Rating: 
Summary: Jumping Around From Clausen's Pier
Review: I heard the author on a radio talk show and I read the book because it sounded interesting. The main character, Carrie, is getting ready to leave a relationship as she goes to a ritual Memorial Day picnic with her childhood and college sweetheart, Mike and other college friends. He suffers an accident while diving off a pier and becomes a quadraplegic. Unfortunately, the author jumps from the point of the accident to Mike in a coma in the hospital. A little description of the accident and the aftermath would have allowed Carrie to evaluate her feelings towards Mike even more. After that Carrie has a sense of duty to Mike even though she was planning to breakup with him. But she also wants to live her life. The author makes a another jump with Carrie's decision to go to New York. On one page she ponders running away and on the next she is driving towards NYC. A little more description of her thought processes would have been interesting. Once in New York, the book starts to read as a Harlequin Romance with her new boyfriend, Kilroy. But the author does a good job of developing the conflict between Kilroy and New York and Mike and Madison, Wisconsin. She also does well on the topic of the evolution of childhood and college relationships and friendships once lives take different courses. Eventually Carrie choses between her old Madison self and her new New York self. In making this decision for her main character, the author leaves a lot of loose ends. Perhaps a sequel is in the works.
Rating: 
Summary: Does this girl ever stop whining!!!!
Review: This book sounds interesting, but does not deliver. I became very frustrated with the main character. It seemed like she felt guilty just so that those around her would feel sorry for her. Actually, she feels so sorry for herself that there is little space for anyone else!!! I ended up siding with Mike's parents when they tell her that they feel she isn't "reliable". She pretends to be a strong woman, but is really just a spoiled brat. Don't bother reading this one!!Oh. . . WHO lives in New York for 3 months for FREE??? Come on Ms. Packer!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A captivating story that falls flat.
Review: While I enjoyed reading this book, I felt disappointed somehow by its ending. Carrie Bell is narrating the story and we discover that she is suffocating in her life. She is 23 and engaged to her high school sweetheart but the love she felt is no longer there. Unfortunately, her fiance, Mike, is involved in a diving accident and paralysed for life. Carrie has a whole new set of obligations to rise to and consequently her moral dilemma begins. While I do not blame Carrie for leaving behind her hometown and heading out for a life of her own, she could have at least had some closure with her family, friends and most certainly with Mike. She spends her entire time in this book running away which causes the reader to have no real connection with her, we just cannot empathize. She meets Kilroy while in New York and jumps into a relationship with him. Then she is torn between her life there and her obligations to the people back at home. Carrie just cannot make a decision and face the consequences. We want to see Carrie mature and learn something from the choices that she has made, but by the end, I just felt let down. She never had the courage to truly follow her heart. She let others choose for her, even after her courageous move away from home. This book does however raise some interesting questions for ourselves. What would you do in such a situation? Would you choose loyalty over love? Also, the author was able to use some beautiful prose in this book. Her writing ability is wonderful, I just think that the characters themselves were a little unrealistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful & sophomoric
Review: The main character's "friends" from Wisconsin are incredibly immature and unworldly; she decides to dump them for NY, and starts to have an interesting life; but she ends up dumping NY to return to a ridiculous life at home with her mother and immature friends. Her choices were dreadful. Don't bother - there's no depth here.
Rating:
Summary: Still scratching my head at Clausen's Pier
Review: This was an interesting book. It kept my attention. However, I found I did not like the main character at all. She is weak and selfish. I found parts of the book unbelievable. Like, this would not happpen in real life. I think some of the characters cut Carrie a break when they shouldn't have. In a positive note to the author, if she was trying to get my attention, she did.The book has left an impression. But I can't say it is a positive one.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Story
Review: This is the kind of book that makes you think about how you would react if tragedy fell into your life. Carrie and her fiance, Mike, are drifting apart. As Mike attempts to rekindle her affections, or at least get her attention, he dives into a shallow reservoir and ends up paralyzed. Carrie's response to Mike's injury is written beautifully, but it is ultimately so self-serving that it is hard to care about her as a character. Mike is never really developed as a character, so it's tough to care much about him, either. I read this story with a voyeuristic curiousity about what these two were going to do next, without really caring about or becoming emotionally invested in either of them. The best part of the book is the beginning, before Mike's injury, where Carrie describes her feelings, how they are evaporating, and how she can't stop the tide of ennui with Mike. Anyone who has experienced those feelings will marvel at the beauty, poignancy, and accuracy with which Packer depicts them. The second best part of the book is the introspection that comes along with reading the book. How would you handle this? What would you do if your young lover was suddenly paralyzed and your life completely and forever changed? Overall, this novel is well worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly surprising and wonderful
Review: I loved this book and I can't quite get away from it. There is a wonderful lesson about loving people here. People aren't always what they seem; each situation gives something new. Don't miss this book. I am a librarian; I read everything. There is something here that you cannot miss.
Rating:
Summary: Altruism at its Worst
Review: I confess that I am probably a very selfish person and would not sacrifice myself for someone I did not love. I liked the book and it was a good read, until the ending, which was not realistic and totally unconvincing. The worst part of the ending is that it depressed me, considering that the young woman, from the very beginning of the novel, before the accident, wants out of the relationship. To satisfy a girlfriend, she returns, after running away from her hometown and deliberately sabotages her future knowing that she will not go back to the life she was starting to build in New York. I neither admire her nor do I applaud her self-sacrificing decision.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: I actually liked the middle part of the book best, although perhaps not for the reasons the author intended. It's a very good description of what someone from Madison thinks life in New York would be like. As someone who lives in New York, I have to say it's pure fiction. OTOH, the book never claims to be anything but.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful prose, irritating character
Review: Mike is paralyzed. Kilroy refuses to open up and let anyone else inside. Carrie Bell loves them both and, through the course of this narrative, destroys them both. But it's not just her lovers she destroys, but her friends and family, too. And that's my main problem with this novel. I have little patience for any novel that doesn't allow me to have any sympathy for the protagonist and this novel doesn't take long to slide too easily into this category. Carrie Bell is self-centered and glides through her life with nada regard for how her actions might hurt other people and then has the audacity to wonder why other people hate her so much. Well, I hated her, too. With that said, I should tell you that this novel, despite the above, is extremely well-written. Packer has a good, even-paced style and a true gift for knowing how to put just the right words in just the right order on just the right page (While out of context, the line "How extraordinary...that someone can touch you and make you into something" still stands out in my mind). The beauty of her prose are just about the only thing that kept me reading this novel. Did I mention how much I hated Carrie Bell?
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