Customer Reviews

Perfect Harmony

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Barbara Wood has written a treasure of literature. I adored the Prophetess and Perfect Harmony was a tanatmount to the splendor of the former. Charlotte Lee's pharmaceutical company is in peril. A saboteur has poisoned some remedies and therefore destroyed her name and the reputation of her company and asks her to give a press conference confessing that she tainted the medicine in 12 hours. But these 12 hours aren't just a wait. She discovers the secrets forever hidden under the dusty patina of time waiting to be unearthed. Barbara Wood takes us on a timeless and unforgettable ride through 4 generations of Chinese women uncovering secrets and mysteries of a lost land of ancient traditions and mysticism called Singapore and a modern world of pragmatism, skullduggery, technology, and power we know as America. Charlotte spans the continents and returns to the legacy of her ancestors, a wisdom more valuable than her life and older than her years, as she fights against a nemesis locked in cyberspace and another more important enemy, the memories of her past. The past that will save her. A must-read for anyone.

One of the things that puts Barbara Wood into a class of her own in historic, adventure and now also in biotech thriller writing: her thorough background research. She puts a lot of work into creating a complex and rich historical as well as atmospheric background for her lead characters. And she does it quite well for characters from foreign cultural background: the main character in "Perfect Harmony" is Charlotte Lee, a young Chinese-American woman. She is the CEO of Harmony Biotech, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in Chinese herbal medicine. As dramatic events unfold in present time and Charlotte sees her company, her professional existence and her life threatened, Wood unfolds the story of Charlotte's family and the history of the company in an equally engaging parallel storyline, and drama picks up on the mystery as well as the romantic level. Barbara Wood is the master of generation-spanning scenarios and great family sagas, as she has demonstrated before in her Egyptian tale "Virgins of Paradise" and the Australian saga "Dreamtime". Even when her sometimes a bit overly dramatic and predictably romantic heroines every once in a while come across as old-fashioned, this does not compromise the overall quality of her storytelling. Wood is a wonderful storyteller and is performing at her best in "Perfect Harmony". Pick it up, kick off your shoes and don't plan anything else for the weekend.

This is the fast-paced story of Charlotte Lee, CEO of an herbal pharmaceutical company in California, involved not only in alternative medicine but in research for a cure for cancer. The action goes back and forth in time and place, tracing Charlotte's ancestors, Mei-Ling and Perfect Harmony, her grandmother who started the company when she arrived from Singapore as a 16 year old.

Wood peels back the layers of the stories in a way that kept me involved even though I usually am not too fond of flashbacks.

There were,however, a few improbable scenes and I thought the book could have been less dramatic in places.

Wood's books are always good reading, and it is evident that she does an amazing amount of research. Many of her books have a medical theme, usually non-conventional medicine. My favorite of her books was "Green City in the Sun", which was about Kenya - a wonderful story that gave me a lot of insight into this country. Another excellent one was "Virgins of Paradise", about Egyptian women and the family structure there. I even listened to the audio after reading the book. Both were packed full of interesting information that gave insight into how people in these places live.

I read Barbara Wood's novel The Prophetess a few months ago, and I was so excited to learn that she had a new book coming out. This was just as good as The Prophetess, or even better, since the ending left me more satisfied. I love the way the book moves back and forth between two time periods, and the family relations that are not what they seem. Also, I learned a lot about Chinese culture and herbal medicine from reading this book.

The book was wonderful. The story within a story worked very well. With so many twists and turns, nothing and no one are what they seem. This story happens within 12 hours, which is amazing in itself. I loved Charlotte, Perfect Harmony, Gideon, and Jonathon. This book is a must read.

this book is very interesting. Its a thriller based upon Chinese history, translated into modern amerivcan women in business life. I would definetely read it, as it gives a learning experience about generations and there changes, but also about family and love.. very romantic too...

This is the first book of our newly formed book club at work. Five of us at our office have read this book together. We would meet for lunch to discuss each of the sections read. Great book....we will use Barbara Wood again.

From Kirkus Reviews, Jan 15, 1998 "A breathless, helter-skelter race in cyberspace, effortlessly melded here with the tale of a Chinese woman's journey from the 1920's to the present, and with her granddaughter's terrifying chase to solve familial mysteries and industrial murder.

"Charlotte Lee is CEO of Harmony Biotech, manufacturers of ancient Chinese herbal medicines, now carefully monitored for safety and reliability through the best modern technology. Charlotte, who inherited the business from Perfect Harmony, her late grandmother,must suddenly face the accusation that three people have died after ingesting her products. Having been warned by V.P. (and cousin)Desmond, Charlotte drives out into awful weather (a tempest appropriately pounds away at California through much of the action) and is almost killed in a freak accident (or was it?). There are other unsettling near misses involving Charlotte's friends, and a message on the Internet advises her to make a public statement of company guilt within the next 12 hours -- or else. Then into the intensifying miseries comes Jonathan, Charlotte's long-lost love who had inexplicably married another. Jonathan sets to work to make computer magic and unravel the conspiracy. Wood jumps back then to 1908 Singapore to relate the history of Perfect Harmony and her years of trial, suffering, and triumph. Before the close, with a starburst of revelations and one *big* surprise, there are family tangles to pick apart (odd couplings and adoptions); a touch of the supernatural as dead mothers speak; vendettas (one involving a government agent); a B-screamer interlude with Charlotte trussed to a bottling conveyor belt; and, of course, the happy romantic union.

"As ever, Wood ("The Prophetess" etc) shows herself a wizard at juggling action and romance, maintaining the momentum and sparkle of both. Bright, slick, and pleasing."

In the classical Barbara Wood style of mystery, odd family makeup, romance, technobabble, and a nice blend of time turning, she has created, quite simply, one heck of a great read. Fans of any books written by her will find the this book to incorporate every style she has used so far, and with a rather good blending of each style in to one another. The story line keeps your attention and drags you through the night reading till 3:00 in the morning (Actually happened!). A mystery builds upon another mystery and keeps you on your toes as you wonder what exactly is going on. It even begins and ends well-written, something that tends to lack in books these days. There are some flaws in this book that lowered the rating from 10 to 8. Incorrect usage of pin-ying ("Aiii-yah" is used incorrectly in areas and also some pinying errors in writing the words, especially around the numbers.) and a rather poor portrait of chinese culture to what is the western stereotype or imagination (Like medival stories overemphasizing knight's honor). But that's nitpicking. What will bother the reader is the ocassional problems within the story itself and the confusing family buildup. Fans of Mrs.Wood will discover the family buildup to be more confusing then previous books. There are also illogical actions that couldn't happen in its setting (Marrying someone who has a wife already?), and missing information about what happened to so-and-so character that might help the reader understand what is going on. Certain plot elements weren't even tied up, but the reader may suspect that was done on purpose. Overall, the plotline does a good job of covering the problems well enough to make this a great book that will definately keep you interested enough to finish the book to the end.

This book was unbelievabely gripping and wonderful !!! I lovedit and I almost forgot to eat since I couldn't put it down until Ifinished it! The male hero (jonathan)is so lovable ! the only badthing I could say about the book is the maybe too melodramatic ending(the discovery of the ultimate family secret). otherwise, the book isgreat and, weirdly, it's the stuff about the computer in that bookthat made me interest myself about internet and online chatting!Barbara wood is my favourite writer, no doubt ! She seems to be awonderful woman too,you can check for yourself on her website ....