Riptide

Rating:
Summary: Please don't bother
Review: I was in between Grisham, Balducci, Martini, Hunter, Pearson, Clancy, and Connelly, and this sounded intersting. OK, I won't say too much about the stalker, as that could have been a good story, although all the coincidences were too much.

but I have NEVER read a major author that wrote worse sounding dialoge. Ludlum in his last few books used dialoge that I assumed NO human would ever use in those situations, but this one made his last books seem good.

And please, a stalker that can get to ANYONE ANYWHERE is looking for you, and you run down the street 3 miles racing your "boyfriend" and hang around in his house a while alone, unguarded. I could have taken that until she had the characters speak again. Does she think people actually talk that stupid?

I doubt I will ever read a second book by her. I can't write at all but I know I could do better than that.

sad, very sad.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Worst Books I Have Ever Read.
Review: This is first book that I've read by Catherine Coulter and if it's any indication of her other work it will be my last. I wish I had read the customer reviews before I had bought the book. Her characters would suddenly change the subject on the dialogue in the middle of a paragraph or a sentence. I kept rereading paragraphs thinking I had missed some key element that would help this all make sense. I hadn't. The characters were juvenile. Her heroine appeared to have a severe case of hyperactivity or a severe personality disorder. The plot was extremely unplausible. This book was truly bizarre.

Rating:
Summary: Keep this in mind
Review: I feel sorry for anyone who picked this book up without realizing its written by a romance novelist (you know those books that have the half naked people on the front?). The dialogue and believability of the characters were on par with those in romance novels. I didn't find any of the dialogue remotely believable... a few times I laughed. Do people actually talk like that?

After just finishing "Deadly Decisions" by Kathy Reichs, this book pailed in comparison. I don't read romance novels for the quality of dialogue and the character development.. if you catch my drift.

Rating:
Summary: New Character Type...
Review: I generally enjoy Catherine Coulter's stories, but I am getting pretty bored with her characters. It seems that they are all various manifestations of the same character (regardless of era). They all talk the same (rather stilted, sort of robot-like), the women all like to hit their men (what is that about??), they all seem to have the same likes, dislikes, predjudices, etc... I'd like to see her introduce some new characters, not give the olds ones new names. It's especially tedious when you have 4 or 6 of them together in the same plot line as in this book (Riptide), some of whom we met in previous stories. Riptide is a basically entertaining story, but I don't think I am going to buy any more of her books - I can re-read the ones I have and get about the same story.

Rating:
Summary: Riptide
Review: At one time I enjoyed reading Catherine Coulter novels although I have not done so for quite a few years. I was enticed by Ms. Coulter's blurb on the back cover of the paperback and bought it. What a disappointment! I did hang in and read it to its conclusion, but what a waste of time. The dialogue was inane! True, Ms. Coulter wrote the book but what were the editors and publsher thinking? Just because you have a "name" doesn't mean the public should be duped into reading nonsense.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of suspense that keeps one guessing 'till the end!
Review: This was a really great book! I know it wasn't as romantic as her other novels but for me, all the suspense made up for it. From the way the summary had been given inside the cover, I'd expected as much anyway. I love the main caracter, Becca and I found the story really picked up when Adam showed up. The whole Tyler thing was just spooky (makes you think of your own guy friends) but a great ending, especially with Adam finding out about Becca's "run-in" with Tyler at the end.

I love all of Catherine Coulter's books, romance or suspense!

Rating:
Summary: Dialogue leaves a lot to be desired
Review: I was very disappointed with the dialogue in this book. The plot was ok however there was too much going on and not enough conclusions by the time the book was completed. Instead of the FBI and ATF discussing crimes one would have thought that these were high school teenagers talking. FBI agents saying we have trouble "Big Time"? I don't think so.I have never been so disappointed as I was with THIS book. Having never read this author before I must have been looking for something else because whatever it was?? It was not in this book. Patricia Cornwell?? she is NOT!!

Rating:
Summary: What happened?
Review: Riptide could not have been written by the same person who wrote The Maze and The Cove!!! Neither the characters nor the plot was ever developed. The main character reminded me of a woman who overdosed on caffeine. I think my twelve year old neice could have written a better book. I was extremely disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Wasted Time Reading and Wasted Time Writing
Review: It may become obvious that this is my very first review. I was, however, prompted to write after finishing this book. I have read few books in the last five years that were so poorly written and had such a lame plot. Nothing in this book could have been researched. Hopefully, the FBI, CIA or any of the individuals representing those organizations are so inept as portrayed by CC. She could have told this story much better in a short story for a womans magazine. The plot would have made a writer for a soap opera blush. Please no more. I read the hard cover edition.

Rating:
Summary: Overpriced doorstop.
Review: I have a rule I try to follow which states that if I don't finish reading a book because it's amazingly bad, I also don't write in here about it (because I don't consider it to have been read by me, ya follow?). However, I just have to say something about this one. I expected it to be a standard thriller, decently written and reasonably well-crafted. Why? Oh, because I'd heard of the author and knew she was a bestseller, and blahbady blahbady blah. But I should have immediately scolded myself for THAT crazy assumption -- we all remember what happened to Thomas Harris and "Hannibal," right? I won't say "Riptide" is as badly written as "Hannibal," so if you didn't mind the latter, you probably won't mind the former. But just about every page in Riptide had a sentence that made me gag. Some of them were just badly written (split infinitives for no good reason, e.g.), some were just excessively cheesy and woefully out of character, and others were stilted or out of place in the plot. I got to about page 100 and gave up. I don't know if all her books are like this (have I even read any others? I can't remember), but if they are, it's scary that they're all bestsellers. Even the characters were all two-dimensional and stereotypical. Where are our standards, people? This book stinks! Quick! Run! Get out while you still can!