Not what I expected from Crusie
344280
I've read several of Crusie's books, both solo and collaborated. This was a bit of a disappointment. The plot, while other-worldy, was not at all captivating. I'm surprised I finished the book at all. It seemed like a futile attempt to bring in the elements that have made previous Crusie books a big success. Don't spend money on it. If you really want to read it, borrow it from  library.
3501235
This book lost me somewhere in the middle.  It lagged and did not show enough forward momentum for me to stay fully engaged.  As a fan of this genre, I enjoy when little crumbs are dropped throughout the book, but that seemed to be missing.

This is a break off novel from Lisa Gardners D.D. Warren series.  The new character of state trooper Tessa Leoni is being introduced and the reader is thrust into her life on the night of her husbands murder and her daughters disappearance.  Told in alternating chapters between Tessa and D.D. Warren, the lead investigator, the reader learns who Tessa is, who Tessa was and why her husband Brian Darby had to die.

Duel perspective books can lead to confusion but that was not so with this book.  The reader discerns early on that Tessa knows more than she is letting on about the abduction of her daughter and her husbands death, but still there are no crumbs for the reader to follow down this winding path.  It is not until the end of the book when Tessa has her ah-ha moment and the reader witnesses her desperation to find her daughter.

Maybe it is me, but I like my mystery and suspense novels to have nice little bows on top.  This book does not.  I cannot say that I like Tessa  the lying vigilante that she is was not a character that I could cheer on.  I see that this is the first in a series and I will eventually give the next a chance only to see if there are any redeeming qualities to Tessa, but I am hesitant.
1442468
Seems this one, at least in my opinion, lacked some of the Crais usual poignant humor and the whole convoluted plot kind of fizzled at times. Also, my reading it out of sequence re: Lucy Chenier also, likely affected my review.
173502
I usually love Julia Donaldson's books. Most of them have really great underlying messages, but I didn't really like this one. What I expected to happen (and would have made a great story and a great message) was that the T-Rex's hated the Duckbills until a Duckbill egg landed in their nest and then the T-Rex's learned to love him. What really happened was that the T-Rex's hated the Duckbills and when a Duckbill egg landed in their nest, they were really very nasty to their child who was "different".  I mean really awful. And this issue wasn't really addressed at all.

I suppose not everyone will see this in the book, but for me, it just didn't feel right when I read it. I recommend "A Squash and a Squeeze" or "The Smartest Giant in Town" (we usually buy Donaldson's books in the UK, I think it's called the niftiest giant in the US)
117620
I had a lot of expectations coming into this book with everyone comparing it to The Deal and Beautiful Disaster, but I was kind of disappointed. I was hoping for a character development from Crosbie, but he seemed to turn from a player to a reformed frat boy instantly. Going into this book I was hoping for an OMG secret, but from the start of the book we already knew the secret that was going to be revealed.

However, the banter between Nora, Kellen, and Crosbie was enjoyable. Kellen was one of the best characters. His story line created the plot. His character was realistic in that even though he wanted to change he's still Kellen. Unlike Crosbie who went from being a player to being a poster boy in a matter of seconds.

Because I considered books like The Deal and Beautiful Disaster to be a 4-5 star book, I was hoping for the same feel these books gave me. If I came into this book without the prior comparisons, my expectations wouldn't have been so high.
2587933
I have to start this review by prefacing, the cromags have not been the cromags without bloodclot... so im a fan from the old days, and quite biased. This has a few songs that have the punky hardcore feel, but to be honest it is much more of a metal album. If I didn't appriciate the musicianship on the album I would have given it one star. I only paid 2.00 for my copy ( used/new from amazon ), and I still feel I got ripped off. If you are a fan of the oldschool, avoid this album, it will dissapoint.
382703
I preface this by saying that I am a huge Corrs fan; trust me, I even went to Dundalk to see where they grew up!  However, I was greatly disappointed by this latest CD (I don't want to say effort because I don't think I could call it that).  I have listened to this CD over and over in hopes that I would eventually come around but I never did.  There are about 3 decent tracks on the whole CD.  The rest is simply mediocre.  I am not sure where The Corrs veered off track as previously there was not a song in their repertoire that I did not enjoy.  In "Borrowed Heaven", the melodies are not catchy as their previous songs and the lyrics fail to bring me into the subject matter of the songs.  I could go on but I feel guilty enough considering how much I am influenced by the music of The Corrs.  Your best bet is to go to a website where you can dowload individual songs from this CD rather than spend hard earned money on a CD you will probably only listen to once before it sits and collects dust.
3877298
This was the first time I had the red raspberry tea from Harney & Sons. I wanted to try it because I have really enjoyed their other teas. This one is a swing and a miss. The rose is overwhelming and it doesn't really taste like raspberry. I'm surprised I'm saying this, but I think the raspberry zinger from Celestial Seasonings is a much better raspberry tea as far as flavor goes. I'll drink this (probably), but I won't buy it again.
4030683
I ordered the Kindle version of the Rick Steve's book on Copenhagen.  I got the sense that it was just a chapter from his larger book on all of Scandavia which was misleading from the title.  I expected much more detail than was in the pages.  There were a couple major sites that were totally missing  -- a museum of Impressionist paintings in a Copenhagen suburb -- that it really inexcusable.  (or at least I could not find it.)  I was disappointed and would not recommend this guidebook.  Fortunately, I had also brought a hard copy of a Fodor's book on all of Denmark which was much more helpful.
1877646
What a shame that the other reviewer of this item got burnt--but, believe it or not, my experience with this product was even worse. I chose this product by Crosley because I am satisfied with a standard record player I already had from them; but wow, how I was disappointed with this item! As you may suspect, I did get it mostly to be able to record my old record albums onto blank CD-Rs so that I could either donate my old records to charity or just preserve them carefully without using them and wearing them out. Whoops! Despite the fact that Crosley will have you believe that this little ol' machine can copy a record onto a blank CD-R, I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

I was able to insert the CD-R all right; but even with Crosley's customer service agent on the phone (who didn't know much about this product, telling me this is a new item which it's not) I was totally unable to get this machine to copy the vinyl record onto the blank CD-R. It just didn't work.

In addition, the radio did not work well. Indeed, I had great difficulty tuning into any radio stations at all!

I remain a fan of standard, regular and much more simplistic Crosley record players; they just didn't make this one right. Perhaps they even bit off more than they could chew, trying to make a machine that can perform so many useful tasks. Maybe Crosley will make a better "5-in-1" in the future.

I would avoid this product; maybe I will have better luck with a similar machine by TEAC.
2401569
After being highly impressed with the first book in this series as well as the fact that I am traveling to Louisiana this week, I had looked forward to the second book the Irish Angels series. Unfortunately this book fell short of my expectations. While there is material that I found highly interesting, most of the story seemed to go the way of both traditional romances or Christian historical romances. I didn't feel as if I got to know Maddie as well as I had Laura from the first book.

I felt Maddie's and Tom's relationship to be extremely rushed. I didn't feel this from Maddie's end so much as I did Tom's. I mean he's known her for a few days and already he wants to smell her hair or kiss her? He knows nothing about her but is already falling in love? Also I felt too much emphasis was placed on Tom's position as a Pinkerton agent. I feel that authors tend to use this label too often to make their hero be able to get in places normal people can't. From what I've studied, the agents didn't have all the prestige or privileges they tend to have in books.

I did find the plight of the street children to be fascinating and disturbing at the same time. It's extremely sad to hear about what happened to orphans and those who were unwanted. I have always found society's views on orphans to be disheartening especially when they are treated as if it is their fault their parents are dead. What Maddie did to make the children "forget and change" is psychologically horrifying and the ramifications of her actions continue to haunt her. I wish more emphasis had been placed on that part of the story as opposed to the romance.

Overall, it was a less satisfying read but still interesting. The culture is interesting and for the most part, the plot is unique in Christian fiction. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of Laura and Maddie's siblings being rediscovered so I will continue reading the rest of the books in the series.
1083987
I was disappointed with this purchase because of my expectations and others' reviews. I was hoping for, and expecting, basically music like that heard in the Onyx Club. Some is, some isn't. Then you get "Carrickfergus." Really? At the same time I bought this cd I also bought Volume 2, which I like much better. I play it 4 or 5 times  for each time I play Volume 1. Some of Volume 1 is really good. You may love it - I don't.
4619198
I purchased this story in my quest to own and read each Poirot mystery. I was fresh off of "Cat Among the Pigeons", "And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians)" and "Cards on the Table". I had such high hopes for this novel. However, I was thoroughly disappointed in "Black Coffee". I could not put my finger on what was "off" about this particular novel, until I got to the very end, and realized that this was a "re-envisioned" Christie piece. The voice is not Christie's, Poirot isn't his adorably peculiar self, and the fact that the murderer is realized so early in the book makes the ultimate reveal anti-climactic.

If you love Agatha Christie, stay away from "Black Coffee" and stick to the stories that haven't been completed by someone else.
4824432
I am very disappointed in this Croc.  I intentionally ordered the "original" croc because they are wider, unisex, and a very cushy with a  thick sole.  These do not live up to the Croc standards of many years, as they are very narrow, very thin sole and short for the size.  I am sorry to discover this because I have worn Crocs for so many years!  I won't after this.
666307
It's okay - barely.  First of all, the paper included is not crepe paper, but some kind of textured tissue like paper.  And since the photos in the book show her using crepe, it is confusing.  Since I already had some crepe paper on hand, I haven't yet used the paper in the kit. Therefore, I can't review the paper quality.

The instructions were okay, but needed a little editing.  For example, in the middle of the directions for the water lily style of dahlia, there is an instruction that made little sense: "Take 10 petals, and fold them like this".  Now you have 5 small petals, one of which is already taped to the wire, and you have 10 large petals.  Okay, she must mean the 10 large petals are folded like that.  Except later she shows you how to attach the 10 large, and they are not folded or creased in any way.

Also, if you use crepe. then there are shaping techniques that make the petals look very realistic (cupping, for example), but she makes no reference to them, which might be a reference back to the fact that she knew the paper that would go in the kit would not work like that.

This would probably work best as a gift for someone who wanted to dabble and see if they liked making paper flowers, although even as a gift, there are better options.
3173119
I was hoping to learn more knitting and crochet skills with this dvd. I am very disappointed. The knitting and crochet skills that demonstraed in the dvd are so basic you can learn in youtube. Youtube has more knitting and crochets skills that you can learn for the beginner to advance knitter and crocheters than this dvd. This dvd is not suitable to intermediate and advance knitter who are hoping to learn some knitting and crochet skills at their level. In the dvd, there was a talk about alpaca yarn, how it has lustre and light and warmer than wool, but all the alpaca yarns(which are blend) I see are dull, harsh to the skin and not lighter than wool but at four times the price of natural wool. Although I must admit I like the talk about colour, but this not show how to use it in your knitting. This dvd is more talking about knitting than the actual teaching the knitting skills.
4238810
I guess I was disappointed when I received this was more hopeful for a nicer-looking product.... disappointing for the price paid I also didn't realize that there was no plastic over each page so I'm concerned about smeared words... the cover also came with a big crease across the middle which cant be uncreased