James Patterson

Howard Roughan

A mother and her three children struggle to survive on the most shocking vacation of their lives. James Patterson, America's #1 bestselling thriller writer, presents his most suspenseful, explosive tale ever. Only an hour out of port, the Dunne family's summer getaway to paradise is already turning into the trip from hell. The three children are miserable, and not shy about showing it. Katherine Dunne had hoped this vacation would bring back the togetherness they'd lost when her husband died four years earlier. Maybe if her new husband had joined them it would all have been okay. Suddenly, a disaster hits-and it's perfect. Faced with this real threat, the Dunnes rediscover the meaning of family. But this catastrophe is just a tiny taste of the true danger that lurks ahead: somewhere out there, someone wants to make sure that the Dunne family never leaves paradise alive.

Sail

The Dunnes have set off on a ten day boat trip, a trip that hopefully will bring them closer together, despite the fact that the father, Stuart is staying behind on land. But only an hour into the trip they're already falling apart. The teenage daughter plans to drown herself, and the teenage boy is high on drugs. Ten-year-old Ernie is near catatonic. But their mother Anne, with the help of her brother-in-law Jeff, is insistent on pulling everyone together, once and for all. Just when things start to take a turn for the better, disaster strikes. Stuart is left to pick up the pieces and find his family--but he is eager to start a brand new life. Maybe he's a little too eager.--From publisher description.

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I must say that I'm stumped by the rave reviews on this one. I guess I‚Äôm squarely in the camp of the reviewers who found this book to be predictable, with a flimsy plot and even flimsier characters. The only thing that kept me reading on was that each ‚Äúchapter‚Äù was only 1-2 pages long. At some point, it was entertaining to see how bad the writing could get. Apparently, there‚Äôs nothing that a big name author with a big marketing budget and a nice cover can‚Äôt overcome. 

There were no unexpected plot twists, no shockers, and really no suspense. This is throw-away fiction at its best (or worst, depending on how you look at it). I think James Patterson would do himself a favor to stop putting his name on these ‚Äúco-writes‚Äù and I think it discredits some of his earlier and much betters solo work.

I found the frequent references to pop culture, celebrities, and brand names to be a lazy convention, allowing the author to ‚Äúdescribe‚Äù without having to actually go to the effort of crafting any actual description. To say that one character collects watches like Paris Hilton collects shoes, or to describe another as ‚ÄúGeorge Clooney in khakis and docksiders‚Äù just smacks of lazy, shortcut writing. There were a few references to people and things that I was not familiar with, rendering the description useless. 

Characters acted in ways that were really unbelievable or completely stereotypical. Stereotypes were in full force, with the angst-ridden pot-smoking teen, the anorexic, suicidal teen, the precocious and loveable tween, the workaholic surgeon mother, the happy-go-lucky black sheep uncle, the scumbag attorney, the dedicated detective who goes rogue to continue an investigation against her boss‚Äôs orders, and the mercenary ex-CIA operative. Give me one big, huge break here.

If you‚Äôre looking for a book that doesn‚Äôt tax your brain (or even engage it), that reads fast thanks to the itty bitty chapters, and that you will forget as soon as you close it, this is the book for you.

Stavroula Kalantzis

Nuno Figueiredo

As Peter Carlyle, a smooth-talking, super-successful lawyer, waved his family off on a sailing holiday, all they had in mind was lying back and relaxing. But as a violent storm broke out, an explosion caused the boat to vanish without a trace and the family were lost, presumed dead. Until now. When a message in a bottle is washed up on a shore, it becomes apparent that there must have been at least one survivor. But all is not as it seems. The race is on to rescue the Carlyles, but does everyone looking for the family really want to find them alive? Survival may be the least of their concerns. In fact, being found may be the last thing they should be hoping for.

Sail

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