Rating: 
Summary: Quality Pool Side Fiction. . .
Review: I love the movie "First Wives Club" so I read the book and found it seriously uninpriring. Goldsmith's new novel, Bad Boys, was this author's second chance to make it into my good graces. . .and she made it! Bad Boys is funny, witty and genuine, which is refreshing breeze ashore of the stagnant pond of contemporary romantic fiction. Her characters are real and flawed. Goldsmith's heroine runs hot and cold, as do your feelings towards her- you like her then you wish she would dump that jerk and find her backbone. Her hero starts off as a static stereotype and finishes the book a genuinely desirable guy.
Rating:
Summary: Trashy but Well Written!
Review: Trashy but Well Written!Tracie: pretty, popular writer. Jon: geeky genius. Tracie + Jon = best friends Jon asks Tracie to remake him into a bad boy like Tracie's boyfriend, Phil -- a magnet that will attract women. At first Tracie balks, but then sees the potential for a story. Their regular waitress at Java, the Hut, predicts that Jon will take offense as he realizes that Tracie's makeover points out what she sees as his faults. Phil hates the attention that Tracie lavishes on her project, while Tracie's best friend, Laura, encourages it. On the one hand, the story grates against my nerves: what ever happened to being yourself? Forcing upon him $200 haircut for the sole purpose of impressing women? Getting a vegetarian to buy a leather jacket? Talking him into dangerous sporting activities to "practice"? It does seem shallow. On the other hand... my sister's former boss used to take those cheesy romances and use them to line her cat's litter box because, really, how true to life could they be? Imagine an unsoiled cheesy romance mixed with the script of "Grease II," where Michael does what he can to change himself into something that Stephanie will love. When my mom tried to read this book, she threw it down in disgust halfway through. I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. because I couldn't put it down. IF you can look beyond the shallowness of attracting people based solely on physical attributes and bad attitude, this is a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: She's finally done it!
Review: I may get a prize: I have read all of Olivia Goldsmith's novels. After the publication of her breakthrough bestseller, THE FIRST WIVES CLUB, her output has been uneven, to say the least. There have been a couple of gems; MARRYING MOM and THE BESTSELLER come to mind. Yet since WIVES, nothing else she has written comes close to evoking the contemporary feel of a particular moment in a particular place, well leavened by humor, as much as BAD BOY does. This book has one of those high concept storylines: Two twenty-somethings, friends since college, are the main characters. They agree that the male of the pair, a sweet and gentle geek and techno-millionaire, will be made over into a stud by the trendy girl he still sees every week over brunch. Often, these high concept stories are clever and compelling but, once established, there is not enough to say about them to fill a compelling novel. Not so with BAD BOY. Ms. Goldsmith has written a novel that tracks beautifully and makes for an easy and funny read. Even though anyone older than twelve will predict the ending, it doesn't matter, because this story is in the details. Her research appears to be excellent. This 40-something author has caught the energy of Gen-Y, or at least so it seems to a 40-something reader. And, if there are a few quibbles, they don't affect the texture of the story. True, the heroine never seems to work. According to the plot, she is a reporter at a daily Seattle newspaper but over the course of this novel she writes only four "fluff" round-ups...comes in late...leaves early...and takes long lunches. Even allowing for artistic license, this is a bit of stretch. Ms. Goldsmith doesn't write sex scenes with as much detail as some of her bestselling sisters but, in BAD BOY, this does not detract from the story. In fact, this novel screams: Screenplay! Welcome back, Olivia Goldsmith.
Rating: 
Summary: Which One of These is Not Like the Others?
Review: I look forward to a new Olivia Goldsmith novel. I know I'll find a block of time to cosy up and read for hours. Well, I did that today with Bad Boy. I finally stopped at page 136 after the dreadfully unfunny airport scene, and said,"I can't finish this". Now I have 2 hours left to fill: maybe I'll start rereading The Bestseller.
Rating:
Summary: Not so hot...
Review: I picked up Bad Boy on a whim, because it looked sort of fun. I knew that it wasn't going to be exactly Shakespeare, but I really do expect that a best-selling author like Goldsmith would be able to come up with something better than this sorry book! But no... The writing and dialogue were elementary, to say the least; the plot was dull, and the characters were two-dimensional. Basically, I could not in good conscience recommend this book to anyone with any sense of literature, or at least good writing, at all.
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I've EVER read...
Review: I had never read anything by this author before, but I read a decent review of this book and decided to give it a try. I didn't expect it to be great literature, and of the five books or so that I read a month, I usually enjoy one or two that I label as "mind candy." I knew that this book would fall into that category, but I didn't expect the writing to be on a fifth-grade reading level! Boring, completely predictable, and terrible, elementary dialogue. I could see the ending coming from the first chapter. Save your money, folks.
Rating: 
Summary: Well researched
Review: The title is intriguing as is the fact that the author did The first wives club, which I haven't read. Ms. Goldsmith has done her research, the writing is tight, the plot line most believeable. It is particularly poinant in today's computer society. While not intellectually groundbreaking, it's a fun book to read and made me laugh outloud many times.
Rating:
Summary: ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY!
Review: This is the first book by Olivia Goldsmith that I have read and really loved it!! I loved to see how the characters interacted and the fun Tracie had in trying to transform her friend Jon into "Jonny". It showed how people can be manipulative, funny, and go for what they want. By the end, there is a joyous revelation of sorts! It is a fun read and most of you reviewers seem to have missed the point of the book! Too Bad=)
Rating:
Summary: A Huge Disappointment for Goldsmith Fans
Review: Bad Boy lacks the attention to detail, juicy plotlines and page-turning twists that made Goldsmith's other books so much fun to read. Tracy is the most unlikable heroine that I've encountered in a long time--insipid and whiny; the shallow characters lead formulaic lives; dialogue is on the level of "The Babysitters' Club" series. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Boy...Bad Book!
Review: I totally agree with the readers who found this book a disappointment! The characters were one dimensional and each one was a cliche (i.e. the grumpy, yet big-hearted waitress, the overweight yet big-hearted friend, the beautiful gold-digger)and I never got to the point where I cared what happened to any of them. Plot lines were introduced but never developed...what happened to Tracie's mother, where was her father, how come Jonathan's father married so many times...And after the first chapter, I knew exactly what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, and what the ending of the book would be. A complete waste of my time and my money.
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