5 comments about Texas! Lucky.

1. My analysis of Romance Literature continues and Sandra Brown disappoints once again. She writes quite interesting female characters, but the men in her stories are never more than two dimensional. And how unsatisfying would THAT be to her heroines? And they are outwardly huge sexists too. "Texas Lucky" is the first novel in Ms Brown's Texas trilogy but at the time of writing this review, the other two volumes are not avilable on audio CD.
   
   As I think I have written in other reviews of Ms Brown's work, this follows a set formula. Girl hates boy. Girl secretly finds boy is really hot. Girl and boy do it ( usually for her comfort after some trauma ). All the mechanics of the dirty deed are lovingly described 99.7% of the time above the waist. Girl realizes she has slipped her moral standards by letting the boy enjpy her body, so she hates him again. Some furter dramatic event occurs to bring girl and boy back together ( in this case a car accident, in Ms Brown's novel "Demon Rumm it was a fire ). They do it a second time and realise they can't live without each other. Epilogue: Marriage.
   
   You know, one of the things I would ask for if a genie gave me three wishes? I'd ask for the word "tongue" to be removed from the mind of all Romance Writers. They ( and Ms Brown is no exception ) would be lost if that word was denied them.



2. The reason I read romance novels is because I love the happily ever after. There is too much sadness in real life sometimes and I don't want to read about it for pleasure. Although the story was nice and there is a happy ending for the main characters, there is something tragic that happens to some other very lovable characters in the end that made me sad.



3. I read all three books: Lucky, Chase and Sage. I thought they were all wonderful. My favorites. I liked them so much I mailed them to my cousin in Michigan for her to read.



4. I have always loved Sandra Brown's novels, so it came as no surprise that I thouroughly enjoyed the Texas trilogoy. I read the entire series in one weekend. It's a fun read, full of intrigue as well as romance. I think anyone who reads it will agree with me.



5. The cover of this book was very good. It was just like new!! The delivery of the book was the fastest I have ever received on line. I highly recommend this company, you can't go wrong. Enjoy.

5 comments about Long Time Coming.

1. This is one of my favortie oldies by Sandra Brown. I re-read it last night, and I was crying at certain parts of this one. This is a story written in th 80's during SB's Loveswept time, but it's pretty much timeless. (Minus the IROC).
   
   LTC has tons of tension for a catagory romance, sexual and otherwise, and the sex is hot too for the time it was written. (No purple prose to be found!) I like the way Marnie stands up to Law and the way she plays her love close to her chest so that he can find out on his own terms.
   
   If you never read it, be sure to pick it up when in the mood for a fast easy read!



2. This is a great book, its interesting and will keep you reading. The last chapter is so heart-warming it just makes you want to hug the book. Marnie is pretty relatable and everything felt very real, the emotions too. If you enjoy a fast-paced romance with a twist, you should definitely read it.



3. As an avid reader of Sandra Brown, I was thrilled to find a "new" book -- only to find after a few pages that I had read the story before. Yes, there are ways to discover if it is a re-issue -- mainly, checking the publication date in the front. On Internet shopping, it is not as convenient. So, I have multiple copies of favorite authors, many with different covers, thus adding to the shopper who is in a hurry and just grabs the book by her favorite author because she doesn't remember the cover.



4. The book was ok but it had the exact ending I suspected all along. It was a little disappointing.



5. Ms. Brown has written better romance novels. Don't give up on her if this was your first Sandra book.
   
   The feeble female lead struggles with a 15-year crush that walks back into her life. The smug male lead acts like a jerk through most of the novel. The romance scenes grapple to muster up passion but fall short. Both of the main characters bothered me; my favorite character was the 17-year old.
   
   A quick read...about 4 hours (with interruptions) for me...but probably not worth it.

5 comments about The Switch.

1. I'm sorry, but this was one of the worst books I have ever read. I finished it only because I was traveling and didn't have a chance to pick up anything else. If this is the author's idea of romance, I feel sorry for her. A man who falls into the bed of a twin right after the death of her sister whom he also slept with...ewww. The relationships between Hart and the sisters was disgusting and degrading. There was also no real connection between the twins. Not to mention that the holes in the plot were big enough to fly a spaceship through. This is the only book by Ms. Brown that I have ever read, and nothing about it makes me inclined to pick up another one.



2. This is probably one of the worst of Sandra Brown's in the suspense category and I have read most of her books. The plot is so full of holes that you can drive multiple cars through. The characters are like cardboard cutouts. The writing is boring which is surprising since Brown has a knack for dragging me into her stories because of her style of writing even though her plots are usually sordid.
   
   The female protagonist is not admirable in my opinion and I have no idea why did she keep lying to the hero or why would he accept the deception. The whole plot is one stupid and sordid decision following another and filled with sordid coincidences, convenient revelations, poorly developed epiphanies and very weird motives on the part of all characters.
   And as usual with most Brown plots, the main characters fall in love after a one night stand and usually want to marry and have a baby by the end of their first week together, which tends to drive me crazy! For good character development and realistic relationship development read Nora Roberts instead.
   
   If you want to read Sandra Brown then I would recommend instead Envy, The crush, Unspeakable, Ricochet, Chill Factor, White hot.



3. Normally a Sandra Brown fan, I found this one low on plot and longer than it had to be. The chemistry between Melina and Chief was destroyed by his bedding her twin. Try any of her other books, not this one.



4. I honestly can't tell you if I liked this book or not. It was really fast-paced, exciting and interesting, and Brown writes really well, but some of the characters' decisions were just stupid and inexplicable. Basically, Brown sacrificed the relationship between the main characters in order to give the reader a big surprise twist at the end. And yes, I'll admit I didn't see the twist coming until right before it happened, but the cleverness of it was overwhelmed by the fact that I was angry and annoyed with the main characters and felt the relationship was ruined because of it. Overall, I'd probably recommend this book for the suspense and excitement, but it's definitely not my favorite and don't pick it up if you're looking for romance. I will say that Brown shows promise and I look forward to trying something else of hers, and will adjust my review accordingly once I do.



5. The plot was dreadful. The story line was ridiculous and the dialogue was mediocre. Don't waste your time.

5 comments about True Colors.

1. My title sums it up -- a very average read. If you're looking to pass (or waste) some time -- if you're not looking for any real substance, then this book will do. It's one of those books that you expect to be entertaining -- after all, it's got horses, sisters, tatooed men, a murder, a trial, a woman (no, make that two women) pining away for a lost love. But, in the end, it's just more of the same -- a hot romance, family quarrels, and a long long delay in resolution, with most of the loose ends tied up. About 3/4ths of the way through, I skipped to the end and did not read every word. There are too many books out there -- good books -- and so little time.



2. I cannot remember the last time I *DIDN'T* want a book to end. As I got closer and closer to the end of this book, I kept wishing there were a couple hundred more pages to read. Looooooooooooved it! I went to my local library and checked out 3 other books by her.



3. This book could have easily been cut in half! The author goes into so much meaningless detail, I finally started skipping pages. There was paragraph after paragraph of details about what each person was wearing. The author seemed to focus on describing so many trivial details that the story got lost.



4. This book was so good. It pulled at my heart strings, and it made me want to call my sister up, and tell her that I love her. Those of you with sisters. I encourage you to read this book!



5. Although this story of the Grey sisters (a ranching family in Washington state) is solidly in the chick lit genre, author Kristin Hannah does take on a topic that resonates with today's headlines. Following on from her storyline, she includes a character (Dallas Raintree), who marries one of the Grey sisters and later becomes false accused and sentenced for the crime of murder.
   
   Before that contemporary twist to the story, however, the novel centers on the relationships of the three Grey sisters, Winona (a lawyer), Aurora (a stay at home mom, who later opens her own store), and Vivi Ann, the most beautiful sister and the baby of the family. The story follows the sibling rivalries and much seeking of their father's attention (as their mother died when the girls were young). When the novel begins, it actually had echoes of Jane Smile's "A Thousand Acres."
   
   Then the story segues into a romantic triangle with Winona (unrequited), Vivi Ann, and Luke Connelly, a high school friend of Winona who comes back as a vet and falls hard for the youngest Grey sister. Tension and heart ache ensues as Luke proposes to Vivi Ann, but she falls for Dallas Raintree, a new hired hand on the ranch.
   
   Eventually Vivi Ann and Dallas marry, have a son, and make the once-struggling ranch profitable again. However, Dallas remained an outsider and when a woman from the wrong side of town gets murdered, he becomes the prime suspect. Despite Winona's status as a lawyer, she refuses to help with Dallas's defense due to ill will that has continued between the sisters' since their earlier conflict over Luke.
   
   Where the plot line moves from here is the true heart of the story, including how the sisters manage to reconcile, Dallas's continuing years in prison, and the way in which his son grows up in the shadow of a scorned father. While the ending might be predictable, the passageway to the final scenes remains compelling. Using information from groups like Project Innocence, Hannah gives a good portrait of a man trapped in a justice system that finds it easier to keep him jailed for the crime than to admit mistakes were made.
   
   Compelling, too, is the girls relationship with their father, which has never been easy. Rather than making him a character who changes his mind, Hannah allows the sisters, particularly his favorite Vivi Ann, come to see him for the person he is. This is a welcomed touch. No sister has all (or really, any) of the answers in the Grey family, just like life. At the end of the day, they have each other, and that is enough.

5 comments about Mirror Image.

1. I read this book about ten years ago, and it still remains my all-time Sandra Brown favorite. It is a suspense held thriller that includes sexually explicit scenes that puts you exactly where the action is.



2. I liked the story and thought it had great twists until the finale. The end of the book wraps up too quickly and leaves the reader asking why some of the characters did what they did. The story has a really interesting start with 2 women being confused at the sight of an airplane crash. One is dead, the other in the hospital with a burned face. The identities are mixed and the surviver is mistaken for the other women, an up and coming politican's wife. The love story is mixed in with the mystery, which makes the story move quickly. I just didn't like the way the story finishes in the end, although I liked the way the characters ended in the story. It is like the author decided it was time to end the story and then wrote one more chapter and it was done.



3. I read some of the reviews and the only thing that kept flashing in my head was.."Are you kidding me??" I couldn't believe the heroine. Yes the story starts of great, the plot would have been absolutely fascinating if not for the heroine. First she slips into this other woman's role and then her family and throughout she supposedly endears herself to the little kid and starts to fall in love with "her" husband and she cannot understand why he doesn't see "her". I mean COME ON ..get real she goes into the house supposedly trying to solve the mystery and does she do that .. NOPE she is too busy trying to make her fantasy come true.
   
   Unfortunately there was nothing about the heroine that I liked. I couldn't believe Sandra Brown actually butchered a wonderful plot with a contrived heroine.
   
   I much prefer her "switch". An excellent story..well written plot and thankfully great characters.



4. Really liked this book. Could understand how difficult a situation like that would be. She couldn't even talk and now her identity was being taken away from her. Don't that Tate cared that much about that though. He kept threatening to have her arrested, on what grounds? Not sure on that though. As he was the one that identified her as his wife and went all out for the plastic surgery and such. She just kept quite. That was her only fault, really. What was she supposed to do in that situation? Her life was a stake, and even his and his daughter's. I think he could have been a bit more compassionate towards her, especially after all the hateful things that he and his family said to her thinking that she was the Carole!
   
   The ending really wasn't even expected. I didn't even see that coming!



5. I think that the plot of Mirror Image worked better in theory than in practice. It was simply too implausible for me to really enjoy. I understand the notion of suspending disbelief. But, this book is SO incredible that it bordered on laughable. C'mon, your'e going to tell me that a man wouldn't know his wife's walk, talk, mannerisms (not to mention the look AND feel of his wife's body) and that another woman (who hadn't even taken the time to study the wife's personal habits, mannerisms, etc) could just step in and fool the entire family? Anyway, plot issues aside, Sandra Brown is one of the few authors that can take something so utterly ridiculous and still make it engaging and readable. So, though I thought the plot was beyond preposterous, I still read it and would give it three stars simply because though it was drivel, it was well written drivel.

5 comments about Exclusive.

1. All of her books I have read suffer from shortcomings that always point to the same problem:
   
   1) Hastily put together plots that just do not hold water.
   
   2) Hastily written stories that always, with some rewriting would have been much, much better.
   
   3) Stories that clearly show she did not bother to do any decent amount of research.
   
   And yet not a single one of her books is without redemption. Many of them are page turners that keep us entertained even if we have to badly suspend disbelief, and disregard one dimensional characters, to be able to enjoy them.
   
   My take is that she is a very talented writer; so talented, in fact, that she can constantly put half baked stories in print and they still hit the best seller lists all the time. I don't think there are many writers that can get away with that. She is the best, or at least one of the best, but she is lazy.
   
   This is my last of her books. There must be other writers that are almost as good as her, and still take care to give us polished stories. I am off to search Amazon.



2. The plot will keep you hooked all the time. The story has two or three happenstances that made it out of reality. Albeit those "coincidences" the story is fast paced and good enough to have a good time while reading it.



3. Did not receive the product I ordered. Received something else. E-mailed them and they did respond quickly with info on how to return. Took almost 3 weeks to receive my credit back though. I would not order from them again.



4. Seller did a great job caring for this book. It came in wonderful shape and I would definitely buy again from this seller. Fast shipping and in excellent shipping condition. Well worth the time and money to get such a great book.
   
   Story has a great subject line. Well written - like all of Sandra Brown books. Leaves you wondering what the story will really be. Surprise ending.



5. The book shipped pretty quick. The condition of this book is unexceptable. It is dirty, and sticky and we intend to just throw it away.

1 comments about Sandra Brown CD Collection 2: A Treasure Worth Seeking, Shadows of Yesterday, Prime Time.

1. When you are doing mindless typing and have the ability to listen to audio books for something uplifting and entertaining this collection has just that. In most cases after I have read a borrowed book from my best friend or the public library I am finding that I will also purchase the unabridged audio book. This works great when you can not sleep at night.
   
   For the people who enjoy detailed writing, a multitude of characters and just a great emotional roller coaster, well Sandra Brown's romance collection has everything. Thank you for keeping me entertained.
   
   An avid fan of excellent "Romance Stories"

2 comments about Sandra Brown CD Collection 1: Bittersweet Rain, Sweet Anger, Eloquent Silence.

1. Sandra Brown CD Collection was something I had to purchase after reading Bitter Sweet Rain. This writer takes me away from reality for a moment in time when I very much need it. All of the elements are in her stories, it touches base with sadness, joy, and laughter which is one of the best medicines a person could use in the coarse of a hectic day. A very detailed oriented writer that won me over several months ago.
   
   Thank you for entertaining me while I work.



2. Excellent audio tapes, good listening. I use these for road trips. Definitely recommend.

5 comments about Texas! Chase: A Novel.

1. Texas! Chase is by far the best book in the Texas! Trilogy. (Which includes Texas: Lucky and Texas: Sage). I really enjoyed this book. Marcie and Chase have known each other since grade school. Marcie has always been in love with Chase, but he was the gorgous, jock-type and she was the class brain with her nose always stuck in a book. Chase doesn't notice her as a potential girlfriend. He even calls her Goosey!(how awful). Anyway life goes on for Marcie and she becomes a real estate agent. Marcie is asked by Tanya (Chase's Wife) to help her find a new home for them because she is pregnant. Marcie is still in love with Chase, but she knows that she can never have him. So she agrees to help. Marcie and Tanya get in a car wreck, killing Tanya. Marcie was driving. she feels responsible, but she didn't cause the accident. Chase is completely devasted and leaves town. Fortuntly, Chase and Marcie meet some months later and thats where the story truely begins.......... This book keeps you on the edge of your seat. It has romance, jealousy, passion, suspense, and a complete hottie named Chase. Hope you enjoy Texas! Chase as much as I did!!



2. This book two of a trilogy is another excellent example of Sandra Brown's ability to craft characters and situations that leave you breathless. With each of the characters in the book, you reach a sharp mental image of exactly how they look, how they sound, and even the aroma of the character.
   
   The basic story is comprehensive and realistic. It ties with the other two amazingly. The ending had me turning the pages so rapidly I nearly wrinkled the page. Her ability to build tension and draw sympathetic feelings from the reader is phenomenal.



3. This book along with Texas Lucky and Texas Sage, were outstanding books to read,I enjoyed them very much. The story was well written and really kept me in suspence and anticipation to find out what happened in the end. In fact I enjoyed this book and the others so much that I have recommended all three books as a set to several of my friends. I liked Texas Lucky the best, but the other two books were also outstanding. I would like to see more series type books from Sandra Brown. she really does a fantastic job in writing her stories.



4. I am a Sandra Brown fan. Mirror Image and Witness are among my favorite books of all times and I also read French Silk and Sunset embrace which I liked a lot. But I was very disappointed with this book. Although most people have problems liking Chase, I found myself liking him. The man lost the wife he adored in a car crash and was devastated. He accepted Marcie's marriage proposal which was almost a blackmail ("I'll give you the money to save your company from ruin IF you marry me") but never lied to her about his feelings. And Marcie made that offer knowing Chase was still grieving his wife. But she became pushy in her eagerness to make Chase act like a normal, loving husband.
   
   Later it got even worse. The heroine turned out to be obsessed, belonging more to a shrink's couch than Chase's bedroom. To start with, she was in love with him since kindengarden, continued to be in love with him while he was happily married with another woman and still in love with him after his wife died and he left town for god knows where. And there's more...
   
   She was so in love with him, that when she saw a house she felt was perfect for Chase (Marcie's job is a real estate agent), she showed it to his wife so that they would buy it and Chase would live there. After Tanya's tragic death, Marcie (who had met Chase only twice since finishing highschool), bought the house without revealing that she was the buyer. On top of that, she furnished it IN THE STYLE AND COLORS THAT SHE KNEW CHASE LIKED, because she decided at that time that she would become Chase's wife and live with him in that house (this is all revealed in page 262, I am not imagining this). What woman in her right mind would buy and furnish a house, not according to her taste but to a man's she has never been involved with AND who has never, for a period of over 20 years, never showed any romantic interest for her? This is the very definition of obsessive, psycotic behavior. And she thought of it as her "gift" to Chase, a perfect house for him (how she could know his tastes so well since they'd never been that close is another question) with a perfect wife (that would be herself) to go along, so that Chase can live happily ever after (oh yes, according to Marcie this is all very unselfit sh, she only wanted to make Chase happy and she just "happened" to be the right person for him).
   
   I'm sorry but I was feeling like I was reading a lighter version of Stephen King's MISERY with Marcie as Kathy Bates, rather than a romance novel. There is a stalker in this book after Marcie and it was the only reason I leafed through the rest of the book to find out who he is. Marcie is the worst heroine I have ever read about and dragged the whole story to the bottom with her.



5. Ok ... let me start off by saying the whole romance genre is one that I see very low on the quality meter. It's pure fluff and mediocre writting as far as I'm concerned and whenever I read romance I can't help but think of Sandra Brown ... The whole "suspanse, thriller author" is lost on me. To me, Sandra Brown will always be the author of those books I used to hide under my covers at night and read while my parents were sleeping ...
   
   Now, for those of us who enjoy a dose of harmless fluff from time to time, Texas!Chase is a good addition. Story wise it's nothing new but I didn't expect better from a romance novel. In fact I look for less plot, very few characters and pages and pages of interaction between the 2 characters. This book delivers. The sex scenes are appropiately hot and the banter is fun, although a little childish ...
   
   WhEre I think the book misses the mark is with it's hero. I couldn't for the life of me understand why a succesfull, beautiful, smart woman like Marcie could have loved this man all her life. He didn't seem particulary appealing or handsome, he showed little intelligence and no maturity whatsoever, not to mention his failure in bed on the first night. As Alpha Males go, Chase Tyler was quite the disapointment. Most of the time, he's like a monkey showing of his assets to poor Marcie in the hopes of annoying her.
   
   Where the book does hit the mark however is in its heroine. I've read too many romance novels where the woman is so affectd by the sight of the man's "naked, tanned body" to the point where she can't function or of shebeasts heroines that scratch like "cats". I'm happy to report Marcie is nothing like that. She is a level-headed heroine who treats Chase "the Alpha bull" the only way he deserves: complete and utter indiference at his childish antics. Too bad she couldn't find it in herself to get herself a level headed hero ...
   
   Where the book fails to hit the mark again is in the ending plot, which is pointless and melodramatic and wastes precious page time that would have been better served in developing Chase's feelings for Marcie. As it is, his sudden devotion feels shallow and not as strong as to his dead wife, which in a romance novel is rather depressing ... You want to identify with the heroine, live her love story and be loved by the hero. In this one it's like the author is telling you "well you will do since the other woman is dead" ...
   
   So, in conclusion buy this book for a little mindless fun and stand in awe of the all mighty 80s "Alpha Male" at his most annoying.

5 comments about Rainwater.

1. This book is not the usual style that you might expect to see from Sandra Brown, but I loved the book. I do like Ms Brown's other books, but I also enjoy historical novels.... This story was such an easy read, with a poignant romance, set in the dust bowl era. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was very happy to see that the author could stretch herself to write a book like this.



2. This book is a little different from most of Sandra Brown's novels. The idea for the book came from a true story told to Ms. Brown by her father. It is a sweet but sad story set in the Texas during the dust bowl in the 1930's.
   
   David Rainwater is the new arrival at Ella Barron's boarding house. He will change her life forever. Mr. Rainwater is terminally ill and needs a place to stay close to his doctor until his illness progresses. He only has weeks to live and wants to make the best of them. Ella is a single mother of a special needs child who runs the boarding house with the hired help of a black woman named Margaret. She works very hard to run a respectable boarding house and care for her unusual child. She risks it all when they become involved in a very unpopular cause. There is a government program that buys starving cattle from ranchers who cannot afford to feed them. The cattle are then shot to death and buried. The local law enforcement will not allow starving people from town to butcher and eat them. Mr. Rainwater organizes a group of men to stand up to law enforcement so the poor can have meat. It becomes a gruesome battle! People are killed and homes are burned to the ground.
   
   I love the old fashioned, down home flavor of the story. Eating berry cobbler with cream, putting a block of ice in the ice box, washing clothes in a hand cranked wringer washer, snapping string beans for supper, going out for ice cream at the local drug store - all reminiscent of a slower, simpler time period and contrasting to the violent events occurring at the same time. People were starving and prejudice was thriving against the lower classes and races. Law inforcement was dishonest and untrustworthy. The good people had to band together to protect themselves.
   
   This is a good, quick story to read with lots of contrasts. There are surprises, some unexpected romance, lots of action and violence, and also sweetness and continuity.



3. I have never read a Sandra Brown novel before so I din't know what to expect. I was happy to discover a novel with a lot of rich meaning and a nice story.
   The book takes place in the depression era (1934 to be exact) where a hard working woman named Ella Barron struggles to take care of the tennants of her boarding house while dealing with a 9 year-old son with a severe case of autism. The novel begins with a new boarder moving in by the name of David Rainwater.
   
   From there the novel follows an interesting path dealing with issues such as racism, bigotry, poverty, and even finding love when you have given up on it. The novel isn't a deep soul searching revelation by any means. But with fleshed out characters, exciting scenes, and triumph in the face of natural pains and the evil men do, the novel is a very satisfying read. Two thumbs up.



4. Okay, I knew it was not going to be a favourite, I've glanced through her books before. This would not make a list of the Ten Worst Books I've Ever Read (and there's been some real garbage go through on my watch) but it would definitely be on a list of 50 Worst.
   
   All the way from hackneyed themes (of course we have to deal with superficial bigotry from a standpoint of ain't been there ever) and cardboard characters (does the hero absolutely have to have an errant lock of hair and be terminally ill? Does the bad guy really need the port wine stain birthmark and whiskey on his breath? After all, his dialogue already reeks), to simple research failures (Angus in Texas? Ms. Brown must be ashamed of the Brahma/Sta Gertrude cross cattle that really were there and exist mixed around with a few other strains even today), this book is so awful and so predictable and so stickily over-romantic it makes you want to urp, or worse.
   
   I'm cured, however -- no more of this author, no matter what. It is terrible to read a story and think how badly it is written; it is terrible to read a good idea that has been over-written. But it is awful to realize you just wasted your time wading through treacle so overdone and thickly laid on the stereotypical images even got tired. Yuk.
   
   pat chapin
   [...]



5. Single mom Ella Barron is struggling to raise her autistic son in rural Texas during the Depression. When boarder David Rainwater moves into the house, he opens her up to new possibilities. David has a sordid past and little to lose, but he takes a shine to young Solly, bringing him out of his shell, and has an impact on townspeople used to the status quo.
   
   "Rainwater" is a departure for readers used to Brown's contemporary romantic suspense novels, and is more akin to her early novels (which I typically don't care for). There are bits and parts that I liked, but overall, it just didn't seem like a fresh novel to me - perhaps because the story was bogged down with melodrama and clichéd characters; definitely not a page turner that I will read again.