Sail
by Howard Roughan, James Patterson
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.01 You Save: $27.98 (100%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Sail
Book Review: Audio version not a great listen
Summary: 4 Stars
Sail is a good book for light reading. A small insignificant twist at the end. The who-done-it is told in the beginning.
The audio read is strange. There are two readers, a man and a woman. Perfect!!! right? Not exactly. Who is reading the book depends on what character is recounting the story. If a man is recounting his perspective of the trial, then the burly old defense lawyer has a deep raspy voice; but if a woman is recounting her perspective of the trial, then the same old lawyer has a deepened female voice.......like a soprano trying to talk at a lower octave. This switch in the lawyers voice from deep and raspy to deepened female happens minutes apart. (this being one character example as there are others that are male characters whose dialogue is read by the woman) This type of read is strange to me and somewhat distracting and doesn't really allow you to get into the characters........other than those who are recounting the story because their readers remain gender specific.
Otherwise the book was a fun listen with a light sinister plot.
Book Review: Adventure on the High Seas and in the Courtroom!
Summary: 4 Stars
One of JP's better efforts of late. I enjoyed the book and of course, as usual, it was a real page turner with the short chapters that have become so synonymous with this author's work. The storyline is about a family who sets off on a summer cruise on the family sailboat, the boat the patriarch of the family died on, with Dad's brother, Uncle Jake, replacing him on the expedition. Mom has since remarried but the new Dad, Peter, is unable to make the trip. Lo and behold the trip starts off with mechanical failures on the vessel, the son Mark getting high on board, sister Carrie being her own obnoxious little self, and little brother Ernie being the perfect little kid. Mother, Dr. Katherine Dunn, wants nothing more than to be a family again and that is where the story begins. Alot goes on during the storyline, but it is an easy read (a great one for the beach or an evening at home). I am still waiting for the ultimate James Patterson novel, one that is reminiscent of his earlier work. As I have said in the past Jimmy, dump the co-authors and get back to doing what you do best.Book Review: 1 Stars
I have read a lot of Patterson's and his collaborators work. It seems that we are experiencing the literary equivalent of the production line that churns out the same artwork that is hung in cheap motel rooms. I cannot believe how weak the start of this story is. Patterson's book seem to be specializing in neurotic women characters, hunky outdoor type hero men, and supremely irritating and downright stupid children.I received this audio book as a gift second hand, and I was glad for the fact as I would not pay for it. The disfunctional family Dunne sale together and provide the first set of cliches. The anorexic daughter, the overweight younger son, the Stoner brother, with the too career focused mother.
Then...
The daughter tries to kill herself. The boat starts to flood and sink. A super villain has rigged the sail boat to blow up. The seeminly loving smarmy step father is actually an adulterous murderer. I think I have hit all of the cliches. No wait a minute, that would be Patterson.
Give this one a pass.
Book Review: Anyone for a sail?
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this story. I couldn't put the book down. In fact, I read it all in less than 24 hours. It was exciting, a real page turner. I loved what I thought as the very real dysfunctional family related to the death of their father, being raised with lots of money and privilege and teens who were typically rebellious and a mother who was too busy with her career to care. I do believe a lot of these families do exist. And to see them struggle but grow and mature with near disasters is heart warming. We can only hope that it could actually happen to families such as these.
The story was action packed--never a boring minute. The "new" husband was exactly the kind of guy known as a "gold digger". I was very happy that he turned out to be behind a lot of the chaos----happy to see him go down.
This kind of read is perfect for the beach or hot tub---pure entertainment, fast reading and exciting all the way to the end.
Book Review: Sailing in shallow waters...
Summary: 1 Stars
Unfortunately, this was the first book by James Patterson that I had read, and I don't hold out a lot of hope for moving his name up my list of authors to explore.
You can get the entire story of a widow and her kids hitting the high seas from the book cover blurb, and Patterson doesn't provide any more depth to his characters in the rest of the book. I found the story predictable, with no truly exciting or chilling moments. There was nothing charming about any of the characters through the course of the book, and I found it difficult to root for any of them.
The timeline is incomprehensible, with 100 pages being devoted to one day, and then moving through a week in 20 pages. Things are left unsaid, including what I view as rather important plot points.
It wasn't a terrible read, and if you're looking for lighter-fare that you can walk away from throughout the summer, give it a shot.