Bean Books

Nicole Sullivan is an investigative reporter for 24 Hours Investigates. She grew up on Pawleys Island, and is doing a TV special on the only unsolved murder case on the island. Fifteen years ago, Tara Mitchell, Lauren Schultz, and Becky Iverson were all teenage girls that went missing. Although Tara's was the only body discovered, it is assumed the other girls met the same horrible fate. Nicky is bringing another aspect to her show, and that is her mother. Lenora James is a well-known psychic, and she is going to try to make contact with the girls.

Joe Franconi is the chief of police on the island, and after the urging of the mayor, tries to stop the show from taping at the home where the murder took place, but is unsuccessful. He immediately has a showdown with the irritating reporter over the show, but as much as he hates
the thought, finds himself very attracted to her. Joe doesn't believe in psychics, but is there to keep peace while the show tapes.

When Nicky disappears after the show's conclusion, Joe goes in search of her, but doesn't expect her to stumble into his path injured and bloody. She insists he go find her coworker, Karen, because she was attacked too only she fears Karen didn't make it. After everything is sorted out, there is one dead, and a killer left with a fascination for Nicky. No one knows if this is the same man that killed the three teens, but the coincidence is too much to ignore. Joe promises to keep her safe, but when the killer steps up his game intent to get to her, all bets are off.

This was my first book by this author, and I liked it! It won't be my last because a good thriller is always appreciated. Nicky was a little whiney, and acted completely like the prima donna, but her attitude shifted when Karen was murdered. Joe is the embodiment of a man with a tortured soul, and his need to protect Nicky consumed him. The ending was a little hurried, but overall a good read.

I had high hopes for this book but I never really felt a connection with the main characters; Joe or Nicky. I've read a couple other books by Robards and liked them; "Obsession" and "Guilty". Maybe it's the mood I was in, but I didn't enjoy this one.

I think what killed the book for me is when one of the characters had their hands handcuffed behind their back and yet still managed to reach into the front pocket of their pants.

Soft Porn? Some of the descriptions were a bit too much, many of them focussed on Nicky's upper body. Nicky seemed to be in heat throughout most of the book!

Authors - Adjectives are good when used judiciously. However using adjectives to modify other adjectives does not mean you have command of the language.

This book had a variety of plot potholes that should have been patched during the final edit. Shame on you editor.

Finally I would describe the ending of this book as probably the best example of deus ex machina ever.

Let see, Southerners check, girlfriends with kids check, pet pigs check, island check, extended family all under one roof check, psychics check, smartass reporter from Chicago check, hunky chief of police with checkered past check. I think that about covers it.

Cheesy! Silly! Unbelievable... and ... boring!
I actually forgot I was reading this a few times. The plot is lame, the romance is sad... Just ehhhh!

This was my first karen robards book, and it was alright. I liked the charactor interaction and the pace was good, however there were parts that woren't developed well at all. The psycic angle could have been much more interesting for example if the spirit guide and the block had anything to do with the story, not to mention the blocked psycic ability had been explored. I also didn't like how the story was stumbling along and then out of nowhere all the loose ends get tied up in a neat little bow and it turns out being people who have very little bearense on the story itself. I wouldn't recomend it as a fabulous read but it's certainly not the worst book I've ever read and it was interesting enough to finish.

I've only just finished this book yesterday and I've already forgotten much of it. It's just plain unremarkable. There is a villian, the heroine's evil older husband. There are two romances in the story; one of the heroine, and one of the hero's younger, developmentally-disabled sister. The love scenes are trite and although they do not go into graphic detail, there's something vulgar about the language. This novel was written in 1984, and perhaps it read differently then, but I found the dialogue and descriptions during love scenes a bit smarmy. It's not terrible, but there's not much to enjoy either.

I read this book a long time ago, but recently revisited it.

We have to remember that "Bittersweet Rain" was first published in 1984 under the name of Erin St. Claire, so the writing and style reflects Sandra's writing of that time period.

It is a straight-up romance, and a very good one.

Caroline Dawson, the daughter of the town drunk, has always dreamed of living in a house like The Retreat, where the Lancasters live.

She is also "smitten" with Rink Lancaster, but although he could meet her secretly during their magical summer, she knew he'd never want to be with her in public.

She realizes her goal of living at The Retreat... but is it worth losing the only man she's ever loved?

Characters didn't seem real and the sex invoved is too much like her other novels. Seems formulaic.

I am always looking for stories that have a bit of a twist and this one does.Good character and plot development. I enjoyed reading it.

I could accept the premise of star-crossed lovers seperated, only to be brought back together by unhappy circumstance. Even if the circumstance was the marriage of the heroine to the hero's father. Okay, so the father was evil was orchestrated everything. He was cruel and used the heroine, verbally abusing her as well as being physically rough with her.

So how is the son different from the father? When he gets angry with her (which is most of the time), he grabs her, mauls her, tells her she's trash, while she fights to get away from him. How is it we're supposed to believe she loves him? Their summer romance was when she was 15, and this is some 12 years later. He certainly doesn't rekindle any romantic feelings by being kind.

The sex scenes are embarassing with their euphemisms and overall lameness.

The book wasn't a horrible premise. It was just horribly done. A hero should be likeable and it should be obvious why the heroine wants to be with him.

I got to about page 60 and give up. It's almost ALL interior dialogue and boring as hell. If Kat said one more time, "I'm a single mother!!!!" I thought I'd throw up. Did she really think criminals would say, oh, holy mother, sorry, you're fee to go? So she reproduced, big deal. I agree with all the other negative reviews. She was TSTL.

A big disappointment for me. It's the first book I've read by this author. I was looking for a mystery, instead got a cheap Harlequin romance. Fortunately, it was a library book, so at least I didn't spend any money on the matter. I won't be reading any more of her work!

I enjoyed this book overall. It is definitely a big step up from her previous two klunkers. I found the chemistry between Tom and Kate believable. I really liked Tom. Kate did make very stupid decisions, but I could almost see how it happened - getting yourself deeper and deeper into a bad situation. Now for my criticisms (LOL): editing mistakes: her co-worker Bryan is described at the beginning as small and compact. Later on, he is stocky. Also, his name is spelled Bryan, but in some instances, it is spelled Brian. I don't know Philadelphia but it was interesting to read the comments about misuse of the river locations.

And now for my main comment: did anyone else notice the product placement in this book? Maybe it happens in other books and I've just never noticed it. At the beginning, she wears her "Hanes" t-shirt several days in a row. When Tom embraces her, she notices that he uses "Downy" fabric softener. I'm not sure if the author gets product placement fees (as movies do) or if she was just trying to add a realistic touch, but I thought it was a bit overdone. Now I don't mind when brand names are mentioned because it contributes to the story (for instance, you know a character is rich because they pull up in their Rolls Royce, etc.) But these ones seemed to be in there for no valid reason.

My other criticism is the whole gang thing - first, there's only one prisoner who survived the courthouse shooting and no one is suspicious as to why he was the only one who survived. No one interviewd him about what happened? Especially when he is evidently part of the notorious Black Dragons gang (like the Crips only worst, haha). Then at the end it is actually the mob who set this all up? I found that a bit confusing.

But I did like Kate, I liked her son, I enjoyed their relationship. As with most of these books, I thought the final denouement and ending was too quickly wrapped up.

I have to say this was better than her last one but still leaves a little to be desired. Some said the heroine was stupid; I would say she made some really bad decisions. She was a bit annoying in the fact that she lied about everything to her son, to Tom to the police. One could have trust issues with her. The book is a little wordy in descriptions of rooms and places and I skimmed a lot. I really didn't get into the book until the last few chapters. I didn't see the romance between Tom and Kate. It was all pretty rushed. I did like Tom's character and his family and of course Ben. Kate was the only character I wasn't too sure about. Sometimes I could tolerate her and sometimes I just found her annoying. Of course predictibly everything turns out great and the bad guys get caught and everyone lives happily ever after. Not a bad read, just not great. At least it was beliveable as opposed to Obsession which was totally unbeliveable.

I listened to the audio publication of this book. I really liked the story at the beginning (after "Kitty Kat" became "Kate"), but there were way too many "What?" moments, especially at the end, that the book ended up being a disappointment for me. I did like Kate and Tom and their romance and Ben's relationship with his mom was sweet. I am a lawyer so I had to suspend my logic for much of the book, especially when the courtroom massacre at the beginning is not treated like the HUGE news event it would be. Kate, a hostage who supposedly has heroically escaped her captor, has newspeople hounding her for only 1-2 days? Not likely. Also, Kate is a prosecutor and it is incredibly hard to believe that the potential disclosure of a juvenile crime in which she was not even involved would scare her so much that she would put her son's life at risk. I kept waiting for the "BIG TASK" that for some unexplained reason, Kate is seemingly the only person able to accomplish. What a letdown when that comes to light and **SPOILER ALERT** a decoy is able to do it for Kate at the last minute. The confrontation scene at the end made me laugh out loud. We get an uncoerced confession by the bad guy and it all gets wrapped up neatly as though the author's publication deadline was looming and she had to get the book done. I thought the beginning of the story had a lot of promise and it was not fulfilled for this reader.

This was the first book I'd read by this author, and I have to say I was pleasantly suprised. I had no idea what to expect, although I knew by the cover it'd probably be a fun chick-lit story. Little did I know this was about a woman taking the rap for her scummy boyfriend and then going to jail. What I found most facinating was the description of life behind bars, and prision "politics." I'm not sure how this work compares to others by the same author, but I'd recommend it for a light read.

My only complaint about this work was the basic editing errors. It was absolutely unbelievable. Extra spaces, duplicated words, misspelled words... words that are used incorrectly (insure instead of ensure) for example.

This is in many ways a very typical Olivia Goldsmith novel--Man does woman wrong. Woman gets revenge, and in the process learns to depend on herself and her girlfriends. What doesn't work for me in this book, is the attempt to intermingle this bit of fluff with the difficult subjects of crime and the Correctional System. It winds up being kind of "Gidget goes to Prison", a bit too unrealistic to take seriously and a bit heavy for fluff.

This was the first Olivia Goldsmith book I've read and I have to say that I did enjoy this book and plan on trying out another of her books when I get the chance. While the plot was a little unrealistic (esp the chapter before the epilogue with Lenny & Jennifer),with all the women's lives turned around,and the bad guys got what was coming to them (though I wish more could have happened to them), what I enjoyed about this book was that it was light, fast-paced, cute, & funny. While it was unrealistic it was never to the point of disgust. So unless you are looking for a classic drama with a complex plot and symbolism and themes, then you will enjoy this book.

I may be a college history/philosophy major on a full scholarship, but I know a fun read when I get one! "Pen Pals" is a very light, quick read, but it's also funny, touching, and very satisfying. I've been hooked on Olivia Goldsmith since I read "First Wives Club," and I found "Pen Pals" to be a nice break from the heavy college reading I've been doing lately.

Not only was this a super "get even" story, but it was also informative about the plight of women in prison today. I was appalled when I read the statistics comparing women's convictions to men's in the afterward.

Overall, a great story with heartwarming characters and a good plot. I'd recommend it to my best friends.

Dani Justice dreams about monsters. And lately she feels like she's in a bad version of Groundhog Day. Only instead of being able to alter her reality, the dreams change and she doesn't understand the warning signs. She knows she needs to get a grip on herself because she may be the only one that can stop a vicious serial killer. Returning to her home town of Venture, Georgia, she faces not only her past but she is forced to accept who and what she is but will she be able to survive her brush with evil?

Okay, normally I inhale Kay Hooper books, especially her Bishop series...and yes this is going to sound strange, I admit it...but here goes...I was captivated by the book, spending a great deal of time this past weekend reading it. But here is where it will not make that much sense. This book fell flat. There wasn't much character development, the reader is teased with some details regarding the main characters past...but not enough to really allow the reader to connect. I would have like to have had a little more information, this would have made the characters more three dimensional. In short, I felt as if I'd walked into the middle of a series and spent the entire book playing catch up. And yet, the storyline was enticing, only so much was given away in this title, perhaps as a way to bring the reader along for the rest of the series. I would suggest coming to this title with an open mind...if you do so you'll be entertained.

I enjoy all of these books, and this was no exception. Not the best of her work, but great fun and easy to read.

Long a reader of Kay Hooper's psychic FBI series, frankly I skipped most of the descriptions of the carnage. It was like long-winded descriptions that serve no purpose in the story line, a voyageur reader I am not.
The story line was excellent and Dani Justice's internal conflict with her gifts, her desires for a world she cannot find, and reality were engaging enough to keep me reading to discover how she could manage to come to terms with the conflicts.
Other characters readers have come to know wandered in and out of the story, but didn't stay long enough to say hello. Not one of Hooper's best, but enough of the psychic world to keep us waiting for the next.
Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

I have read Kay Hooper in the past and found her later books to be a little bloodier that I prefer, but this book is so gory it is sickening! I could not continue reading it.I would not recommend this to anyone and I will not buy any of her books again!

Not her best but still better than a lot of other paranormal romance writers. Will buy what ever she writes in the Bishop Series.

I usually love Heather Graham's books but I didn't really like this one. The story was okay but not up to her usual standards. The romance in her novels is usually the best part in her novels but not when it is with a ghost. The characters were likable enough and the mystery was pretty good and you never knew who the villian was until the last few pages of the book. Leslie was a likable heroine and Joe was a good hero but the main hero was the ghost of Matt. I simply didn't like the way it ended and I think that most readers won't like it either.Heather Graham is one of my favorite authors but I hope that she doesn't write anymore of these books that doesn't have what I consider a happy ending but that is just my opinion.

I am a big fan of Heather Graham novels, but this was horrible. It took me almost an entire week to force myself to finish this book. I couldn't help laughing at the ghostly sex scenes even as I was completely disturbed by them. I kept imagining someone walking in on that and being stupefied by a girl seemingly having sex with the thin air. Thankfully, Leslie and Joe never had sex because I would have had to burn the book and then shower for a couple of days, so that maybe I wouldn't be completely disgusted with myself anymore. I am not going to buy the sequel, but I will try to read it. I have to go to the library tomorrow anyway, so I might as well borrow The Death Dealer, and hope that I won't be freaked out by it too.

I have sort of mixed feelings about this book. It started out shaky for me -- the first time Leslie sat in a room and had a conversation with a ghost, I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes -- but eventually it grew on me. Since I have no problem reading books with vampires and werewolves and witches, it's a little strange to me that I would have that reaction about ghosts, but I think it's because those other types of characters can interact with everyone, and not just select people. Regardless, I did find myself pulled into this story and wondering just who was trying to kill Leslie, what happened to Genevieve and the other girls, and who was the real target, Matt or Leslie? I liked Joe a lot, even if his morals were a little over the top. Most of all, I have to give Graham some props for a completely unexpected and unconventional ending -- I wouldn't have expected it in a million years. That's nice.

The book opens with a shocker of a scene and ends with one too. I ate this book up and then re-read it a few months later because it was really good. A great mystery with a true love theme kind of flowing through it. You have to believe or be open to the idea of ghosts or you won't want to read this. Also helps if you are an archaeology geek (not that you have to be super smart...just interested in the subject)

I recently "discovered" Graham as an author this year and I love her books and stories. This one does not disappoint!

This book started out great. My palms were sweating by the second or third page. I got swept up in the mystery and the romance between Sarah and Jake. My only problem was the ending. Not only was it far-fetched, but it felt like the author was going for the tear-jerker ending scene. But if you like Robards and you like steamy love scenes, give it a try.

I thought this book had an interesting premise, and it was easy to feel sympathy toward the main character, which is something I couldn't say about most of the books I've reviewed in the last few months. Jake and Sarah could have made an interesting couple, but the story, and charaters, deteriorated about a quarter of the way through the book.
There were a lot of examples of stilted, cloying dialogue(especially Sarah freaking out that a colleague will suspect she and Jake were 'intimate', because they both had their shoes off, and there were pizza boxes on the living room table...maybe the colleague would have just assumed he was in a frat house!).
The repetition of 'Lexie, Lexie! IT WAS LEXIE!'started off as a believable way of indicating Sarah's shocked and disturbed state of mind, but Robards trivialized it by using it dozens of times in the space of a few pages. The more things reminded Sarah of Lexie, the harder it was to stay focused on the story. Robards tried to tie everything together, but she was really reaching by the final chapters. Characters spent a lot of time stating the obvious(an observation that people signed in to an internet chat room could be 'anywhere'...this isn't 1996 any more, the internet has been around a while, and most adults don't consider it to be 'magic' the way some of those cops did!)
The development of Sarah and Jake's platonic friendship into an all-out romance stopped being interesting somewhere through that excruciatingly long lovemaking session, in which Robards simply filled about 10 pages with variations on 'They had sex'.
The attempt to make far-fetched and unbelievable plot points into a 'surprise' finish dragged the story down even further...but the final few pages were unbelievably cheap. (SPOILER)
Guess who shows up? Guess whose name is only mentioned about 5000 times?
If you're stumped by difficult questions like that, you'll love 'Vanished'!

This is a fairly well written book there were some typos and the law wasn't always right but the charactors were well developed. I tend to agree with some of the other reviewers who said that Sarah was whiny and anorexic...she truely is, but for me Jake and his associates made up for her flaws.

This is the second Karen Robards book I have read and just like the first this one was tied in a pretty bow at the end, and again the bad guys were obscure charactors to the story. Vanished also has the bane of many novels, with a very warm and fuzzy ending. The last couple of pages should have been reconnecting with life accepting grief seeing in color again, going on vacation for goodness sake! Something, anything... other than what it was.

I've liked many of this author's previous books; they have humor, fresh dialogue, action, and well-explained endings. "Vanished" however, drags in the scenes in between the action sequences. There are phrases that repeat many times ("This was Jake.", or "The thing about Jake [or other people/objects] was . . . ") The ending was blunt, with many threads linking the evildoer to the rest of the plot left untied. Most annoying was Sarah Mason's repeated ventures, alone, in the dark (of course), despite already having been attacked, having her house invaded/vandalized several times, receiving creepy phone calls, a freaky message on her car window, and being warned a lot about not going around by herself -- ARGH!

I have rarely been inspired to read reviews of a book after I read it, but the ending of this book is so hideously bad that I just had to come look and see if others felt the same way. I actually rather enjoyed everything up until the end, it was a bit wordy at times but I did enjoy the story. It just seems like there were so many things that didn't need to be in there that were and then you get to the end of the book and she rushes right through it. It cheapens what happened to her daughter, as though it's not a big deal to have that happen to you. I think it's sad not only in the fictional sense but also for those children or parents who have had this happen in real life. No child goes through that and just comes home and life just goes back to normal. I agree that if she was going to end the story on such a quick note like this it would have been better to have not found Lexie or to have not had Lexie survive.

This book kept my interest all the way thru. It was one I did not want to put down until I was completely finished with it. Always enjoy this author books.

The end of the trilogy and by far not the best of the 3 books. Hannah and Rafe's story was the best and it goes downhill from there. The next two aren't bad just not as good and I really enjoyed the secondary characters but got tired of the references that because you are a Harte you act this way or a Madison acts this way.

In this book I couldn't warm up to Octavia for some reason. She seemed manipulating and just so sassy to Nick, not that he didn't have his hang-ups with relationships. It seemed they are at odds with each other and then suddenly they are in love. The saving character in this story is Carson and his character added some funny moments.

I found myself skimming a lot in this one. For some reason it just didn't hold my interest. As I said I wouldn't really say it was bad just not as well written as the first one and then Gabe a Lillian's story wasn't as good as the first book but better than the last one. I thought the "Curse" thing was over done. It's all their friends and family talked about. In real life it would have been somewhat embarrassing. Even people who didn't know Nick that well, would say things to him about it. Everyone kept blaming Nick but Octavia made it clear to everyone many times she was leaving the end of summer. IT was those things that just didn't come together for me. IT started getting on my nerves and when a book of fiction gets on my nerves, I usually give up on it but did finish it and knew pretty much how it would end. It was just the getting there that was the problem for me.

I'm still new to JAK books so not sure of her writing style. I started with Deep Waters and liked it so much but haven't read another I liked as well yet. I will continue to try a few more. I have read so much of Nora Roberts, Luanne Rice, Susan Wiggs, Catherine Anderson and wanted a different author for awhile so maybe just have to get used to the different style.

I was very interested in reading this book because the very fisrt book that got me into her was A SHARED DREAM. It had a good story line as well as summer in eclipse i still havent had the chance to read the first two but if theyre anything like this one im sure ill buy it and read it.
JAK makes it so easy to read her books and enjoy them that its hard to put them down.
KEEP ON ROCKIN'

I think I've burnt out on Jayne Ann Krentz. The chemistry between her main character never sizzles, it just slow simmers. And I'm so tired of her cliched characters: the cold, uptight, calculating, corporate male hero and the emotional/spiritual, free spirit heroine. Tired, tired, tired. On top of that, the plots are boring. I give up on this author.

I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook and if it weren't for the fact that I was trapped in a car with no other form of entertainment to be found I more than likely would've given up on this one mid-way through. The characters were too blah to hold my attention and their attraction to each other just didn't come alive for me.

It turns out this story is the third in a series but it easily stands alone since its plot isn't exactly complicated. Octavia Brightwell is relatively new to Eclipse Bay and runs a successful art gallery. She arrived in Eclipse Bay to soothe the rift between the Madison & Harte families that her dear departed aunt caused years earlier. Once Octavia realizes the feud has been mended without her help she decides it's time to leave Eclipse Bay. She's also desperate to get away from gorgeous, heartbreaker Nick Harte who continually pesters her for a date. When she finally makes up her mind to high-tail it out of town she agrees to the date with Nick (don't ask). They soon become romantically entangled and banter back and forth denying their true feelings. Before long the two find themselves partners in the search for a valuable missing painting and, well, I bet you can figure out the rest . . .

These two are very much stock characters. We have Nick who lost the love of his life years earlier and has never allowed himself to fall in love again (and has a reputation for loving `em and leaving `em before the night is over) and then we have the "free spirit" Octavia who sort of floats through life and avoids romantic entanglements. Stock characters are all fine and good when they're written with depth and emotion but these two were just flat out bland and their relationship lacked any sort of spark. Nick also has an annoying habit of referring to Octavia as a "fairy queen" that made me cringe every time he uttered the words.

There are also pop-up appearances by characters who I only guess starred in previous books. They add a little to the story but their visits did not convince me that I need to search for the previous books in this series. There are also far too many over the top weird/quirky/cult-y/odd speaking secondary characters populating this story to be believed.

The few bits of fun banter and Nick's enjoyable little boy Carson are about all that I'll be remembering about "Summer In Eclipse Bay" once I finish writing this review.

A nice little text with useful snippets of code, and advice on
applying them. However, the order of presentation can be a little
confusing. Also, some of the topics were a little beyond what I
needed it for, though that is not a bad thing.

What I found annoying at times was that it did not always address a
question I may have had about how to apply a particular class.
Having "Learning Java: 2nd Edition" helped somewhat to alleviate
this as it had more in the way of explanations than this book.

For the absolute beginner I would probably recommend another book.
However, if the reader has background knowledge in Java, or other
programming languages then this book will probably prove to be
useful.

I've been programming for 10 years, and I have 2 bookcases full of ORA and ADW books. I have to say that this is among the most confusing programming books I've seen.

I'm in the same position as the guy below who's confused after 3 chapters. The first couple of chapters of this book seem to be a tutorial about event handling, and applet creation. Applets? I have no idea where the author is going with this stuff. It's not that I don't understand the concept of event handling, it's just that this guy does not explain what the heck handlers and listeners have to do with beans. I'm sure they do, somehow...

Perhaps if the author provided an an explanation up front about where he's going with the code, I'd stick with the program. Even better, how about an overview of why beans are so great and useful, with some trivial examples. Then progress to the 'real world' stuff.

I'm dissapointed with this book because I need to learn about Beans... fast. 3 chapters of working bean code and good examples would have been enough for my instincts to kick in and take me the rest of the way. I don't have the time to search for answers, I thought that a $30.00 investment in an ORA book would have saved me hours of searching. Well, not this time.

If you can get the applets from chapters 1 and/or 2 working, please post how in this forum. You'd be doing a lot of folks a favor. Good luck figuring out if you should be compiling *.java.1 or *.java.2 examples.

That's enough about this one... Now I have to find a GOOD beans book.

Actually I bought this book about two years ago, and at that time Java Beans were gaining popularity as an instance of component model for distributed computing. I was at that time interested in Enterprise Java Beans rather than client side beans. So I did not really use the book that much. However, from the limited reading I did, it seemed like a very well written book for the uninitiated, gave a good view of the Beans, how to create the client side beans etc. However, since then I have moved my field of interest from Java to some thing else, and in the mean time EJB have taken an increasingly important role in the server side component model. So I hope this book is updated or the same authors write a separate book on EJB (more meaningful to do the latter).

This book is titled "Developing Java Beans". It spends lots of time to talk about the detailed architecture of Event model and other important topics used in Beans. It is well written and easy to follow. However, may not be the good book for those poeple in a rush just want to how to write a Java Beans.

This is not a good tutorial about Java Beans. In order to explain the Java Bean concept you have to start with the Java Beans specifications of Sun. This would answer question about which things are relevant and why they are relevant in JavaBeans development. Now the the reader almost jumps into a long winded explanation about events and adapters, wondering why this is relevant and what the writer wants to explain. To make matters worse: the example contains errors! Basically, after the first three chapters I was utterly confused.

This book also needs a clearer description about the use of Java Beans. In a next update we definitely need a chapter about how JavaBeans are used in Java Server Pages.

This certainly wasn't a best seller, that's for sure. This book shows how Sandra Brown has grown as a writer, because there was nothing interesting about this story. Dull characters, boring dialogue, very cliche writing. I listened to the audio version of the book, and it was so dull that I skipped SEVERAL tracks (they were just so unbearable). If you want to read Sandra Brown, read her more recent books. They're much better.

This was the first book from Sandra Brown that I "read". I listened to it from the library. Simply checked it out because the main character's name is Leigh, which is my sister's name. I have since bought this book and several others by Sandra and will continue to do so as she writes them.

This is a book where everyone wishes that they could be Leigh and then don't and quickly change again. My only problem with this book is that it moves way to fast and could be longer.

While returning from a friend's shower, a very pregnant, very widowed, and very alone Leah goes into labor on a deserted highway. Rugged fellow widower and stranger Chad Dillon arrives on the scene and helps her through the tough labor and soon finds himself attracted to the new mother. Leah is not sure she wants to give herself to another man after losing her husband in the line of duty, especially one as secretive as Chad. But he relentlessly pursues her until she gives in to his desires. Please. Call me a cynic, but I wouldn't want some strange man going ga ga over me as I'm giving birth on the side of the road. Talk about a huge "ick factor!"

Being an early Brown novel, there are communication issues which keep the protagonists apart instead of real relationship issues. One thing is for certain, this book should never have been re-released. Poor writing, poor plotting, poor dialogue. You name it. This story has it (or doesn't as the case may be). The story is eerily similar to Linda Howard's horrid "Bluebird Winter," another must miss melodrama from the 80's. Save your money and get this tripe from the library.

SHADOWS of Yesterday,
Can best be define as a very,favorful READ!
Perfect for those days when you ONLY want
a short,sweet & sassy taste of Romance on your tongue. Mmmm...nice!

When a book this bad bears Sandra Brown's name, my first thought is, "Wow. Talk about multi-tasking! Writing a novel while having a phone conversation and working a crossword puzzle must have been hard."
My second thought is "Naptime!"

The opening chapter shows promise: a young widow goes into labor on an abandoned desert highwsay and is rescued by a handsome stranger.

The fact that he has a tough time repressing thoughts of sexual desire for a woman who's in labor is a teensy bit wierd, but maybe that's just me.

More intriguing is the question of why Leigh is driving alone, in this isolated environment, so near her due date, in the era before cell phones. What is she running from? What dark secret will her rescuer discover?

Relax. She's not running from anything. She's returning home from a wedding shower, alone, in the desert, with no way to contact anyone in an emergency, eight-and-one-half months into her first pregnancy. Oops! Now she's in labor.

If Leigh has a dark secret, it's that she's about as sharp as a pound of wet leather.*

Hunky widower Chad delivers Leigh's baby in the back of his pickup truck. After that, the plot is as exhausted as the mom. What happens during the remaining 95% of the book is...

(CAUTION: SPOILER)






...nothing.

That's right, pretty much nothing happens. The sole source of tension is Leigh's reluctance to commit to a man who has a dangerous job. Why he would want a commitment from a woman like Leigh remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the romance genre.

My best guess is that Leigh is the only woman Chad knows who lactates on the second date.

If that's not what has him so obsessed that he puts up with Leigh's passive-aggressive whining, I can't even hazard a guess. Aside from her breasts, which must be truly spectacular, Leigh's other memorable traits are a blank space where her sense of humor should be, and an inability to hear tragic revelations from Chad's past without throwing a temper fit because he didn't tell her sooner. She's the person for whom they invented the phrase, "It's all about me."

About halfway through "Shadows of Yesterday," I accepted that the plot twist I was hoping for wasn't likely to happen. If this plot developed a single wrinkle, Leigh would iron it.

So why did I stick around until the end? I blame Hurricane Wilma.

Reading by flashlight stops being fun after the first few nights of a power outage. So before Wilma arrived, I stocked up on Walkman batteries and books on CD. "Shadows of Yesterday" was the one I started on day 8 of a 10-day power outage. I'd have listened to the unabridged description of grass growing.

FYI, if you enjoy audio books during long car trips or extended power outages, there are some great selections in romantic suspense by Sandra Brown, Linda Howard and Karen Robards. The actor who reads Brown's "White Hot," Victor Slezak, adds a substantial amount of heat to an already sizzling novel.

I can promise you won't fall asleep listening to "White Hot," "Chill Factor" or the less substantial but still enjoyable "Demon Rumm." For insomnia, stick with "Shadows of Yesterday." If nothing else, you can use the CDs as coasters.

*Quoted courtesy of Foghorn Leghorn.