Run, don't walk to buy this book!
936253
As a senior in high school, Tessa has an incredible amount of stress to deal with, including absentee parents (both emotionally and physically), a very young sister to take care of, and now a mysterious set of factions that are trying to force her to choose sides.  And neither side are very forthcoming with information.
At this point Hayden enters the picture reluctantly.  He's always been around, but he's in another social class  than Tessa (his family has money), and they don't interact.  He just gets by in school, has issues with an abusive stepfather, so has trained in martial arts for protection for himself and his mother.  He's got one redeeming quality, and that is he's brutally honest with girls.  He's after one thing, and he doesn't play games.
One of the factions asks Hayden to be Tessa's bodyguard until they can provide a more appropriate one.  They offer to clean his school record up to his senior year, but he has to bring up his grades on his own from here on out.  Tessa offers to tutor him as a barter because she feels some obligation.
This story is phenomenal, and not to be missed!  I appreciate it particularly from the viewpoint of a teenage girl, remembering that feeling of how soon it was time to leave the nest and strike out on my own, having to balance that with all the pressures of peers and boys that send mixed signals and trying to weed out the ones that are sincere and the ones that were saying only what you want to hear to get what they want.  So much angst!  And then to have this amazing, yet terrifying set of people telling you numerous things that were confusing and sounding too unbelievable...  And the one person you find you can trust, the one person who is there for you, is the guy who has shown you in the past that he is definitely NOT dependable - But amazingly is there for you now.  Is there for you every second, and who has done the one thing he said he'd never do, and declared his love and devotion to YOU  *swoon*  Who doesn't dream of a guy falling for her like this?!
This is such a great book - I couldn't put it down.  Tessa is feisty and Hayden is devoted.  Run to buy this book, don't walk!!  This is on my book shelf to read and re-read.  For.  Forever!
2982071
Please don't read this book... Until you've read books 1 and 2 in the series.  Then, I challenge you to NOT read this book!  Just try!

Okay, maybe I'm not a "typical" reader (meaning you may not love this series as much as I do), but skipping the usual synopsis of the story line, just trust that you'll truly like (maybe love) the characters, and that they will be so real to you you'll want to extend your relationship with them.

Please read my review (and others) of Book One: The Old World, and then give that book a try.  If it doesn't suck you in and compel you to keep turning pages, then leave you panting for the next volume, well just skip the rest of the series and move on to another author.  I devoured books one and two, then salivated waiting for this book to be released, pounced on it, and gobbled it down as fast as I could.  Yes, I know this sounds like hype, but I promise you it isn't.  I can't recommend this book and this author too highly.
3370629
I had been seeing this book around, but I was really hesitant to pick it up. Why?

Well, as a woman in software engineering, I'm painfully aware of what a controversial figure Ada Lovelace is. She's been hailed as the inventor of computer programming -- which has led to some incredibly virulent backlash, accusing her of having been some sort of hack who merely copied down other people's ideas without even really understanding them herself.

Now, let's not kid ourselves. If a man had written the article Lovelace wrote, There's no way we'd see the same sorts of ferocious efforts to prove him incompetent. OTOH, if it had been a man, we hardly would have heard about him at all. He'd probably be accepted by some as the "father of computer programming"... in kind of a footnotey, nobody-cares kinda way. But in my line of work, it's dangerous to talk about sexism unless you want a ton of it to rain down on your head, so I wasn't terribly interested in miring myself in this controversy. Thus a book that looked like it was probably a sunny-and-dry retelling of team Lovelace's side of the story didn't jump out at me as something that would be appealing.

Boy was I wrong!!

Surprisingly, the author used the oldest trick in the book for dealing with an acrimonious controversy: present the evidence. The primary sources. And then even-handedly discuss the controversy in light of the evidence.

Now, if that sounds more boring to you than "a sunny-and-dry retelling of team Lovelace's side of the story," here's the genius of it -- it's not boring at all -- it's wildly fun and entertaining!! Quite sincerely, I think the author of this book has invented a new genre, and a brilliant one at that. Here's how it works:

Padua took various primary sources (contemporaneous writings by or about Babbage and/or Lovelace and/or other famous people they met) and wrote fictional scenes around them (including some set in the author's invented alternate universe for them). Then Padua wrote footnotes that interact with the story by giving the rest of the (real) story.

This is an absolutely brilliant way of synergising the best parts of history and historical fiction. Plain history has a difficult relationship with objectivity, and is at its driest when striving to be objective. Historical fiction is fun and can leave objectivity aside -- but constantly leaves me curious about which bits are historical and which bits are fiction. The author of this work found the magic formula to combine them!

This work is at once great and truly pioneering. If there's a canon of graphic novels, this one deserves a top slot.
1074478
DO NOT BUY THISBOOK!  PERIOD!  I have been a professional chef, food writer, and food instructor for years  all with a focus on baking  and these have resulted in the collection of many hundreds of cookbooks, most on some topic of baking.  This book, The Ultimate White Cake Recipe Book, is without question the most poorly written and vague text I have ever come across, with almost nothing interesting, exciting, insightful, or stimulating to offer  with poor grammar and sentence structure framing nearly every page.

We should know something is not going to be right with this book when reading the About the author page where it states (or, perhaps more correctly, the author states, as this book oozes written by and published by the author"), Gordon Rock is the author for hundreds of cookbooks !  Hundreds of cookbooks?  Do an internet search of any cookbook, then search that author  you will not find anyone who has written hundreds of cookbooks, not even multitudes of dozens.

But then there is the book  and calling it a book is only doing justice to the most basic definition of that word, for no doubt thousands of cookbooks worldwide are cringing at the hit their reputations have taken as being informative, well-written, specific, and worthwhile.  To verify this one only needs look at the first recipe:  Simple White Cake from Scratch.  How many servings?  Five  I cant recall any cake recipe where the serving portion is so small.  Ah, but what is the cake pan is quite small, say, 6 inches?  Well, yes, one might make this argument, except the author  in all his recipes  tells the reader to use medium-sized cake pans:  would this be 8 inches?  9 inches?  Yes, experienced bakers like me can take an educated guess, but baking is never about guessing;  it is always about exact measurements, exact sizes, exact portions.

And when  it comes to the ingredients his writing is amateurish, insulting, and boorish:  Sugar, White in Color  Food Coloring,  Red in Color  Pounds of Sugar, Powdered Variety  Oil, Canola Variety  1 Pack of Cake Mix, White in Color  and the list goes on and on and on!  Oh  did you notice the capital letters?  The guy is in love with them: nearly every word in each ingredient is capped, for some weird, unknown reason.

As for the pictures to illustrate the various cakes, with the one exception of the books cover page  every picture is black-and-white, and many are not of the cake (any reader of any cooking magazine, online cooking article, or cookbook expects any picture that accompanies a recipe to be of the finished product, to get a sense of what ones hard work will produce).  Turn to Texas Style White Almond Sheet Cake  and the accompanying picture is of cubed butter;  Fluffy Strawberry Sour Cream Cake offers a picture of what appears to be a scoop in a bowl of flour; Easy Angel Food Cake has a picture of  it is impossible to tell!  And this type of list only continues throughout the book.

Will I keep it?  Most certainly, as it is a good reminder of how not to write a cookbook; on how the term writer  can be grossly abused; and how one cannot, indeed, judge a book by its (pretty) cover.  If you are considering buying this item  dont:  there are many, many other books, online articles, and magazine recipes that won't leave you cringing, wondering, or guessing;  no cookbook should ever do that.
2376463
I am adding my rare voice in hopes of lowering the overall rating so that unsuspecting readers are warned about wasting their time (and perhaps money, if purchased not borrowed) on this wordy tome.

PLEASE pay attention to the one- and two-star reviews. They are spot on.

I can't imagine how anyone could give a favorable review unless they were compensated in some way.

I really tried to appreciate this award-winning author (there are many well-written passages) but when the "main" character, a policewoman, rushes to open her front door at midnight thinking it's her boss (but lo and behold, it's the bad guy!) it was the last of many straws.

This book is SOOO poorly imagined and constructed that it should be removed from bookstores and libraries everywhere. Just joking, of course, but that's how seriously I feel about it, and I'm betting you will to.
1871200
First of all, this book isn't 90 pages. It's a lousy 74.  After I finished reading it I felt thoroughly gyped for the amount I paid for it. More than 13 dollars for 74 pages? Gimme a break! And this book is actually 19 dollars retail price!!! If the book had cost me 1 dollars I would have given it 3 stars because that's what the common sense advice in this book is worth. 1 dollar! I've read 10 times better books than this that gave better advice, cost less and had more pages. The content in this book has been covered by other books that are far better like the Go-giver.  I suspect the positive reviews from this book are friends or contacts of the author or something.  I thought about buying this book earlier in the year but my intuition told me not too. Lesson learned: Don't ignore your intuition.  I now realize to be a savvy book buyer you have to look not only at the over-all rating but the number of people who reviewed this book. Only 11! Are the reviews long with paragraphs or just a short review with just a few sentences? If it's short that means to me they didn't commit to the book or probably haven't read it even if they gave it a disingenous 5 stars or not.  Does amazon let you peek inside the book at its content? You don't have that option with this horrible book.  This book arrived on April Fool's day and take it from me. If you want to feel like a fool you will buy the book.
4650234
The main reason I am writing this review is because this books costs money...and I don't want you to waste yours! Plus I think all of the positive reviews are misleading for those looking for something that is honest and accurately reflects the book! And I'm sorry, but the characters were poorly developed and it just all around was NOT good. I try not to be a negative Nancy and I have only ever written one negative review before, but I spent $3 on this I'll never get back!

*****Spoiler Alert******

So they're at this conference for work (They're architects and they do this annually), and hero shows up in place of his father who just retired - immediately, he and heroine (who knew hero's father) are drawn to each other, and they pretty much start a relationship (insert catty friend who wants hero for herself and makes up lies to  try and break them up). However, most of the time, this dude is out of town, doing some business or something. He says his dad talked about her ALL THE TIME before they met and that he pretty much already loved her. (Because they attended the same architect meetings every years and he just LOVED her). Really sir, you love her because your Dad said some nice things about her?? Well, I'd say this has to be true, because there is absolutely no development to their relationship in the book. Why exactly does heroine fall in love with hero? I have NO IDEA! It is so stupid. I'm just like, "Why the hell am I reading this?" Oh that's right, I spent $3 on it! That may seem like an insignificant amount...but I could have bought a homeless person some food with that money. All-in-all it was really unrealistic and I DO NOT RECOMMEND this book to anyone. Sorry.

So you can see where I'm coming from, here are some of my favorite books: "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer, "Beautiful Disaster" Jamie McGuire, anything from Sylvia Day, the "Crash" series by Nicole Williams, most of Abbi Glines, "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover, etc, etc. :)
1832126
I'm going to keep it short.  THIS BOOK WAS TERRIBLE.  Don't buy it, and definitely don't waste your time reading it.  It's actually fine until the last few pages, which just makes it laugh out loud bad.  I am so glad to see that there's others on here that feel the same.  I can't believe this made it past an editor or a publisher.  And I absolutely love David's other work.  Honor Harrington, yes.  Safehold series, absolutely worth your time and money.  But this book actually makes me fear for the other stuff that I've loved for so long.  Stay as far away from it as you can...
1894058
I'm honestly surprised this book found a publisher. I actually checked to see if this was self-published because I couldn't imagine anyone paying money for the rights. It's 95% plot, and that plot is absurd and crazily overwrought. There's virtually no character development. (Has there ever been a character who disappeared on the page more than Amy?) Although I guess you could say that having a psychological wreck who's also a plagiarist (why was that detail required?) morph into an incredibly insightful amateur detective in the blink of an eye is development of a sort. I actually laughed out loud at the PAPERCLIP!!!!! disclosure, when our hero suddenly develops MacGyver-level skills. And the weird detours that the plot takes are inexplicable--how could so many pages be spent on the school principal's role, including more than anyone would ever want to know about a massive church fundraiser that apparently takes weeks of ten hour days to plan? ("Count out ten boxes of plastic forks!" says one of the exhausted volunteers.) Was there a minimum page count required by the publisher? My least demanding categories for books are "beach read" and "airplane read". This novel wouldn't qualify for either.
4168621
After seeing this on a list of 'must reads' on Shape Magazine's website, I took the book out of the library... thank God I didn't buy it! On the very first page of chapter one, the comment 'healthy = skinny, unhealthy = fat' numbed my mind to any helpful health tips that I might have gleaned from its pages. Please don't waste your time, if you want to get healthy, some excellent books I can highly recommend are: Thin for Life by Anne M. Fletcher, Shape Your Life: 4 Weeks to a Better Body-and a Better Life by Barbara Harris, The Step Diet by James O. Hill, and The Sonoma Diet by Connie Guttersen and Stephanie Karpinske.
2073384
Run not walk to buy this book.  Its' conclusions are surprising and even more surprising is how conventional wisdom could be so wrong.
1365860
Frances Mayes has won the hearts of millions of readers.  Her book was far better than the movie.  Her writting is exciting.  She put Tuscany on the map.  What I want to know is what happened to A Year in the World.  I see that you can purchase this book used for 66 cents, which cements my opinion of the book. It is the worst book ever written.  I purchased the book in 2006, and only read part of it and could not read any more.  I picked it up again this month (December 2007) and didn't even get as far.  I spent two great weeks in Spain, and see absolutely no parallel of her trip to mine.  The vocabulary is pompous.  The thoughts are scattered.  See page 34-35:  It goes from selling pets, bird "lime" stinking, nuns moving, and a long list of Tapas.  HUH?  Page 37 has thoughts all over the map.  It is like the draft of the book got printed without editorial assistance.  Swiss Family... then a blind man... poet, flowers, marble... nothing coherent.  Passionate Traveler??? HUH?  On page 42... way back in the 1940's?  How old is the author???  Then the crowning insult.  On Page 43 the Spainards ignored them and "that would never happen in Italy" I say to Ed.  Nor would it in Spain!  This generalization is very narrow minded.  As I said, I started this book twice.  As I won't get more than 66 cents for it, I guess I'll use it to start the fire in the fireplace.  Sorry, but this is the last Mayes book I buy.
4319968
I've read a lot of these books, and I read this one after it first came out (before all those negative reviews were posted). I was telling a friend about this book the other day, and told her that I never throw books away. But I threw this one into my recycling bin rather than donate it to the local library book sale, because I wanted to save another poor soul from reading this book. And then I realized that I could save more poor souls the trouble if I added my opinion here. This book is all about Po Bronson. Read Barbara Sher's or Martha Beck's books if you want some sound advice.
1482889
I heard the author interviewed the other night; this seems like a fascinating book, it's on my Wish List and I'll be buying it.  But I won't buy it from Amazon.  Read on, please.

According to John Bachelor and other radio hosts who have interviewed the author of this book (as well as other authors), Amazon is intentionally removing this and all other Macmillan Co. titles from their website because they're mad at the Apple iPad competition.  Reports indicate this is a "warning shot" to other publishing companies to keep exclusive with Amazon for electronic delivery of books.

Look for yourself; this brand-new book release is suddenly "unavailable" from Amazon.  Now go look for other Macmillan titles.

Jeff Bezos is miffed because he has serious competition; you might want to factor this into your Amazon shopping decisions.

And no, I'm not a Macmoonie; I have a religion, despise Steve Jobs and his ridiculous messianic obsession and don't own a single Apple product.
1499360
I cannot believe this book is actually hitting #1 on the NYT Bestseller list!  In my opinion, all of Julia Quinn's earlier books deserve to be #1 Bestsellers, but not The Lost Duke of Wyndham or Mr. Cavendish, I Presume.

So please, if you want to read a JQ book, choose an earlier book.  Her earlier books are wonderful!  Do not read The Lost Duke or Mr. Cavendish.  You will be sorely disappointed.

What is happening to my favorite author?  Where is she?  Because these two books don't even sound like she wrote these!  They are so not JQ's usual style and wit.

I am very disappointed.
1681083
THE ONLY CONCEIVABLE EXCUSE FOR WRITING AND PUBLISHING "SAXONS, VIKINGS, AND CELTS" WAS TO ALLOW THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHING COMPANY TO MAKE A FEW EXTRA BUCKS BY WRITING A QUICK-AND-DIRTY SEQUEL THAT COULD EXPLOIT THE AUTHOR'S PREVIOUS BOOK, "THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE".  THIS BOOK TAKES A 2 PRONGED APPROACH TO THIS GOAL - FIRST, BY UNABASHEDLY REHASHING MUCH OF THE CONTENT OF "THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE"; SECOND, BY UNABASHEDLY PADDING THE REST OF THE BOOK WITH A REHASH OF BRITISH HISTORY AND LEGEND.  ALL WRITTEN WITH SO LITTLE DNA INFO THAT IF YOU BLINK WHILE YOU'RE READING THIS BOOK YOU'LL PROBABLY MISS IT. IT ISN'T UNTIL PAGE 92 THAT THE AUTHOR EVEN BOTHERS TO STOP DRONING ON ABOUT HISTORY/MYTH/LEGEND AND MENTION DNA IN ANY SIGNIFICANT WAY - 1/3 OF THE BOOK GONE.

  IN ADDITION, THE BRITISH HISTORY AND MYTH REHASH IS WRITTEN WITH A TRULY UNINSPIRED, MEDIOCRE PROSE THAT YOU CAN GET FOR FREE FROM GOOGLING ON THE INTERNET.  FINALLY, IN A BOOK THAT PROMISES TO TALK ABOUT THE ORIGIN AND MASSIVE MOVEMENTS OF ANCIENT PEOPLES THAT ULTIMATELY POPULATED THE BRITISH ISLES (TEXT AND THEORY THAT WOULD BE INFINITELY HELPED BY ILLUSTRATED AIDS), THERE ARE ONLY 2 PAGES OF B&W MAPS SHOWING DATA OF ANY KIND (THE LAST 2 PAGES OF THE BOOK - IT WAS PROBABLY TOO COMPLICATED AND TIME CONSUMING FOR THE PUBLISHER TO TRY TO COORDINATE THE MAPS WITH THE TEXT!).  AND, THESE MAPS, I SUSPECT WERE PROBABLY LIFTED DIRECTLY FROM HIS OTHER BOOK.  GOD FORBID, EITHER THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER SHOULD GO TO THE TROUBLE OF ACTUALLY SPENDING A COUPLE OF HOURS USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP (OR SOMETHING SIMILAR) TO MAKE ANY NEW B&W MAPS FOR THIS POWDERPUFF OF A BOOK.

  AFTER READING 40% OF THE BOOK, I SCANNED THE REMAINING PAGES AND, AFTER SEEING THAT IT WAS MORE OF THE SAME, I PUT IT INTO MY "DONATE TO THE ANIMAL HUMANE THRIFTSHOP" PILE.

  IN SHORT, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS POINTLESS AND CYNICAL ATTEMPT TO TAKE YOUR MONEY WITH LITTLE OR NO RECOMPENSE.  INSTEAD, BUY THE "ORIGINS OF THE BRITISH" BY STEPHEN OPPENHEIMER - A TRULY WORTHY BOOK, AND EXCELLENT READ.
2871835
I'm one of those people who feels compelled to finish every book I start, and for all my brethren out there, I say - stop now, don't buy this book!  It is so egregiously terrible, I actually thought about sending Michael Crichton a letter asking for my money back, but have settled for an Amazon review instead.

So you know what you are missing (escaping), I thought a run-down of the experience of the book might be helpful:

10% in:  Reads like a typical Crichton thriller - heavy on the melodrama, some interesting science, lots of gorgeous women and one ordinary Joe lawyer caught up in international intrigue.

25% in:  Science still interesting, if only because so different from usual discussions of global warming.  Plot  rapidly becoming laughable -- lawyer and gorgeous woman lost in Antarctica after government agent (who presumably has entire U.S. intelligence apparatus backing him up) chooses to bring them along as his sole support to catch nefarious terrorists bent on creating a massive iceberg.  (Yes, seriously).

50% in:  Done, done, done with the endless scientific rants, complete with footnotes and mind-numbing charts.  So boring I'm flipping pages to get past these sections.  Plot has reached new low, and should be studied in creative writing classes on what not to do:  in particular - radical environmentalists have learned to CONTROL THE WEATHER (no joke), and unleash lightning bolts on gorgeous woman - which she of course escapes unscathed.

75% in:  Have actively decided to believe in global warming (regardless of whether real or not) out of sheer annoyance with ongoing endless manipulative diatribes about how global warming is a myth.  Plot is barely holding together, as gorgeous woman, lawyer and an odd assortment of characters (only two of whom seem to have anything to do with law enforcement) jet off to the Solomon Islands to stop a tsunami, where they must contend with, honest to God, headhunting native cannibals.

80%:  Finally do what I never do, and bury book at back of bookcase, unfinished ... no sense in wasting one more precious minute of my life on this garbage.