Rating: 
Summary: Great story but where is that sparkle!
Review: I have been a diehard fan of Gone With the Wind since i first saw it when i was a little girl. I had become obsessed with the movie and wanted to become Scarlett (of course that never happened). But as a little girl i always believed in happy ending and the end of GWTW just wasn't that happy to me. But the novel Scarlett finally gave me that happy ending i had always wanted as a child, even though the novel seemed to have Scarlett more different and mature then you ever believed possible and Rhett more hard and less scarcastic. But the book is still a can't set down till the end book. It isn't as great as the original but it is still just as powerful and amazing. It is definately worth your time and effort in reading it! It is still truely one of the best stories ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolute Drivel
Review: If you have ever read Gone With the Wind, even once, you'll know that Scarlett is a book not even worth reading. It's true that it's a different author in a different time period. And if the characters had had different names, it wouldn't be so intolerable. But as a sequel, the book is horrible. The writing is nothing like Margaret Mitchell's, and I didn't even recognize the characters. They may have had the same names, but their personalities were lost. Maybe I'm biased. GWTW is my favorite book, as well as my favorite movie. But Scarlett is absolute drivel. The saucy, spoiled brat that we all know and love has been transformed into a whiny, mindless shadow of her former self. All she wants is Rhett. None of the growth shown in the original story is present in the sequel. Rhett doesn't sparkle as he used to. The former sarcasm and witt is destroyed behind a wimpy, serious facade that just doesn't fit with the hero of so many of our dreams and fantasies. The situations the characters are put through are incredible and unbelievable, sometimes even downright laughable. Well known and beloved characters are discarded for a new cast of less interesting characters sprung the mind of a trashy romance novelist. The book doesn't have the feel of GWTW. It's Ripley's story and Ripely's characters, and the only thing it has in common with the original is the names of the characters. If you want to spend your weekend curled up with a good book featuring a heartfelt romance, a vivid supporting cast, beautiful scenery, and characters that can never be duplicated, read GWTW. Don't even bother to check Scarlett out of the library; it's not even worth your time to read the synopsis on the jacket cover.
Rating: 
Summary: i have to say, i'm pretty disapointed
Review: "Scarlett" wasn't, at all, Gone with the Wind. I could see, from the first few pages, that it's not the same quality at all. At first, i was angry that anyone should try to compare to such an obviously amazing book like Gone with the Wind. Nothing can really comapare to it. But, then, sequals are never better than the original. As i read on, i was still pretty disapointed. I didn't understand how Scarlett, to who Tara means everything, could suddenly dubb it "not home anymore". Yet, like everyone, i was curious so i read on. I am not completly soothed, and i still think that "Scarlett" comes nowhere near to Gone with the Wind, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Gone with the Wind will always hold such a charm for me that no book can ever match, let alone top.
Rating: 
Summary: Romance Novel
Review: Margaret Mitchell's book was a masterpiece of Southern literature, weaving a story about the rise and fall of the confederacy and the hardships of reconstruction around the love story of Scarlett and Rhett. While significant legal and historical research is evident in Ms. Ripley's book, it does not approach the historical and literary heights of Gone With The Wind and is nothing more than a romance novel. Sadly, I paid $25 for the hardcover of this book when it first came out. I am disappointed to see it being sold on ... for less than $7. Not a very good book investment on my part.
Rating:
Summary: Terribly inconsistant, but well written
Review: Unfortunetly, the fact that the story line did not follow itself was rather annoying. First off, isn't the store in Georgia property of Ella? So why would Scarlett sell it when she has plenty of money? Also, why did Comet change from a mare to a male horse halfway through the book? What made working for her people "increasingly burdensome" during the pregnancy when she gave birth only 4 1/2 mos. in to it? At 4 mos. pregnant, how could the officer tell that she was pregnant? How did Luke pull her horse close to his by pulling on the mane? Horses have o nerves in their mane; you can pull the mane right out (and many do) and they wouldn't feel a thing. And why is she squeezing the horse with her knees, when she not only is riding sidesaddle but riders use their calves, not their knees, to signal to a horse? The book was well-written, to be sure, but needed a lot of editing. It did not seem like Scarlett, to be sure, to suddenly decide she no longer really needed Tara and to run off to another country. If it had not been a sequal to Gone With The Wind, it would have worked out fine, but this book did not seem to stick with Scarlett's inner charactor one bit.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Indulgence - Lots of Fun!
Review: I am almost embarrassed to admit that I read this book - a sequel to Gone With the Wind?! It just sounds so ridiculous on so many levels! Yet, not only did I read it, but I loved it! Scarlett is real mind candy - engrossing and terrifically fun to read. I actually read the whole thing (all 884 pages) in two days while recovering from the flu - I almost never put it down and was completely absorbed by it. Alexandra Ripley's writing may not be the absolute best, but the story is riveting, carefully planned, and filled with well-developed characters. Ripley indeed picks up where Margaret Mitchell left off, and does so with great respect for the integrity of the original story. Don't laugh - Scarlett is a fantastic story and is a must for anyone who loved Gone With the Wind.
Rating:
Summary: The Next Episode
Review: Like many other fans of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the wind, I ventured into the reading of Alexandra Ripley's Scarlet, with a mixture of anticipation and deep foreboding. Anticipation because, after all, who WOULDN'T want to know what happened to one of the worlds most beloved couples. Foreboding beacause of the terror that the author may in fact help in totally killing off the character that Margaret Mitchel so lovingly created. But I was not to be dissapointed. In fact, I felt that this book would have deserved all five stars, had it been for the fact that the original idea of the charachters of Scarlett and Rhett were not her own. Alexandra Ripley does not just write a sequel to a novel. She takes a storyline and melds it into her own, a distinct writing style which compliments the novel itself and somehow, also manages to distinguish itself from the previous. The storyline has grown- just as the charachters (Scarlett in particular) grow with her. Those who venture into the reading of the novel with the thought in mind that this will be a poor novel will be totally surprised. I (like many others) feel that there has been a lot of thought and creativity put into this project, resulting in a masterpiece.If there are others who wish to react to this, they may contact me. Outstanding!
Rating:
Summary: Dreadfully disappointing
Review: "Gone With The Wind" is my favourite book, and like many others I bought this book because who doesn't want to know what happens with Scarlett and Rhett? I was so disappointed. Our herione spends at least three quarters of the book acting in a most un-Scarlett like manner, and Rhett seems to have lost some of his bite as well. If you love "Gone With the Wind", leave it there.
Rating:
Summary: i love this book
Review: Gone with the wind was the best book i have ever read. Margaret Mitchell made it so that i actually felt the characters, but the end frankly dissapointed me. i had a series of question like, does scarlett get rhett back? what happens when she goes to tara? does rhett realize he really loves scarlett or finally divorces her? what happens to ashely without melanie? i needed to know. so when i heard there was going to be a sequal i didn't know what to do. i was afraid the sequal would dissapoint me even further since it was written by a different author. nonetheless, i had to find the answers to my questions so i read it. i am so glad i did. the sequal is fascinating. i loved the way Ripley started right where Gone with the wind had ended, and she gave the characters their same personalities. but at the same time allowed us to see them grow and mature. if you love gone with the wind you'll like the sequal. i admit the originals are always better, but it doesn't hurt to read the sequel. it's still a great book and it shows how scarlett changes from a spoiled brat to a mature and independent women. so if you were dissapointed to see gone with the wind end, why not see what happens next by reading the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Why would you compare it to Margaret Mitchell?
Review: It isn't, after all, her work. I guess that maybe the sequel shouldn't have been written, but it's been done and I'd say it isn't that terribly bad... True, the book isn't GWTW. I didn't expect it to be, and if you expect it to be, then go back and read GWTW; skip this. But if you want to know what could have been possible, read this book. All in all, I don't think this is a bad book. I wouldn't compare Larry McMurtry to Tom Clancy, and I won't compare Alexandra Ripley to Margaret Mitchell. However, the book is written well, the characters aren't that far off base and the story line is credible, if you take into consideration the times, the factors, and the general feelings of the era. Don't take this book in your hands and expect to find Ms. Mitchell in the pages. Instead, take this book and expect to find new characters and new situations that might just expand your own mind. And just in case you haven't seen the movie, or even if you have...skip it and read the book. The two are completely different and the movie is so lame it's unbelievable.
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