starts out good, goes downhill
938250
another book borrowed from my friend... i started off liking this book, then it just got confusing and boring. i forgot to finish it and just skimmed the very end now. i was a couple chapters away, and nothing could have completed the book to my satisfaction, or kept my attention on it. it did get me thinking a lot about reincarnation, so thats why i initially liked it, because it does make you think.  maybe he should re write it and do some edits?
3266429
Starts off as a great story from the kids perspective, which was what drew me in. It soon turns into just another cop novel....zzzzzz. Too bad, because the beginning was superb and I was really looking forward to it.
1817310
This book started out really good, but about half way through, the story and intensity died out....slow glide to the end.
2784275
Started off really good I was really interested to see where the story was going Then it all went down hill the writing became sloppy, the story and plot lost its point and I was just over it. Had the potential to be so much more
1036539
The beginning of this book was promising - good spelling and grammar, and the scenario was appealing, but about half way through it fell apart.  Nothing really showed why Ashley was so appealing to either the human or the alien who wanted her.  While "willing suspension of disbelief" can cover a lot, this was just too much.  Also, at one point the author seemed to force the story to not contain any sexual content, sort of the artificial feel of an old movie where the door closes and the screen fades to black.

The author starts out with a good story line but fails to develop it or the characters sufficiently.  A real shame.  I had high hopes at the beginning.
4175175
The book starts out good and goes down hill. The book skips 5-7 years in the middle and the writing seems very child like.
1660305
Started out great, got sort of sidetracked in the middle and ran out of steam at the end.
3761022
Started out good, but then gets really bogged down about half way through. I had to force myself to finish reading this.
3957596
It started out good,but somewhere the story went the way all other books do,predictable.
3383892
This book started out really well but about halfway through it completely fizzled. There were incidents that came across as unrealistic and almost ludicrous - such as some descriptions of encounters in hotel rooms. Also, the behavior and dialogue of the characters didn't feel authentic or plausible - especially with Carter. The book also seemed to get bogged down with unnecessary rehashing of the background of the characters and redundant, repetitive internal dialogue. I felt this book had some very good writing at the beginning, but unfortunately it didn't live up to it's potential.
2519882
The book  starts out great: unique premise, intelligent heroine Merry. She is aboard t  pirate ship with Morgan,who is also a complex and intelligent character.  And then things go  downhill. Our strong and intelligent heroine turns into a babbling tearful idiot most of the time. There are multiple grammar errors to irritate me. And finally at the end of the book: there is no end. It is the dreaded to  be  continued....Must  buy the next  book......
1949769
Paen Scott is a vampire without a soul. Half-elf Sam is his beloved and she can restore his soul to him. The only problem is Paen doesn't want his soul restored and doesn't want a beloved.

The story starts out really great with some very engaging characters. The romance between Paen and Sam is great. Unfortunately, once Sam restores Paen's soul the story starts to go downhill.

First Sam, trades the immortality she gained from becoming Paen's beloved, then she's almost killed and Paen has to change her into a vampire, only she loses her soul. There's also the plot of two demons vying for a monkey statue.

By the end the story becomes so farfetched that is loses all its charm. I think if they had stuck with Paen not wanting to love someone and Sam bringing him around, it would have been better. Or if Paen was willing to sacrifice himself to save her it restored her soul.

Near the end, the Sam character becomes completely annoying. It's too bad, because the first half of the book is great.
1370514
The first half of this book is reasonably well-written and presents concepts that are quite novel and might have saved me considerable grief in my own early efforts at trading. Unfortunately, the quality of writing seems to deteriorate at about the midpoint, where the book becomes increasingly repetitive as the author begins to delve into obtuse metaphysical topics with questionable relevance. Moreover, for those of us who have had a brush with Scientology, much of the "theology" proposed from this point on rings too many bells. Douglas' book would have been far more commendable had he ended at the half-way point.
74712
This book started out wonderfully -- the announcement of a murder is placed in the ads of the local paper in a small English village, identifying the house and the time but nothing more.  The residents of the village, all thinking it's an invitation to a murder mystery party, invent various excuses to show up at the stated house at the specified time.  The residents of the house read the ad as well but no one will admit to having placed it.  So the master of the house -- an older, single woman -- says they'd better be ready for company.

But then there's a real murder, and suddenly all of the eccentric villagers are left looking at each other and wondering who was responsible.

I've read two other Agatha Christie books prior to this (one with Hercule Perot, the other without one of the author's 'regular' sleuths) and this one started out much better than the others.  The characters were more distinct, the situation more interesting, and the reactions of the characters more believable.

Unfortunately, the book proves to be a letdown.  Miss Marple seems sort of "tacked on" to the story rather than being part of it.  The plot relies on too many coincidences (e.g. a cat doing something that shows Miss Marple exactly how the murderer managed something, characters with mysterious but interlinked pasts showing up at the same time with the same motives without knowing of each other, the culprit being at exactly the right place at the exactly the right time to overhear things multiple times) for my tastes.

Worst of all, the resolution just doesn't feel right.  The murderer is caught out in a ridiculously elaborate scheme, and when you hear their motives from Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock, is just doesn't seem believable.  *This* character, with *that* background, was capable of conceiving and carrying out a murder and then committing multiple more crimes to try to cover their tracks?  Even the motive for the initial murder just doesn't ring true -- there are multiple ways the culprit could have dealt with their problem that would have been far less risky than committing a murder.

A pity, as the book had started out so well.
3077288
The first half of the book, almost exactly half, was a nice paced book with a good story line.  Then, at 49%, it went downhill.  Almost as though someone else took over the writing.  Too bad because the beginning seemed promising.
2695620
This book started off with a bang that seemed to be a delicious read. But midway through, It started to fizz out.
3218310
This is a psychological thriller. Sara's husband mysteriously goes missing 2 years prior. Then right before summer break, Sara finds a note under her windshield wiper that reads Are You Ready to Play the Game? She then discovers that her 3 children are missing from school.
Sara works for a company that creates online games, so she believes that she will get further instructions as the 'game' progresses.
The book starts off well, but then the characters lose substance, and the story becomes rather lame. I guessed the ending about a quarter way into the book, which made it less interesting for me.