Tedious, Unimaginative & Poorly Written
932370
Based on the topic, I thought it had the potential to be a fascinating book about baseball at the outset of the 20th century.  Regretfully, it is very poorly written.  Ryan did do a lot of homework, he just did not put it together in a readable prose. Ryan's writing style is painfully tedious and cliche-laden.  Even when he does unearth a gem about the culture, personalities or behind-the-scenes intrigue of the period, it just falls flat. If you love baseball and are a Sox fan, please read something else!
4095108
Imagine a second grader writing a book report on The DaVinci Code, and if you can buy that book report, buy it.  But don't squander your hard earned bucks here.  I am not accustomed to not finishing a book that I start reading but this one was just so bad I had to give it up.  Poorly written, poorly conceived, poorly executed and thoroughly underwhelming, it makes me wish I could get my money back.  This story reads like something written in great haste, almost as if the draft was published without editing of any kind, almost like a description of a book as opposed to an actual book.  The hamhanded prose style, in which the author seems to be in a rush to get to the next part of the story, indicates the work of a lazy writer more interested in getting this drek cranked out quickly than in telling a story well (much less cohesively).  There are no surprses in this book.  The good guys are obviously the good guys and the bad guys are obviously bad (and, apparently, all members of the Catholic Church).  Rather than build characters, Hansen just jams a black hat on someone right off the bat, and rather than describe an action he just declares it a done deed.  On top of this wretched stinkathon is the putrid cherry of Hansen's obvious hatred of Catholicism.  Whatever your opinion might be of Christianity in generl and Catholics in particular, the level of bigotry in this book is really astounding.  I cannot imagine such a book being written about any other religious group and getting such a pass.  if you are looking for a thriller, this ain't it.  Likewise for exciting plot or action, well-written prose or characters, or accurate portrayals of historical fact.  Huge waste of time and money.
4486871
Wish I had checked the Amazon reviews on this one. Purchased based on other books by this author and the Times ranking. It is a dreadful book. It was not gripping, scary or suspenseful. It was tedious, dull and overwritten, repetitive, confusing (too many characters, all the same), just to cite a few shortcomings. Wouldn't recommend it whether you love horror, mysteries, fantasy or just engaging novels. You can't hit a homer each time up to bat, clearly this isn't one.
4348292
One of the most tedious, convoluted, energy-sapping reads ever. Don't waste your time.
3968347
If I have to sum up this book in one word, I would say: dreadful.  I finished the book, but it was a struggle. It was not just that this book was a rehash of Lord of the Rings - it was a bad rehash.  The writing was absolutely horrible.  There may have been a decent 250 page novel somewhere in the book, but unfortunately it would be hard to find it in the 700 pages the author delivered. The characters are uninteresting (even the ones the author explicitly tells us are interesting), the plot "twists" can be seen from two hundred pages away, and the conclusion is just plain boring.

Given how many books there are in the Shannara series, I can only assume the author's writing improved.  I have no intention of finding out for myself.
2442438
Tedious & seemingly written without depth or imagination.  Uses same phrases over and over and makes everything seem pedestrian, events and characters alike.  No one is developed as a person and the leading people are robot-like, kind of like a naughty Ken or Barbie come to live; choppy and boring read.  Liked her other books a lot better - they had rich, developed personalities - these two got shortchanged.  Four inch heels and immature people.
2886094
My goodness, I have never read such a tedious book in all of my life.  It's so boring, I feel like weeping!  I am sorry Ms. Laurens and to those who are a fan of hers.  I have tried and tried to continue reading this book but each page just simply didn't enthralled me.  Worst, it makes me sleepy.  It's a good sleeping therapy, I say!  It took me 5 days, 5 days of dragging myself just to get to the 200+ pages and still no excitement building up.  So, finally, I have given up.  -- CLOSE THE BOOK --
I have griped about books that I THOUGHT were overly detailed and have lots of unnecessary/repetitive descriptions but after this one, I'll think twice before complaining so again.  Never have I read one as bad as this book.  Talk about EXTREMES!  OVER-detailing is an understatement to describe this one.  Perhaps I could even bypass this flaw if scenes were interesting enough and not repetitive.  Ugh!  Cut it and get to the point.  This is simply not for me.  The hero and the heroine in the first story, Tangled Reins, Marc and Dorothea's character was no help at all either.  Both are just too unlikable for me to continue on... No character development, no foreplay or byplay, no sexual tension, no love... what's left?  None... just 2 characters in motion.  At least, they're moving!  Aside from the plot (What plot?), the writing style also made this book more tiresome.  It's too compacted, no spaces or next line to seperate dialogues (not that there's much of dialogues there anyways).  I guess this is needed to save space for the next story.  Again, it isn't my kind of book.
I have never rated 1 star in any of my book readings.  I told myself that I'll only rate 1 star to a book that I couldn't finish at all and I even told myself that this will never happend or I'll surely rue that day.  Alas, the day has come!  However,  now that I am thinking about it (and perhaps I am just being generous), it certainly isn't fair to rate this book a 1 star just because I COULDN'T finish it.  I rated it two stars instead because who knows the second story, FAIR JUNO would come out better or perhaps who knows the ending of the first story, Tangled Reins, might suddenly improved. READ IT YOURSELF.  I, on the other hand, simply don't have the inclination whatsoever to find out.  Sorry, this is my first of Stephanie Laurens and I am the kind of person who never say never... but, at this moment, if asked to read one of her works, I would most politely decline. (This is suppose to be one of her earlier works so perhaps that explains it).  I am sorry, Ms. Laurens and her fans.  Once again, this is only my opinion.  Read it anyway, esp. if you are a fan of hers.  Who knows you might enjoy it more than I have.
3749125
Pathetic!

This book is poorly written and much too long.  I found the style of dialogue in the book to be very unnatural and irritating.  Throughout the book, when two people conversed, they would continuously state the name of the other person as part of the dialogue.  "Why did you do it, Charlie?", as opposed to a more natural, "Why did you do it?"  While this technique is acceptable on occasion, it is not natural to hear Karen say Charlie's name in every other sentence during an hour long conversation (when she meets up with him on the boat).  I must have heard her say the name "Charlie" a thousand times during the conversation.

It was so irritating that I found myself hoping the bad guys would assassinate her to put the book out of its misery!
1341820
I've long seen Dean Koontz's books line the checkout stands of grocery stores, but until now, I've never read any.  No particular reason why . . . just didn't do so.  My first one was "The Good Guy" and it was a reasonable read.  However, this one, is a complete waste of time and is a very poor example of writing.

I teach English and  I'm appalled at this display of mixed tenses, confusing story lines that seem to go nowhere and a complete lack of connection throughout the book.  If the book were to be a fantasy book, that that should be established early on.  However, instead, the reader is forced to plod through limitless bad metaphors and left with a reeling headache from trying to understand what the author is indeed trying to say!

Example of a bad metaphor (and it's not the worst):  "Her mouth, the ripe centerpiece of a lipstick advertisement, is a frosted red like the petals of the last rose on a November bush."

Example of just bad writing:  "In matching Chinese-red silk pajamas with billowy bell-bottom sleeves and pants, standing tall on platform sandals that glitter with midnight-blue rhinestones, their fingernails and toenails no longer azure-blue but crimson, their glossy golden hair swept up in chignons with long spiral curls framing their faces, they glide and turn and twist around the cramped galley with an uncanny awareness of each other's position at all times, exhibiting choreography that might please Busby Berkeley as they whip up a feast of Mandarin and Szechwan specialties."

Yes, that's 84 words in one sentence!  If my students wrote such a sentence, I would immediately ask them to re-write it!

At any rate, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.  I forced myself to finish it, but did so pretty much by skipping chapters that were written in third person present tense when the rest of the book was written in third person past tense.  I didn't miss anything!  The conclusion was quick and merciless in getting us through what took way too many pages to get to.

Oh, and one more thing?  Few of the characters are even remotely believable.  There is a minor appearance of a young man with Down Syndrome and he was probably the most real "person" in the book.  The rest were just way too far-fetched to even seem like they were "part of this world."  Pun definitely intended since Koontz takes this book to the extra-terrestrial level of unbelievability.
2060745
To sum up as succinctly as I can: not cute.

This was one of the most aggravating, childish books I have ever had to drag my eyes across. I really don't understand the high ratings -- the author is insufferable, lazy, self-aggrandizing, unapologetic, and above all tedious. The narration makes sense when she begins with her childhood, so the chronic self-centeredness feels like a justified match given her age at the time, but then suddenly she's married? With a child? And continually blaming others for her allegedly zany mishaps, making excuses, or else telling the world "you're welcome" simply because she has made others' lives more difficult? Please. Her desire to write this book comes from such an obviously selfish, self-satisfied place that you wonder how on earth she could have grown up to think her little stories are THIS important. If you claim to relate to her on any level, I have unfortunate news for you: you are deeply, deeply obnoxious.

I was genuinely annoyed while reading this book. In fact, I forced myself to finish it so as not to give the author the "pleasure" of driving me off "like all the others," as she would doubtless claim. Fake editors notes are not the mark of a quality read, and I should have acted on my revulsion from the get-go. Skip.
4428828
This book was very tedious. I found myself skipping over paragraphs just so I could finish it up. I am generally a pretty superficial reader. I enjoy a chicklet as much as the next lady, but the writing in this book did not allow me to connect with the heroine. I found her needy, whiny, and hard to relate to. I couldn't figure out why all these men would want her...?! aside from her, ahem, unparallelled beauty? bleck! The author obviously has a keen interest in history, but the flashback sequences were at times confusing, and quite transparent. I also couldn't understand the obsession with chickens, and eating eggs every morning?! (hello cholesterol) The outcome of the story is also unsatisfying, indulgent and overly dramatic. I wish I wouldn't have spent $10 on the kindle edition of this book. It's more suited to Amazon's $1.99 titles.
3690968
I admit that I didn't finish this book - I couldn't, and, after reading the other reviews, I saw no reason to.  The plot is ridiculous & vile, the main character disgusting, and the writing boring.  Avoid it.
951937
The premise here could have been wonderful.  I fully expected it to be.  However, the writing is so poor, and redundant.  The author feels it necessary to repeat herself constantly within paragraphs.  The Civil War era characters speak with an 21st century spin.  The whole story seems "sanitized" to me.  Katrina was a living hell!  There are still people in that suffering and trying to rebuild,almost 10 years later.  The over simplification of this on the author's part is is very sugar coated.  Again, this book could have been something special, but the writing style is dreadful.  I will not read anything more by this author, and truly wish I had not spent money on this one!
2683610
What a sad whimpering out of a once-solid writer.  This is the laziest and most self-indulgent writing I've seen in a while.  First of all, Eisler continually injects his personal politics into the story, taking bizarrely inappropriate and out-of-context cheap shots at the USA, Bush, the US military.  Second, instead of doing the work of a writer to use language to evoke a mood, Eisler takes the easy way out--dropping brand names.  Just what are the herd of iPhone references supposed to add to the story?  Nothing.  This is laziness bordering on product placement.  Third, the proofreading is an embarrassment.  I haven't seen this many misspellings and grammatical errors since I reviewed my 9-year-old nephew's schoolwork.  It looks like the whole team is 'phoning it in'.  I have been a loyal fan of this series, but I will NOT being buying another Eisler book.
3025922
The overuse of similies and metaphors alone are making this one of the worst books I've ever slogged through. Let alone the fact that the "original characters" are so poorly written that it's just sad. And I'm not even halfway through it. It's just. . . awful. It's a painfully bad read. I honestly do not know if I can get through it. This is the first time I've written a review on Amazon and was moved to do so by how much I dislike this book. It's a shame since I had looked forward to reading it.
1199151
Well, I'm about 50% through this monstrosity and simply cannot continue.  The writing is simplistic (scary bad, in my opinion), characters are all unrealistic caricatures.  I'm supposed to slog through 600 plus pages of horrible writing to get to the Whodunit?  Throughout my reading to this point I've moved from: "Wow, am I missing something, this writing is really bothering me" to "Ok, I can't read another word of this drivel." This is perhaps the worst book I've attempted to read in years and I just can't take it anymore.

Yes, lots of plot twists and turns but I JUST DON'T CARE. Read at your own risk, better yet, read the one star reviews...They're right on.
2769641
I am motivated to write a review in order to offset the overwhelming positive comments on this book.  I read it for a book club and have to say this is absolutely the worst book I've read in a long time.  The only good thing about it is the premise which is an interesting idea.  However this is not sufficient to offset awful writing, tediously repetitive details, and uninteresting characters (as mentioned by some other reviewers, the protagonist is particularly irritating).