Rating: 
Summary: Terrible book, waste of time
Review: This is a truly terrible book and an example of how successful authors can publish increasing awful material and still make money. "A Woman of Substance" was a wonderful book, but this author's work has gone steadily downhill culminating in this piece of garbage. The dialogue is unbelieveable--does anyone really call anyone "mauvorneen?" The entire middle of the book, when Katie is in England, gives us a whole set of characters, develops their story lines, and then just dumps them, leaving us with a whole set of unresolved questions. Is the lovely daughter of the housekeeper really the daughter of Lady Verity? What will happen to Katie's friend who is still grieving over the death of her husband and child in an accident? Well, we don't know because all of these people simply disappear until the last few pages of the book when they show up to celebrate Katie's Broadway triumph. The big revelation of the killer at the end is a complete flop and turns out to be a brand new character. This is a terribly written novel, and I am glad that I did not pay money for it and that it was a quick read and did not waste much of my time.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting mystery
Review: This is an interesting and intriguing mystery that shows how a traumatic, tragic experience in one's past can impact current relationships. Bradford's descriptions of how people cope with sudden tragedy are well written and very insightful.
Rating:
Summary: Don't read review, if you want to read this boring book...
Review: This was a joke!! It was so boring in the middle, I thought there must be a good ending since the cover said it was a best seller....Wrong. During the whole book, I am trying to figure out who the killer could be...possibly Katie's brother Niall, Christopher, Mac, etc, etc...no instead it is some guy never mentioned in the book. I really cant believe it. Like others, I came here to see what others thought. Glad to see, everyone else hated it too...those 2 or 3 who gave it a 5, i don't know what they were thinking. Don't buy this book!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Worst book I've read in a long time.....
Review: This was truly a horrible book! I had read A Woman of Substance long ago, and this doesn't even read like the same author. The beginning of the book is intriguing enough to get you to continue reading. Then, it quickly landslides into an unreadable mess. Some characters' (in England) secrets are hinted at, then never expanded upon. The mystery is too easily and stupidly solved at the end. And characters you cared a little about at the beginning are so undeveloped at the end (10 years later) that you just want this book to be over with quickly. I agree with the reader who said you keep plunging on after you've started this book hoping it will get better. It doesn't, and it just gets much worse. I could not believe the ending! And I could not believe I had wasted my time reading this sludge. I think after authors (like BTB) publish something like A Woman of Substance and then get a few bestsellers under their belt, they just stop trying. They know someone out there will buy anything they write just because it has their name on it. How else do you explain why this book was a bestseller? I was terribly disappointed and will not be reading another book by this author. It was a waste of money and time.
Rating:
Summary: Definition of boring, female fluff
Review: This was without a doubt one of the most boring books I've ever read. Dragged and lumbered along every inch of the way. And Katie's character was so trite. I kept reading the book because SOMETHING had to happen. Toward the end I was reading 1 paragraph on every 4 pages.
Rating:
Summary: What the @#$%?!!!
Review: To echo many other reader's sentiments--thank goodness I didn't pay for this book. The beginning seemed interesting enough, but Katie really was a cardboard character. So beautiful, so loving, so talented, befriending a couple of no talent hacks and giving them the benefit of her skill...what a wonderful, nonhuman character.Many things are wrong with this book:
First off the "fey" Katie doesn't talk like any american teenager I know. And you'd think Katie could recite something a bit more original than Hamlet's soliloquy. Maybe it's the only Shakespeare BTB knows? And a play about the Bronte sisters? Is that for real. Emily Bronte the role of a lifetime? And that whole time in England? All I can say is "huh?!!!" And poor comatose Carly? Who isn't in a "true" coma, just in a vegetative state. Why was all that thrown in there? Just tell people right off--she didn't wake up and is now a vegetable. By the way Katie--having a vegetative friend shouldn't make you feel any better. At least if they're in a coma they might wake up. Barring a miracle, you are pretty much screwed when they've moved on to veggies. And we all remember her lame boyfriend and an implausible solution to the mystery. Wow, this book WAS bad. Very bad.
Rating:
Summary: What the @#$%?!!!
Review: To echo many other reader's sentiments--thank goodness I didn't pay for this book. The beginning seemed interesting enough, but Katie really was a cardboard character. So beautiful, so loving, so talented, befriending a couple of no talent hacks and giving them the benefit of her skill...what a wonderful, nonhuman character. Many things are wrong with this book:
First off the "fey" Katie doesn't talk like any american teenager I know. And you'd think Katie could recite something a bit more original than Hamlet's soliloquy. Maybe it's the only Shakespeare BTB knows? And a play about the Bronte sisters? Is that for real. Emily Bronte the role of a lifetime? And that whole time in England? All I can say is "huh?!!!" And poor comatose Carly? Who isn't in a "true" coma, just in a vegetative state. Why was all that thrown in there? Just tell people right off--she didn't wake up and is now a vegetable. By the way Katie--having a vegetative friend shouldn't make you feel any better. At least if they're in a coma they might wake up. Barring a miracle, you are pretty much screwed when they've moved on to veggies. And we all remember her lame boyfriend and an implausible solution to the mystery. Wow, this book WAS bad. Very bad.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't think it was as bad as most of these reviews stated
Review: Well, I don't know. I mean I enjoyed reading the book.
It was certainly not the best book of all times, that's
for sure. But I thought it was a fair enough story.
But a number of things don't work right in that book:
- There were three parts in the book. I thought the
middle one was too long, dragging and didn't bring that
much to the story.
- I would have liked to learn more about Katie, and less
about Emily Bronte.
- The character of Chris came too late in the story,BR>I couldn't stand how pretentious he was, even at the end.
I don't think Katie should have taken him back, I would
have liked that better that Katie kicked this guy out for
good. She deserved better than that. Again both Chris
and Katie were not described well enough. After the whole
story, we don't know that much about her. It seemed to me
that the story was in between a romance and a drama/tragedy
but the romance part was hesitant and when it finally revealed
itself, it was pretty much empty and pointless. It might as
well have been left out from the story all together. It had
no point with the rest.
- The end was too rushed.
- I would like to have more details about how Katie felt
during the show of the opening night. Too rushed again.
Would have liked more hints of something like Carly and
Denise were with her. Essentially, when I began to read the book, I thought it
had a lot of potential, but unfortunately a lot of it was
wasted. On a happier note, it takes me a lot to finish a book.
I lose interest very fast. Nevertheless I managed to read
this one completely. So I don't think it was so terrible.
It was however disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it only to kill time
Review: Well, it wasn't HORRIBLE. The ending was horrible, yes, and beginning was realllly hard to get into, but the middle was more than adequate. Not a book of substance by any means, but a book to read if you have time to kill and, well, need a book to read. But the ending is just awful. I hate books with bad endings. I mean, the whole mystery is solved in like 10 pages!!! I wanted her to develop it a little more, God, tell us what happens to Carly, how she reacts to the news that Denise's dead, develop the thing with Chris and Katie some more, how her run on Broadway goes and something I didnt realize until I read reviews on here -- you guys are right -- she completely forgets about all the English characters!! I wanted to know about them too. The LEAST she could do is put an epilogue at the end saying what happened to all the characters. I wouldn't reccomend this, but it wasn't terrible either. I did almost enjoy it in the middle. Really its only fault was a flat ending (and some unrealistic dialogue which you get used to after a while.)
Rating:
Summary: What was I thinking.........
Review: What a piece of dreck! Luckily for me, I didn't buy the book but got it from the library. I won't go into a rehash of the plot, you can get that above. Suffise to say that it is poorly written, with no characters that even interest you, and the ending is entirely implausible. I can only assume that BTB has a book contract to fufill and her publisher is willing to publish her grocery list if need be!
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