for a tragic ending, yet it was good this book did not become yet another cliche. It was "tolerable" in spite of Kate and Michelle.
Rating:
Summary: Good for reading on a plane
Review: Although this story was a tad implausible, it held my interest. Psychiatrist Kate Sinclair is a master at helping strangers straighten out their issues, but she has quite a few on her plate. She is also untrustworthy. I didn't like Kate at all. Kate is yet another loathsome female protagonist - to wit, we have Gail, who was truly loathsome from "Life Penalties" and Jess of "Tell Me No Secrets" and Nicole of "The Other Woman" infamy. Her half sister, JoLynn has taken up with a murderer. Her older daughter Sara goes through the worst of adolescence and bratty younger daughter Michelle is a favored, pampered little queen. (I didn't like Michelle). I felt Kate was unfair to Sara and I didn't like the way she just took it for granted that Sara would go along with her [Kate's] just taking her room to install her terminally ill mother. Poor Sara must have felt displaced. I also hated it when she slapped Sara. I was glad Sara hit her back! It was unfair of her to threaten to throw Sara out if she ever struck Sara again. I wish snotty Michelle had been slapped. She was phony and two-faced and every bit as loathsome as Kate. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when nasty Michelle took up smoking (a singularly VILE vice) and Kate wised up to the kind of obnoxious liar Michelle really was. Kate was singularly odious. I had trouble with JoLynn's murderous lover. Instead of a cliche ending, the lover steals JoLynn's Toyota Camry and kills her. That made for a tragic ending, yet it was good this book did not become yet another cliche. It was "tolerable" in spite of Kate and Michelle.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent. Streched the reading out as long as possible
Review: As a therapist I enjoyed Fielding's way of describing the conflicts, errors and dilemmas charatersistic of our profession. Protagonists doen't have to be perfect ! In any case, I just ordered another Fielding book.
Rating: 
Summary: Once again, Joy Fielding did not disappoint
Review: Having read several of Fielding's previous books, I was anticipating a thoughtful and mesmerizing novel - I was not disappointed! I found "Missing Pieces" hard to put down and entertaining throughout. I liked her style of closely examining Kate and her family members while keeping up the suspense. Perhaps I could relate to this novel because I am similarly situated to Kate, with a teenage daughter. Although I thought she made some poor choices in overlooking or ignoring her family members' behavior, I found this totally believable. It is hard to see what you don't want to be present in family members.
Rating: 
Summary: The World's worst psychotherapist
Review: Here we have a family therapist who acts totally contrary to all the advice she dishes out in her office. And we are supposed to identify with this dysfunctional woman? While she is ignoring her advice at home she is about to have an affair with a man when his wife coincidentally comes to her office for advice. Our hero therapist can't wait to run to this lady's husband and tell him everything that his wife said. What is amazing is that it never even crosses her mind that to pass on this information would be highly unethical - as having an affair with the husband of a client would also be. The main puzzle in this book is trying to determine who is the most addled, the main character or her serial killer loving sister.
Rating:
Summary: Not one of her best!
Review: I am a huge Joy Fielding fan & have read every one of her books but this one was weak! The main character,Kate, whined from start to finish and the secondary characters were even wimpier than she was. Her daughter longed to be a trollop like her stupid Aunt Jo Lynn & doesn't straighten up until Auntie is wacked by her serial-killer husband, Colin. The husband is even worse! He devoutly sticks by his wife who does nothing but criticizes him, yells @ him and goes in silence to her self-loathing, hate the world thoughts in which we the readers are forced to read throughout the entire book! I loved Joy Fieldings other books & I hope she can attain the same style she did in those
Rating:
Summary: Stupid main character, but others realistic and believeable
Review: I completely agree with the long review preceding this one. Kate Sinclair's character was too stupid for words. However, I do want to be fair and point out that other characters in the book are very well-drawn. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and was EXACTLY like Kate's mother. I know a teenager just like Sara. Jo Lynn's adult behavior is typical of a victim of childhood incest. Why on earth the main character was made to be such a fool is beyond me. Don't publishing houses have editors who point out problems with plot and characters and so forth? This editor must have been out to lunch.
Rating:
Summary: Revoke Katie's License!
Review: I didn't like Kate Sinclair at all. She was an incompetent psychiatrist. The very idea that she would even consider having an affair with a patient's husband and reveal the things her client told her in confidence turned my stomach. Even Lucy with her "Psychiatric Help: 5c" booth would be better than Kate. Kate is a shrew to her poor, long suffering husband. She acts stupid and irrational. Why did he put up with her? She treats her daughter Sara like dirt. She makes that monkey Michelle sound like perfection, when Michelle is really just a nasty little girl. No wonder people didn't like her either. She has to be the big boss with her sister and run the show all the darn time. Katie was just a dictator, a tyrant and a lying hypocritcal fool. The way she installed her Alzheimer's mother in Sara's room was mean. Why didn't Monkey Michelle ever make sacrifices? She was such a lying little con artist. Kate was not a character one could like. Her sister was. However, I did have trouble with the ironically named "Colin Friendly," the jailed murderer Kate's sister is so enamored with. The name was a gross misnomer and the character was a stereotypical villian. Kate was not a competent psychiatrist. Even Lucy with her cardboard booth would have been a better choice. The fictional Lucy only charged a nickel for her "services" and as far as we know, never divulged anything her "clients" said in confidence.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me wanting to read more!
Review: I don't tend to read very often...usually only when I have to because a teacher requires it. This book was great. I thought that the characters were very real. I could identify with Kate and her daughter Sara, as I am 18. It has helped me understand things that my parents are going through. I am a little more appreciative of them. I recommend this book to everyone...especially if you have teenage children...then let your teenage (16 and up) child read it.
Rating:
Summary: joy fielding is the best author ever.
Review: I enjoyed this book. I had some problems with Kate. Like the tailor's children who run around naked, psychiatrist Kate seems oblivious to the problems she causes for herself and others. Kate's husband Larry is a gentle, self-effacing man who lets her ride roughshod all over him. I didn't like the way Kate tried to pick a fight with him over nothing. She said their daughter Sara's teacher called and when Larry understandably wanted to know what she [the teacher] had to say, Kate lambastes him for assuming the teacher is a woman. Turns out the teacher is female and Kate does not let up on Larry for the rest of the evening. She is a shrew and an impossible plague. Larry wisely did not take her bait. He was an adult to her tantrumming child. Michelle is a phony. I hate her. I hated the way Kate played favorites and treated Sara like Cinderella. She moves her mother into Sara's room, beats Sara instead of telling her that she knows Sara sneaked off to her aunt's wedding and waves Michelle in her face like a funky flag. Michelle is a goody 2 shoes and a phony creep. I hate her. Too bad Kate didn't catch onto her sooner. Michelle is about as trustworthy as a fox in a chicken house or a truck full of rats. She's devious and has a heart of stone and is always calculating some way to worm her way into somebody's heart and use them to her advantage. Michelle should be flushed away. Sara is a rebel, but that is part of her age. She is railing against the favoritism shown to stinky Michelle and she feels her aunt is the only person who cares about her. I didn't care much for Kate, but she was OK when she acted like an adult from time to time instead of trying to pick arguments with people.
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