Suze

Not as amusing as I had hoped for, but I did learn some interesting biblical facts and interpretations that I wasn't aware of before.
I realize the author was the reader and that distracted from it immmensely. Had we had a different reader I might have enjoyed it more. His voice totally annoyed me !

I'm willing to give this a 2 star because the author is generally a really funny guy and I loved his other books. Skinny Dip was wonderful. But...not this one.
It bored me..it made no sense...it had nothing either exciting or interesting or captivating about the plot. It just rambled on and on. I had no objection to the reader...I objected to being objected to this bunch of nonsense!!
For me, a big time waster.

Holy Cow....talk about being glued to someones hip & being afraid to speak up for fear of losing a 'friendship'.
Mariana Pasternak overlooked despicable traits in her' friend' Martha Stewart because she so enjoyed the life she was living. The whole thing made me ill.
This life of privilege and snobbery and feeling entitled, and constantly excusing it all to come back for more.OH MY. From the ridiculous relishing of drinking tea from special tea leaves to buying up houses and the fancy schmancy parties. So self absorbed.
The reader, while her voice was lovely, only made all of it so much more nauseating. The saddest part....you can tell that Mariana still wishes she were friends with Stewart and only through Stewarts undoing did it fall apart...NOT because Mariana was able to ever stand up for herself & tell Stewart how disgustingly she behaved.
As the story droned on and on I kept thinking...damn...END ALREADY.

even better and more exciting than the first one in the trilogy..easier to get in to. Have pre-ordered the third book...can not wait! Shame we'll not have any more from this amazing writer/story teller.

While a bit tough to get into initially...once you do you will not ever be able to put it down. It mesmerized me, it transported me, it kept me highly interested. Saw the Swedish film version which remained faithful to the book..thank goodness.
Then I immediately read the second in the series which was even better then the first (if that's possible !)..now I have pre-ordered the last in the trilogy and I cant wait.

at times drawn out, at times kinda far fetched but, for the most part good plot twists, good ending and pretty good writing.

What a complete waste of good reading time. I hated the narrator. The story was ridiculous. Patterson is a dreadful author. I can't believe I wasted a credit on this.

Well.....it really had me in the beginning. I couldn't put it down. I was gonna love this I was sure. But then...3/4 of the way through came the "big reveal' of one of main characters and the Lost Symbol was lost to me forever ! What a nonsense plot twist that was.
From there on it got ridiculous. It got wordy. It got boring. It got preachy.
It no longer had me. AT ALL.

I saw where many reviewers didn't like the reader, but I thought he was terrific. I felt he did a very good job and his voice was very easy, clear and pleasant. I had no objection what-so-ever to the variety of voices he used for the different characters.
I'd never read anything by Finder before. Thought it was a pretty decently engaging story and loved the way it turned out.
Now I'll look to see what other things he's written and what this reader has narrated.

First and foremost...what a wonderful reader. If you closed your eyes you were in China and visualizing the cast of characters completely.
Everything about this novel was stunning except the last 35-45 minutes.
I have no idea why the author wrapped the storyline up with such a poor ending because, yes..it made it feel there's a sequel in the works, even tho I'll bet there isn't one.
The ending seemed contrived and kind of weird....like she just had to finally end the story and she picked this worthless ending.
It would have had 5 stars had it not been for that.

started out great...loved the characters, especially Wynn.
Then..somewhere it went off the deep end into a ridiculous storyline with waaaay toooo much going on, most of it unbelievable.
Sorry, it lost me.