Customer Reviews

An Act of Love

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have to admit that I am not finished the book yet. I am on page 59 and I don't think I want to read anymore. This book is so boring and uninteresting. The author writes like I am in 6th grade and gives too many details of stupid, common sense things. EX:"With only a twinge of guilt, Linda lifted the receiver and stuck it into a drawer. It would make disturbing noises for a few seconds, then go mute. Anyone calling would get a busy signal." DUH! Why did she need to go into detail with that? She has many more of these boring details all throughout the book. My advice...don't buy it or wait to buy it at a yardsale for $.25.

I tried to like this book, after all, I devoted several hours of my life to it, but it is so badly written that I would prefer to give it no stars.

The story could be interesting, but the writer made the bridging parts of the book so bloody boring. I cringed every time Linda went to Owen for *warmth*... or relished the *warmth* of a room... the character Linda is so unrealistic and annoying. There could have been chapters of Linda's seasonal disorder. The story would have been better told from Emily's perspective.

First of all, Nancy Thayer went into so much detail about the most mundane situations that, listening to it on tape, I ended up letting my mind drift on other things until something interesting happened. What's with all the reviewers saying "we never really know what happened?" It's very obvious by Emily's behavior and rage that she isn't lying, and you can see by snippets of Bruce's behavior that he's guilty as sin.

Why do I REALLY hate this book? The reason is this: I wouldn't give a flying fig if that boy was my immediate family or half-family. He deserved, like the girlfriend's father said to Bruce in court, to be put away for longer than the 20 years he could have gotten. He did something rotten and disgusting twice, and everyone let him get away with it. Therapy is highly overrated and doesn't always work--especially when it comes to predators who use their rage in this destructive a fashion. Thayer has obviously never been a victim of this kind of violence, or there is no way you would let your stepson get away with something this shattering. If I was Emily, I would be outraged at the way her account was treated both until and after the girlfriend was attacked. The girlfriend who, by the way, teased Bruce in one segment of the book. I would also have been furious at Linda and Owen for thinking they could stay together as a family after what that rotten little woman hating creep did. I'm sorry, but this is a subject I take very passionately, and if this is the kind of wishy washy writing Thayer likes to dish out, then this will likely be the only one of her novels I will ever read.

A mother that seems to believe that counseling will fix a step family enough that she will be able to keep her daughter and her new 'step family' intact, is not a mother that you end up having much sympathy for. The basis for the plot is good, a step brother and step sister, the brother rapes the sister, and the story is to examine the relationships of all those involved. But there is too much extraneous tidbits that really do not have much to do with the rest of the plot. The neighbor who seems to have a crush on the father, the friend of the mother that admits she is pregnant.... there is no followup on why these characters are included in the book.

Uninteresting and boring. I finished this book to see what happened, but I wished I had not started it. Much more entertaining books out there.

Author Nancy Thayer Brings Us A Mystery of Sorts.

By: Sheila Coffin

This is an interview with Nancy Thayer, author of "An Act of Love."

Me: Tell us about "'An Act of Love,' the book not an actual situation that might come to mind."

We laughed.

Nancy: "Well, this is a more serious book than my last few. An Act of Love is about a step-family in crisis."

Me: It's a modern setting, with modern concerns?"

Nancy: "Yes. The novel concerns a step-family, a mother and her daughter, a father and his son. The parents believe they have done a good job raising their children until their daughter ends up in a psychiatric ward."

Me: "It sounds like a bit of an intrigue."

Nancy: "This is a sort of mystery. Neither the characters nor the reader know what has really happened. The children are pitted against each other testing the loyalties of the parents, threatening the foundations of the family. I wanted to write about adolescents and crisis not just because I am a mother and have two children of my own but also because of what I have seen with other parents and their children. If the parent has done a good job, if they have managed to let their child learn to be self-sufficient there is a time when the parent looks at their child and says, 'Who is this person?' because their child is a total stranger to them. This is very traumatic. It is an acute time, an intense time. You realize that this person is not "your" creature, "your" creation. The parent realizes that they have given over the control for the child's life to the child. A parent cannot keep their child safe." I asked, "Do we have the mystery solved, who really did what, by the end of the novel?"

"Yes," Nancy replied. "But I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to read the book."

What Nancy was also not quick to volunteer was that the day after An Act of Love was finished she had five offers for movie options.

I found "An Act of Love," to be everything Nancy had promised, and more. If you are already one of Nancy Thayer's fans, you'll want to hurry and get a copy of "An Act of Love." If you haven't read Nancy Thayer's books you will find that her humor, her vitality, her kindness, and her concern for people is both gripping and calming. You will feel like you have a friend who knows and cares.

I enjoyed this book. People don't realize that this kind of thing does happen, and yes, with step-families. I thought the parents did the best they could with this situation. The plot leaves you not knowing what really happened, and that is the point of it. In real life when such tragedies occur, especially teen rape, who knows who's telling the truth. I admire both of these parents for not siding with either or child, and they still continued to support their children the best they could. I felt that both Bruce and Emily needed guidance and love during this, I never really knew what exactly happened. The characters seemed so real. This book is about a modern day step-family with a major crisis.

Thayer has been one of my favorite novelists for many years--I'm always surprised that her books are not on the bestseller lists--or at least more widely discussed. Her new book is a page-turner and explores the perils of family life and the challenge of sustaining a marriage during a crisis. In the this case, the crisis revolves around the two children, who are step-siblings. An accusation of rape of one sibling by the other begins a nightmare that isn't likely to ever be resolved and "put behind them." Thayer's writing shines as she describes the struggle each parent faces in supporting his or her child while keeping the marriage relationship strong. (As always, she explores marriage beautifully.) I found the ending filled with hope and resolve. Would be interested to know what other readers thought of the way Thayer handled this nearly impossible dilemma. As always, I eagerly await her next book. My mother and my daughter feel the same way--we're a three generation Thayer fan club.

An Act of Love by Nancy Thaler is a very intense novel. The four main characters fall from what appeared to be comfortable lives to excessive pain. The author is extremely successful in communicating that pain to the reader. A happy marriage becomes difficult and then impossible to endure when each parent realizes that he/she must put the mental health of his/her child first. The actual act of love is when Owen and Linda take steps to live apart from each other in order to give their respective children the love and support needed to heal. Thayer has produced a book that is difficult to put down. I'm anxious to read more of her work.

Perhaps it's just me; perhaps my 16 year old mind and inexperience with this author cannot comprehend Mrs. Thayer's perspective on writing; or perhaps it's just that I tend to read murder/mystery stories and decided to look towards a change in styles by reading a different type of novel...Now, if by now you only think that I'm 'bad-mouthing' the novel, on the contrary, by no means is this novel a very well written, well thoughtout, and mysterious book that keeps you 'up at nights' just wondering who is telling the truth. I was very entertained with the first half of the book, and, being used to reading murder/mystery novels, was suprised on how entertained I was. The problem that I found was that the novel was over before the book was over; the novel brings you to an extremely intensified flow that you just see it getting higher and higher but when you finally reach the top, you realize that you passed the climax MANY PAGES BEFORE! When I realized that this person was the lyer with many pages left, I kept on waiting for a surprise to pop out and the 'tables to turn' with a huge upset, making the climax at the top of the mountain instead of in the middle...but it never happened. The novel ends, the book makes sense, and life goes on...By all means, this book was a great novel, but the ending was just not my style.