Review:What fun. Saw this book referred to in another. This one is better.. Escapist, cozy book about another life, when things were much simpler, safer and quieter - esp if you were young men of means. Light hearted and full of quotable passages of wry looks at our very human follies.. A small treasure for a good mood. Read more

Review:I believe her short stories are her best and though this book moves past the short story line, it falls within that collection of interesting gems. Read it for yourself and if you disagree, please let her know as that is the only way good authors get better-from feedback. Read more

Review:Connie Willis's epic of civilian life in World War II London is an enormously long novel, too vast and complicated to cut down to fit in one volume. Her publisher suggested that it be cut in half and released as two volumes, one in spring 2010 as "Blackout" and one in fall 2010 as "All Clear". Knowing this in advance, I waited until the release of the second and read them both together. I'm glad I did. Unlike a series which can be read in parts, these two form a single story arc and demand t... Read more

Review:It was an interesting approach to the story, explaining why and what led up to the curse, but the ending was lame. Sorry, but it should have been Rosalind who goes out so she could completely right her wrong. Read more

Review:With a retelling of a well known (and excellent!) Disney film, where this time the villain succeeds, I think I was expecting the villain's point of view to be foremost. But this is still Aladdin and Jasmine's story, and I think that detracts a little from the development of this alternate storyline.

Jafar is still an utter villain with little explanation about his motives or his background beyond what was said in the film and I was disappointed by his lack of character development. He i... Read more

Review:This book was good, but different from it's predecessors. We didn't see Ursula's origin in full and the story was focused elsewhere, as another reviewer already said. The ending also felt like an intro to something more, despite repeatedly being sighted as the end of the series. I feel a bit underwhelmed, if not dissatisfied. Read more

Review:This book is like being mansplained time-travel by a whiny, underachieving narrator with father issues. The ideas are interesting (with a few gaping holes, but hey, it's time-travel fiction), and the novel is written in a conversational tone that's easy to read, but the characters are very flat and the narrator doesn't have many redeeming qualities. If you're looking for a quick read in the airport, I say go for it, but I bought this book because of all of the hype surrounding it, and of that it... Read more

Review:I really enjoyed reading about the Maribel sisters in the Dominican Republic. I led the book discussion for my monthly book club on this book so I had to do a little research for it after I finished reading it which made me appreciate it even more. It was fun learning a little about the history of the Dominican Republic. I recommend to anyone who loves historical fiction. Read more

Review:Hattie Big Sky is purportedly a story about a teen having the courage to leave a safe, if unpleasant, home in Iowa to `prove up' (work) her deceased uncle's claim in Montana; hence, the `Big Sky' of the title. The story sounds simple. It takes courage in 1914 or any time for a young girl of only sixteen years to travel to a completely strange country (read, Montana) many miles from anyone or anything she has ever known in order to work really hard on the land by building fences and plowing an... Read more

Review:I enjoyed the book once the story got beyond Johnny's immaturity. Historically, it was mostly accurate. I did feel that John Adams wasn't adequately portrayed, but then the book wasn't about him. The relationship between Rab and Johnny was interesting was treated in depth. The girls, Cilla and her little sister lacked an adequate portrayal. It was good as far as it went but I would have liked to see more development of them. The shallowness of the Lyte family was apparent as was Mr. Lyte's greed... Read more