Change Me into Zeus's Daughter: A Memoir Review

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(More customer reviews)and I found the book to be a moving and entertaining memoir. I am sure it will become a bestseller. However; this story does not belong to Barbara alone. It also belongs to her Mother and her seven siblings. I know this because I am the author's sister. When I first learned Barbara was going to write this book I was very uneasy. I had put this life in the past and did not want to re-live it. It was very painful and humiliating. When I received my copy I knew then that I would read it. The book got thrown against the wall many times, once my wonderful husband even took the book away from me because it brought back so many painful memories, some in the book, most that are not, many I had forgotten and did not ever want to remember again. But it also served to remind me of what a special person my mother was. This story is about the determination of one woman who watched all her dreams shatter but remained strong in an era which did not recognize alcoholism as a disease or child abuse as a problem. She was my rock, my best friend and the one person who kept me sane through the madness when I was not even sure I deserved to have a place on this earth. I am sure she is in a special place in heaven where she can forever sing the beautiful music she loved so much because she has already lived through hell on earth. I miss her every day of my life. I cannot speak for my brothers and sisters, but I know that each and every one of us earned the right to be called "survivor". I consider myself to have had two lives, the one I lived before the day my father put that gun to his head and pulled the trigger and the one that started the same day. Because for me that was the day the abuse ended. I was 38 years old. This book is destined to be a bestseller and I am very proud of my sister. I also hope this book will help to make people understand that alcoholism and child abuse are serious problems that exist in every race, society, income bracket and if you know of someone who needs help, don't just talk about, call someone.
Love you Barbara

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Tomorrow Girls: Behind the Gates Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the opening book in a 4 book series. Each is told from the point of view of one of the characters. This book does a great job of setting up the premise and the characters. It takes place in a future society where everyone is given a bracelet at birth and tracked by the state. This book is told from the perspective of Louisa. She and her best friend Maddie go to the school together (pretending to be twins). At the school they meet the other 2 characters, Rosie and Evelyn. Each girl has a distinctive personality and the bonds of friendship are tested as they face the struggles of dealing with adolescence and the real purpose of their attendance at the school. They are just being kept there for safety reasons, right? The answer to that question is the main plot of the book and as the girls search for answers, they must face their own and each other's problems and insecurities. This was a good read and would probably be a good choice for girls in the 8-14 range depending on their reading and comprehension levels. When I finished it I let my 10 year old neighbor read it. She completed it in one day and now she wants the remainder of the series!!!

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In a terrifying future world, four girls must depend on each other if they want to survive.
Louisa is nervous about being sent away to a boarding school -- but she's excited, too. And she has her best friend, Maddie, to keep her company. The girls have to pretend to be twin sisters, which Louisa thinks just adds to the adventure!
Country Manor School isn't all excitement, though. Louisa isn't sure how she feels about her new roommates: athletic but snobby Rosie and everything's-a-conspiracy Evelyn. Even Maddie seems different away from home, quiet and worried all the time.
Still, Louisa loves CMS -- the survival skills classes, the fresh air. She doesn't even miss not having a TV, or the internet, or any contact with home. It's for their own safety, after all.
Or is it?

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Boys that Bite (A Blood Coven Vampire Novel) Review

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(More customer reviews)Sunshine "Sunny" McDonald was doing pretty well; the hottest guy at Oakridge High School, Jake Wilder, has asked her to go to the prom with him, and life is now complete. At five foot four, with dirty blond hair and unimpressive muddy brown eyes, Sunny would have sworn that Jake didn't even know she existed. Freckles notwithstanding, she's not as easily recognizable as her twin sister, Rayne, who's so into the Goth scene, vampires, and wearing all black that it's not even funny. Yes, life is looking up--until Sunny lets herself get guilt tripped into attending Club Fang, a cheesy Goth club filled with wannabe vampires, and suddenly her life isn't so sunny anymore.
The night starts out okay--yes, the club is the epitome of cheesy and the smoke machine is making her cough--but improves vastly when an Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean Orlando, not Lord of the Rings Orlando)introduces himself with a "Good evening..I'm Magnus..I believe you were expecting me" line. Sunny sure wasn't expecting him, and she definitely was not expecting the bite on the neck she gets from the totally hot Magnus.
Suddenly life is taking a dark turn, when Sunny finds out that Magnus is not only a vampire--for real!--but that he mistook her for her twin sister, Rayne. Now Sunny's going to turn into one of the undead--this close to prom!--unless she find the Holy Grail. Which is the one and only thing that can reverse the process of turning into a vampire. But even with thoughts
of Jake Wilder on the brain, Sunny's not so sure that being a vampire would be so horrible, or that being in league with Magnus would be the end of her life.
BOYS THAT BITE is a funny, action-packed read that will keep you turning pages long into the night. The characters--from Sunny, Rayne, Magnus, and everyone in between--are all well-rounded people, and the dialogue is smart and funny. As the three race to save Sunny from an eternal life as a member of the undead, she'll have to find out what's most important in life. And the ending, including a stunner regarding Rayne, definitely sets up the scene for a sequel. A great read!


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Two sisters--as different as the sun and the rain. For one, getting into the Blood Coven is to die for. But for the other, getting out could be lethal...When Sunny McDonald gets dragged to Club Fang by her twin sister Rayne, she doesn't expect to find anything besides a bunch of Goth kids playing at being vampires. But when some guy mistakes Sunny for her dark-side-loving sister and bites her on the neck, she finds out that his fangs are real--and deadly. Now, Sunny has less than a week to figure out how to reverse the bite, or else she's going to end up as the perpetually undead. And not only will she be a vampire, she'll also be bonded to Magnus--the bloodsucker who bit her--forever. And forever is a really long time...

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Suffer the Children Review

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(More customer reviews)While John Saul is not held in the highest of regard by many horror fans, he is the man who first introduced me to the genre. Some of his later novels did indeed become pretty repetitive, but his first novel, Suffer the Children, is a dead-on, unflinching classic. This was the first truly scary book I ever read; I was probably around twelve at the time, and I remember staying up into the wee hours of the morning to finish it and then finding it almost impossible to get to sleep. Reading it again now, it still possesses much of the power it possessed years ago. It is a tale of a family curse, murder, schizophrenia, general unhappiness, and gruesome, frightening events. Long ago, the scion of the Conger family killed his daughter, supposedly bringing a curse down upon the succeeding generations of his family. Now, Jack Conger fears the curse is real. In a drunken rage, he physically assaults his youngest little girl Sarah. While he struggles to remember what exactly happened that day and grows increasingly estranged from his long-suffering wife, his daughter exists in a quasi-comatose state, living in her own silent fantasy world. The Congers look at their first daughter as a true blessing through all of their pain--Elizabeth is mature beyond her years and takes care of her little sister with great love and kindness. When several local children begin to disappear, though, the Congers' delicately balanced world finally turns completely upside down.
This is a pretty scary novel, largely because the horror centers around the two young sisters Elizabeth and Sarah. The description of the gloomy woods around the home and the truly dangerous embankment nearby help produce a great dark atmosphere, but Saul's description of a series of horrible events is especially unsettling. The story gets pretty gruesome at one point, and I think some horror writers would not be bold enough to go as far as Saul did. Saul committed himself fully to this novel and dared to describe everything in great detail; combine that with his incredibly effective characterization of the two sisters and you get a true horror classic in every sense of the word. Saul hooks you securely in his clutches and drags you down with him into the pits of depravity. The ending did not provide me with a complete feeling of closure, but I certainly have no quarrel with it; in fact, the evil Saul so vividly describes almost defies comprehension and thus necessitates the type of ending Saul chose to give us. I would highly recommend this novel to any horror fan--Saul creates a psychological atmosphere of real terror that essentially oozes out of the pores of each page.

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One hundred years ago in Port Arbello a pretty little girl began to scream. And struggle. And die. No one heard. No one saw. Just one man whose guilty heart burst in pain as he dashed himself to death in the sea. Now something peculiar is happening in Port Arbello. The children are disappearing, one by one. An evil history is repeating itself. And one strange, terrified child has ended her silence with a scream that began a hundred years ago.

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Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond Review

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(More customer reviews)This is surprisingly one of the best books I have read. The authors give a colorfully accurate account of the events that occured decades ago, all of which still echo into our current era. It covers the origin of LSD, as a drug the CIA funded research on for use as a tool for mind control applications using civilians and military personnel as test subjects. At the very outset, it was obvious that the CIA was well aware of the potential power of this substance in its ability to wreak havoc on the collective psyche, to shatter current assumptions and threaten cherished ego boundaries. Yet, eventually it became available to the masses who would come to extol it's use religiously and otherwise.....giving rise to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than any other source I have encountered, explores the underlying causes of the demise of the cultural/political/self re-evolution of that time and gives us pause to reflect on the politics of consciousness - to see who really won The War Of The Mind. Proof again that truth is stranger than fiction. Be informed.........read this book.

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Acid Dreams is the complete social history of LSD and the counterculture it helped to define in the sixties. Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain's exhaustively researched and astonishing account-part of it gleaned from secret government files-tells how the CIA became obsessed with LSD as an espionage weapon during the early l950s and launched a massive covert research program, in which countless unwitting citizens were used as guinea pigs. Though the CIA was intent on keeping the drug to itself, it ultimately couldn't prevent it from spreading into the popular culture; here LSD had a profound impact and helped spawn a political and social upheaval that changed the face of America. From the clandestine operations of the government to the escapades of Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, Allen Ginsberg, and many others, Acid Dreams provides an important and entertaining account that goes to the heart of a turbulent period in our history. "Engaging throughout . . . at once entertaining and disturbing." - Andrew Weil, M.D., The Nation; "Marvelously detailed . . . loaded with startling revelations." - Los Angeles Daily News; "An engrossing account of a period . . . when a tiny psychoactive molecule affected almost every aspect of Western life." - William S. Burroughs; "An important historical synthesis of the spread and effects of a drug that served as a central metaphor for an era." - John Sayles.

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Be Mine Tonight (The Brotherhood of Blood, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)just got done reading Be Mine Tonight, and.. I really, truly loved it. A wonderful job all the way around - the characterizations were very three dimensional, not to mention that Pru Ryland is one of the best heroines I've ever read. Kathryn Smith's new take on vampire legend was very smart, unique and believable. I loved that Chapel didn't end up as that all-too-familiar vampiric hero stereotype. He was very vital, warm and alive, instead of being darkly brooding and menacing in the way I've come to expect from vampire fiction. As for the story itself, I don't want to give too much away I was asborbed every step of the way as the two main characters, Pru and Chapel, fell in love very convincingly without falling into cliches. I cried so hard through parts of this book that I've blocked my right ear, but it was a fabulous read. I'm usually a picky b*tch and not too many authors make it into my auto-buy list, but this one just did. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and hope they'll all be as wonderful as this one.

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I am called Chapel . . . For nearly six centuries I have roamed the night, a mortal man no longer. Would that I could undo the past -- when I entered the sanctuary of the Knights Templar to wrest from them the Holy Grail, only to discover the chalice I raised to my lips was not the sacred relic but a hellish cup of damnation. Now I shun the day and all things human, driven by an ungodly thirst. And yet... Never have I known a maiden the like of Prudence Ryland, whose beauty and spirit awaken a heart I feared long cold and dead. But her young life is slipping away, and she also seeks the deliverance of the Grail -- unaware that the cost of her search could be her soul. I must help Prudence, for in six hundred years, no other woman has stirred my passions so. But dare I tender to my beloved that which she most desires -- the sensuous "gift" of forever that is both rapture and a curse: my immortal kiss?

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Almost Heaven Review

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(More customer reviews)At the age of 18, I have only read about 30 romance novels, most of which were only "so-so". From the moment I read "Once and Always" by JM, I was in complete and utter awe at her talent; I couldn't seem to get enough of her work! "Almost Heaven", however, is without a doubt my favorite one of them all. The characters are so lovable and seem so REAL, making it almost impossible to put the book down. (even at 2 in the morning on a work day :) Elizabeth is wonderfully witty and intelligent; who knew that this sweet, charming girl possessed such an uncanny knack for bargaining? Ian is definitely the man of my dreams. Yes, he was stubborn and extremely exasperating at times, but he said things to Elizabeth that made ME swoon! This book captivates you from the first page to the last; I love it so much, I'm in the process of reading it for the seventh time as we speak...so you can probably guess how highly I recommend it!!

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In this classic novel of two willful lovers caught in a breathless adventure of deception and betrayal, #1 New York Times bestselling author Judith McNaught has created a powerful and unforgettable masterpiece. ELIZABETH CAMERON The Countess of Havenhurst possessed a rare gentleness and fierce courage to match her exquisite beauty. But her reputation is shattered when she is discovered in the arms of Ian Thornton, a notorious gambler and social outcast. IAN THORNTON A dangerously handsome man of secret wealth and mysterious lineage, his voyage to Elizabeth's heart is fraught with intrigue, scandal, and a venomous revenge. Destined for each other, yet wary of each other's motives, Elizabeth and Ian engage in a dance of suspicion and passion that tests the very soul of their star-crossed love. As a twisting path of secrets takes them from London's drawing rooms to the mysterious Scottish Highlands, Elizabeth must learn the truth: is Ian merely a ruthless fortune hunter at heart?

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Fat,Forty,Fired: One Man's Frank,Funny,and Inspiring Account of Losing His Job and Finding His Life Review

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(More customer reviews)I had picked up this book hoping for a funny and inspiring story of someone finding himself after a job loss. Unfortunately, I found Fat, Forty and Fired to be tired and somewhat simplistic. The author came across as overly privileged and frankly, whiny. For example, gosh, he had to fly coach using some of his frequent flyer miles during a trip to Europe! And seats only reclined an inch or two! Plus they had to fire the nanny (although the wife already stayed at home). Yawn.
This is on top of short chapters and a stunning lack of detail.
It was disappointing to see how quickly he went back to some of his old ways at the end of the book. Didn't even make the swim race he had talked about for some fifty pages or so throughout the book.
Even more concerning are the rest of the reviews on Amazon. I find it hard to to see how everyone else gave this book 5 stars. But I see 13 of the 16 other reviewers have only this one review to their name. Nigel's friends and family perhaps?

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Sleepers Review

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(More customer reviews)I suspect that the first 2/3 of this book are true. The vignettes of life on the streets of Hell's Kitchen in the 60s ring true. The section on life in a boy's "reform school" is UNDERSTATED, if anything. In most such places, as brutal as the guards may be, the young thugs you are locked in with are even worse.
However, the last 1/3 of the book - the trial - is at least partly fantasy. As a prosecutor, I can tell you that the trial could not have progressed as described. The key to Michael's strategy was getting ex-guard Ferguson to testify about what a great guy the dead victim was, so that the truth would come out on cross-examination. However, testimony about a dead victim's character is NOT allowed at trial (except in certain cases where the defense is self-defense - but here, it was not). In real life, as soon as the judge heard ex-guard Ferguson begin to testify about the dead victim's character, he would have cut in and stopped the testimony.
I think that Carcaterra really was sent to some juvenile facility and was abused as badly as he describes. I think he wanted to write a book - a very shocking book - that would have an effect on the public's perception of such places and help to bring about change. But a simple autobiography describing the horrors wouldn't be readable, just sickening. A novel, no matter how readable, wouldn't be taken seriously. So he wrote a partially-fake autobiography with a gut-wrenching ending that most definitely has had an effect on public perception of juvenile detention centers. And I bet having his revenge, even if it was just fantasy-revenge, must have felt good. I hope so.

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Duchess in Love Review

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(More customer reviews)I really did enjoy this book. James has been criticized more than once for having too much going on in her novels, but I find her refreshing and innovative. Duchess does have a lot of set up, and I admit that the following three books of the series are better, but this particular novel was the hook. And I couldn't help it; when I finished the book I was dying to know what happened to all my favorite characters. James succeeds in writing flawed characters who are also endearing and interesting. The best suggestion I can make to potential consumers is to go ahead and give the book a try. Tastes vary so much that you won't be able to tell whether or not you like the story unless you give it a try. You don't even have to purchase it; check it out of the library first. And I promise that the series does get better and better right through the last novel.

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A Duke in Retreat

Gina was forced into marriage with the Duke of Girton at an age when she'd have been better off in a schoolroom than a ballroom. Directly after the ceremony her handsome spouse promptly fled to the continent, leaving the marriage unconsummated and Gina quite indignant.

A Lady In the Middle

Now, she is one of the most well-known ladies in London ... living on the edge of scandal—desired by many men, but resisting giving herself to any one.

A Duchess in Love

Finally, Camden, the Duke of Girton, has returned home, to discover that his naïve bride has blossomed into the toast of the ton. Which leaves Cam in the most uncomfortable position of discovering that he has the bad manners to be falling in love—with his own wife!

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The Book of Bright Ideas Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been reading a plethora of genres for 40+ years, and every once in a wonderful while I stumble across a masterpiece that fortifies my love of prose. "The Book of Bright Ideas" is a precious gem among the junk jewelry of average reads. Button, narrator, gifts a summer to remember as her new best friend, Winnalee, blows into town in a beat-up pick-up driven by her sister, Freeda. Fierce, fearless, and opinionated, 10 year old Winnalee is bound to stir up Button's quietly sad childhood. Through their myriad of adventures, planned and NOT SO PLANNED, life lessons are earned. So many life lessons that Winnalee and Button strive to savor them in "A Book of Bright Ideas," which will quarentee their happiness in the future. Oh, that it could be true!Kring has a gift of vivid description, rich dialogue, nearly ethereal insight and flavorful charm. Like Harper Lee, Sue Kidd Monk, Kaye Gibbons, and other greats, her work demands and receives your full attention and your deepest respect.
This is brilliant writing at it's finest....read this book and remember why you ever started reading in the first place.

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Wisconsin, 1961. Evelyn "Button" Peters is nine the summer Winnalee and her fiery-spirited older sister, Freeda, blow into her small town–and from the moment she sees them, Button knows this will be a summer unlike any other.Much to her mother's dismay, Button is fascinated by the Malone sisters, especially Winnalee, a feisty scrap of a thing who carries around a shiny silver urn containing her mother's ashes and a tome she calls "The Book of Bright Ideas." It is here, Winnalee tells Button, that she records everything she learns: her answers to themysteries of life. But sometimes those mysteries conceal a truth better left buried. And when a devastating secret is suddenly revealed, dividing loyalties and uprooting lives, no one–from Winnalee and her sister to Button and her family–will ever be the same.

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Once and Always Review

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(More customer reviews)Although I've read all of McNaught's books, I find this one by far one of her best. If you're like me, and enjoy story lines that contain an intense, passionate relationship with not only a strong male character but also a strong female character, then you'll fall inlove with this book the way I did. It's one of her earlier books, and in my opinion one of her most romantic, due to the fact that she focuses in on the relationship more then outside factors like other romance writers tend to do. No, you won't find a murder mystery here, but instead a lovely, intense, sweeping romance. I know, because every time I flip through those pages, I get a tight knot in my stomach and I choke up; thats the sign of a true romance writer. Read this book!

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Across the vast ocean sailed Victoria Seaton, a free-spirited American beauty left suddenly orphaned and alone. Eager to claim her long-lost heritage, she was amazed at the formal elegance of Wakefield, the sumptuous English estate of her distant cousin...the notorious Lord Jason Fielding. Sought after at plays, operas, and balls by London's most fashionable ladies, Jason remained a mystery to Victoria. Bewildered by his arrogant demeanor, yet drawn to his panther-like grace, she came to sense the searingly painful memories that smoldered in the depths of his jade-green eyes. Unable to resist her spitfire charm, Jason gathered her at last into his powerful arms, ravishing her lips with his kisses, arousing in her a sweet, insistent hunger. Wed in desire, they were enfolded in a fierce, consuming joy, free at last from the past's cruel grasp. Then, in a moment of blinding anguish, Victoria discovered the shocking treachery that lay at the heart of their love...a love she had dreamed would triumph...Once And Always.

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Lying on the Couch: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)This "novel" by Dr. Yalom is a true masterpiece. After having read his other popular books, I hesitated reading a "novel" , but what an amazing surprise... This work is really integrated, has great unity as far as structure goes and the subject area in which Dr.Yalom truly excells is really informative for therapists, analysts as well as patients. It gives insight not into just multiple relationships among doctors and patients but also among therapists themselves - patients in their relationships with their relatives and friends. It is an excellent guide to insight, analysis and problem-solving techniques as well as ethics, honesty and humanity. It should be required reading for courses and seminars that train analysts, therapists as well as counsellors and ultimately patients and friends and relatives of patients in therapy. Read this book -- honestly!

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Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (Signet) Review

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(More customer reviews)Anne Rule is a writer of uncommon intelligence and insight. In "Small Sacrifices," she tells the mesmerizing story of Diane Downs, a beautiful, brillient, sociopath, who commits the ultimate evil when she shoots her three children to gain the love of a married man. Anne Rule's insight into the personality of Downs is as horrifying as it is disturbing. I literally could not put the book down. Never have I read or heard of such a selfish, self-centered woman as Diane Downs. She never confesses to shooting her children, but her conduct at the trial is sickening. She taps her foot and smiles while listening to "Hungry Like the Wolf," the song that was playing in her car while she slaughtered her children; she laughs when she should cry, she cries when it benefits her. One daughter is dead, one has lost the use of her arm and speech, and the little boy is paralyzed. None of this horror seems to penetrate Diane. She has no feelings for her children's suffering. The detail in this book is fasinating. Anne Rule describes every bit of evidence and presents it in such a way as to keep the reader of the edge of her seat. A must read for all true crime buffs.

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The Heat Islands: A Doc Ford Novel (Doc Ford Novels) Review

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(More customer reviews)The title refers to those vast expanses of concrete developers have produced as they've urbanized native Florida. It's only mentioned once in the book, but it sets the environmental tone for the story, and for the main character, Doc Ford.
First the good part: White is a top writer with a compact style. He knows the Florida gulf coast locale; his story and characters are consistent and believable, for the most part. This is a series novel. The anchor is Doc Ford, a marine biologist living at a small marina on Sanibel Island. He seems to be loosely patterned after Steinbeck's Ed Ricketts ("The Log From the Sea of Cortez"). Sometimes series novels get a little predictable. I didn't notice it so much here, because this is White's second in the series, and his style is never sing-song. But there were a few characters that I feel sure we'll hear from again in other novels: Dewey, Doc's casual girlfriend, a world-class tennis contender; Walda, Dewey's Romanian tennis friend; and an assortment of fishing guides who work out of the Dinkin's Bay Marina. Others I'm sure we'll never hear from again. You can tell.
The plot orbits the death of a very unpopular local marina owner. White manages to weave some romance and assorted other intrigues into the story before it's over.
Doc's biological knowledge, his keen deductive ability, and his sharp observational skills turn detective once again in this case. Doc also has the enviable ability to learn things but not mention them until just the right time. Remarkable. At first the cops don't want him involved in the investigation, but he eventually solves the case and ties up the loose ends.
Now the bad part: Doc is a formula character, appealing, but still paperback chic: ex Navy SEAL, worked for the CIA and the NSA (we believe, White also has the ability to keep secrets), quiet, soft-hearted--involved in sea anemones, fish larvae, etc. But when the chips are down, and they're down twice in this book, Doc's old killer instinct surfaces, and he turns his very dark skills against the bad guys. You can tell when he's about to do that, a strange look comes in his eyes. "Like he's, what-do-you-call-it, not all there." Have you heard all this before? What the heck, it's only fiction. I can suspend belief for the short time it takes to read this book, but I sometimes yearn for an anti-anti-hero.
Read this book by Randy Wayne White. It's good entertainment, and you won't be tempted to join the Sierra Club after you've finished.

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Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From The Code Of The West Review

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(More customer reviews)I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered the book. Upon receiving it, I couldn't put it down. This book is a full dose of downhome cowboy common moral sense combined with stuningly beautiful western photography. The book was purchased as a gift for a real cowboy friend of mine. This man who made much of his living on the back of a horse opened the book, paged through it and put it down. Within a minute or so, he picked the book up and paged through it again. He was hooked! The traditional wisdom and astonishing photography makes this book something you want to give your children and best friends. If you have any doubts look to the end of the book at the photo of the mounted cowboy carrying a calf in a snowstorm. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will.

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Through a Glass Darkly: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)...it is a terrific love story, really a bunch of love stories, all poignant. The relationship between Barbara and her grandmother is beautiful, the relationship between Barbara and her husband, DeVane, is tragic. Someone else called this the story of a dysfunctional family---that was an understatement! Set against the intrigues of the French court in the early 1700's and the South Sea Bubble venture, this is the story of a headstrong young woman who's determined to marry a man clearly not right for her, a man whose romantic and sexual past will come back to haunt the girl he marries. Koen pulls no punches. People die, children become ill, fortunes disappear, lives are ruined, love affairs turn out badly, but the wonderful Barbara will get through it all and emerge a stronger, better woman. Get out your handkerchiefs! The biggest problem I have with Karleen Koen's great big terrific historical novels is that she writes so few of them. She can give the more prolific Diana Gabaldon a good run for her money!

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