Review Sekretaris Itali (The Italian Secretary)

Sekretaris Itali (The Italian Secretary)

by Caleb Carr, Satya Utama Jadi (Illustrator), Andang H. Sutopo (Translator)

Atas permintaan estate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Caleb Carr, pengarang The Alienist, melanjutkan kisah petualangan Sherlock Holmes dan Dr. Watson. Cerita ini dimulai ketika Holmes menerima telegram bersandi dari kakaknya, Mycroft. Holmes dipanggil untuk membantu Ratu Victoria di Skotlandia, untuk memecahkan kasus pembunuhan brutal atas seorang arsitek top dan mandornya yang sedang bersiap-siap merenovasi salah satu sayap Istana Holyrood yang terkenal dan menyeramkan itu di Edinburgh.

Mycroft menduga pembunuhan itu merupakan bagian dari rencana untuk menyingkirkan Ratu. Tapi situasi-situasi yang dijumpai Holmes di sana justru mengingatkannya pada kasus pembunuhan David Rizzio, sang "Sekretaris Itali", yang terjadi tiga abad silam di istana Holyrood. Rizzio adalah guru musik dan orang kepercayaan Mary, Queen of Scots, dan dia dibantai di depan mata Mary oleh para pendukung Ratu Elizabeth dari Inggris, untuk meruntuhkan semangat Mary, ratu Skotlandia yang masih muda dan sangat mandiri itu.

Holmes menyatakan pada Watson kemungkinan pembunuhan itu dilakukan oleh roh sang Sekretaris Itali yang tak senang tempat pembunuhan atas dirinya diganggu oleh kedua korban. Tapi benarkah itu yang terjadi?

Kisah menegangkan ini penuh dengan detail sejarah yang memikat serta plot yang brilian.

Gramedia Pustaka Utama 2008

Jennifer: I had such high hopes for The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr. My husband surprised me with it just after I had started to renew my addiction to Holmes and had read several mentions of it at the Sherlock Holmes Social Network.

Of course, those mentions were not generally favorable, but the setting of a murder at the Royal Palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, Scotland sounded so inviting. Here’s the basic plot: After several assassination attempts on Queen Victoria, Holmes and Watson are brought to Holyrood Palace at the instigation of Holmes’ brother Mycroft (who as we know sometimes is the government). A recent assassination attempt, first dismissed as a simple desire for notoriety, now appears as though it might be related to the jockeying of power between England and Germany. At the same time, two men are killed very brutally during renovations at Holryood Palace, the official residence of the monarch in Scotland.

And during the train ride there, Holmes and Watson are attacked by a very inefficient bomber who looks and sounds too much like MacAdder, Edmund Blackadder’s mad Scottish cousin — “the maddest man to wear a skirt in Europe.” The bomber shouts, “We’ll nae let ye muhrder more Scots patriots.”

Add to this mix the story of David Rizzio, an Italian courtier who became the private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was murdered when Mary’s husband Lord Darnley joined a conspiracy of nobles jealous of Rizzio’s relationship with Mary. The murder occurred in Holyrood Palace and supposedly there is a blood stain in a room of a ruined tower — the same tower being renovated — that never dries where Rizzio’s body lay. OK, good stuff, I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, all these elements are just thrown against the wall to see what sticks, especially a very uncharacteristic Holmes who throughout the entire book seems preoccupied with the supernatural. Now, I enjoy reading books and watching TV and movies about the supernatural, even though I am very skeptical of the paranormal in the real world. But I really don’t like the idea of Holmes courting the supernatural. He is the embodiment of reason; ghosts need not apply. Of course, I have to give allowances because the author originally wrote this story as part of a collection of new supernatural-themed Holmes stories, The Ghosts of Baker Street. But the story grew too large to be included in the collection.

And it shows. There are too many red herrings and long expositions that really don’t advance the plot, especially the cryptic message that Holmes and Watson receive that start the case. It’s true that Conan Doyle often included legends and history that sometimes overwhelmed the main story, but his usual pattern was to deal with it succinctly or at length. In The Italian Secretary, the back stories are just long enough to feel like padding or the author getting carried away.

Despite these critiques, the relationship between Holmes and Watson seems solid. In fact, Watson fairly shines and shows he’s absorbed quite of lot of the master detective’s methods.

And I’m of two minds about the climactic ending, which seems a little too much like Assault on Precinct 13, where Holmes and Watson must defend the palace from an all out assault. At times the action seems gripping and at other times absurd when you realize a royal palace has been left largely unguarded. There is, however, a very logical reason it is unguarded, but it still seems absurd.

Do I recommend The Italian Secretary? Of course I do. Despite the bad taste in my mouth of a Holmes who seems far too gullible and the unnecessary intrusion of a “real” supernatural character in the story (I prefer the MacGyver episode where we hear a bone-chilling howl after our mulleted hero has defeated the large man pretending to be Bigfoot), it’s still a fun read with a great premise. Caleb Carr is a very good writer, this is just a minor but still entertaining effort.

Lisa: It's always difficult when you read a book that an author has written in a style faithful to an original work. There's often a sense of forced effort in bringing that different voice out; it's too easy to go over the top in attempting to recreate a style that is not the author's own.

In this case, Carr does tap into the expected Sherlock Holmes plot points, with the usual conclusions drawn from observation and mentions of previous cases, and the Watson created is generally well done.

Honestly, I don't know why my brain curdled while I read this book. I will confess to being very put off when Carr has Holmes tell Watson at the beginning of the story that he "believes in the power of ghosts". A statement that drags through the entire book as a 'paranormal' plot line develops, and Watson wonders if perhaps this really is the work of a ghost and not a flesh and blood criminal. Holmes qualifies his statement at the end of the book, after Watson experiences a ghostly encounter, by suggesting that not everything can be explained, but the explanations we fit around those moments shape our lives, and that's the power he believes in.

All in all, I do not agree with a Sherlock Holmes who gives any kind of credence to real ghosts--in any sense. I view Holmes as the ultimate skeptic, and the suggestion that he may believe in ghosts was a poke in the eye for me, qualifying statements be damned.

I guess I would recommend this book to the hardcore Holmes reader, if just so you could say you read it

Bruce: Picking up his pen and writing a Sherlock Holmes story, as have so many authors since ACD published his collection so many years ago, Carr’s editorial comments in his early chapters seem to suggest that he is using this device in part to create a narrative about terrorism and the domestic response to it, no surprise given his concern about this issue that resulted in his non-fiction work of 2002, The Lessons of Terror, a work that I found troubling in its implications, espousing as it did preemptive military offensives as the primary and indeed preferred response to perceived threats, a response that seemed to me at the time I read it to be insufficiently nuanced and excessively limited in its perspective. The non-fiction book also contained, in my opinion, odd and unsubstantiated ideas about the role of civilians as objects of terrorism. But as I picked up this present novel I decided to suspend my skepticism and let him work out his plot and argument before judging either its credibility or his skill in setting it forth.

Although each of Arthur Conan Doyle’s seemingly countless imitators must inevitably bear the judgment of their readers regarding their fidelity to the work of the original, it is also true that readers sometimes focus so exclusively on assessing whether or not a later novel is perfectly consistent with Doyle’s writings themselves that the excellence of the copy may be obscured and any enjoyment of the latter work for its own sake and on its own merits may be lost. Thus, I try first of all when approaching such an apparently derivative work to assess it as if it were not attempting to work in a particular tradition, even as I take advantage of my knowledge of the Holmes stories to supplement my knowledge and increase my appreciation where deserved.

Having first read the entire Doyle/Holmes corpus over half a century ago, and having returned to it periodically since, I must confess that in general I have come to enjoy more recent works in the detective-mystery genre more and Doyle less, more recent works seeming to focus more on intra-psychic exploration and less on pure deductive brilliance. And so I find myself opening a contemporary Holmes story with a bit of a sigh, prepared to experience a more “primitive” work than I would ordinarily prefer. But I try to keep an open mind.

In the present book, Carr constructs a world and plot that are entertaining at times, enough to keep me reading, but ultimately the sum was less than its parts and was too fanciful to be convincing. Within the narrative, Carr inserted speculations about why young men (sic) are prone to acts of terrorism, but the relevance to the story was not entirely clear. Although this novel was approved by the Conan Doyle Estate for official affirmation as a Holmes sequel, I am not convinced that it is impressive enough to deserve any renown that such a seal of approval might provide.

Kathryn: I have always liked Caleb Carr’s books (both fiction and nonfiction), and I love Sherlock Holmes stuff, and Richard is of the same mind as me on Carr and Holmes. So when Richard found this unabridged audiobook, we both decided that it would be good to listen to on our vacation, and so it was; we both enjoyed it immensely.All good Sherlockania is in the voice of Doctor Watson, and so this book is; the book starts in Baker Street, with a crytic telegram from Holmes’ older brother Mycroft, demanding the presence of Sherlock Holmes in Scotland at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh, where the Queen is in residence. Holyrood is the site of the murder of the secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, one David Rizzio, in 1566. Two deaths have taken place, in connection with the proposed renovation of the West Tower (where the murder took place), and Mycroft is concerned that Continental spices might be at work.

Holmes and Watson thus head for Scotland, and are immediately plunged into a scene of deception, ghosts, and secret passages. In short, this book is a marvelous imitation of Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, down to Watson’s tendency to be a bit florid with his language at times.

This was a great book to be listening to on our vacation, and a worthy addition to the faux Sherlock Holmes canon.

Review A Spot of Bother (Bintik Gatal)

A Spot of Bother (Bintik Gatal)

by Mark Haddon, Ferry Halim (Translator)

George Hall tak mengerti obsesi orang-orang modern untuk membicarakan segala hal. Rahasia kepuasan hati, menurutnya, terletak pada pengabaian terhadap banyak hal secara menyeluruh. Namun, ternyata beberapa hal dalam hidup ini tak bisa diabaikan, meskipun itu hanya sebuah “bintik gatal”.

Pada usia 57, George mempersiapkan diri menikmati masa pensiun yang nyaman. Ia membangun sebuah pondok di kebunnya, membaca novel-novel sejarah, dan menyimak musik jazz ringan. Namun, Katie, anak perempuannya yang pemberang, menyatakan akan menikah dengan Ray.

Keluarganya tak senang karena adik Katie, Jamie, melihat Ray memiliki sepasang tangan “tukang cekik”. Katie sebenarnya tak tahu pasti apakah ia sungguh mencintai Ray atau hanya menyukai perlakuan luar biasa pria itu terhadap anak Katie dari perkawinan sebelumnya, Jacob. Sementara, Jean ibunya merasa kesal dengan segala perdebatan tentang pernikahan itu yang mengganggu perselingkuhan usia senjanya dengan bekas kolega suaminya. Di sisi lain, kehidupan menyenangkan yang diciptakan Jamie hancur berkeping-keping saat ia gagal mengundang kekasih homoseksnya, Tony, ke acara pernikahan mengerikan tersebut.

Saat terabaikan di tengah suasana hiruk-pikuk itu, George menemukan luka ringan di pinggulnya dan diam-diam ia mulai kehilangan akal sehatnya ...

Kepiawaian Mark Haddon membuat A Spot of Bother ini mampu menghanyutkan pembaca dengan kisah unik tentang kehidupan masa kini dan suka duka cinta, dibumbui humor segar dan ketegangan.

Serambi 2008

Dessy: Ini kisah sebuah keluaga modern masa kini. Cerita tentang problema keluarga yang jika dicermati dengan bijak adalah cerminan rumit dan kompleknya kehidupan. Hubungan antara suami, istri, orang tua, anak, serta masuknya “orang lain” kedalam sebuah keluarga.

George
Suami dan ayah yang menghadapi masa sulit saat memasuki masa pensiun. Seorang lelaki yang biasa bekerja dan kemudian harus berdian diri dirumah, berdaptasi dengan cara mengurus kebun, membaca novel, mendengar music jazz dan hal-hal remeh lainnya, masalah klasik lelaki saat mereka kehilangan power-nya sebagai penguasa keluarga. Suatu hari ia menemukan sebuah benjolan berupa segumpal daging berbentuk bulat telur di pinggulnya. George berpikir ia menderita kanker. Ia mulai depresi dan mulai berlaku aneh. George adalah tipe lelaki yang tidak begitu suka berbicara, baginya hal itu tidak mengubah apapun. Menurutnya “Rahasia kepuasan hati terletak pada pengabaian terhadap banyak hal secara menyeluruh.” (hal.14)

Jeann
Seorang Istri dan ibu yang kecewa terhadap diri, anak-anak dan apa yang ia peroleh dari kehidupan berumah tangga. Perlakuan dingin suami yang kurang menaruh perhatian terhadap apapun yang ia lakukan, membuatnya merasa benar-benar diabaikan. Saat Jean memasuki puber kedua ia berselingkuh dengan mantan teman sekantor suaminya. Ia menjalin hubungan terlarang dengan David. Lelaki itu membuatnya merasa paling tahu tentang banyak hal, ia mau mendengarkan dan menaruh perhatian. Bagi Jean perselingkuhan tidak tampak terlalu mirip sebuah penghianatan. Saat George mulai pensiun tak sedikit pun terbersit dalam pikirannya bahwa suatu saat rahasianya akan terbongkar.

Katie
Putri sulung George dan Jean, Katie gagal mempertahankan perkawinannya yang telah menghasilkan seorang putri, ia becerai dan sedang menjalin hubungan dengan Lelaki yang tidak disukai oleh kedua orang tuanya. Katie sendiri tidak yakin dengan perasaan cintanya terhadapa Ray, walaupun demikian ia membutuhkan penopang hidup demi anak dan status sosial. Ia hanya tahu bahwa putrinya membutuhkan figure seorang ayah dan ia merasa nyaman tinggal bersama Ray, di rumahnya yang besar dan nyaman. Menjelang hari pernikahan saat semua mulai sibuk mengurus segala keperluan pesta calon pengantin wanita ini mulai stress, Ia berpikir untuk membatalkan pernikahan mereka.

Jamie
Si bungsu yang menyukai sesame jenis. Jamie mencintai seorang lelaki bernama Tony, namun ia tidak siap mengundangnya ke rencana pernikahan Katie, Ia tidak siap jika keluarganya harus menghadapi kenyataan bahwa putra mereka satu-satunya ternyata seorang homoseksual. Jamie berusaha berkompromi, hingga ia memutuskan harus mengahiri hubungannya dengan Toni. Jamie merasa terkurung dengan pendapat dan norma –norma masyarakat yang menolak hubungan antar sesama yang menurut kebanyakan orang masih merupakan hal yang ganjil. Namun ia tidak bisa menipu diri sendiri.

Penuh detail dengan pikiran –pikiran setiap tokoh, cerita mengalir dari satu karakter ke karakter yang lain, bergelut dengan problema yang mereka hadapi . Membawa pembaca masuk ke dalam pikiran masing-masing tokoh. Mark berusaha menggambarkan suatu masalah dilihat dari berbagai sudut pandang yang berbeda. Mark juga menampilkan humor-humor segar tentang kehidupan, ia juga menyelipkan berbagai referensi buku, musik, perlengkapan kehidupan modern yang menjadi gaya hidup manusia masa kini. Yang mungkin dipilih berdasarkan selera penulis.

Mark Haddon mencoba menyampaikan bahwa dalam membina sebuah keluarga ada banyak kepala yang mempunyai beraneka problema yang harus dilihat dari sudut pandang masing-masing. Tiap individu mempunyai masalah yang hanya bisa dipecahkan dari kacamata mereka sebagai pribadi yang komplek.

Seperti karya mark Haddon sebelumnya “The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”.buku ini kembali menyita perhatianku, dan memasukkan Mark Haddon kejajaran penulis yang buku-bukunya wajib untuk dimiliki. Selain menulis novel Ia juga telah menerbitkan beberapa kumpulan puisi.

Penulis: Mark Haddon

Penerbit: PT Serambi Ilmu Semesta

Penerjemah: Ferry Halim

Penyerasi: Sidik Nugraha

Cetakan I, April 2008

Risyiana: I bought this book because I was really fascinated with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Haddon's previous book, definitely one of my favorite ever in my book shelf.

I was so impressed with Haddon's way of delving and slipping into somebody else's head describing every single detail of thing that passes his brain, like what he did in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. It's like being inside a fast moving train that stopped every once in a while on several stations, scrutinizing every single detail, people after people, scenery after scenery only you know that all along is not your eyes you use to examine all those things. Fun and adventurous.

That was actually what I expected from this piece. It was described as the book about an old man trying to go insane politely. So I thought, okay, this might be interesting. Having really aware of Haddon's aptitude for such brain voyage thing. It might be really interesting to dive deep and see things from the turning insane old man's point of view. A rather inviting call for journey I must say.

I learned several things about the journey as the pages passed on, indeed. First, it was rather unwise to compare the trip of The Curious Incident with this one. Haddon‘s flair of describing one's state of mind beautifully is of course unquestionably still there, but one was seen from an asperger child's point of view, who saw things in a rather chaotic way, making the story's so gripping and fast-moving, superbly amusing. And the other was seen from the point of view of an old man... which made the slow-paced, rather lacklustre narrative was understandable... and forgivable.

As the pages moved on I can see that the slow-paced tell tale with the too real (in a sense of almost cliche) characters were intentional. Maybe that's how the old man sees the world around him, a bit too usual, nothing's larger than life itself. I suppose it's as one of Haddon's exploit to keep the story palpably flowing. And so it was, deliberately flowing in a slow stream. It’s really not ugly, Haddon’s just keeping his promise really well. Telling a story about an old man who’s trying to go insane politely. Though I would say, it’s rather too polite it almost shooed out the fun.

Patrick: I pretty much hated this book. It was the type of book that you read because you liked the author's other work, but it's so aggressively bad that it makes you reconsider whether or not you actually liked the author's previous work upon closer consideration.

So what was so bad about it? Well, for the one the characters simply didn't ring true. They all felt poorly sketched out, just a bunch of people having what Haddon would have you believe are constant epiphanies about their sad little lives. He writes in such a way that you can tell he wants the reader to think it's a stunning revelation that this character is having, when it's just another dull moment in a rather dull story. If I had a dollar for every time Haddon made a one sentence paragraph meant to reveal some larger truth about the character's personalities, I'd be a rich man. He also has a nasty habit of ending each "chapter" (there are well over 100 of them, most 2 pages or less) with some half-assed "cliff-hanger", something better suited to the James Pattersons and R.L. Stines of the world.

Haddon doesn't seem to understand his characters, and he doesn't seem to care to, either. He simply throws a jumble of people into awkward situations and has them (over)react like a bunch of unlikeable, selfish jerks and then comment to themselves that, perhaps, they are acting like unlikeable, selfish jerks who are overreacting to what are, in reality, fairly mundane situations. They're sad, selfish little people, yet Haddon seems to think they are endearing.

Finally, he ends the book fairly abruptly and with a neat little bow on top that doesn't suit it. Everything works out for everyone involved, yet no one seemed to learn anything or grow as people. They all ended exactly where they began with no growth whatsoever. I've heard people who are familiar with autism claim that Haddon's sketch of the child in 'A Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime' was actually woefully inaccurate and quite offensive, and seeing the way he handles his characters' problems in this story, I'm much more inclined to believe that. Just an awful, awful book. Haddon seems to think he's writing a British version of 'The Corrections', but he's painfully mistaken. I'll probably not read anything by Haddon again.

Uci: It's like rain in your wedding day

It's a free ride when you've already paid

It's a good advice that you just didn't take

and who would've thought...it figures

Ironic by Alanis Morisette

George Hall menjalani hidupnya tanpa neko-neko. Menikah, punya anak, punya rumah dan pekerjaan yang bagus, pokoknya segala hal yang sepatutnya dimiliki lelaki baik-baik. Namun memasuki masa pensiun, tiba-tiba berbagai masalah menjungkirbalikkan hidupnya yang sempurna. Putrinya Katie akan melangsungkan pernikahan kedua dengan lelaki yang menurut George dan Jean, istrinya, tidak selevel dengan Katie. Putra mereka Jamie akan membawa pacarnya Tony ke pernikahan tersebut, yang membuat George terpaksa harus mulai menerima kenyataan bahwa Jamie adalah seorang gay. Sebentuk daging tiba-tiba muncul di pinggul George, membuatnya depresi karena takut mati terserang kanker. Dan puncaknya, Jean berselingkuh dengan mantan rekan sekantor George. George pun mulai bertanya-tanya, apakah selama ini dia telah menyia-nyiakan waktunya, dengan tidak melakukan hal-hal yang disukainya, demi mengejar hidup yang aman. Sementara pernikahan putrinya sudah semakin dekat...

Rusuhnya persiapan pernikahan memang menarik dijadikan bahan cerita. Sejumlah film yang pernah saya tonton juga mengangkat tema serupa, seperti Father of the Bride, My Bestfriend's Wedding, Rachel Getting Married, dll. Walaupun tidak persis sama, tapi benang merahnya adalah berbagai masalah yang timbul menjelang hari pernikahan. Mungkin karena acara pernikahan sering kali menguras tenaga dan emosi, sehingga rawan mengundang pertengkaran, tangisan, pertemuan, pelarian, atau malah perpisahan.

Itu sebabnya meskipun dalam novel ini Mark Haddon masih punya 'daya magis' untuk menyihir pembaca seperti saya tetap terpaku menyimak halaman demi halaman sampai tuntas, namun tema yang diangkat tidak seunik The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Di buku ini, Haddon sangat sabar memaparkan detail hari demi hari yang dilewati masing-masing tokoh. Ritual mandi atau makan sepulang dari kantor bisa dia jabarkan satu per satu tanpa kehilangan stamina. Bagi pembaca yang menunggu-nunggu aksi seru mungkin bisa mati bosan di tengah jalan :D Tapi untungnya Haddon masih menyisipkan lelucon-lelucon sarkastik di antara cerita, jadi cukup menghibur.

Yang jelas novel ini kembali membuat saya berpikir, apakah saya sebaiknya tetap hidup lurus-lurus saja seperti selama ini, atau mulai nekat mengejar semua yang ingin saya lakukan tapi tidak pernah berani saya lakukan? Hidup toh cuma sekali....

Hehehehehe

Review Riley in the Morning (Loveswept #115)

Riley in the Morning (Loveswept #115)

by Sandra Brown (Goodreads Author)

One of romance’s best-loved authors, Sandra Brown creates love stories whose “larger-than-life heroes and heroines make you believe all the warm, wonderful, wild things in life” (Rendezvous). Now the New York Times bestselling author delivers a poignant, funny, and irresistibly sensual novel about one night in the life of a man and a woman that will change their future forever.

Television producer Brin Cassidy was throwing the biggest dinner party of her life. And with everything in utter chaos, who should show up unannounced on her doorstep but her handsome estranged husband, Jon Riley.

Brin had not only worked with the popular star of Riley in the Morning, she had fallen in love with and married him. She knew she owed Riley an explanation for why she walked out. But did he have to come on this of all nights?

Temperamental, charismatic, and devastatingly blue-eyed, Riley was a man who knew what he wanted, and he wasn’t leaving until he got it. But the sensuous and strong-willed beauty he still called his wife was every bit his match.

From dusk until dawn the two will experience a second honeymoon of passion, seduction, and deep revelation that will determine if there is any future for Riley in the morning.

From the Paperback edition.

Gramedia Pustaka Utama 2008

Gramedia: Terkadang menjadi orang yang berada di belakang layar memang tidak menyenangkan, seringkali terlupakan.Dan perasaan semacam itulah yang membuat Brin akhirnya memutuskan untuk meninggalkan suami yang sangat di cintainya.Terkadang sikap rendah hati di perlukan hanya, kadang kala membuat orang lupa diri, tidak mampu mengkoreksi diri sendiri, sehingga tidak merasa telah menyakiti hati orang yang paling di cintainya.Begitulah perasaan Riley, rasa terluka dan di khianati tidak membuat dia berusaha untuk mencari tahu apa penyebab istrinya, Brin melarikan diri.Dalam 1 malam dengan banyak kejadian, akhirnya mereka mampu menemukan penyelesaian terbaik dalam hidup mereka, dan kembali kumpul bersama.

Claudia: I won this book on tape from First Reads. Listening to this story reminded me how much I used to enjoy books on tape. This book was an ok book for me. Riley is the host of a morning talk show, and producer is his wife Brin. She leaves him, and I sure did want to know why? So one night he shows up at her door to find out.

Narisha: I won this book from first reads. This was the first Sandra Brown book that I have read. The book is short slightly over five hours on audio book. The story is a typical romantic story. Brin leaves her husband for no reason or so it seems at the end of the book the truth is revealed and we get a happy ending. I enjoyed this book for the romance factor and will be looking to read more of Sandra Browns novels.

Misty: This really wasn't one of my favorite Sandra Brown books that I've read so far, but it wasn't bad either. I liked the story okay, so I'm giving it 3 stars.

Diah: Kayaknya ini satu-satunya tulisan Sandra Brown yang tokoh2xnya udah merit. Dan sebetulnya saya suka banget nih tema begini. Tapi kok bener2x cuma adegan satu malem gitu sih? Males banget. :p

Rachel: Audiobook. Couldn't finish it. The narrator was horrible and the story was severely lacking. I never connected with the characters, in fact I actually couldn't stand them.

Darcy: This is another rare book that I made it to the end and didn't like it. Part of the reason why I didn't care for this one was the narrator, she tried to do that sexy breathless voice that is just bad!! I would have given it up, but I wanted to know what the reason was Brin left Riley and we weren't told until the last disc, and at that point I figured I might as well finish this one. This is one of the author's older books so there were cliche's abound and some things that did make me laugh, like the reference to not missing Dallas on tv.
Overall this was a very predictable story, with blah characters that just isn't worth your time.

Sarah: I'm pretty sure I've read this book before. Besides the cover and the title appearing familiar, I have this image of Riley as a mule-headed, incorrigible, utterly charming and demanding character who always gets what he wants. It's hard to forget a character like that, so yes, I guess I have read this book before and, judging by the fact that I've remembered it after all these years, I can safely say that it is a memorable one. But then, aren't all Sandra Brown novels memorable?

I'm a huge Sandra Brown fan and my first romance novel was a Sandra Brown novel. Since then, and even though I've sworn off reading romance novels in an attempt to get more serious reading done, I make it a point to grab every new Sandra Brown novel that hits the shelves at my local library. Her characters have the ability to make your heart ache and your knees go weak. The end of every novel leaves you with a slight smile and this warm, fuzzy and utterly delightful sensation