Books : Sundays at Tiffany's

Rating: - Sundays at Tiffanys
This was not usual James Patterson material. I found it very endearing and sad at times. The book proves he can write just about anything.

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Rating: - The old man has gone soft
The old man has gone soft. Or he's getting more in touch with his feminine side. Either those or maybe he's just trying to capitalize on all ends of the market - his Alex Cross novels are still selling like hotcakes, pulling in both men and women but how to capitalize on the other segment of the market, the women who aren't into thrillers? Oh, yes, write several sad, sappy books ala Nicholas Sparks but shorter.

It's not horrible but it's predictable. You won't need a box of hankies for this one or a brightly lit room.

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Rating: - Are you all kidding? It's about time someone wrote an original love story with a twist!
I loved this book. What a great idea! It was so sweet, the main character is loveable and you can't help but to cheer her on when she finally begins to realize her self-worth. I actually caught myself saying things out loud while I was reading! (I have a psychiatry appointment on Monday) It is a touching story with an original premise. The characters are very believable. After all folks this is a "fictional" piece of literature, not a biographical piece. If you can't believe in your fictional story lines, what's next - telling us that Santa and the Easter Bunny are fakes too? Great story, quick and light read. This is a wonderful companion for beach or poolside reading. If you have read any of Patterson's other love stories, like Suzanne's letters to Nicholas or Sam's letters to Jennifer, you will also enjoy this book

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Rating: - Patterson's Creepiest Villain Ever! Or an Actual Imaginary Guy?
The tale of a little girl and her imaginary friend falling in love. Yeah I didn't actually read the first half of this novel as being literally an imaginary friend falling in love with a little girl I read this as Michael being a real person in everyone but Jane's mind. So I read it as him being the hired babysitter/minder/father because the mother only wanted the child (Jane) as a toy/accessory to play with when she felt like it and left the rest up to her employee Michael. That's why he was never acknowledged by most other adults (Jane does say in the child years chapters he can sometimes been seen by some, she assumes it is when he wants them too) as Jane wasn't seen as important by the mum so its not necessary to have a conversation with the employee fake father about her day or whatever. Therefore no one else talks to him as he's not important. I read it as Michael either was a member of pedophile club or something that had rules that you had to leave when they reach a certain age so they won't remember you and it is also time to move onto someone younger. Either that or that's the maximum age the company he works for allows their customers children to be for staff to look after them.

So yeah I assumed he was a bit of villain who had maybe come to literally believe he was an imaginary guy over the years through living the lie that is the fantasy story from the Jane years and years after. The low self esteem of Jane was why she still believed he was an imaginary guy and why he was the ideal soul mate for her.

But the second half of the novel sort of makes you believe maybe he is supposed to be literally imaginary and which becomes certainly an unsatisfactory development from the former story as you were hoping he'd get his comeuppance, although the actual story is still pretty creepy. I mean if he literally was a substitute father figure how would any romantic thoughts about Jane enter his mind at all. This is like those creepy midday American shows you see where some stepfather starts sleeping with his daughter and justifies it's okay because their not related by blood.

What I think happened was James Patterson did write the initial skeleton of this and submitted it to the publishers with the Michael character being a real man. Then the publishers said " Yeah James, it'll sell well as anything with your name does, but you know you haven't released anything to sort of cater for the Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas fans for a while and you know that's a pretty profitable market." "Well I don't think I can write anything in that genre that's going to be as good at that, I mean look at the disaster that was Sam's Letters to Jennifer, I'm still getting demands for refunds from customers all the time on that book you know, I just don't have it in me to produce another quality book in that genre," James replied. "Okay then, well.., we've got this children's author Gabrielle Charbonnet trying to crack into the adult market, you know why I don't forward her your story and she'll finish it and make some changes, why you don't concentrate on another Alex Cross novel or something instead?" "Well ahhh okay," James replied.

To give the book its credit, it is an easy flowing story that's easy to read and you do have the keep turning the pages factor to see what's going to happen next helped by the very short James Patterson norm of chapter length. Where it fails though if Michael was actually supposed to be imaginary is that he should have really been around the same age as Jane when she was a child as it's just plain wrong otherwise. Some of Jane's actions contradicted her character at time like she has the confidence to work in a homeless shelter and get extra bananas and things for a lady making racist comments to her because she's mature and above that. But then gets so freaked out at some comment her boyfriend makes and you're also wondering why she's even in this situation if she's independent to work in a homeless shelter. Plus you wonder why her loyal secretary who was obviously listening in on a major argument in the book with ex boyfriend didn't stick up for her and tell her mum what really happened. Plus why did Michael have an apartment in New York if he only gets one or two weeks off between assignments that last years and years?

The ending is also to childish and not realistic and also sort of re-enforces the old thoughts of Michael as a pedophile and not an actual imaginary character when he's with his new client with the word "Michael was tempted to teach her something that he would call the Aggi-and-Michael game, but he resisted his urge" I know this could refer to a similar make fun of and pretend we know what the conversations of other tables are but still comes across as creepy.

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Rating: - nothing I have read by James Patterson has been boring
I wait with baited breath to see that James Patterson has written a new noval. He his my new John Grisham.(who I wait for with baited breath too) I love how his easy reading is. I usually read before I go to bed in the AM (work nights) so I can always know I haven't missed anything. wake up missing my place in the book but can always find it with him without reading back several pages back. will read this book and get back to ya.