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Review Date: 8/24/2021
This book annoys me.Not because I don't think Scott is guilty.I do.Too much that can't be explained away says so,imo.
I'm annoyed by the fact that the sister acts like she wrote the book just out of pure and noble reasons-'' I wrote this for my boys to read someday so they know I did the moral and right thing."Sure,I'm sure you did want your boys to know all this,but you also wrote it because you had a direct connection to one of the most talked about murder cases of the last 50 years,and you knew you could and probably did make a lot of money from it.Which by itself is fine.I just can't stand when people want to cash in but act like they only have non financial reasons.At any rate,I hope she did make at least a decent amount frpm the book as her husband died of cancer about 4 years later and she had 2 young sons to raise.
I agree the bio Mom Jackie didn't come off the greatest in the book,but I've always felt bably for the woman as I think she had a rough life in a lot of ways.Her father was killed when she was a child,she got herself in situations where she had to give up 2 kids for adoption....I can't really blame her for not wanting to believe her son was guilty,no matter how obvious it was to most.People tend to blame the way his parents raised him for how Scott turned out,but I'm not sure how much blame they bear.
At any rate the book is well written for what it is.Worth a read.
I'm annoyed by the fact that the sister acts like she wrote the book just out of pure and noble reasons-'' I wrote this for my boys to read someday so they know I did the moral and right thing."Sure,I'm sure you did want your boys to know all this,but you also wrote it because you had a direct connection to one of the most talked about murder cases of the last 50 years,and you knew you could and probably did make a lot of money from it.Which by itself is fine.I just can't stand when people want to cash in but act like they only have non financial reasons.At any rate,I hope she did make at least a decent amount frpm the book as her husband died of cancer about 4 years later and she had 2 young sons to raise.
I agree the bio Mom Jackie didn't come off the greatest in the book,but I've always felt bably for the woman as I think she had a rough life in a lot of ways.Her father was killed when she was a child,she got herself in situations where she had to give up 2 kids for adoption....I can't really blame her for not wanting to believe her son was guilty,no matter how obvious it was to most.People tend to blame the way his parents raised him for how Scott turned out,but I'm not sure how much blame they bear.
At any rate the book is well written for what it is.Worth a read.
Review Date: 10/19/2013
This is not a book I plan on keeping after reading.I'm not going to get married so I have no need for divorce. However,I think the other reviewers were too harsh on this book.I got it out of curosity because I'm a long time fan of Tori Spelling's and her side along with Dean McDermott's has been told extensively, and I was curious about the other side . It seems Ms.Eustace didn't delve into her life with Dean and the divorce deeply enough to satisfy most readers.I also wanted to know more even though I'm not entitled to.Despite my feelings towards Tori,I'm disgusted with the way she and Dean treated their spouses .It was pretty cold,especially if Mary Jo is telling the truth about how it went down.It was very selfish but people are selfish.They want what they want and often are not going to let others getting hurt get in their way .I think Mary Jo has every right to be bitter.She wasn't nearly as bitter in writing this book as I would have been. and the woman was humilated on an international scale.Anybody would have been humilated in her situation.Icame away from the book with the sense that Mary Jo felt she lived through an utter nightmare and wanted to share what she learned in the process with other women.Good for her in doing that and using her experience to provide for her family.
Review Date: 10/20/2020
I was very glad to finish reading this book.Before ,I had a neutral opinion on Joely.
I love Old Hollywood, and her parents were two major players of that group, so I thought it would be interesting.But I finished the book actively disliking her.It started with her excessive use of profanity and taking the Lord's name in vain about 20 times.
Not necessary , and I'm a religious person so I didn't want to hear that.I walked away being dismayed at all I've learned.
I always thought Connie Stevens was beautiful, and I always heard what a great Mom she was.
It's true she raised the girls and financially supported them, while their father, mired in drug addiction who finally lost everything, did not.
However, it seems Miss Connie also had a coke problem, and Joely talks about being with her Mom when she smuggled drugs into a foreign country,her Mom having wild raucous parties while the girls were home, and taking a teenage Joely to a VIP nightclub in NYC that has people doing all kinds of drugs and having orgies.
I'm sure Connie loves her girls but what a horrible, damaging example to set.Growing up she rarely saw or heard from her Father.Once he did show up to take them to a baseball game, and being high as a kite, drove into the back of another car. She really didn't have a relationship with her Dad until she was 19 or so.Then she takes the reader through her own drug abuse,the substance abuse of almost everyone in her family, her affairs with both sexes, and then her 20 year marriage that she describes as incredibly happy and loving, which is great , but the she goes on to describe the swinging lifestyle, the threesomes, and open relationships she and her husband practice.
She even recommends this as a tip for a long and happy marriage! Uh, Joely I'm pretty sure such behavior destroys ,more marriages than it holds together, but you do you.I wonder how her kids will feel about that when they get old enough to read her book?
I'd be mortified to know my parents lived such a lifestyle but being raised in the Hollywood bubble, maybe they won't care.She talks a lot about her late sister Carrie and their relationship.
Again, I am sure there was love there, but I kept getting the feeling she was portraying them as closer than they really were.Then there was a lot of talk about the 12 houses or so that her Mom had bought and trying desperately to pay the 74,000 monthly payment on them all, until she had to sell them all, auction off most of her Mom's things and hers too as neither of them could afford to live the way they used to.
Finally, it annoyed me to no end that she seemed to think everyone reading her book would be a hard left, Trump hater like herself.
That's one of my pet peeves.
I hate it when people assume you agree with their politics in a non-political book.
So many things annoyed me about her and her book that I was so happy to turn the last page.
YMMV...
I love Old Hollywood, and her parents were two major players of that group, so I thought it would be interesting.But I finished the book actively disliking her.It started with her excessive use of profanity and taking the Lord's name in vain about 20 times.
Not necessary , and I'm a religious person so I didn't want to hear that.I walked away being dismayed at all I've learned.
I always thought Connie Stevens was beautiful, and I always heard what a great Mom she was.
It's true she raised the girls and financially supported them, while their father, mired in drug addiction who finally lost everything, did not.
However, it seems Miss Connie also had a coke problem, and Joely talks about being with her Mom when she smuggled drugs into a foreign country,her Mom having wild raucous parties while the girls were home, and taking a teenage Joely to a VIP nightclub in NYC that has people doing all kinds of drugs and having orgies.
I'm sure Connie loves her girls but what a horrible, damaging example to set.Growing up she rarely saw or heard from her Father.Once he did show up to take them to a baseball game, and being high as a kite, drove into the back of another car. She really didn't have a relationship with her Dad until she was 19 or so.Then she takes the reader through her own drug abuse,the substance abuse of almost everyone in her family, her affairs with both sexes, and then her 20 year marriage that she describes as incredibly happy and loving, which is great , but the she goes on to describe the swinging lifestyle, the threesomes, and open relationships she and her husband practice.
She even recommends this as a tip for a long and happy marriage! Uh, Joely I'm pretty sure such behavior destroys ,more marriages than it holds together, but you do you.I wonder how her kids will feel about that when they get old enough to read her book?
I'd be mortified to know my parents lived such a lifestyle but being raised in the Hollywood bubble, maybe they won't care.She talks a lot about her late sister Carrie and their relationship.
Again, I am sure there was love there, but I kept getting the feeling she was portraying them as closer than they really were.Then there was a lot of talk about the 12 houses or so that her Mom had bought and trying desperately to pay the 74,000 monthly payment on them all, until she had to sell them all, auction off most of her Mom's things and hers too as neither of them could afford to live the way they used to.
Finally, it annoyed me to no end that she seemed to think everyone reading her book would be a hard left, Trump hater like herself.
That's one of my pet peeves.
I hate it when people assume you agree with their politics in a non-political book.
So many things annoyed me about her and her book that I was so happy to turn the last page.
YMMV...
Review Date: 10/7/2020
I had this book for a long before reading it and I ended up hating it.
The book had an interesting premise which is why I bought it years ago, but when I started reading it,
I was dismayed by the Anti- Christian comments the father and sisters started expressing, but kept on reading.
Finally, with about two thirds of the book left, the sisters literally got it on.
I was so disgusted, but decided to finish as I had invested the time.
I ended up the book being even more annoyed by the sisters decision to burn down their parents slowly decaying house along with almost everything they own, and go to live in a I guess you'd call it an enclosure they'd constructed in the woods inside a big redwood stump.The enclosure was made out of salvaged tin and logs from the forest and was very small.I And this with a 6 month old baby to care for too.
I finished the book thinking that the sister Eva- who first suggested this idea had gone crazy, and Nell -the other sister had gone just as crazy for going along with it.It does say Nell chose 3 books from the house to try to educate her nephew with before the burning, but it never explained what they thought they would do when the few clothes and shoes they took with them wore out, where the baby's clothes were going to come from, how if civilization ever returned to normal the baby who could be a grown up then, would make it with what limited information they could teach him.They seemed to think they could survive just as the Pomo Indians had hundreds of years ago in the same area, but I saw an undercurrent at the end that seemed to point to the conclusion that they would end up dying.
This book had the potential to be such fine storytelling, but it was a disappointment.
The book had an interesting premise which is why I bought it years ago, but when I started reading it,
I was dismayed by the Anti- Christian comments the father and sisters started expressing, but kept on reading.
Finally, with about two thirds of the book left, the sisters literally got it on.
I was so disgusted, but decided to finish as I had invested the time.
I ended up the book being even more annoyed by the sisters decision to burn down their parents slowly decaying house along with almost everything they own, and go to live in a I guess you'd call it an enclosure they'd constructed in the woods inside a big redwood stump.The enclosure was made out of salvaged tin and logs from the forest and was very small.I And this with a 6 month old baby to care for too.
I finished the book thinking that the sister Eva- who first suggested this idea had gone crazy, and Nell -the other sister had gone just as crazy for going along with it.It does say Nell chose 3 books from the house to try to educate her nephew with before the burning, but it never explained what they thought they would do when the few clothes and shoes they took with them wore out, where the baby's clothes were going to come from, how if civilization ever returned to normal the baby who could be a grown up then, would make it with what limited information they could teach him.They seemed to think they could survive just as the Pomo Indians had hundreds of years ago in the same area, but I saw an undercurrent at the end that seemed to point to the conclusion that they would end up dying.
This book had the potential to be such fine storytelling, but it was a disappointment.
Review Date: 2/17/2014
Helpful Score: 1
As a fan of SIT,I've wanted to read this book since I first heard of its existence and I wasn't disappointed. The author of this book is a longtime SIT devotee and his love for ,appreciation of and devotion to this story shines through on every page.I thought Mr.Gurness did an excellent job of getting inside Elise's head and exploring her grief, her independence, her strong spirit,her constant longing for Richard ,and her occasional fears that she was mad and had imagined the whole thing.(Who wouldn't fear that sometimes after such an experience?)The only fault I find is that if Elise burned all her diaries and any reference to that period in her life back in the 1930's,how would we,the reader,have known it existed to read it? Most fans including myself ,will likely be so happy to have another part to the story they won't mind this.Well done.
Review Date: 2/5/2021
This book is simply disgusting.I love mermaids which is why I read it.The two main characters-a brother and sister- commit incest together.I don't care if this is in the fantasy genre.I certainly do not want to read about such a sick genre.I threw it away when I finished reading it.
Review Date: 7/16/2009
Even though this book is written for around a middle school level, I found it very enjoyable reading as an adult.
There is something that I have to comment on though.
This book contains all true stories. I have no reason to doubt that as I've even read a few of the stories included before.
However , one of the stories included is false.
Towards the end, the book has the story of a cursed mummy that caused trouble and death for everyone it came in contact with and it finally went down on the Titanic while being shipped to a new buyer in America .
This story is not true.It is a myth and was debunked years ago.
Anyone can research for themselves and find your answer about 5 minutes.
Here is a link to start with:
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/curse%20of%20Princess%20Amen-Ra.html
Its disappointing to see it show up in a book published in 2005, but I guess old myths die hard.
This did not take away my enjoyment of the book which I find very nicely done overall.
I just thought this is something people would like to know.
There is something that I have to comment on though.
This book contains all true stories. I have no reason to doubt that as I've even read a few of the stories included before.
However , one of the stories included is false.
Towards the end, the book has the story of a cursed mummy that caused trouble and death for everyone it came in contact with and it finally went down on the Titanic while being shipped to a new buyer in America .
This story is not true.It is a myth and was debunked years ago.
Anyone can research for themselves and find your answer about 5 minutes.
Here is a link to start with:
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/curse%20of%20Princess%20Amen-Ra.html
Its disappointing to see it show up in a book published in 2005, but I guess old myths die hard.
This did not take away my enjoyment of the book which I find very nicely done overall.
I just thought this is something people would like to know.
Review Date: 11/22/2021
I'm not much of a romance reader, unless the it has a twist.This book was enjoyable, but the whole "dragon" twist towards the end was too over the top for me, even in a book like this.
And the way the "ending " came about was just silly, again even for a book like this.It was like the writer couldn't think of any other way to wrap it up, like she obviously had to do.That along with the main female character saying at one point" that had her powers had been given to her by God." made this one a throwaway for me.
And the way the "ending " came about was just silly, again even for a book like this.It was like the writer couldn't think of any other way to wrap it up, like she obviously had to do.That along with the main female character saying at one point" that had her powers had been given to her by God." made this one a throwaway for me.
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