Started badly ... Got better ... Then built to a cliff hanger ... Because trilogy! No! You've got to better than this to make me buy the second book.

Started badly ... Got better ... Then built to a cliff hanger ... Because trilogy! No! You've got to better than this to make me buy the second book.

I saw the movie that was based upon this book earlier this year. Watching the movie, I often got confused between the characters. Maybe if I'd read the book first, then I would have been able to better differentiate them. But ... if I'd read the book first then I wouldn't have seen the movie because I hated the way the book dissolved into angst ridden survivor guilt by the author.

I started reading this book in a library in a nearby suburb while I waited for my daughter to have her Physiotherapy sessions. I kept hiding the book on different shelves because I was scared that it would get borrowed before I finished it. The physio finished instead. But my daughter bought me the book as a thank you gift for driving her to her appointments. It's a great story and I cried at the end.

I liked it. I liked it so much that I bought the sequel - I just hope that it's a s good as this book. Darrow is a great lead character and I love the world building.

Just lovely. Wonderful, slow story telling. Great characters and interaction. And everybody grows and changes and lives happily ever after. What a pity that doesn't happen in real life.

Light and fun, while exploring some serious issues surrounding violence and women. I've read worse.

A great read. What would it be like to lose all of the society-imposed filters and just say what you really think about the people in your life? It would be fun, but I think you'd end up very lonely ... very quickly.

A great read. What would it be like to lose all of the society-imposed filters and just say what you really think about the people in your life? It would be fun, but I think you'd end up very lonely ... very quickly.

I can't remember when I last read this. I read it this time on the SerialReader app. I think the book leant itself to that format.

I love the wordiness and the brightness of Elizabeth's internal monologues. Definitely worth the re-read.

I've reborrowed this book from the library twice. And it's overdue today. I don't want to give it back. It's so inspiring. But I don't have the time in my life to follow through on the ideas that it's given me, so it has to go back. I will create something in the future that is inspired by this book.

Tami Hoag's books are always well structured and a delight to read. Every time I read one of her books, I think that I should buy all her books because I enjoy them so much. I'm always seeing them and picking them up, out of series order. I still enjoy the stories. I loved the crossover between the two main characters and how they grew by being partnered with new characters. The ending was very gory, but, at least, there was no guns involved.

My first book that I've given up on this year. I didn't finish this collection. I'd read one story and then pick up a whole new book to avoid having to read another story. Not because I wanted to think about the story, but because I wanted to rinse my brain from the way I felt after reading the story. Not fun. No more.

Wonderful light short stories in a world where people love each other and everybody lives happily ever after. Just what I needed to read.

I am reading a lot of movie related books lately. I found the story disturbing. I kept hoping that I would do things differently from the main character. I didn't foresee the denouement but reading it was like a light being turned on and "of course" ringing in my head. A book I couldn't put down.

The rules:
1. Don't sleep with a married man.
2. Don't judge people by their looks or their class.
This book seemed to be about breaking these rules. Generation after generation. With nobody learning from the past because the lessons weren't shared by the women who were the keepers of the lore.

Yes, it was good. The story was built well and written well, with well developed characters that I cared about. The highlight for me though was the ever so realistic exploration of the ongoing effect that childhood abuse has on people and how it continues to colour all of life. An amazing read.

What a strange book! I selected it on the Serial Reader app because it was popular. I won't be doing that again.

Wikipedia tells me it's supposed to be an early feminist commentary one the role of women in society. All I got was a woman being sent crazy by the weird yellow wallpaper.

I went to see the movie earlier this year. I must have lowered the average age in the cinema audience by more than 10 years. Friends who are into reading told me that I had to read the book. That it was "so much better".

It wasn't. I found the book very judgemental.

I read this on the Serial Reader app. Every time I read this book, I find new things to smile at and enjoy. I remain convinced that it is not a child's book as much as it is a wonderful exploration of words and absurdity.

I'm reading this on Serial Reader. I agree with Anne.

I read this using the Serial Reader app. I enjoyed that format and will read other classics this way in the future. The images that the book raised in my mind fought with the images in the movie that I've watched many times over the years. I had to slow down my reading pace and absorb the words.

Families and secrets. Families and stories. Do we build our stories about ourselves and our families on the stories that we are told? Or do we try to fill in the gaps that the secrets that we don't talk about leave?

This was a gentle book that built slowly and realistically.

I read it in one sitting. Not bad, not good - just right for a cold Winter afternoon.

I know that this is book #5 in her Virals series. And I haven't read the other 4. And I love her Bones series. But this was awful. The dialogue was lame and the plot was predictable right down to the ridiculous last page.

Interesting ideas but not inspiring.

Interesting ideas and great technical guidance but not the inspiration that I was looking for.

At Supanova in Sydney yesterday. Thanks to my daughter and her friends for lining up to get this. 😍

If X-Men (Comics and movies)and Heroes (TV show) made a book baby, then this would be it. The plot is nothing new, mutant super people being better than the normals. But ... the writing was amazing. Seriously, the best thing I've read this year. I was sad when I finished.

A broadening of the story's focus meant more characters to get to know and new parts of this world to explore. This was a great fourth instalment in The Others series. I just don't want to wait nearly a year for the next part!

I picked up this book at the library because the cover tricked me into thinking it was a light, romantic book that wouldn't tax too much of my cold-ridden brain. Instead it turned out to be a weaving of history and culture into a multi generational story with deeply developed characters.

I have this guilty secret. I really like trashy, erotic romances. And I really enjoyed this one. It even had an evil villain, just so that I could pretend I was reading it for the story and not for the sexy bits. Lots of fun.

I'm looking for inspiration. I don't think I found it here.

I'm starting to feed a long term dream of travel in the United Kingdom. In reading this, I learnt of places that I missed last time I visited London.

Nowhere near as exciting as the title promises. Well developed and completely unsympathetic characters. Nearly 400 pages of meandering but never arriving anywhere narrative.

I liked this book. It answered most of the questions raised by the first two books. And it was done well. At times it did feel a bit like we were doing tours of exciting places that could be used for external shots in the upcoming film version of the books. But I still enjoyed reading the story.

An excellent fable with an unexpected consequence to the choice of not sharing.

I chose this book from the library because my grandmother's name was Ada. I enjoyed the book. The main character was well developed and the issues surrounding weight gain and loss in women were well explored. I particularly liked Ada's recovery of her sexual self.

This was just as good as the first book in the trilogy. The historical figures that wove in and out of the story of Diana and Matthew left me wishing for the time to read more history and to have a better understanding of the time in which this story was set.

'"Omni fine initium novum",' Matthew said, gazing upon the land of his father as though he had, at last, come home. '"In every ending there is a new beginning."'

Well researched. Not so well written. I didn't care when the characters were in danger or died. I think that I should.

I'm having trouble staying focused on this.

I loved almost everything about this book. I loved the history that was built into the story. I loved the exploration of the issues surrounding marriage and what it means and who should be allowed to marry who. I loved the idea of a manuscript that chose who would read it and when.

I am enjoying this. I don't want it to end. I want to get to know all the stories of all the side characters, including the faintly drawn baddies.

I enjoyed this book. It was a good story about people in a small town in Ireland. It explores the life and relationships surrounding the main character, Lynn. A gentle read.

What if? What if I didn't like the ending? What if the ending felt judgemental and rushed? What if we actually get the space in our lives for second chances? What if we take advantage of those chances to change and grow? Then our responses to stress would also change.

It was fun. Yes, it's book 3 in a series and I haven't read the first two but it didn't matter. It had cupcakes and turtles and Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything it takes to make a romance fun.