A stranger in the mirror by Sidney Sheldon

My Review: 5/5

Mr. Sheldon does it again! Another breathtaking story about love, betrayal, vengeance and murder. This is bit different than his other books but I really enjoyed it.

Toby grew up with an idea that he was born to be famous. On the other hand, Jill grew up dreaming about being rich and beautiful. Soon, both realize that the only place that gives them what they want is Hollywood.

Both of them have to struggle to reach to the top. The part that describes their struggle is really heart touching. They have to lie, face humiliation, get rejected and sell their bodies until they get chance. Soon Toby becomes the superstar and the king of Hollywood but Jill is still struggling until one day they cross each other's path. Despite their age difference, they fall in love. Toby wants to marry Jill because she was the only girl who ever rejected him but Jill wants him because getting Toby's power is the only way to punish all the people who have used and rejected her.

They rise and rise as a Golden Couple of Hollywood until the love turns into betrayal and betrayal influences vengeance. The hounding carries on until they come together again, and until their love story is written forever by the stars that are only visible to soft night wind and the timeless sea.

Sidney Sheldon gets 5 out of 5 again from me.

The Sky Is Falling by Sidney Sheldon

My Review: 5/5

 

This book is lot lot and lot better than its prequel 'The Best Laid Plans'. It has Sidney Sheldon written all over it.

So here is the synopsis: All five members of one of the most popular and reputed families in the America are dead in a year. The deaths seem to be an accident for others but not for Dana Evans who has curious mind. She is beautiful, smart, young and brave anchorwoman at Washington television network. According to her, the deaths are just too much to be coincidence and believes there must be some unsolved mysteries. She beings an investigation on her own way. Now, each page has some suspense and mysteries to solve. There are twists everywhere and the unsolved mystery takes Dana all over the world, meeting almost all the ambassadors or politicians before it all makes sense. Slow by slow; she starts digging out the truth until her and her adopted son's lives are trapped in danger. Finally, she reaches to the point where there is no one to turn to and no one to trust on. What will she do? Will she be able to outwit her chasers and expose the hidden truth to the world? Will she prove again she is the brave one and all of her instincts are right?

One thing where it failed to impress me was, there was no good purpose of her adopted son and her fiancée and his ex-wife. I thought it was just making story unnecessarily long and Dana was just being too busy getting involved with their lives. But, this is Sidney Sheldon. His dominant character has to be a female. On the other hand, it was good to know about Russia's hidden town Krasnoyarsk-26. I didn't know it exists until now. 

I was hugely entertained by this book. Once Dana starts her investigation, I couldn’t put this book down. I was going to give it 4 stars but I changed it to 5. One star is in to say I am Sidney Sheldon's fan.

Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game by Tilly Bagshawe

My Review: 2/5

If it was any other book, I would have said its good but I guess I had high expectation from the writer since she dared to write Sidney Sheldon's sequel story. Obviously, its hard to replace the great writer like Sheldon but seriously, people should question themselves thousand times before coming up with story like this. Especially, the following points have left my heart crawling:

1: Lexi's kidnapping is shown as the highlight in the beginning. At 8 years of old, she is shown unbelievably brave and matured. At least I wasn't like that at 8. She is too much affected by the kidnaping incident that she promises herself to punish 'Pig' but later on, I didn’t even know how the 'Pig' died. Was it poisoning? 

2: Lexi and Max in love. I totally didn't get it. They are first cousins from twins sisters. I know it's fiction but just to think about it is so gross!

3: Poor Tara and children are killed so that Gabe could hook up with Lexi. I was just surprised that Lexi didn't sleep with her own brother, Robert. 

4: And annoyingly ending of the book. Sidney Sheldon books do seem to end that way but with this book, there was just too many how? when? why? where? Ok woman, at least come up with a satisfaction conclusion even if you want to leave it for next sequel. Nothing was making sense at the end and the way the book ended, I just wanted to hit someone or something. Seriously! 

Still, I give her 2 stars for her bravery.

Tell me your dreams by Sidney Sheldon

My Review: 3/5

WARNING: If you haven't read this book yet and want to read it, please do not read this review. I am going to bring the suspense out. Only read this review after you have finished reading the book. 

Honestly, I don't know whether I liked this book or not. The book is divided into 3 parts: the first part explains the problem of the main character, Ashley Patterson, who is the victim of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). Ashley is accused of murdering 5 men but she doesn’t even know 3 of them. The case goes to the court, which becomes the book’s second part. A lawyer called David, defends Ashley. David is shown as hero here. Actually, the first 2 parts are jaw dropping. I really liked it. Then comes the third part, where the suspense is out and this is where my disappointment lies. So, it turns out that the cause of Ashley’s MPD were actually her parents. Her father was sexually abusing her since 6 years of old and her mother never liked her. She was always criticising Ashley. To protect herself from this situation, her alter ego, Toni Prescott was born. Still, her father continues it and to be able to cope with the suffering, another alter ego, Alette Peters was born. Since then, every time Ashley comes close to a guy, her alter ego Toni takes over and she kills the guy. What I don't understand is, why wasn't the father killed in the first place? I totally didn't get that. 

The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins

My Review: 1/5

I am sure an author is talented but this book is definitely not my cup of tea. Feeling bit bad to say but this is probably one of the most boring books I have read so far. I guess I am just so much used to Sidney Sheldon's fast and adventurous story. 

The author thought a good story though. It is the story of a British guy called Tom Barlow. He goes to USA for some family reason and falls in love with a single mother called Melissa who has one son, Charlie. They get engaged but before they could get married, Melissa dies in an accident. Since Tom is so much attached to his unofficial stepson, he wants to settle down in USA but he has a problem now, his visa is running out and his work place is not renewing it. And listen to this, this Tom guy is a dream man. A mechanical Engineering graduate from Manchester University, has a british accent, has a killer smile, has license to fly airplanes, has a good heart, makes dinner for his girl and the Manchester United supporter! Where do girls find guys like him? huh?

Honor Holland, an american on the other hand is a middle-aged woman who runs a family business. She has just been rejected by her long term so called boyfriend. Since she is 35 years old, she is worried that if she is later than this, she might not be able to give birth. So she is desperate to get married.

Somehow they manage to meet and hearing Tom's sad story, Honor agrees to help him by doing fake marriage (hoping that they might eventually end up getting married in real and she could have children soon). 

Story sounds good right? but WTH!! There was no excitement in the story at all. The most annoying part was Honor has a dog as a pet. It may be because I am not an animal person that I found it just too much to have that dog everywhere. It was pain to digest. All that dog was doing was biting Tom, running here and there, sitting on Honor's lap, peeing in the pond. That Charlie was another annoying creature. Since Tom was running after Charlie even though Charlie hated him, I started finding Tom annoying too and towards the end, every character was annoying. Seriously, I was bored to death. 

It was like a torture for me to read this book and it took so long to finish but when I finished, it was like a mission accomplished. Now, I want Sidney Sheldon again my God!