My first Jodi book...
938600
A friend of mine owned this and let me read it.  It's an unbelievably sad story.  I had a hard time setting this one down - reading it every chance I got.  Often wondering what I would do in the same situation...I have never felt so torn between 2 sides.  It's been a while since I read this - and still remember it very clearly.  I cried like a baby at the very end. Jodi is now one of my favorite authors.
1565197
I love JoJo, but this wasn't my favorite book. Good book. Easy read. If you love her, worth the read. If this is your first novel by her, I wouldn't start with this one.
1412654
I love everything Jodi writes. The subject of this one is very interesting. The characters are memorable. I can't wait for her next book!
3676876
I love all of Jodi's books..They pull you in and never seem to lose your attention..I am now not so patiently waiting to book number 3 and to see what she has up her sleeve for her next project.
2898336
it was a good Day when I started this book ... Thanks for giving me characters I can identify with when I was in my early 20s
1772692
Watched for this book to come out and Jodi didn't let me down. This copy was urchased for a friend to introduce her to Jodi
Thomas's books.
1070939
This was my first Jodi Picoult novel. It was recommended to me by my stepmother, who absolutely loved it.  I was disappointed with the book inititally because the writing style is not as sophisticated as I had hoped it would be; but in spite of this, I got caught up in the plot and had trouble putting it down. I finished the book in about a day or so, but instead of feeling a sense of closure and fulfillment upon its completion, I felt vaguely annoyed.  I immediately began thinking about what was WRONG with the book: Emily's unconvincing motivation for suicide, Chris' ludicrous decision NOT to act on his girlfriend's behalf, the quick and easy ending.  Still, I did enjoy the experience of reading this, in spite of its flaws.  I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys more literary fiction, but it is an easy read for a boring day.
2993353
This is definitely a departure from Jodi's more recent novels. There are no courtrooms or ethical dilemmas to focus on. Instead, it's more of a mystery but with many different layers and voices. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite books of hers, Second Glance. Both involve ghosts in some way, since in Leaving Time, Serenity Jones is a psychic who has connections with people who are deceased. Both talk about sacred areas of nature being taken over by humans. Both have a "cold case" aspect to them. And both are incredibly compelling stories.

I really liked the voices of the four main narrators of this novel. When I read the synopsis, I wasn't expecting Jenna to be a 13 year-old girl, but I've been more interested in reading perspectives of teens and pre-teens lately, given that some get snuck into the chick lit novels I've been enjoying. She's very mature for 13 anyway, which makes me forget that she's that young. With Alice, some of her chapters are just descriptive of elephants and their behavior, so it takes a while to get to know her for who she is, outside of what is going on with the elephants. That's when her part of the story really picks up. I would have liked to know more about Alice's relationship with her mother, as well as what her childhood was like. Based on the synopsis of her short story, Larger than Life, I may be able to get more information. (Here's what I was saying about not going home just yet...)  I was visualizing Jessica Chastain as Alice in the movie version. (Maybe because she was on the recent cover of Entertainment Weekly when I was reading this book.)

Serenity is just fascinating. I love learning about how she came into her psychic abilities and how they have affected her life. She's unforgettable in description with her cotton candy pink hair and her elaborate make-up. I definitely need to read the novella, Where There's Smoke, which focuses on her. I think it was written as a prequel. For some reason, I would picture her being played by Laverne Cox sometimes and Lisa Kudrow at other times. Finally there's Virgil. I wasn't expecting to like him at all, but it turns out that he has a soft side. I couldn't place his age and thought he was in his 50s, but apparently he was in his 30s. I kept picturing Jeremy Ratchford from Cold Case though. And even though Thomas wasn't a narrator, I was picturing Andrew Gillies (Orphan Black) as him when he's older. (Welcome to my mind...)

The only thing that weighed down the book a bit was all the scientific details about elephants. Some were fascinating, but it was more the emotional aspects. It would have been nice to have a glossary to explain some of the terms more in detail. I think I just had trouble keeping up with which elephant was which unless they had a prevalent role in the story, such as Maura. Some of the parts involving cruelty to the elephants were hard to read about. The elephant information reminded me of the wolf information in Lone Wolf. Both were very well researched though.

Overall, it was very hard to put this book down and even harder to stop thinking about it now that I finally have.
4940237
Really liked the book. I loved how Jodi goes back in forth with the characters perspective. When I thought I had the story all figured out.....i didn't. Which to me is an awesome feeling. To top it all off I learned a whole lot about elephants which was very interesting.
4748319
I have to start this review with telling you of my first, and probably the only, encounter with Ms. Loretta Chase. It happened last year at RT's here in Chicago, and it went something like this:

Me, as I was handing her `Not Quite a Lady' [one of my favorite books by her]: "I...if...may...it's my......" and at that moment my throat just gave out, my eyes filled with tears and I just gave up on talking and shoved the book at her, which she took and gifted me with the most gentlest of smiles and noticing the camera in my other hand, asked if I'd like to take a picture with her, to which I just nodded and we did. That's what happens when you adore a writer. I've had the `fan girl moment' of my life. This is someone who knows her craft, takes care of her audience by giving them what they crave in writing the most sensual, romantic, entertaining and interesting love stories that take a life of their own.

And then I read this book...

This is the only Loretta Chase book that I had to force myself to finish, and for the life of me I'm left puzzled as to why?!

It's not like the characters are not three-dimensional, or that it lacks that witty dialogue for which she's famous for. Plot and pace were decently developed and the book moved along, but in the end I failed to enjoy the story.

Something about it failed to grab my attention and carry me through, and I'm thinking it's the main plot to this whole series that's lacking that `something' which attracts me to LC's books.

I guess having a decent plot is not as good as having a more believable and solid one. Having three sisters in the dressmaking business being privy to aristocratic gossip and secrets just didn't grab me much and I found them a bit too ambitious, not so likable and not believable.

I am really hoping that the next one will be more closely aligned to the first book in this series, or even better, to all of her books before this series all together.

Do I recommend it? Of course I do! It's LORETTA CHASE! You may like all the wonderful shop talk and descriptions; humor, which is ever-present; steamy and sensual scenes that in the end were still romantic, and its well written prose. I did too, yet in the end, it left me only with OK and not with WOW.

*Book provided by the publisher through Edelweis.
116724
I have never written a review before, but I just had to for this book. I am a huge Jodi fan, so I have read majority of her books. This book was quite different than most of her other ones, but in a very good way. I have never read the holocaust from such an intimate point of view before. I felt ever pain and sadness her character was going through. I almost felt like I had lived through Minka's hearbreaking survival story with her. I loved the message of the book and the characters.  I would highly recommend reading this book. One of my new favorite novels by Jodi.
321173
As a guy, I looked at the cover and though "Boring girl stuff!" But then I opened it and found for some parts I was right. BUT, I agree with the previous comment. I'm used to reading books with plotcs n stuff that are really long and have some sort of structure. Little did I know that Mandy's diary IS sort of like a story telling about all her happenings. Her poetry is really cool because she always surprises you at the end. Her short stories aren't half bad either. They have a cool twist in some of them. All in all, I thought it was a decent book. Yes, maybe something more for girls, but i enjoyed reading all the site updates. Being a web person myself I think that's another reason why I liked it. Web chicks kick...
3376668
This my first time reading this author. The writing immediately felt very simplistic. At some point I decided to refer to it as having a third grade reading level.... with a lot if erections.

I will say she did a good job building up their friendship over time to make it more believable.

I also enjoyed that it actually needed to address issues with both of the men being out. As unrealistic as it may seem these days, there ARE still a lot of places where this may not be all that of a stretch in regards to the homophobia.

As far as Matt's sexuality, I think that's believable enough as well. From personal experience I liked the portrayal of the gradual friendship building, turning to wanting to be together all the time, then adding desire to be affectionate to then accept some attraction.... that actually mirrors my falling for my same sex best friend when I'd previously identified as straight!

Some of the side character drama did seem pretty stupid... it really was not particularly important to the story and was far more extreme than necessary.

I read this because it was recommended as having good sexual tension, which I'd rate it as pretty good in that regard. There were some steamy moments that I enjoyed though I didn't love all of it.

I will continue ahead and read Strawberries for Dessert which I'd wanted to read, but at this point I don't have any particular desire to read more from the author but also would not avoid her either. We shall see how that changes after reading Strawberries. :)

I feel as though maybe the book has such high ratings because it is older than a lot out there so people would be excited about a book with fewer available in the genre overall. I also wonder how many people hadn't read many m/m before this. It may just have to do with realizing that they're totally into it! haha. Who knows...
4893795
Eh, I'll begin. I didn't realize that this was a Christian-themed book when someone loaned it to me. I'll admit, I was tempted to put it down---it was a little offf-putting. However, I continued reading and enjoyed if for the most part. I have friends who are SAHMS and I know it's what I want to be when I get married & start a family.

This book was loaned to me b/c I really love Meg Cabot's "The Boy Next Door" "Every Girl's Got One" and the other book whose title I can't remember at the moment. All of these are written in email format.

I also love "Feeling Sorry for Celia", "The Year of Secret Assignments", and "The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie"...by the lovly australian author whose name I can't remember. The plots in these books are relayed in various formats such as post-it notes, diary entries, postcards, etc. I think the reader feels more connected with the characters by being privy to their innermost thoughts.

I'll admit that I'm going to read the sequel to "SAHM I Am", "@ Home for the Holidays". I do want to know what's going to happen next.

:)
4037524
Going into this one I was thinking aliens were going to attack humans on Mars, that's what I got from the blurb, yet that is not what the tale is about. I think the blurb needs to be rethought to avoid confusion on the readers part and potential lower ratings due to attracting the wrong audience.

I quite enjoyed Jodi's sense of humour and her thought processes. As an IT person, I got quite a bit of a kick from that side of the story. I loved being thrust into the tech side of things.

Rest assured potential readers, you don't have to be a tech-geek to enjoy this story though. You are provided with plenty of information (without geek-ese) so you can understand what is happening.

Our antagonist... Well that was a bit of a surprise. I put things together before Jodi did, but that didn't mean I expected what happened. Woah! Talk about crazy!

I felt that we needed more perpetration before Mars, things were a bit rushed. This meant I was only just getting to know Jodi when all these we characters were thrown in. I wanted more of Jodi and Ellie's relationship too.

I also wanted more from the whole Mars experience. I felt I didn't get a full picture of what Jodi was experiencing. It was almost there, but not quite right...

The writing was fairly plain English and would be easy for most YA readers. There were no typos or problems that I saw and I really like the cover.

NOTE: I got this as an electronic ARC.
1427278
I loved this book. I was intrigued by the religious content in it and how well she handled that angle. I found myself to be sad, angry, hopeful and happy all in one book. Nice work, Jodi.
4851082
From time to time over the course of the past year I'd see Jodi Picoult books on the shelves at my favorite Barnes & Noble, or I'd read reviews of books like My Sister's Keeper in my Entertainment Weekly magazines I keep in the bathroom. But I never really thought I'd read any of her books. Nothing actually caught my eye, until last weekend.

While in Baltimore a colleague's young daughter mentioned that Picoult had a new book dealing with a high school shooting. Was it too soon? I don't think it was. 9/11 was more recent and they had three movies about that, and this book doesn't attempt to be Columbine (or the plethora of other school shootings) but it does address the same issues. Upon my return to Arizona, I went on Amazon and searched for the book. I knew it was fairly new and Picoult wrote it. Scanning her titles, I came across Nineteen Minutes and immediately knew it was the correct book. No one needs to be told where she got her title.

A few days later when I opened the book to begin it, the first page said "March 6, 2007" and chills crawled up my spine as I glanced at my own watch that read "March 7, 2007". Even before I began the book, I knew it could be now. It can be here. It can be anywhere. My wife hated high school and I, personally, relive it daily, but what would happen in this book. It began with a journal entry from Peter Houghton, a slight boy who was terminally teased in a small New Hampshire town by everyone from his best friend from kindergarten to his own older brother. The novel begins in media res with the school shooting and then we begin our story of how he got to this point. Picoult simply tells us where we are in the narrative with chapter titles like "First Day of Kindergarten" or "10 Days After".

As I began this book I was confused by the plethora of characters introduced immediately, but as I read, I realized they would all play important parts to the narrative of the novel. For example, Alex Courmier is the mother of one of the survivors, a girl named Josie, who witnessed the murder of her boyfriend, Matt. Alex a law student and later a defense attorney who got pregnant out of wedlock and didn't want to keep her baby. Eventually she gave birth to Josie, and later became the sitting judge on the shooting trial. Lacy, the midwife who loved watching babies born into her arms, commented on how much potential children had, but later when she raced to the school to make sure her only living son was ok, she was informed he'd been taken into custody for killing 10 students and wounding 19 others. Patrick the investigating detective who lived alone and had no real life outside his job, the man who rushed into the school, arrested Peter Houghton, and carried the blacked out Josie out the front of the school. Jordan, the defense attorney, who agreed to take the case while holding his own infant son because everyone should have a fair trial.

The book weaves these characters and several others through the narrative that led up to "That Day" and then forward in time through the trial and culminating in the one year anniversary, as two characters stand at the old site of the shooting where, in a newly renovated atrium, 10 white chairs sat for the 10 victims. They watched the world continue around them and discussed the hopes, dreams, and despair from a town trying to heal itself from years of hurt.