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Shirin M. (Beverly Hills, CA)
A light read
The story has all the elements of a chick lit novel for the 30 something group. A tightly knit group of three college friends grows apart on graduation and returns to try and reconnect at their tenth anniversary reunion. An ordinary reunion turns out to be anything but that. The surprise twists and turns to the plot give the story some depth and does touch on the complexity of relationships, choices made, and an individual’s search for acceptance. The characters are two dimensional and the dialogue light, making it a fast and easy read.
Bill B. (Irvine, CA)
Falling Together misses expectations
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a big fan of Marissa de los Santos. Loved her first two books. Think she is right up there with Sue Monk Kidd in the use of the English language par excellance. That is why it really pains me to say that I didn't think Falling Together was as good as her first two books.
I guess I could be more positive and say that this book is in de los Santos' top three but I also think there is a big fall off in the quality of Falling Together.
It is a slow starter. I opened the book expecting to find the author's excellent descriptions and prose that I remembered and it wasn't there.
…more In all aspects it was a step below her earlier efforts. The first few chapters seemed superficial, choppy, and disjointed. It took a few chapters and some great dialog before I felt any kind of rapport or empathy with the characters, primarily Pen and Will. I didn't care about any of them at first and thought if they had been apart for 6 years with no contact, they might as well stay that way. But that would have made for a very short story and perseverance paid off. I eventually liked the main characters and their story.
Even with my negativity, I still recommend this book. Most people are going to like it. I liked it. I just had exceedingly high expectations that were not met. And the good news is if this is your first book by this author and you enjoyed reading it, you are really going to like her first two. (less)I was looking forward to reading this book, but I was disappointed. The story revolves around a somewhat unconventional reunion of three characters, all of whom left me cold. I found the plot hard to follow as bounced back and forth between the present and the past. The writing, particularly the dialogue, flowed easily and was quite polished. That was what kept me reading.
Kristine L. (The Woodlands, TX)
Falling Together
I had a difficult time competing this book once I hit the mid-point of the book. I felt as though the author was keeping a secret that did not need to be kept so tightly. I rarely read this genre but the author's bio intrigued me. It was a good reflection on college friends and bonding but lost me a little in the end.
Marjorie H. (Bedford, TX)
The Sandbox
"Listen to you, thought Pen, you are straight out of the clucking sandbox." Actually, this whole book is out of a sandbox - unappealing child-adults that are as unrealistic as they get. The only sympathetic character is Cat - who manages to extract herself from this childish triangle. And when she tries to STAY away - she's hunted down by the idiot trio consisting of her husband (is he in 8th grade?) and two friends that I'd run away from. Adults who use words like "suck" and "freaky" give me the impression that these characters weren't well thought out - torn between adolescence and well...... adolescence.
Lola
…more Lita summed it up when she says, "You must understand that this trip was very important to Cat. She wanted to be --- undisturbed." We all should have been undisturbed by this book. (less)I really wanted to like this story, but the characters were so one dimensional. I just could not get into this story. The story did not draw me in, I just had to push myself to finish reading it. It was not a plausible story line in my opinion.
Linda A. (Palo Alto, CA)
Falling Together
I rate this book somewhere between poor and average. While the situations at times are compelling, the endless brackets within parentheses diversions are extremely annoying I wanted to tell de los Santos to "just get on with it." At times it seems as if she doesn't know which line of thinking she will give the character, so she includes every idea she has. The characters are pretty one-note...nice. Confused, yes. But NICE. Except for Jason. His "nice" seemed real only in relation to Augusta. There are many better books to read.
Catherine H. (Nashua, NH)
Painful book
I had a very hard time reading this book: poor style, artificial characters, boring story. I felt like I wasted my time. Would absolutely not recommend.
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