Customer Reviews

The Cheater (Library)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This fast-paced suspense thriller introduces the reader to a Superior Court Judge, an FBI agent, and a serial killer.

Lily Forrester has been a judge for a short time, but she comes with a tangled history, including one as a victim--along with her young daughter--of a violent rape. Other events from that troubled period in her life are secrets she cannot reveal to anyone--secrets that could completely ruin her new life.

Meanwhile, a serial killer is targeting wealthy men who cheat. Once they are killed, they are dismembered and scattered far from the kill sites. An FBI Agent, Mary Stevens, is on the case, and what she begins to uncover is chilling and provocative; her path will soon intersect with that of Judge Forrester.

Bryce Connelly is Lily Forrester's husband, who travels a lot, drinks too much, and is apparently about to engage in an illicit liaison with a woman named Anne Bradley. But there is much more to that story, as well.

The Cheater was so riveting that I literally could not put it down. Waking up in the middle of the night to read, I was rapidly turning pages to the exciting conclusion. Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's books are all so compelling, that I knew I would love this one. I was not disappointed.

Each character was fully dimensional and finely drawn, and the plot was carefully constructed so as to maximize the suspense, as it deftly alternated between the perspectives of each major character. The author is clearly versed in legal matters, with her background in law enforcement and probation.

This book definitely earned five stars, in my opinion.

I have read most of Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's thrillers if not all of them. I must say The Cheater did not come up to my expectations for her. This definately was not her best effort. Do not know what she had coming out next but I hope it will compete with her earlier books as I do love her books. I was disappointed as I was looking for more.

I have read all of her books[[ASIN:B003D7JT0Y The Cheater]. I was really disappointed in this one. It was not of her usual style and I had hard time getting through it. The characters just did not feel real. I hope she does better with the next one since I am a big fan.

The premise sounded very interesting but, but there were too many characters in this book that I did not care about, and /or who served no purpose especially Lily and her obnoxious friend. I think it would have been better if Rosenberg had just concentrated on the FBI Agent and tracking down the serial killer. I really did not want to read all that flash back stuff about Lily. And who could not see that her husband was an a*ss from page 1? Then you throw in her obnoxious friend who served no purpose in the story, except it pointed out again how stupid Lily was. Who would stay friends with such a person? Then throw in Lily's next husband-to-be Chris, who again, served no purpose in the story.

The serial killer started out pretty interesting but then, she started getting stupid too. Who drives around with what they think is a dead body and decides to go to a drive through for a burget?

I found myself rushing through and skimming just to finish this book.

This author is one I felt could be trusted and now I am not so sure. This book was contrived, at best, and way over the top. Character lines made no sense, characters showed up at moments that didn't fit the story line, too many things were out of sync, and I was thoroughly disgusted with the females. The book is supposedly about men that cheat, however, the main character, Lily, cheated, too! It seemed that all the female leads just wanted to hop into the next bed that was available regardless of possible consequences. The investigation was too compact and easy to solve for its complex nature. I was really unhappy that the murderer in this case completely gave up her murdering sprees for the dumbest of reasons. It seemed out of character. The ending was extremely lame. The worst part, however, was reading the inserted memories of the characters. The text was too small to see and boring. Were these passages pulled from another book and inserted? WOW! I hope not. That seems like just a way to finish a book and a lazy way. I will not choose another book by this author.

I love this author, but found this book to be lacking in heart. There was not a single sympathetic character, no person you could care about. Hoping for better next time. I would suggest not to have any of these characters appear again.

I've read all of her books and have always enjoyed them. Characters are well written, plots are very plausible and suspense is high.
This one was just awful. It seemed like both Lily and the author had turned into bitter misanthropes.
Please, Ms. Rosenberg, you have a lot of loyal fans who would welcome a new book that is up to your prior high standards.

I've long enjoyed Rosenberg's books, but I have to agree with other reviewers that this was a debacle.

Very poorly written. A LOT of material inserted from previous books to bring the reader up to speed on Lily's backstory if they hadn't read the previous entries. Rosenberg would have been better off simply inventing a new character rather than resorting to this irritating device.

The whole device of the "alibi clubs" wasn't clearly explained or utilized. When I thought about what I'd read, I realized that it didn't make much sense, particularly in the details.

Mechanics and timelines didn't work. The final action scene/confrontation between Lily and the villain was so poorly written that for the life of me I couldn't envision what had happened, and I'm educated as an engineer! One moment a detective is standing in front of Lilly, the next second he's evidently disappeared only to magically reappear behind her.

Whaaaaat?...

Forget this book. Maybe get it from the library. Her earlier books are much better.

Sorry to have to say this book is a waste of time. The author makes pages and pages of references to the previous books featuring Lily -and what happened to her. Obviously a "filler". The premise of the book was good but somewhere in the first 30 pages, it became so boring and Lily's whinning is so annoying. I could not find any character I liked -well maybe Chris. Lily's attraction to Ann is contrived and the ending is just plain stupid and much to convenient.
I wish Rosenberg had developed the characters instead of meandering all around . Lily is not a nice person, in my opinion. I skimmed the last 50 pages to get the book to end. Tomorrow it goes back to the library.

Interesting plot but badly written. Loaded with filler from a previous bestseller. Terrible ending, unpleasant characters, storylines that went nowhere, and sentences inserted where they made no sense. Very disappointing from this bestselling author.