Customer Reviews

Girl in Times Square

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book took me totally by surprise - this is the story of Lily, a 25 year old girl living in New York, whose flatmate and bestfriend Amy suddenly goes missing. In comes Detective Spencer O'Malley, who by searching for Amy unravels more than Lily and himself could ever have imagined. This is an amazing story of a girl struck by luck, both good and bad, who tries to make her way through life when revelations on herself, her family and her loved ones come crashing down on her. Paullina Simmons has done an amazing job with this difficult story. I read the book in less than a week and couldn't wait to find out about Lily, Spencer, and those around them. Truly truly wonderful book, I cannot recommend it enough.

I've been a fan of Paullina Simons ever since I once stumbled across The Broze Horseman. Since then I've read every other Paullina Simons book I can get my hands on. If I absolutely had to compare it to another Simons novel I'd compare it to Tully in that it's very much a character study, but really it's not all that similar. It's new literary ground for Simons.

Basically the plot deals with a 24 year old New Yorker named Lily, who sort of floats through life. She's broke and afraid to commit to anything. Suddenly several unexpected events occur at once and the ever superstitous Lily is shaken to the core: Her best friend and roommate, Amy, goes missing suddenly, and Lily wins $18 million in the lottery. Lily is terrified to cash in her ticket because she's waiting for her luck to run out (which she thinks will happen by something bad happening to Amy). But Lily can't escape her fate even by not cashing in her ticket. She's diagnosed with an extrememly rare form of leukemia. On the verge of death Lily suddenly realises that she can't bear to leave the life that she's been afraid to commit to. She's fallen in love with Spencer, the detective in charge of looking for Amy. Meanwhile Spencer has uncovered disturbing evidence linking Amy's disappearance to Lily's brother Andrew, and the consequences of a case from his past have come back to haunt him (Simons fans might remember Spencer from the book "Red Leaves").

The plot sounds confusing but that's because the book seems to defy genre- it's a love story (Lily and Spencer), a mystery (what happened to Amy? How was Andrew involved?) a family drama (wait to you read about Lily's family!) and the story of Lily coming to find herself as she fights for her life, and tries to fight Spencer's demons so that he can share that life with her. Anyway, I recommend it to all of Simon's fans, and I can't wait to read her next book.

No-one can deny Simmons ability to write and this book was at times too compelling to put down. However by the end I felt a little battered by the whole thing - there is far too much going on - a girl disappearing, alcoholism, cancer, a lottery win, tales of the holocaust, family betrayal a passionate affair between a police officer and the sister of his chief suspect - she might carry off maybe three of those themes but taken together I was suffering from emotional overload - by the end - to the extent that when the mystery of missing Amy is finally solved I found I'd lost interest. I think Simmons is at her best when dealing with family and romantic relationships - her ideas of how cops/doctors might carry out their professional duties is sometimes a little off - for example doctors blurting out confidential information about a patient to the first person who asks them - and the whole police enquiry about Spencer strikes a false note to me. It could have done with some serious editing - the first section drags and the ridiculous business with the uncashed lottery ticket irritated me to the point I almost threw the book down. And the whole cancer/alcoholism story often threatened to veer into wild family melodrama though much of it was very compelling. The end greatly disappointed - the Milo storyline was unbelievable and some of the parts where he is spouting Marxist/anarchist doctrine to Lily are laughably bad.

I think she could either have written a book about a girl whose flatmate disappears and whose brother is a suspect or a book about a girl who has an alcoholic mother, a dysfunctional family and has to battle cancer. Either of those storylines could have made a great novel but taken together it's way way too much to digest ...

I'm definately a Paullina Simons fan. This book was a surprise. It wasn't exactly typical, though my thoughts were searching throughout the reading for the answers, and I did come up with a few of them.

I think Paullina Simons is an excellent writer. Towards the end, I couldn't put the book down until I "found out" who, when, where, what and why.

I'd recommend this to a friend anyday.

yeah right i was still in shock with the end anyway lily is a girl who has loads of issues with life...and her family especially her mom was really depressing... i think its a book for every age
ps the love between spencer and lily effected me big time and while you're reading you become a piece of it
WONDERFUL AWESOME THE BEST.........

This was an excellent read. Read late into the night to see how the story unravelled. Interesting twists. Highly recommended.

I reluctantly gave this book a try but because I love the author Paullina Simons so much I gave it a try. I had this book for some time before a actually read it because I know it involves girl with cancer and who wants to read a book like this right? I was so wrong not to start this book right away. Ms. Simons has done it again. It was fast pace and really hard it put. A who-done-it with romance. Lily is a unforgettable character.

This was my first Paullina Simon's book and I made sure I picked up all of her other novels as soon as I finished "The Girl in Times Square". Paullina is a brilliant storyteller and this was a really good book.

This novel contains romance, mystery and I loved the surprise twist at the end. I loved all the characters in the novel, and the detective Spencer is a character from another of Paullina's books.

Highly recommend this book!

I started this book Friday night and finished it Sunday afternoon, I could not put it down. It had a very interesting plot, with well developed characters and I enjoyed every page. I appreciate when the conflict in a book is subtle but never goes away until the last chapter. There were so many different struggles that the main character was facing and they were maintained throughout the entire book. I am disappointed when I read a book and can clearly see the end before I get there. I could not predict the conclusion of The Girl in Times Square, and that is something I appreciate in a great novel. I have read two other books by Paullina Simons and it is hard to say which one I liked best. She is an excellent author and I look forward to whatever she publishes next.

Book was EXCELLENT - Paulina Simons can really weave a story. Service
from my supplier was fantastic !