Reviews Books

This is without doubt the best of all Star Trek stories, both in film and in print. It touches on many grand philosophical, scientific, and technological themes: machine intelligence (both in Commander Data and in the Borg), space-time engineering (the first time humanity has done this, via the efforts of Zefram Cochrane), the first contact from an alien civilization (the arrival of the Vulcans), the confrontation with true history (meeting Cochrane and finding out just who the man really was), and the ethics of highly advanced civilizations (the contrast between the Borg and humanity). This book and the film will without a doubt inspire many a young reader to take up the practice of science, and thus it will do the best job of all. Science fiction has the habit of coming true sometimes, but it also has the fault of underestimating. The future of humanity, as exemplified by the Star Trek crew of the year 2367, is a grand one to contemplate, but the true future will be much better: a world populated by humans and machines striving to be the best they can be; a future that is never static, for stagnation to intelligent life is an abomination. We will do genetic engineering of humans, to be the best we can be; we will do space-time engineering, to travel beyond any immediate confines; we will create intelligent machines, to be our friends and allies. All of these things we will do, and much more. Humans and all other lifeforms, organic or not, will be very different in the time frame set in this novel. But they will be restless, ambitious, and always yearning for more understanding, for more insight, for more knowledge: these traits will characterize the beings of the 24th century...and beyond.

"And you people...you're all astronauts on some kind of...star trek?"

That line, uttered by Dr. Zephram Cochrane in both movie and novelization, has to be my all time favorite from the Trek film series. The most interesting difference between movie and book, as far I am concerned, is that despite James Cromwell's fine performance I found the film's Zephram Cochrane incredibly annoying. I never developed a shred of sympathy for him, because the background the film gave me - the Third World War and its chaotic aftermath - wasn't sufficient to make me understand him. I don't know, not having seen the script from which J.M. Dillard worked, whether she added "Zef" Cochrane's tragic battle with bipolar disorder (a disease that before the War had an effective treatment), or if it was among the elements that inevitably got cut as the film took shape. But I do know that for me, it made all the difference in being able to care about this character and root for him.

The book follows the film with little filler added except for background on Lily Sloane and Zephram Cochrane, which gives it a similar pace. They complement each other well.

As usual, J.M. Dillard does a fine job of remaining true to the source material, while still elaborating on it. The story is an excellent one, with plenty of action and plenty of interesting science-fiction concepts for the more thoughtful to consider. It gives us a bit more insight into the "future history" between the near-collapse of civilization and the beginning of the Federation that has been hinted at but rarely detailed in various episodes of Star Trek, in various generations of series.

The plot and characterization are both excellent and the writing is fluid and professional. The book is a pleasure to read.

This is, of course, the novelization of the highly successful Star Trek: The Next Generation film of the same name. First Contact refers not to first contact with the Borg, for, six years later, Picard still bears the mental scars of his assimilation in the form of Locutus, but to Earth's first contact with an alien civilization. It is a story that had yet to be told, although Captain Kirk and his crew had met the extraordinarily old Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive, in an episode of the original series; additionally, there had been hints that this pivotal event in human history took place some time after a terrible Third World War on Earth.

As the story begins, the Borg have attacked the Federation, with one of their massive cube ships making a bee-line for Earth herself. Picard and the new Enterprise-E starship defy Starfleet orders and rush to the battle, after which they follow a small Borg ship through a time portal which takes them back to 21st-century Earth. The Borg plan is to destroy the Phoenix, the spacecraft which Zefram Cochrane launches and, by way of its successful warp drive test, captures the attention of a Federation scout ship. If that pivotal event does not happen, the Federation we all know and love will never come to be. While half of the senior staff is planet-side trying to make sure the Phoenix launch happens on schedule, the rest of the crew find themselves battling a Borg infestation onboard the Enterprise herself. Data is captured, Picard is in danger of letting his hatred of the Borg overrule logic and reason, and we get to meet the Borg Queen. Personally, I've always felt that the introduction of the Borg Queen was a disservice to the greatest Star Trek villains of them all. The Borg Queen is a complete contradiction that introduced a level of individual vulnerability into a collective that was, up until this time, faceless and seemingly invulnerable.

This is an impressive novelization of the film, making it a worthwhile read to those of us who are already familiar with the onscreen story. In particular, it provides a great deal of insight into the erratic nature of Zefram Cochrane himself; in the movie, he came across as basically a drunk, but the novelization does a much better job of explaining his behavior. That alone makes this novel a natural and extremely beneficial corollary to the movie.

Star Trek First Contact by J.M. Dillard was an excellent book. it showed emotion, fear, dispair, and anger. IT was a well written book considering it was made after the movie. I encourage all Star Trek fans to read this book and watch the movie.

This book doesn't cover all there is to cover in Calculus 1. It can't, it's too tiny. But what it does do it take you through the logic of increasingly abstract concepts. I found this enormously helpful beyond just helping me understand the concepts (though it did so admirably). I found that this careful progression helped me formalize my own thought process, helped me get more logical.

This won't cover everything you need to know, but I'm a big advocate of the more you know, the better, and this book will help you fill in some gaps.

This book is well written and the author explains the material in an easy to understand manner. I haven't had Calculus for over 10 years and a lot of the material is coming back to me because of the author's style of presenting it. I whole-heartedly recommend this review for those who have been away from Calculus for a number of years.

Great book it helped me pass Calc in high school and helped me get an A in college. Highly recommended. Easy to read and understand

Professor Gootman is the master of moving from practical everyday arithmetic to higher layers of algebraic abstraction. In Calculus, I too memorized the formulas, rules, etc. and did fine but never really fully understood the purpose of it all. To start with the simple notion of s being a 'position' of an object (ball thrown up in space) and t being time and answering the 'instantaneous rate of change' / feet per second for s(t) was such a refreshing explanation to see. Moving carefully into the next layer(s) of abstraction ( f(x) dy/dx,... ) is his forte. He helped me feel more confident knowing that even with subjects such as abstract algebra and number theory, remembering to try and move carefully 'up' the levels of abstraction will assuredly alleviate pain and frustration.

This text is a nice balance between a traditional calculus text and the smarmy calculus by cartoon type books, and it is more math book like than 'A Tour of the Calculus' by David Berlinski in that you get examples and practice problems.
The explanations are written in a relaxed, literate, and very readable style, without being patronizing or silly.
Enough examples and practice problems are provided to get the key points pounded into your head. The examples are worked through step by step with fairly clear explanations.
Be warned. This is definitely a review book or to be used in conjunction with a traditional class and text. It's a very quick pass over the material. It provides some minimal algebra review, but if you are rusty you will want some practice since it assumes you can handle rational expressions and exponents.
I worked through it a chapter at a time over an otherwise lazy week.

This is a great suplemental study material especially if used early . The price is also affordable.

This book is an excellent adjunct to use in studying for Step 2 CK. By challenging you with a gut-reaction recall type format, you will actively learn and reinforce important topics and associations. It's best used for a quick review in the final days of Step 2 studying to refresh your memory of all the high yield associations.

First thing first. I scored a 247 on Step 1. As many of you know that have taken the exam. The key is to know what to study for the exam since there is an infinite amount of information. Once you find the "tested" information you have to sit down and MEMORIZE. That is the key to these USMLE exams. For those that have trouble memorizing the necessary information, the best thing to do is to "do questions" so that way you can remember the key concepts. For Step 1 all you really need is First Aid for Step 1, Goljan audio, and Kaplan QBank + Qbook. That's it....

Now for Step 2 it is much different. First Aid is not as high yield as it is for Step 1. Even if you had First Aid for Step 2 in the exam room with unlimited time there will be information that is NOT IN THE BOOK. First Aid lives off of its Step 1 reputation.

For Step 2, I scored a 241. Which isn't spectacular BUT I studied for the exam during my interview season in January. I studied for 3 weeks. I memorized this book and did USMLE World questions. That is all you need. Most of the high yield information that is TESTED is not found in First Aid. Use your time wisely. My advice is to memorize this book, Step 2 Secrets, and do ALL of the questions (and read every answer explanation) in USMLE World. Keep in mind though there will still be questions that you have never seen but these will be fewer and far between if you use the "right" resources. Good Luck.

"Deja Review" was the reason I aced my USMLE Step2. Aside from doing practice questions, this is the only other resource you need to conquer the boards. It is extremely high-yield and concise... perfect for many students like myself who only had 2 weeks to study for the step2. The question-answer format of the text helps the reader actively learn and more importantly remember the material. I wish I knew about DejaReview back when I was studying for Step1. I highly recommend it to all medical students.

UCSD makes us take step 2 early on in the year and time is defintiely a limiting factor. If you are in the same boat, I would highly recommend this book. Even if you are not under a time crunch, you should still read this book to re-enforce facts you already know. The Q&A format is similar to that of Surgical Recall. I used a question bank and read this book to tie everything together before I took the exam. This book is very high yield, and works well as an adjuvant to a more cohesive detailed review source like usmle world q-bank.

After I took step 2, I passed the book onto a fellow panicked classmate going into derm and after reading the book, lets just say he didn't need an ativan or xanex hook-up before the exam. I read the book in 1.5 days (w/ several breaks) and my confidence defintely went way up afterwards.If you are worried about step 2, buy this book and you will realize that you know more from 3rd year than you think.

On radiology, my resident asked me what books I used for step 2 review. Being the slow person that I am, I didn't put two and two together. John Naheedy is now a radiology resident at UCSD and he is a nice guy. So besides donating to feed the "John Naheedy Foundation," your USMLE step 2 score will be higher than your step 1 score after Deja Review: USMLE STEP 2 Essesntials, guaranteed! Good luck on the exam! =)

As as voracious teenage reader in the 1950's, I read every novel in my small town public library. Then I was allowed access to the older books in the basement. This is where I found "House Divided." I don't know why it was there, because it was not an old book at that time. I was entranced with it, and hopefully searched for a sequel, but there was none. I think I will buy a copy, if available, and read it again.

I first read this book in College 20+ years ago and have re-read it several times since. Before the internet made it easier to find copies of the book, everytime I came across a copy in a used bookstore I would buy it and give it to a friend because I didn't want the book to languish on a bookshelf unappreciated. It is a fantastic novel the follows a complex southern family throughout the entire Civil War. Be sure to also read the continuation (sequel) to the novel - "Unconquered," which follows some of the family through the reconstruction period.

This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years, passed along to me by my mother. I just learned Williams is the grandnephew of General James Longstreet, which makes the story even more interesting.
The title is apt since the story deals with the bitterness of my country split in two for four agonizing years.
Williams toggles back and forth between the Currain family matters in Virginia and North Carolina and the lead up and their involvement in the Civil War. Each chapter is given a time period so the reader can read outside sources of these time periods.
When the five Currain siblings learn their long-dead father is the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, all are affected in different ways. Williams does a good job with the psychological aspect of each sibling's response and subsequent actions to this unfathomable news. Williams does an admirable job in his character profiles.
What is most interesting about this story are the elaborately detailed battle scenes. The author described these so well I was able to see the planning and execution of the "work" (battle)--north and south--in my mind's eye.
General James Longstreet plays prominently in the story and was a Currain family friend before the War. "Jeems" and his wife Louisa are a house undivided, as they give the reader a picture of what unity can accomplish.
The jubilation and angst Longstreet feels as he bears the responsiblility for the work he is given is palpable. His highs are quite high and his lows are very low. As he goes into the last work of the War and assists General Lee with preparations for surrender, we grieve with Longstreet. I wasn't expecting to cry when the surrender was made known to the barefoot and bone-weary southern soldiers.
A good long read. The author captures the easy elegance of the minority Southern wealthy and their journey to a new South four years later.
A postscript: Williams' sequel to this is "The Unconquered" which gives a greatly detailed picture of the Reconstruction, mainly in Louisiana and set in New Orleans. Another good read.

This is the best book I have ever read. It has so much history of the Civil War and the reader will learn so much about this important time in our history. The characters are the pivot points for the telling of the South's history. Mr. Williams is really a genius in his technique. He includes political commentaries of the South from the perspective of the poor on up to the slave owners but done out of the mouths of the characters. He very concisely states the "reasons" for the war in a single paragraph stated several times and in different perspectives. He very exactly depicts the scenes and you truly can believe you are there viewing from afar and experiencing in reality the way life must have been for all the characters.

I fell in love with this book and thought that I should read Goned With the Wind afterwards. GWTW was not nearly as good. The detail and story telling was amazing. I would love to own a copy of this book.

People in my class that failed HESI paid like 200 dollars in a workshop to pass HESI and this is the book they taught out of

I passed the TX board 1st time. This book helps you remember important nuring concepts for the RN.

this book is so organized. i love the way the headings are colored coded and need to know info is coded. its not the typical black and white text. all the meds and dx text for a particular system are at the end of the chapter. too bad i got it in my last semester of school.

Some NCLEX-RN books are so detailed and long that when I read them I feel like I'm taking nursing school all over again. This book is more concise with illustrations and tables in color, which makes for easier reading. Each chapter has appendices with need-to-know information. For example, in the musculoskeletal chapter 21, there is appendix 21-1; it covers serum diagnostics, invasive diagnostics, and non-invasive diagnostice, appendix 21-2: it covers medications by category (antigout, skeletal muscle relaxants, calcium meds., etc.), Appendix 21.3: it covers amputations, appendix 21.4: it covers assistive devices (crutches, canes, walkers). When you just have 10 minutes, you can turn to an appendix of a chapter and get a good review on meds., procedures, and diagostic tests. This book has been helpful studying for nursing school tests and for NCLEX prep.

I wish I had this book during nursing school. My friend loaned it to me when I was studying for the NCLEX exam and I used it along with the Kaplan online question sessions as a reference tool. I actually passed the exam and will now buy the book for work as an easy reference tool. Each section is organized in a way that you have the description of the disorder, S/S, what you might see, common medications and labs. Great book!

This book was purchased for a college research project and it was just perfect. It talks of Kandinsky's color theory and how music and color co-exist. The seller was professional and I got the book when it was promised. I would order from this seller again...definately!

Wassilly Kadinsky was a 20th century painter and his CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL IN ART provides a blend of philosophical, spiritual and artistic reflection as it examines the premises and presence of spirituality in art. This new edition is a recommended pick not just for art students of modernism, but for readers of spiritual works: it includes letters between Kadinsky and Sadler, unpublished prose poems, and a fine attention to artistic reflection and analysis.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I enjoyed reading the book. At times it was over my head,but still it was worth the effort!!!!

Kandinsky throws his ideas out in a slightly esoteric manner. It make take a few rereads to really grasp the quality of discourse he presents. But, in the end, his commentary shines brightly through his comparisons of music to painting. The spiritual triangle is comparable to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. It is important to remember that Kandinsky is not using the term "spiritual" in a religious sense.
This book is a very good read for anyone feeling slumped in their art making. And for anyone who wants to expose themselves to ways of thinking about art. By the third time I had read the material I had underlined and highlighted almost every line and filled all the margins with notes. The book is fantastic. It is especially good when paired with Hans Hofmann's essay "In Search for the Real." Although the ideas in the two books do not parallel. In fact the lines aren't even on the same page. Kandinksky's critiques of other familiar artists are very interesting too. Names like picasso and Cezanne pop up quite a bit.
I'll stop rambling now. Read the book, it is very good.

Kandinsky had risen to positions of influence in other disciplines (political science/economics and law) before directing his considerable intellect to painting. His insights extended into the historic 'meta' trends of the arts and sciences, including the physical sciences, and had his interests been directed more to the history and philosophy of science instead of the history and philosophy of art, he might have written Kuhn's observations regarding paradigm change a half century before Kuhn did: "Here and there are people with eyes which can see, minds which can correlate. They say to themselves: 'If the science of the day before yesterday is rejected by the people of yesterday, and that of yesterday by us of today, is it not possible that what we call science now will be rejected by the men of tomorrow?' And the bravest of them answer, 'It is possible.'"

Instead, Kandinsky extended the frontiers of painting and authored philosophic writings on the future of art that are among the most important of such works. M.T.H. Sadler, who translated this work into English, was a friend of Kandinsky's and was among his early admirers. The notes he has written in the front of the book (Translator's Introduction) are therefore more helpful than could be the opinions of many other critics, including myself:

"Anyone who has studied Gauguin will be aware of the intense spiritual value of his work. The man is a preacher and a psychologist, universal by his very unorthodoxy, fundamental because he goes deeper than civilization. In his disciples this great element is wanting.

"Kandinsky has supplied the need. He is not only on the track of an art more purely spiritual than was conceived even by Gauguin, but he has achieved the final abandonment of all representative intention. In this way he combines in himself the spiritual and technical tendencies of one great branch of Post-Impressionism.

"The question most generally asked about Kandinsky's art is: 'What is he trying to do?' It is to be hoped that this book will do something towards answering the question. But it will not do everything. This--partly because it is impossible to put into words the whole of Kandinsky's ideal, partly because in his anxiety to state his case, to court criticism, the author has been tempted to formulate more than is wise. His analysis of colours and their effects on the spectator is not the real basis of his art, because, if it were, one could, with the help of a scientific manual, describe one's emotions before his pictures with perfect accuracy. And this is impossible.

"Kandinsky is painting music. That is to say, he has broken down the barrier between music and painting, and has isolated the pure emotion which, for want of a better name, we call the artistic emotion. Anyone who has listened to good music with any enjoyment will admit to an unmistakable but quite indefinable thrill. He will not be able, with sincerity, to say that such a passage gave him such visual impressions, or such a harmony roused in him such emotions. The effect of music is too subtle for words. And the same with this painting of Kandinsky's. Speaking for myself, to stand in front of some of his drawings or pictures gives a keener and more spiritual pleasure than any other kind of painting. But I could not express in the least what gives the pleasure. Presumably the lines and colours have the same effect as harmony and rhythm in music have on the truly musical. That psychology comes in no one can deny."

Some aspects of Kandinsky's color theory are dubious, at best they cannot be universalized, and Kandinsky sees this. But other of his ideas and arguments are widely accepted among artists, even as being self-evident. Stating that "there is no 'must' in art, because art is free," that is, free to address external representations OR "the inner need," to merely chase after material 'objects' OR to wrestle with the mysteriously spiritual, to somehow meld the two visions OR to stay purely to exploration of the spiritual high ground, Kandinsky absolutely rejects the materialistic expectation of an art "explanation" that has been articulated by EO Wilson in his unfortunate daydream 'Consilience' (Wilson knows ants better than he knows humans, and is given to understanding humans to be essentially ant equivalents).

Anyone interested in art history, painting of the past century, or the relationships/correlations/divergences of the various arts (visual, musical, literary), as well as anyone interested in the meaning and purpose of art, or in the philosophy of aesthetics, should read this important book, perhaps more than once.

I love these Official Guides for the X-Files. They tell the entire episode in just enough detail if you may have missed something or have not paid enough attention. They also have the "Backstory" so you could find out information you ay never have even heard of. They have quotes from the fabulous stars. I just wish they would have had more from and about the stars. Bt other than that they are fabulous. I have my rating as 5 stars but because of this I would pick four and a half if I could. They tell everything you need to know and more about the greatest show to ever air!

I love this book,I especially like the behind the scenes stuff, it's great.I recommend this book to anyone who is the biggest fan in the world to the show like me.It has a great picture of David Duchovny in front of the mirror (very cute). I have almost all of season 6 on tape so it was very interesting to read the behind the scenes stuff and see how they made the episode.I have all of season 7 on tape so I can't wait for the next book to come out.I am running out of blank tapes!

I admit to being a X-Files addict, and so this was necessary to try to understand the show. It, and its previous 1 through 4, have made my interest in the X-files grow as I finally got clues and tremendous answers in reviews and stories from many missed episodes. A lot of work obviously went into these books, and I wait eagerly for volume 6.

The End and The Beginning is just another great book in a great collection. It is one of the most descriptive guides yet, with great color photos and a play by play look at each episode from season 6. If you are a true X-phile, this book is a necessity. This is a great look at the series while Scully and Mulder were still on the same planet, so to speak.

This is definitely a must-have for any X-Phile, especially if you missed an important episode of Season 6. It contains a detailed summary of every episode in a mini novel-like form, with commentary about that episode. It's also great to have if you desperately want to view a Season 6 episode, but you didn't tape it. In this book, you can READ the episode. I know it's not the same as watching it, but it's something. And for all you 'Shippers like me out there, you can re-live all the greatest 'Shipper moments, like in the episode "Triangle."--the famous kiss, and Mulder's famous "I love you" line to Scully. And let's not forget the part in "The Unnatural" where Mulder teaches her how to play baseball, or in "Dreamland" where Mulder dances in front of the mirror while in the body of Morris Fletcher.

The book also contains colorful photos commemorating every unforgetful moment of the season. Now I can't wait for the next volume. I'm one of the unfortunate people who missed the Season 7 finale, where Mulder gets abducted and Scully announces to Skinner that she's pregnant . . .

As the Educational Director for our residency and a practicing internist, I found this to be hands-down the best resource out there as far as a database of old exam questions in prepping the internal medicine boards. We also found that the book to which this is a companion (i.e. Frontrunners Syllabus), was extraordinary in laying out all the key material in a nicely-organized, concise, and outlined format offering "recently and commonly asked material". Together, these 2 books form the core of our own ABIM Certification residency training program and were mission-critical to getting our perfect pass rates last year. [...]

I was looking for a source of old Q&A for all the medicine on the USMLE Step 3. My friend successfully used Frontrunners Internal Medicine Q&A Review for her Step 3 and used it again with equal success on her Internal Medicine Boards. He said there was no better Q&A review for those 2 exams since it's all clinical medicine. I used it and scored well, but what I liked the most was that the questions are kept short and to-the-point so you're able to get thru alot of Q&A in one sitting. Best of all, the Q&A you see in the book are realistic and train your eye to recognize keywords in the question so you can go right to the answer, which is exactly what I did on my boards! Super find. I'm highly recommending.

This was a dynamite review and was a major find for me for my Internal Medicine Boards. From a content point of view, everything I saw on the exam I'd already seen in this Q&A review. A down-to-earth Q&A review with a realistic "this is what you need to know" style that appealed to me. It was the only Q&A review I used and saved me loads of time over other more archaic reviews like mksap and, bottom line, I pass easily.

And that's by getting it and studying the questions. Most of the questions come right out of the boards. I easily passed my I.M. Boards using this along with Frontrunners Syllabus (it's a companion thing). The AudioVisual CDs helped with all the images. So, a solid curriculum. Best one I've seen. An easy 5 stars, but a must for the ABIM exam.

The book is an overdue, refreshing Q&A review that allows you to cover all the same ground in a lot less time. Explanations were to-the-point and just what I had to know. Scored very well using it for my internal medicine boards. As with many of the other reviewers, I got my copy for free when I ordered my Frontrunners I.M. Board Review Syllabus thru the Publisher's 866MDBOARD number which is also on the back of my book.

Though I could have lived without some of the articles, mostly this is a great guide book to movies. I laughed while I read it, and I liked the movie picks a lot.

At first glance, this is a book you think you might want to pass up, but it's the perfect guide! These four girls have very different tastes, but each of them have a lot to offer. With little side-bars, and essays, this book is as fun as they come! They have made some very good recommendations for me. If it weren't for these four, I wouldn't be able to expand my horizons. But they're the type who make you open your mind. I mean, I hadn't even heard of 'Gas, Food, Lodging' before this book and let me tell you, it's a good movie! So get this book and see what these girls have to say. You might find a gem of a movie that you enjoy just as much as they say you will.

This can be read as a reference guide OR for just plain pure pleasure--for me the latter...these woman have a great, unigue voice.

I first became familiar with the Girls on Film through their Website. Amazingly, I almost always agree with their movie critiques. That's why I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with this guide. It's more of the same conversational tone and is filled with a lot of movies I know, but also a fair ammount I haven't seen (yet). I'm looking forward to making my way to the video store. The Girls are friends who make you feel welcome- a great movie guide with multiple gen-x style blurbs which are very amusing!

Though far from an all-encompassing movie guide, it is still well-worth the price of admission. I didn't always agree with the choices they made (I mean, Andrea, come on! "My Fellow Americans"???). But I enjoyed every page of the book and found it to be among the wittiest I've read this year. My one complaint? It was too short. I wished there were more!

I discovered Penny Vincenzi earlier this year and like another reviewer, promptly ordered every one of her books. I've read about six of them so far. I'm rationing them, because when they've all been read, then what? Seriously, I love her storytelling ability. She's a marvelous writer who knows how to keep her audience spellbound. The Lytton family is fascinating and reading their colorful history has afforded me many hours of reading pleasure. Celia Lytton is one of the most interesting characters I've ever read, certainly one I won't easily forget. My only disappointment with the series is the way the third book ended. I simply didn't believe Charlie should be rewarded for his consistently bad behavior. I do hope Ms. Vincenzi will consider writing a follow-up to the series. She left a lot of threads hanging and it would be so satisfying to find out what happens to Jenna, Izzie, Nonie, Lucas, Adele and Jamie (do they get together?), even Cathy and Charlie. All in all, just a wonderful reading experience. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SERIES.

This was the third is the Lytton Family Trilogy of books..
A page turner, as were the first 2 !! So well researched and written.
If you love long family stories you will love these books.
Even the ending of this, the third was just right!
A great read!

I just finished Into Temptation, No. 3 in this superior trilogy, and can honestly say this trilogy is the best thing I've read since Gone With The Wind! I'm 70 years old, an avid reader of anything British and am so thankful I found this series before it was too late! Quick, grab the first volume of this series pronto and stay with it until the very last word on the very last page of the very last volume. You'll never regret it!

This was the best trilogy's I have ever read. I am sorry it's over now. I agree with all the other readers on how great these books were. I am also suprised most people have never heard of these books. I love the old English family saga's. I also loved Barbara Taylor Bradford's Woman of Substance.

This was the book I enjoyed most in the trilogy. It is interesting from the beginning to the end and I was very sorry when I came to the last page. It is one book that I will read again maybe next year.