An actual winner of a book
344279
Good character development, keeps you wanting to know what happens next.  Not my usual type of read, but enjoyed it anyway.  Go ahead, read this book, you won't be disappointed.

Natalie has family secrets, some I started to guess at, others were complete surprises.  Excellent story of a young woman's struggles with family, love, and finding herself in the world, all the while dealing with some deep issues from childhood.  Tough to put this book down.
1512549
After a long duration of reading mediocre books, a reader starts to feel like that's all there is anymore. But then a book like this comes along that fascinates, pulls you in and compels you to stay up well past your regular bedtime. And then, with bleary eyes and  mussed up hair, you finally close the book and with a wistful sigh, you realize that indeed, there are still wonderful books to be explored and cherished and your faith is restored in books and the general publishing industry.

I found this book to be compulsively readable and enjoyed it immensely. It's such a rare gem.

I love that, although it is a fictional account, it's based on real people and real events. I had a history lesson in conjunction with meeting memorable characters who were multi-faceted. Even the villain had redeemable traits and the hero had glaring faults.

After reading this, I immediately did research on the characters and found many things true to the story. That's how you know when a book is good: it compels you to take action after reading it.

I highly recommend this book.
3153855
Man...
This is one of the few books that actually lives up to the creativity of its own cover, I believe. The descriptions of the killer, the victim, the newsroom, and the connection between everything, and also the little hints in the descriptions that lead up to the conclusion were all top touch. I was so relieved and grateful that Thayer even concluded by connecting the main plot to the many flashbacks the main character had in the process. He almost explained enough to understand why the flashbacks were used in the first place.
The thing that bothered be was the details when it came to describing the instances of being killed by electrical execution. And having to wait for it is why I am personally against capital punishment. I  don't mean to get political, that's just how I feel.
Also, I agree with the guy who gave this book only one star that the back cover review of the book is very lacking. It basically tries to get off by telling the least to the reader, not to spoil the ending, and frankly doesn't tell much at all. Andrea really has very little to do with the Weatherman except having his deep admiration.
So, all together, the book is really deep for a murder mystery, and the ending I thought was unfair and cruel. Somewhat inhumane. Which is another reason to read this book, to see if I'm wrong.
1635920
I must say, I haven't read a book like this since "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham. Although this is a work of fiction it could very easily be true to life. I'm not going to disclose any information about the story but I can honestly tell you that it had me so upset at times that I just wanted to put it down and try to forget it. But I couldn't. I was spellbound from the beginning to the very end. I gave this book five stars because it is very well written and delivers a powerful message. Except for some areas that would not seem plausible in real life, this story could easily be nonfiction. And that is "scary".

Quite a few readers gave this book one star for a variety of reasons. Some were legitimate and some were just plain idiotic.
Some said that there were parts of the story that couldn't possibly happen in real life. Hello out there; this is a work of fiction .
Some said this is a book that the author is flaunting religion. I'm not a religious person and I was not offended at all. This particular book with the story line it intoned was perfect for the religious intonation.
Some were upset because they bought this book by mistake, thinking they were getting a "John Grisham" book. I don't think it's fair to rate a book one star because you didn't look who authored it before purchasing it. To blame Amazon or the author is equally ridiculous.

This is a book of fiction. It's an outstanding book that Will test your emotions all the way through.
3383
THere is not much that I can add to what other reviewers have said except for a personal endorsement.  I read a great deal of fiction and non-fiction and long ago gave up buying any books but the exceptional ones.  I am very critical and often discard books before I finish reading them.

I read this book and immediately bought my own copy. I also bought his other two as they came out - even before a test read.

It is a book I have reread twice - and loved it each time. An absolute winner.
4741086
I came upon this book in the library of my town (I live in The Netherlands and the book was translated into Dutch). I was intrigued by a small sticker saying "Winner National Book Award" and the cover of a girl with red lipstick. I read the first page and I was immediately hooked by its writing style. I started reading Saturday evening and came to page 70. The following day I finished this lovely book. I would say: read it yourself, you won't be disappointed, well,  at least that's what I hope....
4874407
I really loved this book, so much so that I searched out other books by the author.  A.J.'s transformation is heart-warming, Maya's development is fascinating - really, all the characters have a wonderful development and growth. There are plenty of surprises as the plot unfolds.  I thought this a moving story; I laughed and cried while reading.  There are only references to violence and sexual misconduct, so I felt safe recommending the book to my 14 year old granddaughter, also a very precocious and avid reader.
3498788
This book is great.  I have four grandchildren who loved it.  It is funny, interesting, a real page-turner.  We all wanted to know how it ended--we were wondering, would the dogs fight?  would they hold an election?  would they pick a dog that didn't deserve to win?  and then we knew--The Dog Star.  Brilliant.  And I loved all the outfits; especially the Canadian Labrador (I'm glad our neighbor to the north was included in this tale).  And of course, the pithy and humourous comments from the dogs themselves, so reflective of the well travelled authors.  The heroine of the book, Tess, is very beautiful.  Is there really such an adorable girl?  Kudos to the authors Gene and Iris Rotberg and the illustrator Bryn Barnard.
2273339
As a tweenage bookworm, I don't give the title of " My Favorite Book " easily, but this book somehow won it in a landslide. John Green's way of portraying a teenage girl's ongoing battle with "human consciousness" and love is absolutely phenomenal. His enchanting work reeled me in from the first paragraph , and I devoured in less than a day. I write this review the second time I've read this book, and I am sorry to admit that this is the only John Green book I have read, and as a young girl aspiring to one day be a bestselling author, I can only hope that I will be able to at least come close to Green's talent and awesomeness.
3632672
The Bitter Trade might well be the best book I read this year. The unique voice of the protagonist, Calumny Spinks, grabs you right from the start and sets the tone for an unpredictable and exhilarating adventure.

The writing is of a very high level indeed. For example, the author's word choice is excellent. He cleverly sprinkles 17th century vocabulary and phrasing throughout the text - just enough to give you a subtle sense of the period, without it being overbearing or intrusive or snapping you out of the narrative. Some books go to far with this idea (e.g. Jack Maggs by Peter Carey) but The Bitter Trade pitches it just right.

The characterisation is even more impressive. Calumny Spinks is one of the most memorable protagonists since Hilary Mantel's Cromwell, but every single character in this book is compelling and fully realized. Even those with a brief walk-on part are interesting to encounter (rather than being simple plot devices) and they all add something to the story.

Finally, the author is very good at evoking the sights, sounds, and smells of London in the 1600s, and how a wide-eyed country boy would feel on first arriving in the city. He does a wonderful job of placing the reader in the hero's shoes which makes for a gripping read all the way to the conclusion.

Highly recommended.
3831752
My 10 year old reports that this is a remarkable book, and that readers of any genre will love it. Fans of realistic fiction will particularly like it. Great characters, interesting personalities, and the writing makes you want to keep reading. We had a nightly battle getting him to put it down, and he was excited to see how the story unfolded. A terrific and moving book; I was worried a bit about whether it was right for his age, but it obviously is. It was terrific to see him engage with a sophisticated and complex story a such a high level. We could not recommend this book any higher.
1149149
I can't say enough good things about this book.  I won't resummarize the plot here, but it is an excellent one and very realistic.  What I liked best about this book, in addition to the insightful glimpse into the mind and soul of the main character, was the quality of ALL the characters.  The mother didn't even make an appearance until a long way into the book, but she was already an integral character.  Even the minor characters that simply cross paths with Sam were all well-developed and worth knowing.  This book was as close to perfect as anything I've read in a long time.  I recommend it highly.
3414979
I just read another book by Jennifer Crusie, "Getting Rid of Bradley", and I thought that that one was the best and funniest book I have ever read, until I read "Faking It".  If a book can be better than five star, this one is it.

What this book is about is fun.  Not complex characterizations, not suspense, not serious stuff.  It's not even meant to be realistic.  (It IS a little strange that all the Goodnight's tenants become part of the family.)  But isn't that part of the charm of the Goodnights - all kinds of weird and crazy things happen to them, things that will never happen to the rest of us serious and responsible and normal people, because they really aren't serious and responsible and normal.

This is a REALLY funny book, Jennifer Crusie is a great writer.  She writes great one-liners, and when I try to remember them to repeat it, I can't.  I get the words wrong, the tone wrong - it doesn't come out right, somehow.  But in this book, it's perfect!

I am a quick reader, and usually can finish a book in two-three hours, but Faking It took me three days.  Not because it didn't pull me - I was walking around with it all day just waiting for that minute or two on hold that I could sneak another page, but because each word is saying something.  If you skip a page or two, you lose the thread of the story, plus you lose out on some really good dialogue.  So I had to read each word, and then go back and read the page again, just to make sure I got everything straight.  This is actually NOT a bad thing, it's a sign of good writing, that she could make each word count.  Some writers could spend thirty pages just describing one scene - and while that's not a bad thing necessarily, I think Jennifer Crusie is the more brilliant writer.  And it happens that I really enjoyed this book in a way that I haven't enjoyed a book in a long time.

I did NOT think that there were too many characters, it made things more interesting.  You just have to read more slowly to get everthing straight, and that's more pages of fun, isn't it?

My favorite scene in this book? The part where Davy is giving Dilly a lesson on salesmanship (is that what it was?)  Dilly is a quick learner, and promptly turned the table on Davy.

If you have a sense of humor, like to laugh, and can suspend disbelief for a few hours, you will really enjoy this book.  If you like funny, quirky characters, you will really enjoy this book.  If you love brilliant dialogue, (and the book is mostly dialogue), you will really enjoy this book.  But if you are looking for a serious book with complex, deep characters, or a book that is on the darker, or more suspenseful side, there are plenty of other authors for you to try.  For the rest of us, thank you, Jennifer Crusie!
3071664
I was actually surprised to find how much I enjoyed this book. I have a habit of clicking on any book with an interesting cover, reading one positive review, requesting it from my library, and then reading all the negative reviews so that my expectations are good and lowered. So I was expecting to like it, but that it would just be another in the thick stack of books I go through every week.

It wasn't.

Daelyn's voice drew me in right away. Or rather, her lack of voice -- due to a previous suicide attempt, she has to wear a neck brace and her throat is too burned out for her to speak. Throughout the novel, her reaction to everything people say comes in short angry little thoughts that convey her character far more than any dialogue ever could. I simply love the way she tells her story, the simple and believable statements of feeling. Daelyn's voice is what really pulls this novel together for me: without that detail, she would have been a completely different character to me, and the story would have been something else entirely. Something not nearly as good.

And of course I loved Santana -- oh, Santana. A large number of negative reviewers have called him annoying, and I suppose he would be to some. But that just made him more endearing to me. Santana is dying too, because of something he can't control, and so I love that he has the bravery to go and do what he wants to do. He seems to me to be a wonderful example of a strong person. He is dying, and even though he's determined to fight his sickness every step of the way, he seems to have accepted the fact that it's going to happen and he's going to enjoy every last minute of his life, no matter what anybody else thinks of that. He's the perfect foil to Daelyn.

What else to say? I love the way the story is told, the chapters ticking downward toward Daelyn's day of death. I read this book in less than a day, and every time I looked at one of those numbers, a little lower each time, I could feel my chest constricting a little more. Each chapter also unveils more about Daelyn's life and why she is so determined to kill herself. She goes online and posts on the Final Forum, and each post reveals another layer of information about her bullying, fat camp, and the many sources of all her constant insecurities. I found myself gasping a little with each new detail.

Another thing I've seen people complaining about in the negative reviews is the ending, which is very ambiguous. This surprised me, as I though I had gotten a clear picture of what Daelyn was about to do, but now I realize that it was only my interpretation. Julie Ann Peters kind of leaves it up to the reader. And I, unlike the other reviewers, think this is perfect. I wasn't sure what Daelyn was going to do throughout most of the novel -- I'd read a review that made me think she had definitely killed herself, and yet there always seemed to be so much hope for her -- and the indecisiveness of the last page is like the last note of a song, stretching out and reverberating through the air even after the music is over. As far as I'm concerned, Daelyn's story is still going on.

And the truth is, most times with suicide victims it's impossible to tell beforehand what they were planning to do to themselves. It only seems fitting that we face this same uncertainty with Daelyn. It feel realer than any neatly-stated ending could.

The one thing I have a problem with is the cover of this book. It's too romanticized; Daelyn is shown as some kind of tragic heroine rather than the very real character she is. But I do know that authors have little control over their covers, and while it annoyed me, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story at all. And after all, it did get my attention enough that I would start reading. And that's something I'm very grateful I did.
4152572
I'm always a little skeptical when I get a book from Kindle Unlimited. I've gotten some fairly good books, and some very bad books...so bad that I stopped reading them (and I never do that). But this time, I really lucked out. I absolutely loved this book. It was a like a breath of fresh air...maybe that's because it was written by a German. If so, I'm burned out on most American writers of mystery or police procedurals. I really didn't expect the ending, and I'm not going to ruin someone else's enjoyment of the book...but usually I can tell where the book is going. Maybe I was a little obtuse this time, but it was a very enjoyable read. The characterization  was well done, and I loved the way the author painted the scenes. If there were any problems with the book, it was probably mistranslated. AS other reviewers said, there were a couple of mistakes, but certainly not enough to ruin the book.

The countryside was colored as bleak as the story. And the author made use of the continuing repercussions from Nazi Germany's miserable reign to effectively knit a story together. I will definitely read more from this author in the future...
1083228
I think a good way of opening a book  be it title or first line - is to throw a question of some sort in there, leaving us thinking why, how or tell me more, and that carrot is used as an incentive to hook us.

David Dennis does this expertly. Why did she leave us? Who left us? How did she leave us? Did she get the bus? Did she run away screaming? Did she jump off a cliff? Did she elope with another man? Youve got to read on to find out.

As I read the book Id convinced myself I was going to give it a four Star rating, simply because the chronology is so confused. Its an excellent story but it flits from present to past and backwards and forwards again at such an alarming rate that until the reader settles into the rhythm of the book it can be slightly bewildering.

This in itself may be enough to put off certain readers but my advice is to stick with it.

Theres great debate as to whether male authors can write female characters (or vice versa), but for a male author to cruise the emerging battles of the sexes with the skill that Dennis utilises is quite remarkable.  Bringing an intricate and puzzling female character to fictional life is daunting enough for a man. Occupying their actual voice is even more so, yet Dennis manages this with not just one female character, but four of them, all completely different.

When a male writes a female you tend to encounter women who are a variation on one or more of four themes; virgin, whore, mother, bitch. Sometimes they begin as one (usually virgin) and progress through the others as characters develop. In this book we have all four.

Youve got the patronising, condescending, think-good-of-absolutely-everyone, Betsy. The crippled and brazen slut Ellen. The institutionalised Monica. And the spinster Aunt Lucille. And thats not to mention the fast-and-loose mother, whos the biggest hussy of them all, with all the morals of a hungry pride of lions. Id like to have read HER diary.

On top of all this we have the two main male characters.

Suffice to say, not everything is as it seems in this story, and why I eventually decided to give it a five Star rating is because of the twist in the tale at the end. I didn't see that coming at all.

Writing a surprise ending with a twist in the plot is fraught with peril. Give the reader too much information and when the rabbit is finally pulled out of the hat, everyone rolls their eyes and says, I saw that coming right the way through the book.

There are hints, but you don't realise these at the time. David Dennis successfully manages to walk the tightrope of concealment and exposure to create an ending that I promise you won't see coming.

A well deserved five Stars.
4526100
I finished Patterson's book last night, and I really, really liked it. She captures Cyan's voice beautifully.  One of the pet peeves I have about children's lit, middle grade, young adult (I'm hopeless when it comes to these categories!) is that too often the voice is simply a dumbed down version of an adult voice. But Cyan's voice, her sensibility , is not dumbed down in the least.  She's a complex character with an artistic soul, which is something Patterson demonstrates again and again to the reader without telling us, which I also like.  Her descriptions, the things that catch her eye, the emphasis she gives things all give shape to her sensibility in very subtle ways.  I like the other characters as well--Kammi, with her stubborn streak underneath the dutiful, perfect exterior; the island boys with their immature posing; the mother, the artist, so distant but so domineering a presence; the sympathetic Martia.  Everyone here is completely and well-drawn and very distinct from each other.

The real strength of the book for me is the way Patterson's drawn the relationships--mother/daughter, sister/stepsister, friend/friend, surrogate mother/surrogate daughter, and eventually husband/wife.  In every case,  the relationship is never just one thing (one shade?) but is always a full range of emotions which ebb and flow, mix and mingle, blend and separate throughout.  I like that that there are no "neat" resolutions here.  Does Cyan like or dislike Kammi?  Is she attracted to or repulsed by Mayur? Does she reconcile with her mother at the end or not?  Like real life, these answers are never pat or staged.  They remain complex and therefore somewhat unresolved, which is precisely the way they should be!  I mean, after all, the whole point about the "revelation" of the father's affair with Pippa is that it (somewhat) makes ambiguous the one relationship in Cyan's life that was not, the one with her father.  It was clear she idealized him,  and her other relations suffered accordingly (especially the one with her mother).  By having Cyan see him as the somewhat flawed man he was, and seeing the relationship of her parents in all its complexity (including a glimpse of her grandmother's relationship with her mother, which had a contributing factor in the marriage) was a wonderful "resolution" in my view.  This is, after all, one of the essential shifts we make when we grow up--learning that everything and everyone around us are far more complicated than we thought at first.  Patterson's captured this shift in thinking beautifully.

I also like the imagery here--the wonderful descriptions of the place, the many uses of color, the recurring metaphors (for instance the image of sea glass is spot on--something that is initially broken that gets tossed and battered by the sea and over time becomes something truly beautiful).  Well, it doesn't get much better than that.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a well crafted story about growing a little wiser through experience.