30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The story was ok but not my preferred type of romance. This felt more like women's fiction., January 8, 2009
This review is from: The Girl Most Likely To... (Mass Market Paperback)
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Yes, there was romance, but it was secondary to the theme of lying to others with tragic results. Good people lie and continue the lies for years with horrible, terrible results. A lot of different people do mean things to each other, which makes it hard to like them. The author had justifications for a lot of it. For example, Kat was raised in an abusive home which affected her decision making abilities, along with some other reasons. Eventually there is truth and forgiveness and a surprise revelation at the end. The story shows the power and necessity of forgiveness. There was a happy ending, but it felt a little empty. I was still hurting from the 20 or more years of suffering by some people. The story kept my interest. I wanted to know what would happen. If you're looking for romance, I do not recommend it, but it was ok for other reasons.
STORY BRIEF:
Kat's father was abusive to her and her mother. Kat's boyfriend Riley broke up with her before she could tell him she was pregnant. Kat's mother told Kat to run away. Kat left town and was gone for 20 years. She is now gorgeous, rich, and has come back to town hoping to get some apologies.
DATA:
Story length: 340 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: 2007 Persuasion, W. Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, and Grand Cayman Island. Copyright: 2009. Genre: women's fiction and contemporary romance.
CAUTION ONE SPOILER:
I had a hard time accepting the author's motive for Riley's lie. As a teenager, he was in love with Kat. His dad told him he had to break up with her or he'd lose his car and playing school sports. I think most teenagers in love would say something like "my dad is making me do this. Can you wait for me? We'll get back together later." Instead Riley just said "Go away, Kat. It's over." It was the main reason Kat left town for 20 years - the basis of the book. I wish the author would have come up with something different.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Girl Most Likely To. . .Toss This One, July 22, 2009
This review is from: The Girl Most Likely To... (Mass Market Paperback)
Having previously read Knock Me Off My Feet, I had hoped this would be a similar book that I would also enjoy.
It wasn't. I found very little to like about Kat Cavenaugh and found it hard to be sympathetic or to root for her to get a happy ending.
I thought Kat was too much of a victim. A victim of her father, a victim of Riley and a victim of fate. She did very little to better her own life. The riches she flashed around in Persuasion were not from her own success and hard work but an inheritance from her former landlord.
That also annoyed me about Kat. She didn't work. She had no kind of job and her only aspiration was revenge.
To me, Kat was immature. She denied her son his father for 20 years and instead of wanting to reunite them, she sought to rub Riley's face in it. Never once did she think about how this would affect her son.
I liked Riley and found him a very sympathetic character. He was the opposite of Kat, taking control and responsibility for his life. Carrie cut the funding for his clinic, but instead of accepting and vowing revenge, he set out to build it himself. When he discovered he had been denied knowing his son, he didn't swear revenge, he set out to find his son.
The most annoying thing about this book was the secondary characters. Too many of them were crazy and the rest seemed to have very little point. Rachel, Jeff, the truck driver and his extended family were unnecessary. You would need a flow chart to keep up with everyone.
Carrie was too over the top. She went from crazy obsessed to nearly cured, and I don't think that happens; then Madeline, the only secondary character I felt sympathy for, also became crazy; and then Virgil, who was probably always slightly crazy, became the main villain. I didn't understand it.
It was like the author couldn't decide who the bad guy should be. Let's try Carrie. OK, not working; moving on to Madeline. Still not working. Oh, I know! Virgil! He's a wife beating child molester. Perfect!
There was just too much going on and the story felt very disjointed and not romantic. I was never wanting Riley and Kat to get together. I was more invested in the relationship between Madeline and Matt, which never went anywhere.
The big reveal at the end was also slightly insulting to the reader and came from way out in left field.
Overall, I didn't like this book. It was written well, but the story wasn't good. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were on a quest to read the complete works of Susan Donovan.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
overall a decent read, March 22, 2009
This review is from: The Girl Most Likely To... (Mass Market Paperback)
Overall a decent read. I too could not get past Riley's problem with Kat. I mean come on, he told her to get lost! How in the world was she supposed to know that he just meant for a little while??? Yeah, she could have written to him and told him about the baby after she had cooled down some and she probably should have. Yet he also let 19 years go by before he even attempted to search for her! I'm sure the author could have come up with something else. It also didn't make since to me that if his father was telling him that he had to break up with her, then why in the world would his father let her move in with them at their house if she had told him what was going on? For someone who professed to love her so much, knowing her family dynamics, he seemed a bit wrapped up in himself.
I completely understood Kat's point of view, that was relayed very well. She was scared and felt unloved. We all go through things like that. I found it a bit ironic that she grew up much like she had force Aidan to grow up. Oh yeah and how touching was it that Riley actually cried?:-)
I couldn't seem to grasp Riley's point of view though. He did draw first blood and had he not then he would have known about he baby and all because that is why she went there to meet him, but since he told her to get lost . . . . well she did!!!!
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