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Reviews by Jane R. (Plantation, FL)

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Beneath the Shadows
by Sara Foster
Not thrilling (6/3/2012)
This books was described as a gothic thriller. I didn't find it thrilling and the only thing gothic about it was that it takes place in a remote village. The author was obviously trying to make the story suspenseful, but for me it was flat. Only the very end had any excitement to it at all.
Oxford Messed Up
by Andrea Kayne Kaufman
Oxford Messed Up (3/19/2012)
I loved this book. All the characters are messed up, not just the two main ones. But despite being messed up they are characters that you can't help but care about and want to succeed. Being a huge Van Morrison fan myself made connect with the book right from the beginning. I played his CDs while reading the book, which gave me new insight into his music.
Three Seconds
by Anders Roslund & Borge Hellstrom
Bad translation or lack of editting? (12/1/2010)
Overall, I enjoyed Three Seconds, but often found it confusing. I don't know whether that was the result of a bad translation or that the book had not been edited. The first part of the book where Piet is planning the takeover of the prison drug trade dragged on, but I think the book would make an exciting movie.
Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #6
by Louise Penny
I want to go to Quebec (9/29/2010)
I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of Louise Penny's books. I liked the characters, but particularly liked the descriptions and history of Quebec. I will be planning a trip there soon - as soon as winter is over!
Learning to Lose: A Novel
by David Trueba
Just could not get into it (6/1/2010)
I have picked this book up several times to read it and I have just not been able to get into it. I've read about 50 pages, which isn't much, but usually I should be engaged with the characters, plot or something by this point, but so far - nothing.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
by Heidi W. Durrow
Mixed Review (3/25/2010)
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is well written, but quick read. The write up on the book cover would lead you to believe that the book focuses on race and the difficulties of a mixed race girl moving from a mostly white society to a mostly black one. It seemed to me that Rachel made the racial transition quite easily and that race was not a major issue in the book at all. It was more about Rachel's adjustment to being orphaned and not really belonging to anyone.
South of Broad
by Pat Conroy
Disappointing (9/23/2009)
I was really looking forward to reading this book. I loved The Great Santini, Lords of Discipline and Prince of Tides is my all-time favorite book. But South of Broad was very disappointing. In parts the writing is beautiful - classic Pat Conroy, but the dialogue particularly is awful and the rest is just ordinary.

The plot is cliched and predictable, except for the ending, which did take me by surprise, but it wasn't worth slogging through the trite plot. The misfit, unpopular boy somehow in the summer before his senior year in high school make friends with a racially and socially disparate group of friends and ends up being the social conscience of the class. .... The group of friends has a gay guy, three orphans, two blacks, three socially elite kids and the leader of the group, the misfit Leo, and practically overnight in 1969 in the South, they all manage to form friendships that last a lifetime. It's a plot Danielle Steele would be proud of.
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