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readandlisten's review against another edition
3.0
My first read of Ms. Staub. Not a bad story, but I don't feel an urge to read the next in the series right away.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
3.0
3 STARS
"Secrets can scandalize . . .
In a lovely suburban town just north of New York City, the gossip mill runs more efficiently than the commuter-train line. And in every impeccably decorated house, they're talking about Lauren Walsh. They say that nothing could be worse than being abandoned by your husband for another woman. They're wrong . . .
Secrets can shock . . .
All Lauren wants is to protect her children from the pain of her messy divorce. But when their father goes missing, a case of mistaken identity puts all their lives in danger, and a stealthy predator lurks in the shadows, watching . . . waiting . . .
Secrets can kill . . .
Lauren is about to uncover an unfathomable truth—a truth this cold-blooded mastermind would never let her live to tell . . ." (From Amazon)
An okay suspense novel but nothing spectacular.
"Secrets can scandalize . . .
In a lovely suburban town just north of New York City, the gossip mill runs more efficiently than the commuter-train line. And in every impeccably decorated house, they're talking about Lauren Walsh. They say that nothing could be worse than being abandoned by your husband for another woman. They're wrong . . .
Secrets can shock . . .
All Lauren wants is to protect her children from the pain of her messy divorce. But when their father goes missing, a case of mistaken identity puts all their lives in danger, and a stealthy predator lurks in the shadows, watching . . . waiting . . .
Secrets can kill . . .
Lauren is about to uncover an unfathomable truth—a truth this cold-blooded mastermind would never let her live to tell . . ." (From Amazon)
An okay suspense novel but nothing spectacular.
nae1226's review against another edition
2.0
Just okay. So many plot lines are thrown at the reader that many "who did it" options occur. People who like thinking as they read he did it, no she did it, maybe he did it, would enjoy the read.
willhike4rose's review against another edition
3.0
This book was very slow and I felt it took forever for the plot to become interesting. The end came together well and was interesting.
rcaivano's review against another edition
Sort of a beach-book mystery. Not much to think about, but kept me entertained.
erinecarroll's review against another edition
5.0
I stayed up late reading this because I could not put it down! I had to finish it. I loved this book from beginning to end. I always enjoy books from multiple view points! The characters were all relatable and real. Needless to say I loved this book and can't wait to start the second one!
Spoiler
The story starts out with a man (Byron) running from the police but it also seems as though he is running from someone else as well, someone who wants what he has and will kill him for it. Byron needs to hide what he has because it is very important and if it ends up in the wrong hands it would be very bad. As he is running along the streets of NY he grabs a pink stuffed dog from a little girl in the stroller and stuffs the flashdrive that he is hiding into the fur of the dog and leaves it at the lost and found of Grand Central so he can come for it later. At the same time a little girl named Sadie Walsh notices that her favorite pink stuffed animal that she has had from birth is missing. Sadie's mom (Lauren) urges Sadie's father (Nick) to go to Grand Central on his way home from work and check the lost and found. He does and returns with a pink stuffed toy but it is not the pink rabbit that Sadie lost..its the pink dog that has the flash drive in it. Basically a political figure wanting to become a governor is hiding a huge secret from his family and it is on this flash drive. This flash drive could make/break him. He orders his aide (Beverly, with whom he is having an affair) to find this stuffed dog no matter what the cost (even if it comes to hurting a child). Along the way multiple people are killed and hurt. The secret was that Quinn tracked down his illegitimate sun who was given up for adoption 7 years earlier and kidnapped him in order to do stem cell surgery for his toddler age daughter who was dying of a rare blood disease. He took the surgery over to India to do it so his wife would not find out, and ordered his aide to kill the child after the surgery was over (he could leave no witnesses.) Beverly was unable to kill a child but still reported back that she did. The flash drive contained this information and would ruin Quinn because not only did he kidnap this child and leave him in India as well as leave his family behind mourning him and not knowing what really happened it him, but he is a republican and was running as "anti-stem cell, anti-medical tourism, and anti-savior sibling, all things that he did 13 years earlier. The book ended with an epilogue of Jeremy (now 20 years old) in Texas seeing the coverage of the scandal on a TV in a bar...bougainvillea's review against another edition
3.0
This was ok, nothing great. Too many different characters and subplots. You can tell she's setting up a series, and I hate having that feeling while I'm reading a book. I wasn't crazy about the present tense, I didn't find the 4 yr old's voice convincing, and I don't get why Ryan and Sadie's perspectives were included, but not Lucy's. But apart from all that, it was ok.
kindlecollie's review against another edition
5.0
At 99 cents, this book is a steal! I would pay more for it. The book had me guessing the whole time. Never a dull moment. Loved all the story lines. Onto the sequel tomorrow.
atticusmammy's review against another edition
1.0
Not the book for me. Too many characters that never really seemed to come together in a real way. I kept wanting the author to get to the point already! No such luck. Not interested in any sequel.
imbookingit's review against another edition
4.0
In the end, I really enjoyed Live to Tell, but I had some issues with it that made me doubt that was how it would be in the end.
I really liked the complexity of the story. There were a lot of different storylines, and they did indeed tie together in the end, although I wasn't always sure that would happen. It was fun to see the characters struggling with their piece of the puzzle, whether or not they knew that there was a puzzle at hand.
The down side of this was with so much going on, most of the characters didn't get a lot of character development. There were a lot of characters, and many of them were quite interesting. You'd never know when a seemingly throwaway character would pop up again.
Several characters did get deeper coverage. Of these, I really enjoyed Lauren Walsh. Her attempts (not always successful) to pull together her life so she could be a better parent to her kids rang true to me, and created an interesting backdrop to the drama she happened into.
Nick, her ex-husband, wasn't quite as interesting to me, but I did appreciate seeing his view of the events in his life. I was amused as he made the connection between his actions and those that his mother had taken many years ago, but he never generalized the effects her actions had on him to those that his actions had on his children.
On the other hand, I had some issues with the portrayal of 4 year old Sadie. Obviously, to describe events from the viewpoint of a 4 year old, they'll have to be very, very verbal. Her thinking was just a little too sophisticated, even if some of that was the book putting words to ideas that were much fuzzier in her head.
I also had problems with the Bad Guy. Congressman Garvey Quinn is a very bad guy, and even if I'm not a fan of politicians, particularly hypocritical conservative ones, I had trouble with the depth of this man's evil. But it did make for an interesting plot!
I really liked the complexity of the story. There were a lot of different storylines, and they did indeed tie together in the end, although I wasn't always sure that would happen. It was fun to see the characters struggling with their piece of the puzzle, whether or not they knew that there was a puzzle at hand.
The down side of this was with so much going on, most of the characters didn't get a lot of character development. There were a lot of characters, and many of them were quite interesting. You'd never know when a seemingly throwaway character would pop up again.
Several characters did get deeper coverage. Of these, I really enjoyed Lauren Walsh. Her attempts (not always successful) to pull together her life so she could be a better parent to her kids rang true to me, and created an interesting backdrop to the drama she happened into.
Nick, her ex-husband, wasn't quite as interesting to me, but I did appreciate seeing his view of the events in his life. I was amused as he made the connection between his actions and those that his mother had taken many years ago, but he never generalized the effects her actions had on him to those that his actions had on his children.
On the other hand, I had some issues with the portrayal of 4 year old Sadie. Obviously, to describe events from the viewpoint of a 4 year old, they'll have to be very, very verbal. Her thinking was just a little too sophisticated, even if some of that was the book putting words to ideas that were much fuzzier in her head.
I also had problems with the Bad Guy. Congressman Garvey Quinn is a very bad guy, and even if I'm not a fan of politicians, particularly hypocritical conservative ones, I had trouble with the depth of this man's evil. But it did make for an interesting plot!