Let's hope the Mystic Creek stories to come surpass this predictable, shallow, rather silly effort.
348787
I so wanted to love this book since I have enjoyed Catherine Anderson''s other books --- and adore a book series. Amanda Banning escapes her psychopathic husband, Mark,  who has tortured her and their daughter, Chloe since Amanda married him.  Adverse weather conditions make it a necessity that mother and daughter flee to the safety of their neighbor, Jeb.  Jeb falls in love instantly.  He has nothing but time and money to put in the most amazing security system in his house (and in his nearby parents' house too).  He hires the best divorce lawyer around.  Jeb's younger brothers are able to be at his beck and call anytime to keep Amanda and Chloe safe.  His parents never question why he's doing what he's doing even though they're completely involved with Amanda and Chloe immediately.  Mark is always lurking as you know he must come for Amanda and Chloe to exact his final revenge.  The ending was anti-climatic.  My favorites were Chloe, the six-year-old, and Jeb's dog, Bozo.
4372
Harry potter meets stupid. It's lackluster story is lame, trying to hit the path of films that came before it, this film fails.
4447745
Amateur writing, shallow/underdeveloped characters, main characters wallowing in an annoying and entirely unnecessary amount of self pity, OBVIOUS and predictable plot (which is fine, but the attempted "twists" in the plot didn't make the story line any more interesting or less obvious. The romance and connection between the two main characters unfortunately was not strong enough to hold my attention and ignore these glaring issues - instead it leaves me to wonder why there were more of these books published in the series? I read it to the end hoping it would get better and it didn't; I will not be bothering with the rest of this author's publications.
3179842
A lot of people seem to love this book; I'm happy they enjoyed it. I didn't. It's full of standard tropes and flat characters. The plot twists were predictable. Had the evil king been any more stereotyped, he'd be "cackling with glee", LOL. At least the authors stopped short of that well-worn phrase...instead you'll have to endure the constant use of "okay" in a medieval AU setting - ugh!

This is yet another weak derivative story, drawn out to a profit-making series. There are so many great stories of feminist magic/fantasy, such as Robin McKinley's wonderful Blue Sword books and Mercedes Lackey's stunning Valdemar series; but this was a pretty much a waste of my time.
971281
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Maeve's books when her yarns were spun of silk thread. Unfortunately, in this novel, "Nights of Rain and Stars" Maeve traded in her imported silk threads for polyester. I'm sad to say, it totally fell short and on its face. In past novels, Maeve's yarns unraveled naturally to reveal the tale. This story was utterly simple, way too elementary, far too predicatable, downright unbelievable and much too straight forward. As the reader, I was insulted by the ignorance she perceived her audience to possess. She wove four foreign tourists into the beautiful Greek countryside. Each of them  could have had their own identity but turned out to be flatter than Gumby. No depth. I feel that Ms. Binchy just typed in a few details and names onto a story map from her computer and created this book. How can each of the tourists just happened to be either a mirror image of a Greek character or lead a parallel life? David and Adonis were mirror mages of one another leading parallel lives. The remaining three tourists all bore uncanny bits of their lives to the main character, Vonni. Fiona was the young Vonni with a happier ending. Elsa gave up everything like Vonni to escape. Elsa fled from a man (Deiter) and Vonni fled into a man's (Stavros) arms. Lastly, Thomas and Vonni were estranged from their sons. Thomas knew enough to return to his son,Bill whereas Vonni was hoping against all hope to have her son Stavros return. Prayer was her vehicle. Not action. All in all, I found the novel a disappointment. An easy, somewhat enjoyable read, but lacking realism, interest, complexity and subtleness for Maeve Binchy to have penned it! I expected more.
4364443
Disappointing. With all the high ratings, i was hoping for something so much better. These characters had no depth, redundantly silly. I skipped, fast tracked.
3739049
I was excited about this book and felt optimistic after reading through the reviews, however, a disappointment  was soon to follow. There is a substantial mount of filler and very little actual content involved here. In addition to a mildly condescending tone in which it was written, the pages there in will only serve as a reminder in common sense. If you have ever thought about living an unconventional life than most of what you will read has already been on your radar or occurred to you at some point. Flip through this one in the book store if you must, and you will find that that is enough.
2716913
After the much deserved, raving reviews of her earlier work, it is glaringly obvious while reading this novel that McCrumb is trying too hard to live up to her own standards, and the results lead to a very disappointing effort. This author is a "natural" storyteller, and that's why her previous books were so fresh and applauded. While reading The Rosewood Casket, the reader is often aware of the author's erratic attemtps to please the critics, and this truly effects the flow and believability of her natural storytelling. There are many groan inducing passages throughout the novel, many highly forced and completely unbelievable, with many appearing to be rushed without much thought being put into them. The overall feeling after completion is that it was basically a very silly and mediocre tale, laced with moments of the author's natural gifts, alas, fleeting moments, but, not nearly enough to ever recommend this book.
685022
This is a mildly enjoyable and cute movie. But if you are a fan of the original Gilligan's Island series, you will probably be disappointed in it. It takes place away from the pleasureable island where the heart of the  original story belongs. Instead, the characters have returned  "home" to face new dilemmas, and the plot was rather stupid.  Well, not "rather" stupid... It WAS stupid! That's only my  opinion. Enjoy!
4030463
Soppy ending with sudden reconciliation with the selfish and immature husband.

Lending credibility to a psychic is totally unnecessary to the plot and makes a rather weak tale even weaker.

Relations between the main characters come across as immature and with college level dialogue.

The non sequitur at the end is a cheap and failed shot to get the reader to read the next book in the series.
2745072
This was a pleasant enough story if a little on the shallow side.  It reminded me a made-for-TV movie, which it may be someday.  The writing was very amateurish and simple, and kept making me laugh, even at what were supposed to be very emotional parts of the book.
3026216
these 'stories' all share an unpolished feel with pointless plots and little character development... i suppose it takes some talent to entice an editor and publisher to take on a piece of work, but honestly you'll find these bits of writing effort to be an unsatisfying waste of time spent reading

apologies to the author, but the short story form requires a 'wrapping,' not a burst of pointless angst
2889286
I loved "The Secret Life of Bees" and purchased the unabridged audio version of this book with the hope that...

Ah, well, nevermind. There is so much wrong here in the Carolina low country, most of it due to weak development of supporting characters and much too much harkening to the Harlequin Romance style of plot development.

Central to the story is the overwrought marsh-side coupling of a grieving would-be monk and a bored, wealthy housewife visiting an island because her mother deliberately chopped off her finger in the monestary kitchen. The courtship is toasty with woo, but everything and everyone surrounding it is unbelievable or just annoying, and eventually, so are the lovers.

The heroine must contend at once with her crazy mother; her unimpressiveadolescent daughter; a requisite folk-Gullah, and an absent husband we are to believe the narrator "really" loves even as she swoons as the monk squishes swamp water between her willing toes (she recalls this emblematic moment several times).

The story could have been told in a straightforward and perhaps more plausible manner, but Kidd is lured by the heat and sweat, swamp water (little mention of insect bites or poisonous snakes), into scores of digressions on the nature of sky, water, swamp, birds, flowers, life, death, spiritual growth, mermaids, mermaids and more mermaids. Most of these employ the words "sparkling," and "glittering," and astound her into rambling philosophical observations so shallow that she sounds like she just got off the bong.

The mermaid device that ties the tale together is strained, contorted and reptitious in extremis. Kidd really has to reach to weave a Celtic and an Inuit myth into her mother's compulsion to whack off her own fingers in a squirrely act of redemption for not much, really.

Kidd uses "art" to represent the narrator's spiritual awakening and renewed understanding of the meaning of love. This "art," however, (mermaids flipping pancakes, mermaids washing the car, mermaids shopping at Penney's),while it astonishes her with its psychological revelations, it too "cute" to be anything but what it sounds like: whimsical kitchen decor.

Save your money.
4373299
I started THE GATE HOUSE this week,expecting some really good escapist fiction.  Since GOLD COAST some of Mr. DeMille's efforts have not lived up to his abilities--they appeared to be dashed out to complete some contractual obligation.  Sure, I thought, this one would be a worthy effort.

First, I do not mind sex and/or even smut in a good, juicy novel.  BUT, to have the first 20 or so pages (designed to capture readers who wallow in this stuff) nothing but the escapades(in the garden, in/on the fountain, in the pool)  of two unknown-as-yet characters--a Mafia don and a woman with lots of flowing red hair everywhere--was too much.

The book is in the trash.
2768471
Nothing new in this mystery story, very predictable. The novel is a bit of a clich&eacute; and a tad unbelievable -- we are asked to believe that a young woman would dismiss a cab and walk into a dark park late at night right off the bat.

The hero, Jack Gannon, is supposed to be a veteran newspaper reporter and past Pulitzer nominee.  He is chasing a story about a psycho serial ritual killer who seems to be punishing sinners and those he deems "guilty" -- all women, and usually current or ex-prostitutes, drug users, etc. The sadistic, mentally deranged killer kidnaps these women, holds them prisoner, and then kills them. The story is convoluted with too many time shifts back and forth and the character development is quite shallowly done. The story does move fast, just not a lot of content. It's hard to care that much about the hero nor the victims -- too shallow character development.

It's a mindless read for those who can't get enough suspense serial killer stories.
2522570
I had high hopes based on the synopsis, but unfortunately it turned out to be a shallow ridiculous story with pointless vulgarity (although to be honest I hardly ever find a point to adding vulgar descriptions to a story). If you like the dumb and dumber or similar slapstick movies, you'll probably enjoy this. Otherwise it was a waste of my time and $2.99.
3227464
Little goes for cheap thrills to divert your attention from his lack of talent.  The plots are weak, and most of these stories seem like something a freshman would turn in for an intro to creative writing course.  I paid [$] at a used book store and still feel cheated.