pinkcottondoll's review against another edition
4.0
It's a heartwarming story that cheers you up when you lose hope at humanity. I love Matthew even if he seemed like a jerk at times. Deep down inside he's actually a really nice guy and it shows when he's with Isabelle (my favourite character). Although I found Amelia annoyingly self-righteous in the beginning, she grew on me by the middle of the book. The only part that annoyed me a little was how Ben always relied on Matthew to clear up his mess though.
nbrickman's review against another edition
1.0
I have loved all of her books but this one was awful. Avoid.
davidscrimshaw's review against another edition
4.0
I would have liked this book to go on longer. I was interested in the characters and wanted to know what happened with them. I found it to be a light read with enough surprises to keep me interested throughout.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
1.0
Radnor Library was closed on Saturday and I am a little bit mad at them because I forgot to anticipate this and was stuck with very few options for reading material in my apartment...to the "Never Got Around to Reading Pile" we go and away we come with a bit of a turd.
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh but this was really just not a good book. The story was a little on the trite side: Matthew allows two homeless children -- Danny, 10, and Isabella, 3 -- into his apartment late one night while he is high on E because Isabella is sick. He passes out before the situation can get sorted out, and wakes up to discover that their drug addict mother has robbed him and left the kids behind. Matthew's got to catch a flight to Tokyo but Isabella is still asleep so he tells Danny to get out once she wakes up. Predictably, Danny decides to take advantage of the fact that Matthew's going to be out of town for a week and has a swanky apartment with electricity and food and a bed.
Then there's the situation between Matthew, his best friend Ben and his ex/Ben's current girlfriend Amelia. Amelia and Ben broke up, essentially, because Amelia had ethical issues with Matthew's decision to abandon med school for a career as a pharmaceutical exec. Knowing that Ben always had a crush on Amelia, Matthew decides to play matchmaker. Amelia's convinced that he did it to prevent her from protesting a medicine made by Matthew's company, which could also hurt Ben.
I don't know, it was hard to follow.
The major problem with this book is the characters. It's like Tucker decided to write this book and sat down to do the Creative Writing 101 character sketches but decided to rush through them and only got the roughest, briefest idea of who these people are. I want to say they're cookie-cutter, but that's in inaccurate adjective. It's just that their actions and motives aren't believable to me, and I'm frustrated by how they see the world in such black-and-white terms. Especially Amelia. From the get-go, she assumes that Matthew has sinister intentions for every action but she's the one intentionally trying to bring down his company. Gah! She irritated me so much, and I really didn't get why she continued to interact with Matthew on any level. Matthew could be bizarrely sinister at times, and I was never sure what he was up to. I really super didn't understand Matthew's motivation for having Danny and Isabella pose as children he intends to adopt, just to show off to Amelia and Ben that he can be a grown-up.
So: Convoluted plot and unlikable, half-assed characters. Not a great start to this year. Also, once I leave Philadelphia this summer, I am never reading a novel that takes place here ever again.
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh but this was really just not a good book. The story was a little on the trite side: Matthew allows two homeless children -- Danny, 10, and Isabella, 3 -- into his apartment late one night while he is high on E because Isabella is sick. He passes out before the situation can get sorted out, and wakes up to discover that their drug addict mother has robbed him and left the kids behind. Matthew's got to catch a flight to Tokyo but Isabella is still asleep so he tells Danny to get out once she wakes up. Predictably, Danny decides to take advantage of the fact that Matthew's going to be out of town for a week and has a swanky apartment with electricity and food and a bed.
Then there's the situation between Matthew, his best friend Ben and his ex/Ben's current girlfriend Amelia. Amelia and Ben broke up, essentially, because Amelia had ethical issues with Matthew's decision to abandon med school for a career as a pharmaceutical exec. Knowing that Ben always had a crush on Amelia, Matthew decides to play matchmaker. Amelia's convinced that he did it to prevent her from protesting a medicine made by Matthew's company, which could also hurt Ben.
I don't know, it was hard to follow.
The major problem with this book is the characters. It's like Tucker decided to write this book and sat down to do the Creative Writing 101 character sketches but decided to rush through them and only got the roughest, briefest idea of who these people are. I want to say they're cookie-cutter, but that's in inaccurate adjective. It's just that their actions and motives aren't believable to me, and I'm frustrated by how they see the world in such black-and-white terms. Especially Amelia. From the get-go, she assumes that Matthew has sinister intentions for every action but she's the one intentionally trying to bring down his company. Gah! She irritated me so much, and I really didn't get why she continued to interact with Matthew on any level. Matthew could be bizarrely sinister at times, and I was never sure what he was up to. I really super didn't understand Matthew's motivation for having Danny and Isabella pose as children he intends to adopt, just to show off to Amelia and Ben that he can be a grown-up.
So: Convoluted plot and unlikable, half-assed characters. Not a great start to this year. Also, once I leave Philadelphia this summer, I am never reading a novel that takes place here ever again.
smaravetz's review against another edition
3.0
I have mixed feelings on this book- while I had trouble putting it down, I'm not entirely sure I liked it. It does have some interesting themes; dealing with ethics, personal morals and what's more important- being kind to people you know or doing good for a larger group of people? The premise is somewhat complicated; a young boy who is mature beyond his years cares for his sister while his mother struggles with drug addiction. A pharmacy company exec. plays matchmaker between his ex-girlfriend, a medical ethics journalist, and his best friend, a scientist who develops drugs that could save thousands of people. Through a chance meeting, the executive takes in the homeless children, which causes a ripple effect through his life and those around him. The characters were interesting- no one is entirely likable, with the exception of the toddler- which I actually find refreshing and more like real life. People are complex, and if the author's intention was to make me think about who was "good" and who was "evil" in this book, it worked.
msemmyv's review against another edition
1.0
What can I say about this book, other than I couldn't get through it..... I only made it to page 192. I really tried hard with this book, however, it was so BORING! Usually, I go through books really fast. This book was different. I couldn't wait to put it down and never wanted to pick it back up. I decided to put this book down for good.... maybe I'll try again... in a different life.
suzmac's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting. Pharmaceutical exec who may be less evil that his brilliant friend the research doctor. I thought the story would focus more on the child, Danny. May try one of her other books.
watermelonvodka's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed aspects of this book. but other aspects, like Matthew's job, and Ben's job, and Amelia's job... bored me to tears. I was not at all interested in those parts whatsoever and sometimes I found myself spacing out or skimming during those parts. I really quite enjoyed the rest of it, like all the parts with Danny, the back story of Matthew and Amelia's relationship, and the progression of Danny's situation with Matthew. one part even made me teary. if it wasn't for all the pharmaceutical stuff, or if there was significantly less of it, this could have been a 4 star book for me