Kathryn

I liked the story. I really did. I kept building this tense feeling knowing there was going to be this explosion of madness and life or death struggle.. the victim becoming the triumphant..I knew it!! Imagine my dismay when the train I was riding on, just pulled the brake instead of falling off the bridge. I was disappointed so much in the ending that I am still grieving for the story that could have been. The characters were decent for the most part. Still wondering why the husband and the 2 children were even in the story, because at the end.. they had nothing to do with nothing. At all. Even the trouble with her daughter had nothing to do with anything. Thinking on it.. why was anyone else in the story beside Eliza and Walter? I expected more from such a good premise. I'm telling you not too. The high reviews, well, I'm not sure what they are based on. I am glad they got more out of it than I did. The ending blows it for me. Linda Emond is great tho. She was the best about it. Mediocre at 2 1/2.

I wasn't sure I was going to truly like this book and get caught up with it the way some reviewers seemed to have been. I expected a complex story with complex characters and maybe getting bogged down in the details as some authors can do with their writing style. Well, what I expected is not what I got. That isn't a bad thing either. The telling of these two stories, the older Vivian and the younger, Molly ,didn't need a whole lot of complicated backstory to make you enjoy who they were and to see how the seperate personalities, weaved their own brave stories together and made it true emotional journey. I found myself holding my breath a few times, tearing up more than I will admit and laughing outloud. It didn't leave me hanging in the end either..it came to an almost complete circle in its telling and I, for one, like that. The narrator, Jessica Almasy, I wasn't sure about her . She talked really fast and I thought perhaps I had sped up her voice but after checking more than once, I figured out it was just her. I am sure there was a reason behind this and after awhile it stopped bothering me. The story, the book, is a wonderful one tho. Its a good credit spent.

I had been having a hard time finding a book in my normal genre so I decided to explore fiction and found this one. Way off the normal path my books take and I am so glad I did. I think I had forgotten how to listen to a simple story and enjoy it. How we don't need all the plot twists,evil seeds and action to make it good. Just like other reviewers, I fell in love with the characters and the narrators did such a wonderful job with them I cannot imagine anyone not liking this book. I am not going to repeat what the majority have already said. Read other reviews if you want more in depth. I'm just going to say.. even if this isn't what you are used to listening to.. if you are looking for something new or a change of pace or even waiting for the next in your series to come out..listen to Heft... it makes us remember why we like books/audiobooks.

An audiobook can only be successful if the listener gets wrapped up in that narrators rendition. For me, this was not the case. Shut Your Eyes Tight was narrated by Scott Brick and I would say that book was better than this one for the sole purpose of the narration. It was hard to tell when one voice or conversation ended and another began so I did get thrown off at probably some key points. There are times where he tries to shake it up a little bit and add a different voice or tone here and there, but he doesn't keep it consistant so I found myself saying..Who is this now? I was getting aggitated by his voice and had to shut it off and take some deep breaths. It's bad when the review isnt about a book at all, but about narration. I don't need a Hollywood production, but I do have to find the reading pleasant and at least interesting. He is boring. Thru and thru. Be careful with this one. You might be better buying the paper novel and listen to the audio with the other 2 in this series.

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors and I would love to talk her up to say what some others did. I found this book good, not mind blowing. Entertaining, not stunning. Completely disfunctional family, I really liked no one or have an empathy for any of them. Their lives were one mistake after another. I was able to figure out certain parts that I am assuming were supposed to be twists, so no surprises there. No one emerged the victor and found the pshyco 'Nick' , a little over the top. I did have the ending figured out or at least a probability half way thru, then 3/4 thru I was pretty sure.
So decent enough, wasn't disappointed, but not high fiving Lisa Gardner either. Some of her other books will stay my favorites. Glad to see another from her tho.

Didn't like it. Had no idea what was going on. . Am a fan of narrator but I would give a definate thumbs down for the whininess in her voice and the slow pace she chose to read. Confused because I didn't know the story of any of the characters, and you definately need to. Listening to the first one would have helped in understanding the premise in this one but I'm not sure I would have liked it even then. There was something about this weird killer in there, that there was a small part about, but I have no idea what happened to him/her because we were apparently supposed to be focused on this knight in shining armor/damsel in distress story between Sean and Lucy. I know I was close to the ending but I shut it off permanently without even caring about what I might have missed. Will not buy another of her books and would not recommend this one.

I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't write a review because I never got past chapter 8 of this book. Then for the good of all audible listeners, I took one for the team and wanted to save anyone else from having to do it. This book, the narration of this book, is so completely lackluster, annoying and flat, I felt nauseous when I kept turning it back on. Because I was trying. I really was. Maybe the idea of the story is good. Hence the 2 stars. Didn't want to short change the author if the book got better. My 8 chapters didn't. The 'play' back and forth..yes the woman reads the female parts, the man the male., was horrible. It sounded like a telephone conversation ( some of it was) between 2 incredibly boring ppl. And then when they did decide to get a little more into character, they overacted to the point of nails on a chalk board. I strongly agree with anyone giving this book a bad review. Trust me, I'm trying to save you a credit!

Story line, characters, emotion envoking,and narrator all come together in this audio. I didn't want to stop listening for any reason. There were several times I reacted to what was going on, either with a jerk, anger, or a tear. It has been awhile since a book has done that and I think the author, for a first time writer has done an amazing job. The narration was spot on and made the book even more compelling. You can't miss with this one. Highly recommend.

I decided on this book because of the great reviews. Let me start by saying, if I had read the review that said, definately read the first book before this one, I might have. I wouldn't have bought this one tho, because I truly disliked this book. The reporter, Liam..I have no idea what to say. Trying so hard for Bogart's Phillip Marlow ..definately missing the mark. The man asks once and his bidding is done, women, men and dogs. Half of them don't even know him for goodness sake, even the dog! Found it irritating and I never finished this because of its lack of sensibilty and the constant sexual references. The story line was confusing because of all the other things that kept distracting me. I disliked the narrator immensly. Creating a different voice for the players is acceptable. Over acting those voices is not. And he did. I wouldn't listen to him again. It amazes me how everyone has such opposite ideas of a good book. Decide on this one for yourself. There are alot of reviews on this one. Read the good and the bad and figure out what is most important to you in the books you listen to. Don't get sucked into the hype. You might be wasting your time.

Have been trying out new authors and Lisa Jackson is one of them. I liked the book. Found the premise likable. It reminded me of a '70's creep movie. Crazy house, creepy family.. 'Don't Look Now' , I'll pay you if you stay here overnight kinda weird. Even self admitted in the story itself. There were a lot of twists as others said but sometimes too many, sometimes predictable but it didn't really keep me on the edge. Was a little overacted by the narrator but I did like her. Weird house, weird killer, not sure how necessary murders or some of the ppl. I agree with the slow start, was definately that. Not good. Not bad. Just decent. Loosely borderline "kitschy".