Burr Books

I loved this book and read it in three days. I really liked that the characters had a history and it wasn't a meet one day then swear undying love the very next.

This story had all the great parts of any. Murder, Love, Love Lost and lots of action. I read it straight through. Would suggest.

Another fun read from Nora Roberts. Ths one has a little different setting, but great as usual.

This has to be one of the best books that I have ever read! This book has it all . . . the thrill of the chase, the love, the bad guy and so much more. I couldn't put it down! The setting is absolutely beautiful and made me wish that I was there.

What a great book! After all the NR books I have read, I am still amazed by her descriptive abilities only this location is unlike any other. This story has many locations under water. Diving is a huge element, and I felt like I was there.

The characters were well written - Tate Beaumont and Matthew Lassiter had chemistry, friendship, and love. The families were important to the story also. Angelique's Curse was very intriguing. There was a lot of history, mystery, and the curse attached.

A great book! A real page turner with lots of suspense! I would recommend this book to anyone. You simply cannot put it down.

Jo Ellen, a reknown photographer has returned to her home after recieving several photos that contained the image of her missing mother. Determined to center herself, Jo has returned to the one place where she feels safe, Sanctuary. While returning to her roots makes her reflect on one of the most painful times in her life (her mother's disappearance) she finds love, in a childhood friend, Nathan. Surrounded by her siblings, a brother who has turned to cooking and a sister, who wants to be an actress and a father, who is extremely bitter, Jo realizes that she is being stalked and that her mother's disappearance may not be what it initially seemed and that her new love, Nathan may have information that will destroy her world. I enjoyed this novel, although I don't think you will be surprised by the ending, and would recommend that you read it if you like traditional Nora Roberts (romance, suspense and mystery).

Terrific book. It has lots of action with serious romantic tension. It keeps you guessing until the end. I loved this story.

I used to enjoy Nora Roberts' books for their wry humor, interesting characters, and snappy dialog. But her plots have been growing more and more formulaic: Tough, gorgeous heroine with a successful professional life and a ton of baggage obstructing her relationships is stalked by a serial killer whose acts become more and more savage as the book continues, often to the point of being ridiculously over the top. The heroine's friends and family are slowly killed off before she finally realizes what is going on, leading to a surprisingly anticlimatic finale. For me to truly consider a book a mystery, it must be a challenge to deduce the culprit. I have been able to deduce the killer's identity so early on in these books that I'm just left to focus on the romance, and though Roberts still can write one heck of a steamy passage it gels uneasily with scenes of stomach-churning brutality. As in "Blue Smoke", I found the murder scenes in "Sanctuary" to be overdone to the point of tastelessness (and Roberts seems to have an off-putting fascination with rape and quasi-rape throughout this book). I'm also not one easily satisfied with the "he was crazy, that was why he did what he did, there's no logical reason" hook that these works hang on.

It seems as if Roberts is trying to write for the broadest market possible; she is losing me as a fan in the process.

What a Sanctuary!!!Where damaged people live and rape and murder going on. I had started this book and had the TV on Lifetime and lo and behold the Lifetime movie was Sanctuary. Okay so I watched it and not impressed but decided to finish the book. The book is tons better than the movie. However I had to skim the murder/rape scenes. Okay so I'm sqimmish! I'm wondering how many books can have this same scenario of the damaged people because their parents didn't show them love and etc, so they can't love and they shove people away from them. I have read several Nora Roberts books lately with this scenario. I'm reading Hidden Riches at the moment and same scenario. I think that is why I liked her newest book "High Noon" because she got away from that formula and had 2 strong people come together. The hero could have been damaged because of his childhood but didn't let it. I like this formula much better. Getting back to Sanctuary, it's an okay read but probably not one I would read again. Yesterday Lifetime showed all of Nora Roberts movies based on her books and there was not one as good as the book. Even the actors playing the parts weren't right to me after reading the books. I wouldn't have pictured them as the movie does. The one playing Nathan in Sanctuary didn't even come close to what I pictured reading the book. There were characters left out and the Mother was murdered by Nathan's father not his brother. Well as they say, it's based on the book;that's about all!Anyway, if you have seen the movie, read the book; it's better.

"Bonk" is funny, enlightening, fascinating and, oddly, sexy in a way. Mary Roach makes her topic speak to the reader in way that keeps interest and makes her work very hard to put down. I will be reading more of Ms. Roach.

This book is very funny. The point of the book is sex research, what they do and did, where, when, how, etc... not about the act, about the research and researchers. Mary is funny and writes in a funny manner. Don't get it to learn about sex get it to learn about what people have been doing for centuries to learn about sex.
Great read, fast, and enjoyable as all of Mary's book are.

Mary Roach has created her own genre of writing, more understated than Hunter S. Thompson, but every bit as innovative and unique, perhaps even more so. She tackles touchy subjects and does it in a way that is honest and always very funny. Science, derived from the Latin, "to know," forms the central thesis of all of her books. Truly fun if you want to torture your dear husband with horror stories about penile implants and impotence cures. Every other day you hear some politician decrying the lack of interest in science. By reminding us that we primates always want to know more about our world, Mary Roach may have done more to promote science than many a million dollar grant. But don't read it because it's good for you. Read it because it's funny and bizarre and supremely entertaining.

I laughed and laughed over Roach's first two...and gave them to my mother as gifts. She also laughed out loud at them. So I was hoping to get some easy xmas shopping done here and get her third book for mom...but obviously that is not going to happen. This third book is just as funny and interesting, but hell if I can get it for my mother. Thanks a lot, Mary, and you owe me a mom-appropriate gift idea this year.

I read the British paperback edition of 2008. Mary Roach, who has tackled Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife in a popularly funny and fascinating way, now takes a close look at what scientists have indulged in, when it comes to sexuality. There may be some enlightenment on sexuality itself, however, this book is more about what various scientists from around the world have concerned themselves with and how they have approached their sexual agendas. Which covers about anything from electroshocks against wet dreams to electroejaculation. From human upsuck stimulation of sows to the nagging question wether dead people may have an orgasm. Some questions remain unanswered, others are never asked, but this book doesn't intend to be a complete guide to human (and beyond) sexuality. It is more of a personal quest of the author, seeking a look at what sex scientists keep themselves busy with. As such, it is funny by subject matter alone, for example, when it comes to the past millennium-long European thought process that the uterus would be an independent creature within a woman. Also some still contemporary myths get debunked, such as the dogma of various branches of religion that ejaculation and/or orgasm causes ageing. The opposite is the case in reality. Mary Roach decided to include humorous remarks in addition. A lot of them. Personally, I thank her for that. This makes a welcome departure from the many dry textbooks I am reading. And laughing is also prolonging life expectency. I don't find her humor all that adolescent as some other reviewers, especially not if compared to the usual Hollywood juvenile sex comedy. But then again, different people, different humor.

Which also seems to apply to the use of footnotes. Usually, I detest them. Mary Roach is the first author of whom I find them fun to read. In her books they are unnecessary for the main text, but bring a moment of joy to the reader who shares my sense of humor. Here's a tip for those who feel distracted even by these footnotes: You may chose to ignore them. No harm done.

You may also be interested in The Science of Orgasm (little overlap only) and specific quests like Female Ejaculation and the G-Spot: Not Your Mother's Orgasm Book! (Positively Sexual).

I really enjoyed this story. I hadn't read Catherine Coulter in years. All I thought she wrote were cheesy Historical Romances. Double Take grabbed me from the first paragraph. Yes, there was the prerequisite romance, but it was also filled with suspence and mystery. It was a great read and I look forward to reading more of her FBI Series novels.

This book "grabbed"me from the first page. It is one of the best ones I've read in a long time.

This is the first book I've had from this author. It is basically a police thriller with little connection to police reality. FBI agents don't run all over the country with no coordination or supervision. The characters were stereotypical and excessively wordy. This would have been called a "woman's book" a couple of generations ago, but that isn't PC now. Far too much time is wasted with the characters muddling in their emotions. It's a shame the author didn't spend the effort instead on creating a cogent plot and a knowledge of police procedure.

I've been a mystery reader since the 60's and I'd call this 'mystery lite'. For those who prefer touchy-feely mysteries without a lot of realism, this would probably make a great read. For others, look elsewhere.

I really like the way the auther has you on the edge of your seat/ It is hard to put the book down after you get in to the story.

I haven't been able to find an author that grabs me for some time...believe me, I have been looking and have many unfinished novels on my shelf. I was waiting for a plane two weeks ago and saw her latest on the best sellers shelf and decided to look at other books by this author. Long story short...read two from the FBI series in a week and have ordered four more today. Ms. Coulter is a fabulous writer and really knows how to draw one in and keep them reading and reading. I am not a romance novel reader so hope she keeps with the FBI series. Enjoy!

I could not find this book for years. I was looking everywhere. When I finally came across it, I started reading right away. As soon as I read the first paragraph, I was hooked. This book keeps you "on the edge of your seat". I didn't put it down until the book was done.

*spoilers*

Once again, typical Koontz.

It started off pretty strong. A middle-aged woman, Rachel, is freed from her awful marriage after her rich husband gets dusted by a garbage truck. She feels relieved, but then learns her husband's body is gone from the morgue.

As it turns out, Mr. Rich Husband was doing research into immortality, and comes back to life. Thing is, he cannot maintain mental stability, and has pretty much reverted into a primal, blood-thirsty killing machine.

Now, as I already said, it started out pretty strong. But can someone, anyone, tell me why Koontz feels so implied to answer all of his plotlines with some sort of rampant, out-of-control government conspiracy? And so, as aforementioned, this is typical Koontz. It worked in The Watchers, and it worked in a few others, but there's a point in time where it just gets old. The man has so many creative, imaginative ideas, but I just don't see why he has to answer all of them with the same jargon.

And more so, every time he does this shpeal, he seems to go out of his way to inject his rants about the apparently terrible state of modern civilization. He's cynical as hell, and he does his in almost every book he writes. Little insights here and there would have been fine, but he does it to the point where it really does distract from the plot.

Character-wise, eh. He's never been too strong with characters (aside from a few - "Life Expectancy" and the Odd Thomas series, to name two), and this is no exception. Generally cardboard characters with corny, cliche'd dialogue you'd never hear a real person say, coupled with overdone romance that really doesn't need to be there.

But while I didn't really enjoy this one, I'm not trying to say that Koontz is a bad author. I absolutely loved "Intensity", "Life Expectancy", and "Odd Thomas". He's a great writer, when he wants to be. But I just wish he'd stop milking the same plot devices over and over again.

Although this Koontz book is not one of my favorites, I like how Dean reaches outside of the norm and drags his characters into a place of dread and the unknown. The chase scenes in the desert and the bizarre killings were disturbing, but it kept me glued to the pages, hoping for resolve. Perhaps this story with its man turned creature, was Dean's prelude for his great Frankenstein series. I recommend this book. Tamera

This is one of the best horror thrillers that I have read in years. Eric is a man obsessed with staying young. His wife just wants out of the relationship and wants nothing from him. Her boyfriend has survived the jungles of Vietnam and is consumed by the "good old days". The dirty DSA co director wants to kill the boyfriend to cover up his dirty reputation from Nam. The book keep me wanting more, keep me turning the pages and wanting to skip chapters and read ahead to see what happened with the wife. Great read!

Dean Koontz is a master storyteller! He won't leave behind literary classics. He won't win a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize for literature. But he surely will leave a legacy of outstanding, entertaining novels to generations to come. As a popular fiction writer, Koontz is up there in the stratosphere.

"Shadowfires" is the first Koontz novel I have read in years. One weakness stands out, but his ability to get the reader to turn, no, whip through those pages has not diminished whatsoever for this reader.

First, his use of omniscient narrator is what most annoyed me. I used to like knowing what every character thinks and his personal background upon being introduced into the story. It doesn't work in "Shadowfires" for this reason: Koontz tells all except the cause of the terror of the main character, at least not until well over a hundred pages into the story. OK, yes, it is shocking, but I would have appreciated her terror more if I had known what its cause was.

A major reason why Koontz is so popular is that he tells a great story, often embedding into his horror story a vein of modern life, often a thorny ethical issue. This one in this story is the classic Dr. Frankenstein and monster story, modern man experimenting in areas best left alone.

Several sets of characters play prominently in the plot and the reader forms strong reactions--favorable or unfavorable-- towards each. Rachael Leben divorces her husband, Eric Leben, a brilliant, but cold genetic engineer. In anger he strides away from Laura on the street and runs into a garbage truck, is hit and killed. Spooky things begin happen, then horrific actions!

Benny Shadway is Rachael's companion, whom she meets long after the separation. He has a fascinating history. They join to battle this terror together. Julio Verdad and Reese Hagerstrom are detectives who don't know the meaning of quitting. Sharp and Peake are federal agents in the Defense Security Agency and usurp the detectives' roles in the ongoing, horrific murder investigations. Interior motives abound. Securities and insecurities scrunch around known and unknown facts. Koontz keeps the mix going at breakneck speed. Where will it all end?

In Las Vegas, of course. The state of unreality, the place of dreams that turn to nightmares, bankruptcy, despair. By the time the reader reaches this point, he/she will not have the slightest idea how it all ends. Count on bankruptcy, not of money, but of soul. Count on nightmares, not of sleep, but of reality. But don't count on despair. The one who should have it is too far gone to know it.

If only I could discuss the ethical issues of this story, but I'm playing it as Koontz does--withholding the cause of the terror. It's all in the Shadowfires!

This book was personally intersting since I was a classmate of Robert Rowe, the oldest child at South Shore HS in Brooklyn. He was very quiet but very nice and I sat next to him in math in high school. Then one day he did not come to school and there was only very brief news coverage of the fact his father killed the family. Nobody talked about it at home or at school. It wasn't like it is today when they bring in grief counselors etc. Locally, this was treated as a non-event. This was a horrible thing for us to have to find out--that his father killed him with a bat when he was in bed. How awful. The book names people I know and the psychiatrist in the book, Dr. D., treated lots of people I know so the whole book took me back in time.

However, this guy should have been killed! I cannot believe he got away with this! If this would have happened today he never would have been able to get himself out the way he did. He never deserved a second chance, not after what he did. Back in the 70's life was very stressful with all sorts of financial stress on many people and the recession or whatever it was when lots of people lost their jobs. It was hard on my family as well but at least none of us killed each other

I thought Julie Salamon did an excellent job writing this book. I felt she was very objective, so objective in fact that I kept wondering why she wrote this book. It was almost like she didn't have an opinion about Bob Rowe and what he did; murdered his entire family in cold blood. For me it made me wonder...how should we judge people and how should we punish people? And how can we ever know what another person is truly capable of or what is really in their heart? Should someone like Bob Rowe ever be released? Personally I don't think someone should be set free after serving a minimal sentence when they have murdered their entire family. This book led me to another, as books always do, called The Sociopath Next Door also very interesting.

"Facing the Wind" tells us of the life of Bob Rowe, an attorney with a pretty and spirited Irish wife, Mary, and three children. Their middle child, Christopher, was exposed to Rubella in the womb and was born severely handicapped, both physically and mentally. The author gives us an interesting background on these "Rubella babies" and the disabilities that resulted. The disabilities varied, but nearly all were blind. We learn about the mothers and children who knew Mary and Bob, and all were amazed at what an active role Bob took in Christopher's life, helping equally along with Mary to provide the child with as normal a life as possible.

All seemed to be going well when one night, Bob decided to bludgeon his family to death with a baseball bat. First was Bobby, Jr., the eldest son, then Christopher and Jenny (their adopted daughter), and finally Mary, after he called her home from work to show her a surprise. He had her stand in the living room with her eyes closed, and then killed her, too. Afterwards, he turned the gas on in the oven and tried to kill himself by lining the door with plastic wrap, which one can assume Bob thought would help him inhale more gas.

Bob is found not guilty by reason of insanity because of the stress of his job and of raising a handicapped child. He is placed in a mental institution for several years. After he gets out, he meeds Colleen, a much younger woman - she is 19, I believe, and Bob is in his late 40's. Eventually, they are married and have a daughter. Colleen is aware of his past. The second half of the book, the slower half, is about their life together and Bob trying to get reinstated to the bar.

The author's writing flows nicely, and she provides letters Colleen wrote to Bob professing her love to him. She does not include any pictures, which was disappointing, but maybe Colleen Rowe asked her not to. I thought the author was very sympathetic to the Rowe side. I personally doubt his "innocence" because he came across as arrogant to me, and unremorseful. As a mother of two myself, I also doubt Colleen's stability if she thought it was a good idea to not only marry a man who bludgeoned his family to death, but to also have a child with him. Of course, you can draw your own conclusions on that.

All in all, I recommend this book. It's a good read.

Facing the Wind is such a compelling read that at times I forgot this was nonfiction. This book goes beyond sensational headlines describing a lurid crime and into the lives it devestated. Salamon presents the information in a way that is compassionate but not biased in either direction. Most importantly, Facing the Wind proves not only to be an interesting book but also one that urges the reader to contemplate questions of the limits to forgiveness. Ethically and morally, it is not a black and white world, and the strange case of Bob Rowe was certainly steeped in shades of gray. It seems like this would be a great pick for a book club; it could spark some very revealing and emotional conversations.

My biggest problem with this book is that the author tries to make it more socially meaningful than it is by telling it as the story of a man "overwhelmed" by the responsibilities of caring for a severely handicapped child -- hence a person we can all relate to on some level.

But NOBODY in the story actually says that Bob Rowe was overwhelmed! Bob coped quite well for many years until his mother died. Then he began to have hallucinations that his mother was telling him to kill his WIFE (not his handicapped son.) As a result he was hospitalized and medicated. Unsurprisingly, the medication prevented him from functioning as a cracker-jack lawyer, as he had previously, and he began to lose jobs. He developed an obsession with his dwindling finances. Eventually he decided to stop taking his medicine. At that point, he was both out of a job and psychotic. BOB says that the precipitating cause of his murdering his family was fear that he could no longer provide for them.

One of the prosecutors interviewed for this book says exactly the same thing. He says it's a "male ego" thing which is not at all uncommon in men (but very rare in women.) The man feels that he is a failure, that he can no longer take care of his family, ergo he has to kill himself, ergo he has to kill all of them too, because how could they survive without him?

In all of the court proceedings NOBODY says that Bob Rowe killed his family because he was overwhelmed by caring for a handicapped child. In fact, it's pointed out that, of his three children, he killed his handicapped son LAST. Also, that he had many many occasions to kill his handicapped son in a way which would have avoid all suspicion. If the handicapped son were the big issue in his life, why kill the whole family? Why not kill the son secretly (he took the kid sailing regularly and could easily have staged a sailing accident)?

I think the author is trying to manipulate the reader into feeling "there but for the Grace of God go I" (i.e., "perhaps I too would crack under similar unbearable strain") but this is just not supported by the facts -- unless the reader is concerned that they might suddenly become psychotic for no discernable reason.

Among many diagnoses given to Bob Rowe was "borderline personality disorder" and this is clearly correct in that he NEVER seems to have grasped the enormity of what he did. After he "recovered" (pretty much immediately in the sense of starting to perk right up and take care of his own interests) his big sorrow was the great injustice done to HIM in that he was unfairly blamed for something he wasn't responsible for. Here's the luckiest murderer in the history of the world -- three years in a mental institution, gets out, gets a new family, is surrounded by love and forgiveness -- and we're told that he's "devastated" that he can't get his law degree back! HE'S the victim!

If any one of us had a seizure disorder and we were supposed to be taking medicine for it, and the medicine was interferring with our ability to work, so we decided to stop taking the medicine, and then, while driving, we had a seizure and killed our whole family -- how would we be affected for the rest of our lives? Overwhelming despair? Guilt? Sorrow? (Or would we dedicate our lives to fighting the injustice of having our driver's license taken away?) But Bob whacks in the heads of four people with a baseball bat (fully aware of what he's doing and why -- only "psychotic" in the sense that he's making such a horrifically bad decision) and spends the rest of his life feeling sorry for himself!

BTW -- unlike others, I found the BEST part of this book to be the stories about the moms with handicapped kids. Frankly, as per above, I thought this really didn't have a whole lot to do with the murders, so actually it was pretty irrelevant to the book. But it was very interersting on its own -- in a way that the story of this murderer was not.

Enjoyed Here On Earth a little more, but then I thought the story a tad more interesting. Still a good read and would recommend it.

I loved this book. It was one of those stories that was hard to put down. Great summer reading - I found it in a used book store while on vacation. I am going to add Alice Hoffman to my list of favorite authors.

I am just getting into Alice Hoffman. I really liked Here on Earth and have since been reading a few others. All of which have been good reads.

Turtle Moon is a pretty short read, and with the story that is exciting and you're wondering what will happen, the pages fly by. Since there is a bit of the supernatural in this book, I consider it unique from what I normally read. This is a love story, a parenting story, a story about redemption and finding your place in life, and about all kinds of love. I have to say that what sealed the deal for me on this book was the ending, I just really thought it fit well and was very pleased.

I'd recommend Alice Hoffman and this book.

Every time I pick up an Alice Hoffman book, I am transported, and this was no exception. The characters are wonderfully complicated. The plot moves unpredictably. She is able to create such a strong ambience by making the reader smell the smells, feel the heat and visualize Florada. This book is both plot-driven and character-driven, indicating Hoffman's superior ability to write. A great read.

This my second Hoffman book, the first being "Here on Earth", and it reinforced my opinion of her writing. Hoffman is a talented story teller who adds an interesting otherworldliness to her novels but there is not much else about her style to grab on to. The prose is basic, the characters under developed, and some of the events are so implausible that they become irksome. She also tends to recreate the divorced or unhappily married woman with a mixed up teenager in her books. In this particular book the numerous divorced female characters all blend together. This makes it difficult to remember who is who and what their histories are (something that you need to follow for the story to make sense). All in all, Hoffman is a great read for the train or beach she but doesn't really challenge or satisfy me.

Reading some other comments, I am somewhat baffled by the opinion that this book has too much technical information on jade. THIS BOOK IS ABOUT JADE. THIS SERIES IS ABOUT GEMSTONES. For Lowell to leave out the technical information would take most of the validity away from the story/plot. Also, to say that the romance between Kyle and Lianna was rushed = this is not strictly a romance novel. I for one, enjoyed the Donovan series very much because it is the perfect mixture of mystery and romance. Not a mind-numbing mystery, not a trite romance. The best of both world. The story is extremely interesting and I read it in two nights, couldn't put it down.

I totally agree with some reviewers who said that Ms Lowell's recent works were weak and lack of spirit. I, personally gave up buying her books after Donovan series. When I checked the attitudes of other reviewers, I realized that this is a kind of trend actually. Donovan series are supposed to be good, however too much info about gemology (obviously she has lots of books on this issue) is really beyond boring. One reader had emphasized that Ms Lowell is either very good or very poor. I completely agree with her. The earlier books (even the naive ones) of Ms Lowell are much better than the recent ones.
I could not see any character development in this one. To me the whole story was uninteresting and shallow. Too much cliche! Once again...

well i had read elizabeth lowells book cry wolf because my mother dared me to. ever since then i have been reading every book of elizabeths that my library has. i picked up this book about 2 books after i read mindnight ruby bayoue. even thought i knew what the end would be like it was a fun and exciting book. i knew the people and gained an even deeper emotional and personal impretion of them. this by far has to be the best book of the series so far.

Loved this book. Loved the jade and the Chinese cultural issues and the Donovan family! Maybe the romance got less play then in your average romance novel, but the crime caper was great and Kyle and Lianne were wonderful! Both smart, funny, sexy people. Much rounder characters than typical and great banter. The romance scenes were also quite hot.

Archer Donovan, head of the Donovan clan, asks brother Kyle to get close to Lianne Blakely, the illegitimate daughter of Johnny Tang and his American mistress, because he believes priceless Chinese jade artifacts have been stolen and he thinks the Tang family consortium, headed by Wen Zhi Tang, who has a lifelong obsession with jade, might have something to do with it.

Lianne is as passionate about jade as Wen and is a respected Jade expert, but much to her chagrin she's not accepted by the Tangs as a full fledged family member. However, when they need an expert to value the jade they want to buy, it's her they call.

In a nice twist her father, Johnny Tang, has asked her to get close to Kyle and while Kyle and Lianne are getting to know each other, they discover that priceless jade has been taken from the Tang vault and replaced with inferior pieces.

Lianne is a prime suspect because she is one of the few people who go into the vault on a regular basis. Then she's outright accused of stealing the jade and now she and Kyle, who now have a thing for each other, have to find the real thief or she may go to prison.

This is the second book in Ms. Lowell's series about the Donovan Clan and every bit as good as the first. There is lots of action, suspense, a double cross here and there and romance too. A very good book.

Good. Doesn't grab the reader as much as some of the other Stephen White books I've read

Dr. Alan Gregory is a durable hero. He's been shot, stabbed, pushed off of cliffs, almost pushed off of cliffs, stalked, variously assaulted, and attacked by at least one wild animal. And yet he remains a mensch - tiresomely physically fit and over-addicted to healthy living, perhaps, but still a mensch. He admires his wife, cherishes his friends, and generally respects his patients. He loves his dogs, present and past. The supporting cast is equally attractive/compelling: Lauren Crowder's independent intelligence and relentless bravery, Sam Purdy's common sense and generosity, Adrienne Arvin's dementedly charming chutzpah, Diane and Raoul's wit and whimsy, all serve to anchor the series. And the presence of Grace in the later novels promises to develop into a great child character, possibly rivaling Lucy Karp in the early Gruber-authored Tanenbaums. The incidental characters are vivid and generally believable, almost without exception. Some authors are better at male characters than female, or the reverse, but White is excellent at people, all people. Most of the books are first-person narration by Gregory, but White can shift to third-person with aplomb.

Aside from the great characters, the plots of this series are outstanding. We learn about a private end-of-life corporation, cold-case volunteer groups, the Mormons, DB Cooper, the cult of personality, Grand Canyon adventures, and the fallout from the JonBenet case, all without stretching the seams of the community based in Boulder, CO. When the plots call for suspense, the books are literally terrifying, real white-knuckle reads. White is witty and insightful and the very best craftsperson of the English language I've read in years. His casually correct use of the subjective fills me with delight, as do his always-agreeing pronouns, and his elegant but unpretentious syntax. His prose is a pleasure to read.

The settings are wondrously vivid - views, trees, coffee houses, the streets and walks of Boulder and environs. White brings food to the table and vistas to the eye. You can track his characters on GoogleEarth and see just what he describes. I fell into this series at a gruesome time for me, professionally, and reading them all in a period of a couple of weeks has been an exercise in staying sane. Some are, of course, better than others - Kill Me, The Program, Higher Authority, Manner of Death - and there are some weak links (Cold Case, Private Practices), but I can't imagine reading 15 books by any other contemporary author sans break and still wishing for more.

The Program gives us a new main character, Kristen Lord, who comes to Boulder and Alan Gregory's practice as a protected witness. Kristen is a interesting character, brave and cautious at the same time; worried about her daughter and her own life, her fear/panic is palpable, but we never see her as a victim - quite an accomplishment for White. There are some nifty minor characters and a great new dog in the mix, as well as a chance for Lauren and Alan to work together.

Kirsten Lord is a district attorney who became accustom to threats directed at her from criminals she helped convict. All meaningless threats until, Ernesto Castro, a big shot in the drug trade, didn't threaten, but promised this: "Every precious thing I lose, you will lose, two." Soon after that promise, Kirsten Lord was burying her murdered husband. Soon after that, the Witness Protection Program gave Kirsten and her daughter new identities, a new life, and the promise of safety.

Typically, Kirsten was smart, at least she had enough smarts to know she couldn't hide forever, and had the intuition to know who to befriend and who not to trust. However, when at least one legitimate source and a few questionable ones threaten your life, and when you feel totally out-of-control, can you really trust your own intelligence and intuition?

Kirsten needs a place to voice the terror she feels every minute of every day, she needs to spell out the guilt she feels for her part in her husband's death and the dangerous situation she has now caused for her own daughter, and she needs to deal with her obvious issues of trust. The U.S. Marshal assigned to her case, refers her to psychologist, Dr. Alan Gregory. Dr. Gregory takes on this new and interesting patient without a clue as to what is in store for him and his wife, Lauren.

This was a great addition to Stephen White's thrillers about Dr. Alan Gregory, maybe a little bit longer than it had to be, but I would still recommend it as possibly the best the series has to offer thus far. For me, it was one of those books where you get to the end and not realizing it's the end you turn the page only to be disappointed that what you see is not more storyline, but the acknowledgments. I wanted more story!

4 ½ stars

This is the 9th book in Stephen White's series with psychologist Alan Gregory and a cast of characters that we have come to know over the previous eight books. The difference with this book is that it has little to do with Alan Gregory or any of the other characters. It was a risk in my opinion for the author to make his main star a minor character in someone else's story. And, the risk paid off.

I'll admit, I started reading this book because I was reading the series and thought it would be a good read since I already knew the characters. When I realized that the book was totally about someone else and their entrance into the Witness Protection Program and eventually their run from it, I decided I would not like the book. I kept reading anyway and soon I was caught up in the story just like all Stephen White's other books.

A different read, but a surprisingly good one.

The Program starts with one hit man and ends with another. Along the way it's an exploration of the Witness Protection (Security) Program and two participants who come from different directions. Kirsten (nee Peyton) is a prosecutor forced to seek help from the agency she has ridiculed to hide her daughter and herself. Carl Lupo is a hit man informer. Both lives take interesting and different directions when they both end up in Boulder Colorado. I enjoyed the way Carl "picked up" Kirsten. This is the first I've read of Alan Gregory, White's psychologist protagonist. He has a relatively small and tangential part in the story that unfolds. He and his pregnant wife play a bigger role at the end. If anything, their involvement in the story is it's weakest point. I found the story to be very well written. This felt like a Thomas Perry book, well written, nice characterizations, interesting story line, tension building . . . Recommended to me by my friend George, and I'm recommending it to you.

I am fairly new to reading Debbie Macomber, and am falling in love with her books! I can't wait to read the whole Cedar Cove series. I'm hooked!

This is a delightful story, very engaging. It doesn't take long to feel like these characters are your own acquaintences. Am looking forward to future books in the Cedar Cove series.

The book that launched the series in the quaint town of Cedar Cove. Let me first say that I've read every book in the series and if you like light, breezy reads, this is the series for you. The first book introduces the couple of Ian and Cecila, who after a child birth grow distant and mutually agree to divorce ... but not so fast. There is a judge named Olivia Lockheart who denies the application and believes grief is the reason for the divorce - and believes these two still love each other so they are forced to work out their differences. Ah, but what Deb Macomber novel would be complete without an affair? Enter Jack Griffin who sets his sights on the still married Cecila. So just sit back and enjoy the wonderful little town of Cedar Cove.

Editor of the highly recommended novel: Fates by Georgiou Tino: Best of 2008

This is the first of Macomber's 'Cedar Cove' series. If you love the Pacific Northwest, not necessarily Seattle, but Puget Sound and the small hamlets that surround it, this series is for you. The larger world is just outside, and her characters like to visit the bigger cities, they just dont want to live there. The characters,on the face of it, are every day people, but as you get to know them, the details of their lives draw you in. The characters range in age from misunderstood pre adolescents to senior citizens, trying to deal with the changes that chapter of their lives bring. They are all from different walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds, but somehow their lives intermesh and they find a common thread. As a result, you want to know them too.

I love that the characters are complicated, but not 'dark'. That's why I called it a 'comfortable' read. In the midst of all the 'noise' on television and radio, its a respite. Your imagination is sparked, but your senses aren't fried. LOL!

Enjoy!

(BTW, the books from her 'Blossom Street' series are also an excellent read.)

There it is out in the open now! But what you ask am I addicted to? Why, Debbie Macomber books, Cedar Cove series to be exact. I can't get away from them -- They have me in a spell. I don't want to leave them either. There are so many people and so many different things going on in this small, quaint town.

A lot of people have reviewed this book, so I won't bore you with details. However, that being said, you will want to plow through this one, to start 204 Rosewood Lane, like I am going to do tonight. I mean I have to find out where is Dan? I have to find out about all our different townspeople and what is going on with them!

Although some people may find this series boring, I enjoy it. It doesn't have bad language, it has friendships, problems and everything all wrapped up in one. Thanks Ms. Macomber! This reader is in love!!!