Very entertaining beach read. Characters? Not so much

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	• Still Summer Jacquelyn Mitchard Grand Central Publishing, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 65 reviews view larger image
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starts slow, picks up speed and intensity

I listened to the book over a three week period. At first, it was a bit dull in the set-up of the main characters. Once however, the women go on their boat trip, the pace picks ups significantly. I couldn't wait to listen each day on my commute to and from work. Some elements were predictable while others did surprise me. This book doesn't get a five star review as some of the characters and storyline are rather predictable and fit a stereotype.

For example, the pirates are introduced early in the story, with the two men from South America as hideous individuals, reinforcing every bad story we have ever heard or read about criminals. It is obvious to the reader that the women and the pirates will have an encounter and that it will not be a good one. What Mitchard does well though is throw in some unexpected twists and turns within these predictable scenes, that kept me focused on how it would all end.

Overall, a good listen. Not sure how it is to read. Some other reviews have not been favorable in the book format.

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Very entertaining beach read. Characters? Not so much

I liked the book a lot and it was a nice semi-lurid read, but some of it bugged me (SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT):

1) Too much about the characters' beauty or former beauty or weight gain or fact that it was good that one wasn't delusional enough to dare to wear a bikini on their PRIVATE boat trip due to that "extra 20 pounds." Obsessive self-hatred much?
2) The whole pirates thing? Intriguing, but I didn't buy it. I liked the young American guy's story, but I just didn't believe for a minute that they would have been able to fend off rapists, sorry. And this part of the story read for all the world like a bad "romance" novel complete with lecherous swarthy men and enticing, duplicitous swinging of hips.

That's all I got!

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Flawed, but interesting and fun

Warning - hints about the book, maybe even outright spoilers!

Jacquelyn Mitchard has written an adventure on the sea involving old school friends and a daughter. When four old school friends schedule an adventure in the Carribean, one wimps out, and the teen daughter of one takes her slot on the boat staffed by two owner/operators. What happens next was riveting enough to keep me up one night reading, and overall, I enjoyed this book. It is not, however, perfect. Olivia turns out to be extremely narcissistic, and somehow the other friends hadn't figured that out yet. The friend left behind in the beginning, Janis, becomes a little over-the-top in her adventure at the end - for example, wouldn't she have gone to her surviving friends instead of hauling a boat back to St. Thomas? The surprise twist was seen way, way too early, so the surprise factor was lost. In one part of the book, the wrong character name was used. Still, this book was fun, and entertaining, and deserves three stars.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Secure your life preserver. Tie yourself to the mast. It's late August, but it's still summer, and Jacquelyn Mitchard is taking you on a thrill ride you won't forget. Mitchard made her mark in the literary world in 1996 when TheDeep End of the Ocean was chosen as the first pick for Oprah Winfrey's now-legendary book club. Since then, she has written six other novels, but none matches the suspenseful pitch of Still Summer.It's a tale of terror on the high seas, but this is no Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe. Readers know something terrible is going to happen, but Mitchard ratchets up the suspense by allowing her story to unfold at a leisurely pace. She painstakingly fleshes out her characters, because as readers will discover, their temperaments and personalities are as crucial to the story as the mounting disasters. Tracy Kyle, Holly Solvig and Olivia Montefalco, lifelong friends in their early 40s, charter a yacht and two-man crew for a sailing vacation that will take them from St. Thomas to Grenada. The trip starts out as an innocent adventure in paradise until two accidents in quick succession strand the women without their crew. What else can go wrong? In a word, everything. The engine conks out, the sails are torn, lack of electricity spoils their food and limits their drinking water - and then there's the injury to Holly's leg. Nature's fury, murderous drug dealers and, possibly most deadly of all, their own frailties and secrets are added to the list. Readers will wring their hands with frustration, weep with sadness and second-guess the choices these women make. But since characters must do the bidding of the authors who create them, we can only sit back - or sit on the edge of our seats - and let Mitchard's terror-filled tale wash over us.

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