A Poor Excuse for a Book !
358849
I have read many books of this type and this is by far the worst example of the genre. Not worth 99 cents.
963794
This book was not only a disappointment, it was a waste of time. I was still at page 83 before anything of interest had happened. Yes, I knew what the characters wore and smoked, but let's face it, she's no Dickens, so  that's not enough to keep our interest. I know she originally wrote in this  genre to counteract criticism from producers that she couldn't write good  plots...Sue, fight back!!
2112899
I would have chosen minus one of I could have. This book was a waste. This author has apparently churned out so many novels that she was running on empty when she wrote this one. The story I is disjointed, the characters are not believable.  It's no wonder everything had to be explained point by point at the end. My recommendation is don't waste your time
382522
This book is so poorly conceived it might as well have been written by an eight year old. It's hundreds and hundreds of pages of two characters saying the same thing to each other over and over with minor variation on tone. This could have been a 100 page short story and still had more detail!
1719556
Gah!  I initially gave this book two stars, simply because the author is Australian.  I soon realised that that was not a good enough reason for the extra one.  I couldn't finish this book, and gave up quite early.  I must admit I am baffled as to why I purchased it since I read the teaser of the first couple of chapters. Anyway, the review:  This book was filled with superfluous information and was pedantic to the point of boredom.  In case you missed it, I used two words together as well as the single which all pretty much mean the same thing.  This is what Ms Alexander does with her writing.  (What was the so-called editor doing--her nails perhaps??)  The dialog was also repetitious, and horribly stilted. Every paragraph contained incidences where three long sentences were used when one would have sufficed.  All in all, it makes for a very difficult read. As an example, Ms Alexander talks about the worker going to the storage lockers to get the required tools (individually mentioned) to clean out the animal shelters.  Then the author tells the reader that the worker then takes said items across the compound to the pens where the poor things are kept.  Then we are subjected to the worker using each and every tool to do each and every specific action that they were designed for.  For **** sake, the woman cleaned out the animal pens!!!  That was all we needed to know!
4377338
I usually will never bother with a book review, but I cannot but WARN everyone away from this miserable excuse for a book, and supposedly a historical novel at that. First of all, the only thing that is historical about it is the dates that this very LAZY writer has written down. The language is NOT historical. It is all in contemporary English...I kept expecting to see Text-speak such as LOL in the book, and I am amazed that I did not. The characters are extremely shallow to say the least, and are very poorly developed. You do not make any sort of connection with them. The storyline jumps haphazardly from one place to the other. I really shudder to think that there are two more books like this out there, all in the name of writing a "Series"
This is honestly the WORST book I have ever read, and I deeply encourage the very LAZY Hopkins to get another job...possibly the same one her "Heroine" has.
3354901
I resent this poor excuse for a book because it invokes Dick Francis' name.  It is boring, trite, poorly written.  Please!  A complete waste of monies and time.
3260590
If Rita Mae Brown's name had not been on this book, I would have thought it was written by a novice!  Characters are one-dimensional, plot is so-so, conversations are wooden, and sentence structure is poor, if not sometimes wordily bizarre.  It feels like a short story with un-needed phrases and drawn-out philosophical musings thrown in to stretch it into book-length.  It's not a "keeper" so if you're intent on reading it, don't waste your money--just borrow it!
2279216
This is a very sad excuse for a book. Everything in it was incorrect. First of all, Islam does not tolerate violence; that is completely false. Islam also does not tolerate opressing females; it was never said that they were supposed to obey males without question. The issue concerning a marriage between 2 people without seeing each other was never done, it is required for them to meet, and for BOTH to agree on the marriage.
  Dowries are not allowed in Islam because there is no need for families to pay for giving away their daughters, as if they were rubbish they otherwise couldn't get rid of. I'm deeply revolted at the story line and how Ms. Staples portrays Islam and Muslims. The sequel, Haveli, is also an object of lies, as it surrounds the same situation that Shabanu did. The cultural backround may be right, but the religious backround is far from it. I do not agree with anything, because I know what the truth is; I am a Pakistani Muslim, too.
  As far as the basic elements of a book are concerned, this book was successful, save for the fact that the author continually mentions a persons breasts as a part of their descriptions. For these reasons, I gave it 3 stars. Do not read this book, unless you prefer loss, hardship, and tragedy. The only reason I managed to get through was that I didn't want a failing grade in English class.
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.
1280158
This was a waste of time. It could be called a book on procrastination and overcoming it. Repetitious too, with lots of 'wacky' commentary which says little. It should have been article length too. He does have some funny moments which make you laugh, but that's not what I'm looking for. This book is filled iwith 'encouragement' on just going ahead and doing it. I'd even say this is one huge joke.

I expected it to be about how to get inspired and write on, even when you have trouble finding a plot, but no such luck. He admits that these books you write can be terrible, but the only important thing is to keep writing with some plot that is barely there. Which he provides no help with despite emphasizing plot overcoming in the title. AHHRRSEEE! Apparently he did exactly what he suggests you do with your fiction. No need for substance, just keep plugging away till you get to the word count. No thanks for wasting my time. Looks like he has a new edition coming out this month. How useful ... not!
4814994
I am sick and tired of authors claiming their books are a "series", when they are really only one book split into three parts just so they can milk you for more money! A series is supposed to be a set of books that are related to each other, not a continuation of the same story line picking up where the last one left off.
I will not get any more books in this "series", even though what I read so far was pretty decent. I refuse to contribute more to this author's coffers. If you don't mind being duped and paying more than you should to read this, then by all means, do it. I am too damn poor to stand for this crap! I don't mind paying $6-8 for a book, but I DO mind being duped into it unwittingly!
2359036
Shame on Allyson Publications!  I place the blame for this sorry excuse for a novel squarely on their shoulders.  While the author may be guilty of poor writing, it is, after all, a First Novel, and what the author needed was a good editor to guide him toward respectable finished product.  Obviously, he didn't receive it.

The novel reads like a first-draft manuscript, and to charge money and sell this kind of incompetent writing to the general public is criminal.  The book is rift with bad grammar, poor punctuation, sentences that aren't even mildly literate.  The author confuses "your" and "you're" consistently, and makes grammatical errors that aren't just a result of style but of completely uneducated ignorance.

But these are all mistakes which would have---should have----been caught by an editor, "polished off", as it were.  Instead, the reader is left putting his chin on his folded arms and giving up trying to decipher the author's intent in sheer frustration.

I understand, from the author's biography on the cover, that he is, himself, a magazine editor, so perhaps he felt he didn't need anyone to edit or proofread his novel before publishing.  Yet the onus still falls to Allyson for failing to do justice to the work before putting it in print.

Other than the above mentioned errors, there's a lack of substance to the story, and far too many momentary segues to inconsequential musings that bear no direct relation to the story being told.  Important scenes are broken by what amounts to sidebars in the lives of minor characters, for no explicit reason.  Major issues are never resolved, nothing is learned by any of the weak characters, and the plot is thin and over-written.

This book is a travesty that was published before it was ready to be sold to the general public, and definitely isn't worth the price paid, even if you purchased it on a second-hand table.  Shame on all involved.
3547344
This could, and should, have been a very good book.  The plot was promising.  The development... well, the best I could describe it in one word... redundant, redundant, redundant!  If this author had just cut out all of her repeated, and I do mean repeated, writing, it would have been about half this length.  And probably much better.  This entire book is written to about a fifth grade level.  No, let me take this back.  This was NOT written to the level of a fifth grader.  This author is NOT smarter than a fifth grader!  I think it should be taken down to about a third grade reading level!  There are some typos, but not as many as more and more of the publishers are putting out nowadays.  Distracting, but not nearly as distracting as the lack of content.  The abduction of two thirds of triplets and the FBI's efforts to recover them along with the anguish of the parents should have been an exciting and fast paced storyline.  Not in this case, though.  If you want LIGHT reading, then maybe this is a book for you.  However, it was so poorly written that I was ready to just stop at page 41.  For some reason I plowed through this book, anyway.  Originally I was ready to give the author a little leeway, thinking it was a first-time author.  When I went to read up on her, though, I was just absolutely amazed!  This author is proclaimed to be a best selling author, as well as being nominated for the Best First Novel in the International Thriller Writer's "Thriller" Awards.  I am not only disenchanted with this author, but with what little it takes anymore to make a list like this.  It must be done by a panel of third graders!  Or maybe Kindergartners.  I hate to think that the readers in life anymore expect so little out of our authors.  For me, well, this is on my "Do NOT Read Anything by this Author" list!  Very poorly written and very much of a bomb.  As in Hiroshima!
3365074
I wish Amazon had negative stars; this book would rightfully earn them! A total waste of time and money. I finally tore up the pages to save the next sucker from futilely searching for anything humorous contained within this offensive and lame excuse for a book. Unfortunately airport bookstores don't have reviews or I'd be $15 richer. Don't make the same mistake!
3345426
The author of this poor excuse for a book is an obscure Puerto Rican gay male who happens to be a fan of the celebrated film star Sarita Montiel.
It's hard to understand why he decided to tell the world about his obviously boring existence and sordid sex escapades. DUDE, WHO CARES?
499433
I really don't understand why so many people like this book so much!! For me this boo is too long with no purpose! It seems that the author decided beforehand that everything he could think of, should be inside this book. It has too many unnecessary characters and on top of it,too many pages are wasted on them. The unfortunate reader has to read all these rubbish thinking that there is some purpose on this. In the end it all seems like just waste of your time.