Rating: 
Summary: Two books pieced together as one.
Review: I have been a fan of Susan Isaacs and have read all of her previous books. However, what was she thinking with this one? or two as it were? The first half was about so many generations of these two families it was so hard to keep straight, and quite frankly, what was the point? The second half was a completely different story. Granted, these two main characters of the second half were related (third cousins???), but it was not an integral part of their story. I was very disappointed by this book. I would tell anyone who wants to read it to just start halfway through because that is where the real storyline begins.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing considering her previous work
Review: I have enjoyed almost all of Ms. Isaacs' works and was eagerly looking forward to this one. I was rather disappointed. The first half was as I'd expected, an enjoyable read with interesting characters and story line. The second half, getting into the main characters, seemed dragged out as well as predictable. Perhaps she captured all too well the boredom of undercover work, because I found the scenes with the extremist organization and the FBI guy undercover to be interminable. I ended up skipping large chunks of the last quarter of the book in order to finally finish it.
Rating:
Summary: I had to force myself to finish it.
Review: I have long been a fan of Susan Isaacs, and was de- lighted to hear of her new book. I found it to be dull beyond words. The characters, both the good and bad guys, had great potential for being developed into people about whom I would care, but it was as if Ms. Isaacs herself found them uninteresting,too. I plodded through this book, expecting at every chapter change to start being mesmerized by it. It never happened, never even came close. I finished it only because I felt like I should.
Rating: 
Summary: What was she thinking?
Review: I have long been a fan of Susan Isaacs, but this book was terrible. She would start to develop a character, then leave you hanging by moving on to the next generation. This happened with several generations. Just when you feel you are getting to know a character, they become a nonevent. Also, the book was just boring. I hope she goes back to her old format.
Rating: 
Summary: A good story
Review: I have read all of Susan Isaac's books and found this one to be a great read. I didn't have any trouble keeping the generations straight, and I really enjoyed the characterization of Charlie and the Wyoming location. I thought his story was completely believable. Lauren could have been better drawn.I also enjoyed the occasional Laugh-out-loud line. There weren't quite as many as can be found in some of Ms. Isaac's other books, but they were hilarious. I'm not a big fan of romance novels, so I really enjoyed the fact that there were lots of other things going on in the story. I started the book while on vacation and had to put it down for a couple of weeks, but when I got into it, I could not put it down. A great, feel good ending.
Rating: 
Summary: An adventure, a love story and a patriotic tale that pleases
Review: I loved Red, White and Blue for the same reason I loved Almost Paradise by the same writer...that beside the two main characters lives, you get their families' history. You literally know where they come from and what formed them. Lauren, the NY reporter, and Charlie, the FBI agent from Jackson Wyoming couldn't be more different. Yet as the book shows, they share values and the past (tho they don't know it). I couldn't get over how they are descended from the same people who came to America 100 years earlier. Lauren and Charlie are investigating a bombing and I was so caught up in their lives! In large part, I think it's because I knew so much about them and their families it's as if my own relatives were up against the radicals who set the bomb. But I guess that's the point of the book, that we could be family, that one way or another, we Americans are all related. One more thing: The ending was one of the best I've read. So many times you read a good book and the last pages let you down. Not here!
Rating:
Summary: swell pageturner
Review: I never seem to be able to read S. Isaacs's books in a normal state of mind. It always turns into a verbal binge. I started last night while trying to elude the annoying strains of the excessively amplified top forty guitarist playing at the cafe outside the bookstore, and read straight through to the next day until the book was over. Isaacs's characters remind me of Elmore Leonard's: nice, smart, an interesting combo of tireless and the least bit fearful of becoming tired. They are sweetly ready to be inspired by love and adventure. I was reading the other day that Isaac, in hebrew, means something like he who laughs, which seems fitting because Ms. I's books definitely display a sense of humor. There's an effortlessness to them. They reveal the ease of an adult who knows herself well and doesn't feel the need to pose or proove herself. I found myself a little freaked out that the principals were both younger than I. It was so cool when she wrote about women in their forties. The 27 year old thing left me feeling a little lonely. Ms. Susan is the only bestselling author I read consistently. As soon as I see her book on the shelf (this time under the pretext of sending it to my sister for Hanukkah), I either read it right there at Barnes and Noble or snarf it up, unable to tolerate the separation anxiety of it lying in the store overnight just as I'm getting involved. The first thing I check is her pic. Over the years her image has transformed tastefully. I see she decided to stick with the spare and elegant Lily W. photo where she appears very much the tasteful, sexy, earthy Jewish woman writer. I keep wondering when Hollywood will make some of these books into movies? I know, I know, Compromising Positions (who can forget such a great cast?) and the one with Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglass (WHICH star is supposed to be the jew?!) But I want to see After All These Years, where the abandoned wife has an affair with her son's drug dealer friend in the course of tracking down her husband's murderer. Two more things: In the acknowledgements, Ms. I thanks Woody Allen. Are they friends? Do she and Elkan and Woody and Soon-yi meet for sushi? This cat is curious. Also, I feel a little uncomfortable evaluating this author who feels more like an extremely cool aunt/cousin than a disembodied presence, I honestly do not know how to rate this book. In terms of companionship and entertainment, it proved a 5 star deal for me for sure. In terms of prose style, historical detail, intricacy of plot and character development, and layering of metaphor I find myself reflecting on how this book compared to another bestselling historical novel/ murder mystery, Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood. Judged by the aforementioned criteria, Isaacs's book is not, in my opinion, nearly as profound an accomplishment. In my ideal world, Margaret and Susan and I would discuss the subject openly and without rancor. This is because R, W & B, like all of Isaacs's books, inspires in me the desire to hang out and shmooze with the author. So if you're ever in San Diego... To the author: Thanks so much for continuing to provide such engaging work. My goal for your next novel is to read it sanely and moderately rather than devouring it like a bag of chips ahoys soaked in heroin.
Rating:
Summary: Great story - interesting characters
Review: I read this twice as soon as I got it in the mail. I'm going to donate a copy to our synagogue and buy myself another one. I loved the combination of immigrant history, topical situation, and love story. What fun! Ms. Isaacs just keeps getting better.
Rating:
Summary: The only reason I finished it was that Susan Isaacs wrote it
Review: I really had to force myself to finish this book. I am a big fan of Susan Isaacs, and have read every one of her books, but this one left me cold. When I had only 50 pages left, I still almost put it down. I understand the reasoning behind the two parts of the book, but if what Ms. Isaacs was trying to do was help us understand the main characters, Charlie and Lauren, then how come I did not feel that I really knew Lauren at all? She was not a well-drawn character - the way that her mother, grandmother, etc. were portrayed. I also was pretty surprised that they hopped into bed so quickly - that was really a letdown - without any real tension buildup. I don't really think that the two parts of the book flowed well together. why spend so much time with the prior characterizations, when the main characters are total unknowns? This didn't make any sense to me. Well, keep trying, Susan.
Rating:
Summary: Forced myself to keep reading until the end
Review: I should have known when I realized the book they were reviewing on the back cover as wonderful was her Lily White and not this one. I have read a few of her books which I enjoyed but this one put me to sleep. I could not keep track of who was who and tie it in to the second half of the story. I was glad to finally get it done. It all was very predictable at the finish.
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