Plot had potential but not a realistic story line. ...
355710
Plot had potential but not a realistic story line.  Too much religion for my taste, but may not be for others.
2980572
The story plot had good potential, but most of the story had to do with the sexual relationship between the main characters of the book. The sexual relationship was described in great detail which added nothing to the overall plot.  I also felt that the end was anti-climatic.  It was much like the first book I read in that it centered around the sexual relationship of two people which was described in detail.
182853
I really tried to like it more..... but really, this is the sad story of a sad family of almost Greek tragic proportions.... - Bad things getting always worse.  At times it was boring and even though the author tries (and it certainly looks like - she can not hide it) to surprise you, after a moment a tragic existence became more tragic, and more tragic.... and so on.... The plot in itself is good. The possible intention of overwhelming the reader with the fact that racism is a terrible thing, gave the book another connotation.  And did not contribute to the quality of the book.
2767781
The idea for the book is a good one but it wasn't carried out very well.  The first part of the book is interesting and quick paced. Towards the end though, it was way too preachy.  I felt like I was just reading an anti drug book and one that was constantly quoting the Bible to me. There were way too many unbelievable things happening and then the ending wrapped everything up nicely.  Life isn't like that and the way this book is written was so unrealistic.  Plus, it seemed the author tried to put too much in. It wasn't enough that the mom was smarter than the police in finding out what happened to her daughter, but she was able to talk the detective into sharing information with her and carting her son around.  I can't see this ever happening.  Plus, she tried to throw some love in there between the detective and the mom.  If the book had finished as strongly as it began (with the exception of the mom just picking a rehab center by googling Christian Rehab and choosing the first one on the list without checking it out), I would recommend it, but I can't recommend it the way it is.
2315970
I liked the premise of the storyline, however the book was not what I expected. Based on the title and the description of the book I assumed (and you know what they say about assuming) that Nadia (heroine) and Jeremy hero) were going to pretend to be in a relationship so she could get rid of her ex-boyfriend who was continuing to bother her. While pretending to have this relationship they find themselves pregnant and as they begin to connect over the pregnancy they find themselves falling for one another.

Unfortunately, this is not what happened. Nadia comes up with a plan to get rid of stalkerish ex-boyfriend by getting a new man and getting pregnant. Really? What kind of crazy plan is that? You would get pregnant just to get rid of an ex-boyfriend when if you firmly tell him NO and stop talking to him he would go away. If not then call the police. But to involve an innocent baby makes no sense. To make matters worse she involves Jeremy that is a friend of the family. I thought he was going to talk her out of this crazy scheme but he says YES. Now this man runs a billion dollar company (which means he should be smart) and yet he gets involved with a dumb idea.

I continued to read the book because I don't like to leave a book unfinished, but I must say that I think this story could have been reworked to be a little bit more believable. Another problem I had was the numerous grammatical errors.
2032230
I love reading about conspiracy theories and secret societies so it is easy to say I was looking forward to this one, especially since I had previously enjoyed one of the author's stories. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. I'm not sure if it just was me reading The Secret Of Heaven at the wrong time, but I really struggled to get a proper feel for this story. There are a lot of different characters involved and this makes it hard to keep up wih the what and who and how everything connects. More than once I had to stop reading and try to remember what the role of a certain character was and this slowed down the pace considerably. The plot also felt pretty chaotic and kept jumping back and forth between characters... Which took a while to get used to. I have to be honest here and say it took me a lot longer than expected to finish The Secret Of Heaven. The writing wasn't bad and it really shows that the author has taken the time to investigate the historical details thoroughly. The (historical) descriptions are extensive and show just how important the so-called Lost Bible is... That said, those descriptions did also slow down the pace and while I normally love historical elements in a story, they didn't manage to convince me in The Secret Of Heaven. As for the characters and their actions... I wasn't really able to connect to them as there are simply too many characters in play in the first place; also, I'm not sure everything that happens in the plot is exactly credible. And while it kind of has that Dan Brown feel and sounds really promising, The Secret Of Heaven unfortunately didn't manage to blow me away. Such a shame, because the story has a lot of potential!
1564909
Wanted to like this but could not. I appreciate what the author attempted to do but it did not translate in the writing. The story read like a narrative at first which was confusing. Then it ...the authors writing style seemed elementary and a bit childish. The characters were not fully developed and quite frankly were boring. With some development and a more unpredictable plot twist this could have been very enjoyable. I by no means want to discourage the writer or any potential readers it just did not read well for me.
1234165
Although the author had some interesting plot ideas, I felt the mechanics of the stories were a bit forced and unrealistic. Sam and his friends find themselves in any number of harrowing situations but their inevitable escapes seem increasingly unrealistic (maybe once would be OK, but these cats have more than nine lives). Although the plots had twists, the resolutions became somewhat predictable.
2259694
This had potential as a story about a couple of guys growing up. The plot was a little tortured with a senseless bad guy-just bad for no reason. The book is readable with some interesting interaction between our protagonist and his girl friend and his best friend. I grew tired of the graphic trauma suffered by the protagonist from fighting,knife wounds,gunshots,etc. I mean how much can our character or our reader take?I would give this book a miss if I were to choose again without having read the book but I did read all of it. Maybe you will be intrigued as I was and stay with it.  John Finney
3518140
This may have been a great read if not for the overwhelming amount of information that had to be waded through just to get a single action or scene. The plot was buried under mountains of it and having the characters dialog full of it takes the enjoyment out of the read. I couldn't connect to any of the characters as they felt flat and unrealistic. A few too many far fetched situations or set ups to an encounter took away from the plot. At least it wasn't riddled with poor grammar and a lack of understanding of the subject matter, hence the three stars instead of just two.
3854357
This book had more potential than it delivered. The plot was intriguing and the supernatural aspects were promising. However the descriptions were repetitive and distracting. This was a case of where the author needed to show and not tell. It was pointed out over and over again how the main characters had an innate connection, to the point where I just wanted to say "I get it. I get it. They are meant for each other, let's move on now." I grew tired of reading how Sam shook her to her core, made butterflies in her stomach, jolted her very being...ok already. The author should have trusted the rest of her writing to convey that for the reader not belabor the point. The rest of the writing was good, I enjoyed the plot pacing and felt that the main characters were real. The author just didn't need to try to hard to sell the soul mate angle, less is more.
3739433
I chose to give this book 3 stars because the plot worked logically even though it was simple, and the characters were more than cardboard cutouts. However, only some of the locations were imaginatively described and developed. The final planet described, for example, is too reminiscent of unicorns and rainbows - totally unreal. No real development of the romance between hero and heroine; only two states, "on" or "off."
4444520
The premise for this book was beyond realistic.  Overall the writing was not that bad but the storyline was simply unbelievable which made the entire story much less enjoyable.
1260662
I have mixed feelings about this book. First off, I didn't really care for the story line, however, I read on hoping to become more engaged. I believe the author could have had a much better book had the plot in the beginning been different. I find it difficult to see the heroine in a relationship with Brandon to then find herself kidnapped and dumped somewhere else. It wasn't believable and felt really disjointed. I liked Quy, however his story wasn't really fleshed out. Hence, it too, was disjointed and confusing. The underlying idea was good (minus the whole Brandon thing), so it is my hope that future stories will bring more to the table.
3059637
I read the individual books as they were being released.... Through an arc...in exchange for an honest review.  The plot seemed like a good idea but I don't think it was played out as well as it could have been.  I didn't feel a good connection between the main characters in the first book.  The quarral in the second book seemed childish and didn't make much sense.  The third book was to explain what the"secret" was in Blake's past but it wasn't anything big...I was a bit disappointed.
4378786
I liked the concept, but 2 major plot points were too messed up to overcome.  First of all, Niki does not make sense as a bank robber/criminal/investigator.  He owns his own investigation firm but commits federal crimes for kicks?  Uh, no,  The romance was cute but I can think of several ways the story could have been told without making he and his friends criminals. Then the psychotic daddy/killer. That made no sense.  He's managed to hide the fact that he's just flat out crazy all these years?  And nobody ever noticed? The author has a lot of potential but really missed the mark with this book.
2221114
I felt that the idea behind the plot to this short story was a good one, however, everything moved much too quickly for me to find it even slightly believable. The 2 MCs meet again after a 10 year absence, don't speak for 3 weeks, then over the course of 2 days the entire plot takes place. It just felt so manufactured and implausible.
I did try the sample, but don't feel that the sample was long enough to show the flaws in the storyline.
This is my first time with this author, I don't think I'll be back.