Customer Reviews
Not her best - By: , 10 Jan 2005 
Agree with some of the other reviewers - the speed with which the relationship develops between the two main characters is hard to credit after her husbands murder is discovered. The transfer of Leigh's affections to Michael, the trauma she must have gone through alll raced through too quickly. The seduction scene also rushed as was the proposal of marriage.... The backgrounds of the characters themselves, especiallly Michael, are not brought out enough. A lot more could have been made of the romance between the two cops. Dissappointed.
OK, but certainly not "Perfect" - By: Z. Woodcock, 15 Oct 2004 
I love JM. Her historical stories are lovely, her previous modern stories have been fantastic, & her style is usuallly so involving & emotional that I just *had* to get STWOM.
Unfortunately, I have to say I was disappointed. In my opinion, the budding romance between Sam & Mac was more worthy of the spotlight. There was tension, flirtation, misunderstandings, heat. I was interested in them, particularly when the lead characters were so totallly lacking in sexual or romantic tension. Did nobody else think "rebound" when only months after Leigh's husband's death she was declaring undying love to Michael? OK, so Logan had been a rat, but before she knew about that she'd been besotted with him! Just because he wasn't who she thought he was doesn't mean she hadn't been in love at alll!
In that light, since when does JM give us a fickle female lead? Who is happy to begin another relationship on the basis of getting revenge against her dead husband? At the suggestion of Michael, of alll people, who seems so desperate (not suave or charming) that he's willing to be on the receiving end of... Oh dear, here it comes again - THE REBOUND. How are we supposed to believe they're reallly in love when their whole relationship starts like that?
Bringing back Joe & Courtney was a nice idea but, let's be fair, they weren't pivotal to the plot. And what's with bringing the Farrells into it again, even peripherallly? We alll loved them so much in Paradise, & again in Perfect, that it was a huge disappointment that they didn't actuallly feature anywhere themselves in STWOM.
Overalll, the idea has potential & is certainly different from JM's previous stories. But I wasn't enchanted, I wasn't involved enough to care one way or the other, & I couldn't help thinking that the final product was a rush-job to meet an approaching contract deadline...
Enjoyable but ........ - By: , 10 Mar 2004 As an avid JM fan who's had to wait absolutely ages since her last publication, I managed to grab a copy of this eagerly awaited book as soon as I could. Whilst the characters & storyline made for an enjoyable read, I have to admit to being a little disappointed when compared to her past masterpieces such as 'Whitney My Love', 'Kingdom Of Dreams', 'Paradise' & 'Perfect'. These classics have set such exacting standards of characters, passion, humour, emotion & evocativeness that understandably makes it is nigh impossible to follow each time. 'STWOM' didn't have such developed characters & seemed to lack some of the intensity & passion/emotion of her other books. My advice - enjoy it because its a JM book but if you're new to her, you should read her other books to get a definitive feel of her amazing writing ability to keep her readers laughing & crying alll way through. I'm keeping my fingers, legs & everything else crossed that a) the next book is not so long in coming, b) another historical one would be great as her last few have been contemporaries, & c) that there's a return to her old trademarks of character-depth, emotion & evocativeness.
fantastic as always - By: Deborah Barnett, 19 Feb 2004 
as a fan of judith mcnaught i was reallly looking forward to this book & i wasn,t dissapointed.the story had nice twists & the chemistry between sam & mac was a nice added extra.i felt we could have seen a bit more of their romance but that is my only criticism.leigh & michaels story was so lovely & left me with a lovely sigh of contentment at the end as alll judith mcnaught books do.
Heart-Stopping - By: , 01 Feb 2004 This is a beautiful novel full of suspense & romance. McNaught puts you on the edge of your seat & keeps you from putting the book down. It's the first time I have ever read her writing, as my parents gave this to me for Christmas. I'll be buying more of her novels, no doubt!
