Rating: 
Summary: Good mindless reading
Review: I bought this book at Wal-Mart just because it looked good. I have to say it was so-so. I did like it all in all, but I for one did not like how the book switched from one point-of-view to another. It really was kind of confusing. I wish the book would have been only from Jennifer's perspective. I couldn't imagine being thrown in prison, and I wanted to know how she coped. The book is very improbable though. I really don't think that a person who was terrified of going to prison would actually be stupid enough to believe they could hide a cell phone in their bra, or who would tie a belt around their prison uniform and think it would be fine! All in all, it's a good silly read, and I loved how she got back at her boyfriend, but I was hoping for a little more true-to-life situation.
Rating:
Summary: Good mindless reading
Review: I bought this book at Wal-Mart just because it looked good. I have to say it was so-so. I did like it all in all, but I for one did not like how the book switched from one point-of-view to another. It really was kind of confusing. I wish the book would have been only from Jennifer's perspective. I couldn't imagine being thrown in prison, and I wanted to know how she coped. The book is very improbable though. I really don't think that a person who was terrified of going to prison would actually be stupid enough to believe they could hide a cell phone in their bra, or who would tie a belt around their prison uniform and think it would be fine! All in all, it's a good silly read, and I loved how she got back at her boyfriend, but I was hoping for a little more true-to-life situation.
Rating: 
Summary: This book "locked" me in!
Review: I bought this book thinking that it would be a lot of laughs, it wasn't. It was however, a good story. It was a bit far fetched at times, but I found myself rooting for Jenny and her friends.
Each chapter in the book being told from a different character's view point added to the flow of the story. A good beach read.
Rating: 
Summary: women prisoners ARE suckered by men
Review: I liked this story very much. I just gave it 2 stars as I was comparing it to deep literature, but it was really fun to read. I do have some contacts with prisoners, and I found the author's descriptions carried a flavor of authenticity. As a woman, it was fun to watch these women find themselves and their power, and use it for positive reasons. It was nice to see them engage in a generative struggle- more win win than lots of stories. The undercurrent of love and support among the women was very refreshing.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure
Review: I may be a college history/philosophy major on a full scholarship, but I know a fun read when I get one! "Pen Pals" is a very light, quick read, but it's also funny, touching, and very satisfying. I've been hooked on Olivia Goldsmith since I read "First Wives Club," and I found "Pen Pals" to be a nice break from the heavy college reading I've been doing lately.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure
Review: I may be a college history/philosophy major on a full scholarship, but I know a fun read when I get one! "Pen Pals" is a very light, quick read, but it's also funny, touching, and very satisfying. I've been hooked on Olivia Goldsmith since I read "First Wives Club," and I found "Pen Pals" to be a nice break from the heavy college reading I've been doing lately.
Rating:
Summary: Definite improvement on her last novel
Review: I toyed with the idea of reading this book or not. Her last one (Bad Boy) was so terrible, it almost put me off her novels for good. This book was definitely deeper than her usual novel, but her formula with revenge is getting kind of tired. Although the story had a good premise, the picture of life on the inside was unrealistic (which she somewhat noted at the end of the book). It's hard to beleve in this day and age that a woman as supposedly smart as Jennifer is would take the fall for her boss. I also found it hard to believe that the inmates were able to smuggle laptops and cell phones into their cells (but you never know). The ending of the book was so neat and tidy and also improbable. But...
Otherwise it was an interesting book. It took me a while to get into it, but when I did, I couldn't put it down. She is a very good writer, I just think she can do better then she has lately.
Rating:
Summary: Private Benjamin goes to prison
Review: I've read a few of the author's books and found them, for the most part, to be witty - but this one isn't one of her best. It's a tired, rehashed, unoriginal story that runs out of steam pretty fast. A beach book, nothing more. Save your money for the paperback, or better yet, take it out of the library for free.
Rating:
Summary: For Devoted Fans Only
Review: In the acknowledgements section (which is very well-written) Olivia Goldsmith says that her objective in writing Pen Pals was to write "a charming, uplifting, funny and empowering story about a woman who wrongly goes to jail." That's a tall order for anyone to fill, and Goldsmith's sights may have been set a little high. In Pen Pals, Jennifer Spencer goes to prison to take the fall on an insider trading scam for her boss Donald and her fiance/lawyer Tom. Spencer has apparently never seen a single movie set in prison, as she approaches the setting with the ridiculously naive expectation that she will get "special treatment" because her lawyer said he'd call ahead and request it for her. She doesn't expect to be strip searched at Intake, for example, and she doesn't know enough to anticipate that her belt will be taken from her. She certainly isn't prepared for those she meets inside the prison: The Warden, Gwen Harding; Movita, a black woman who talks like you'd expect a black woman to talk if a wealthy white woman was writing her dialogue; Cher, the prison toughie who envy's Jennifer's silk underwear; Theresa, who is addicted to spouting platitudes, and Suki, a blonde Christian gal whose naivete surpasses even Jennifer's. Toss in the requisite sadistic corrections officer along with the requisite kindly corrections officer. Mix with the fact that Jennifer eventually wises up to the fact that she's been duped by her boss and her fiance, and darned if you don't have a story, even if it isn't that well-written. The characters are unusually sweet-natured; most of them are in prison because they've been wronged by men; and the dialogue, while delightfully informal, sounds forced. The most vivid writing in this book is Goldsmith's description of all the luxuries Jennifer misses in prison. Readable to Olivia Goldsmith fans, or those who have to read every prison story that comes down the pike.
Rating:
Summary: Back in better form
Review: Jennifer Anne Spencer was just trying to earn a living(OK a very good living) awhen she took the fall for her fiancee, Tom and their boss Donald as the SEC and justice department came after his brokerage firm. Not to worry, the fiancee would get her out of jail quickly and Donald would reward her for her loyalty. No one let Judge Levitt in on the way things were supposed to go, and Jennifer was not supposed to be going to Jennings Correctional Faculity for Women. Poor Jen. Once she lands in the pen she comes under the stewardship of Warden Gwendolyn Harding, and the group of women who not only help her accept the betrayal of the men in her life, but these women form an unlikely aliance and eventual friendship. Pen Pals has a bit of substance to it as it touches on the difficult subject of women in prisin and gives excellent recommended reading at the end of the book. After "Bad Boys" I was hesitant to read another Olivia Goldsmith book. I know the formula, "He done her wrong, not just wrong, but Bad wrong, and she can't believe it, but then she picks herself up by the bootstraps, or brastraps, and not only gets even but emerges wiser and usually richer, and he gets his in the end." And with her sharp dialogue and edgy characters Olivia Goldsmith does this better than almost anyone else.
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