Lillian P. (edwardnortonfan) reviewed on 2/26/2013

Helpful Score: 3

I really liked this book. It has a sense of menace right from the very beginning, and it's dark and heavy, which reminded me a lot of Anne Rice's books. So many twisting plot elements that I'd feel exhausted after one chapter and want to take a nap - which is why it took me so long to finish this book. I also agree that it takes awhile to get into this book, so if you give up after 50 pages, it's not going to make much sense, because it has a slow build and the author takes her sweet time tying things together, but I did find the characters interesting enough to keep trudging along, and eventually I felt rewarded for my effort. This really is a great, dark, twisted story. At first I loved the narrative about the past and hated the people in the present day part of the story, but as time went on, I warmed to Madeline (not much to Ethan, but I didn't hate him at the end like I had at the beginning, so that's progress I guess).

Yes there are sex scenes in this book, but there's only three of them, so it's not as excessive as some people have complained, and really, they're not that bad. I agree with some of the reviewers on other websites who have said that the sex scenes are painfully unerotic, but I expected the sex scenes with Ethan to be that way, since he's the kind of guy who thinks it's good to come on to a woman with the line "I want to create creatures with you" (no, I am not making that up, he actually said this). The sex scenes with Chloe (set in the past) are kind of...detached, I guess is the best word, and also unerotic, but that's because I don't honestly think Chloe really gave a crap about the men she was having sex with. For her, sex was a means to an end, and in the beginning, the men seem to think they are using her, when in reality, she's using them (she uses everybody around her). I think it fits with the plot of the story and what Chloe was trying to accomplish with her life, so it works for me, though it's kind of icky to watch so many people be manipulated this way. The ending is a kick, too.

I wondered at first if there would be more books, making this a series, or if I'm just going to have to sit with that ending in my head? Either way, this was a good read, and I'm excited to learn that there's a sequel out there, called "A Tangled Bridge," so I can keep reading Madeline's saga.

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