[.ca] The Beach House (ISBN 0446612545)

What's happened to James Patterson?!:
Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, Cradle and All, some of James Patterson's first books (or least the first ones I read) were all excellent! I was hooked! The character development and believability of his story lines kept me interested and on the edge of my seat. The last few novels, however, have become more and more mundane and lack imagination. The Beach House will be the last book I buy or read. The characters are boring and contrived as is the plot. Actually I find it downright silly! Why is James Patterson writing so poorly these days? What happened?

VERY Disappointed:
I've really enjoyed James Patterson's other books, esp. the Alex Cross series, so I was looking forward to cracking this one open. I am so disappointed. I made myself finish the book, even though I really didn't care what happened to the characters. The book is VERY choppy, the plot is a bit ridiculous, and the ending is... well, I expected better of Mr. Patterson. Maybe because it's jointly written it's not quite as good as his regular stuff. Hoping that the next one I read meets my expectations.

The Blech House:
This is my first Patterson novel and I will have to say, probably my last. This story could have been written by an aspiring high school writer. The plot is as predictable and formulaic as words in a dictionary and the ending is off the chart ludicrous. Sigh, that's 3 hours worth of reading I'll never get back.

For Patterson fans only:
Some close friends of mine gave me very stong reviews of this book and encouraged me to read it. I finally got around to borrowing a copy from the library, and I was excited to get started. By the time I finished, though, I felt very disappointed in what I had expected to be a great book... at best, I'd say this book is AVERAGE. The plot was somewhat unbelievable and overly dramatic; reading it felt like a low-budget tv soap. The characters not very interesting, and the ending was downright stupid. I would go into more detail, but spoilers would negate any remote reason to spend time reading this book. For the Patterson fan--sure. But if you're just trying to kill time (i.e. reading for general entertainment purposes) I'd say pass this one up for something more engaging.

Lame:
I agree that this book is a total soap opera. There is very little character development and you just really don't care about the characters. It does feel like a contractual obligation. Better luck next time Patterson!