Story well written and easy to read with lots of art information but I found myself disliking the main characters Elmira Howell and Gabriel Connais, who seemed to get through life on their ancestor's coattails.

Both characters involved in illegal activities which leads them to bad behavior choices. Elm's behavior is governed by loss of her son to the extent that she no longer works well and can't focus on the activities which are most important to her life, job, husband, daughter.

Gabriel can't paint anything really original, the only good thing he can do is turn out work that looks like his ancestor's.

The demons the characters face are real but I do not have enough sympathy with which to emphasize with their problems.

I found the book slow reading and not particularly enjoyable.

Terrific story with mostly well developed characters. I became so emotionally involved with the main character, Max Walker , and all that he went through, I couldn't read through to the end of the book, I had to go to the book's end to see if he came through all he experienced ok. It would be very difficult to place myself in Karen's (mother) and Steve's (father) position and make the decisions that had to be made for Max. Their reactions were totally understandable but not necessarily correct.The brother's behavior was normal in the considering that his brother was "perfect" and could do no wrong so he thought his parents loved him less than they did Max

The story was unique in its content and very gut wrenching for the reader. The character I found difficult to believe was Sylvie, the girlfriend,She was too wise for her age but very good for Max in his troubled life. The bad boy Hunter's behavior was expressed so realistically it almost made me sick to my stomach to read it.

I would recommend this book to teens as well as older readers and book clubs.

I could not read this book in one sitting. I needed to distance myself from the emotionality and debilitating actions it. The descriptions of her life experiences brought out very emotional responses from me.

The family she grew up in was dysfunctional to to the extreme. Her mother was an abuser of drugs and alcohol and encouraged her to do the same. In addition to the drugs and alcohol abuse, Mother also abused her verbally.

The writing is exceptional and the young girl's experiences are almost unbelievable but you know they are true. She explains them factually and without emotion, and she let us into her life and we can totally live through it with her. How she managed to get through college and grad school is a miracle and in the end she is able to release herself from the bondage she has been in her whole life, another miracle. She knows herself well and projects this to the reader. I can't say I enjoyed the story without reservation because of its darkness but the strength of that girl/woman was amazing.

It was love at first page for me. The characters are engaging and well fleshed out. It was easy to know them even if they were not "normal;" but what is a realistic definition of "normal"? Everyone has an area where they may seem a little "off"--and that is normal!

The author points out how very frustrating the way in which certain "public officials" and companies in responsible positions often function poorly in the reality of a situation by short-changing procedures necessary for the good of patients. Greed and need to control influences their decisions often to the detriment of the patients in mental institutions as well as other similar institutions for example immigration judgement decisions.

Although Pepper's (novel's main character) stay at Northwest was most unpleasant and even though he really didn't belong there he under-went a personality change and transformation, moving him from a juvenile thinking and acting out adult to one who became responsible and caring and one who also accepted reality for what it is.

On the last page of the book there is a sentence which summarizes what is important for humans to be and it is almost like a religious experience.

This book's philosophical renderings are over abundant; far too much to be really effective. Of course all are meaningful and well thought out but result in overkill. There were too many conversational changes even though the material added to what they had to say was important it did not have the impact it should have because of the overabundance of information. When we come to an event it's not made strong enough. If there had been fewer finger pointing and aha moments they would have been more effective. The adventures and the characters experiences were real and interesting. Too bad we didn't have more of them to offset the continuous bombardment of ahas.

This is a plausible story with frightening premises. I could not put down the book. All of the horrible possibilities described in the story could come true and in fact we already experience some frightening environmental occurrences now. Global warming and atmospheric destruction due to what we put in the air is a reality for us today. The horrors of what was happening to the earth kept me glued to the books' fatal attractions. The major characters are believable for the time in their life. Their reactions were honest and right for their age. Julia, the 12 year old major character looked at life through 12 year old eyes :she was not sophisticated but acted her age in responding to her life's experiences, both with her friends and adults.

There was an interesting response given to those who lived in the story. I call it a displacement behavior towards time. I found the story line to be believable and extremely functional.

The novel is about a 10-yer old girl named Judith McPherson. She is exceptionally faithful in her religious belief. Her two primary relationships are with God and her father. But this exceptional faith isolates her from the majority of kids her age and adults who are not believers. She builds The Land of Decoration her bedroom out of discarded materials. She often imagines herself in the made-up town.

It is easy to forget how scary and sad life can be for a 10-year old, after you become an adult. The meaning of a life experience is not the same for both a 10-year old and an adult. My heart went out to this delusional girl who exhibited utter confusion in her understanding of reality and in her interactions with people

I tried to read the book twice. The first time I found no endearing qualities to continue further on into the story but then Judith got to me and I started back at the beginning so as not to miss anything. That little person really hooked me in.

Because I have no close and intimate relationship with Irish people, I find it difficult to relate to the characters in the book.Their belief in reincarnation is much more personal than mine I do not believe in the closeness of old souls being transported to new souls. I can't share this assumption with them. It seems that at every turning point the characters shared some action with their ancestors and with the past. I do believe in reincarnation but not as developed as do the story's characters. I cannot find sympathy with the books' characters even though the writing is good but if I can't identify with the characters on some level than I really can't enjoy the book/story.

This is a story about a young man who commits a serious crime and a father who tries to understand his son’s behavior and its origins while placing the blame on others and outside influences. The story made me think about my own parenting skills and how they relate to my grown children. I could not let them go even though I was totally involved in the story.

I felt the characters and their actions were very real. How can anyone really tell what makes one child turn out well and the next one not? Bringing up children is a crap shoot. I believe most parents pray a lot before their children grow up and even after! The father does not believe his son is guilty of the crime and believes that someone else is involved or there were others influencing him. He wonders if his lack of interest in his son after his divorce and moving far away from him, remarrying and raising a second family destroyed him. I don’t think there can be a definitive answer to this – so many variables to these questions and interpretations are too personal and also simplistic views of events cause unreliable opinions.

This was a fast read. However I didn't find the characters as endearing as the ones in her first two books. The use of the third friend "Cat" and making her so important in the story by word not action seemed unnecessary to me even a little bit of a waste. The only time she was important was when Jason entered the picture and she became part of the action. I found Will and Jaime and their mothers to be warm and engaging characters. Pen was not , to me, a real sympathetic person; she was too needy and lacking in personality--too weak. What I did find exceptional was the author's explanation of feelings and situations in the story beautifully narrated. For example, Will's mother's description of her new love. The outcome of the story seems to negate the title of the book which should not be so negative. It should be more uplifting in keeping with what happened in the story. In my opinion, because the outcome of the story is positive, the title should be, too. The theme of the story is that love conquers all. I found the book to be a good read and well written.

The story takes place in a city called Rogus which is a part of the city of Thirteen Lands. This place is populate by many divergent cultures. The period of the story is not relevant. The story covers several genras--mystery, noir and fantasy.

The story moves along quickly but for some reason I didn't feel closure with the story's ending. It may be possible for a sequel to arrive within the next year or so?

The characters in he book are fantastic. It was difficult for me to accept their super human qualities but as I got into the story they became real and it didn't matter how unusual their qualities were. They became believable with all their problems. All the characters in the story needed the tender mercy of the roses--I believe it means that the Spirit World would look after them and help with their problems.The character who needed the most help was Jo Beth Dawson caught in a web of alcoholism and psychological pain a prison from which she could not escape without this help. I was mostly interested in the development of the characters than the answer to the question " who done it! I really hated for the book to end. Obviously I loved this book and would rate it a 10 if possible. Hopefully the author, Anna Michaels, will have more stories to tell, and I thank her for such an enjoyable read.

This is a fast-paced spy novel. The one thing I did not like about it was the constant change of times and locations. Just when I became comfortable in one spot, the location and time period would change to another one, so I was unable to get into the play by play action the way I'd like to. The main character of the book, Sally Sin or Lucy Hamilton, was a spy in a earlier life. However now she is married and a mother, too. But her spy master keeps trying to involve her in the old game. Her husband comes from a wealthy family while Sally has no family to speak of. They were killed when she was a little girl, although Sally suspects Simon her spy master knows more than he's telling her. He keeps trying to involve her back into the old spy game but she wants no part of it. Sally doesn't know why he wants to bring her back because she is not very good at spying; her only real asset is her language skill with all kinds of foreign dialects. That and she seems to be close to Ian Blackford who always knows where she is and does not try to kill her. Simon wants Sally to bring him in because he's become a rogue spy and is working with other bad guys. I would have liked to stay longer at some of the action scenes. Sally would very much like to know about her earlier years. Ian seams to know her earlier history. The bad characters do not seem to stand out much. The only ones who feel real would be Theo - Sally's baby--a spoiled brat because she doesn't know how to handle him, and the Nanny who feels more real life-like as an adjunct character than the primary ones. The Nanny has positive vibes for Ian because of his looks and Sally's ambivalent feelings towards him. I feel he is not the really bad guy in the story, not like the Blind Monk and the spy master, Simon.

I give the novel a 5 for action, a 4 for story development and a 3 for character development.

This is a sad but well written book about Grace Caton, a 16 year old Trinidad girl who gets talked into coming to America to further her education and better her life. She is disappointed at every turn from the moment she steps off the plane.
[spoilers removed]
I do not know if young people would enjoy this book but I’m sure older readers would. The characters are very well developed. The story line is believable and I’m sure one that is easily recognizable.