Emlyn ReesRecensioni

Los amigos, no se puede vivir sin ellos, pero casi peor es vivir con ellos amy y jack, la enrollada pareja de finalmente juntos, son el centro de un grupo algo desorientado Mientras Amy y Jack están como embobados preparando su boda, sus amigos se han quedado un tanto descolgados. Así es como MATT descubre que su inseparable colega va a casarse, dejándolo en la estacada. De un plumazo, se ha quedado sin amigo y compañero de piso, hasta que recuerda a HELEN, H para sus amigos, dedicada en cuerpo y alma a su carrera profesional, aunque está empezando a hartarse de tantos nervios y estrés. Y encima tiene a la pesada de Amy, su mejor amiga, hablando todo el día de su boda, cuyo catering ha encargado a STRINGER, el cual, famoso por su supuesta habilidad para ligar, tiene ahora la primera ocasión de demostrar que además es capaz de trabajar, aunque guarda un secreto que sólo podrá desvelar SUSIE, otra amiga de la novia, que a su vez ha borrado a los hombres de su horizonte, bueno, al menos hasta que se aclare las ideas, como, por ejemplo, si quiere seguir vendiendo sombreros antiguos en Portobello durante toda su vida... Igual que en el libro anterior, los cuatro protagonistas nos cuentan sus historias desde su propio punto de vista en capítulos alternos. Con un realismo impresionante, sin duda fruto de la propia experiencia, los autores de Finalmente juntos nos dan su original y divertida versión de la llegada de la dichosa madurez, esa tan temida como deseada etapa en la cual, nos guste o no, empezamos a plantearnos la vida desde otra perspectiva.

Ella no consigue adivinar sus pensamientos.
Él no tiene ni idea de lo que piensa ella.
Sólo tú lo sabrás todo sobre

AMY
«A veces, en mis momentos más bajos, he pensado en presentarme a uno de esos programas de la tele donde te buscan pareja. "¡De Londres, la maravillosa, la fantástica Amy Crosbie!" (Seguido de un delirio de silbidos y aplausos.) Aunque, en realidad, esta fantasía me preocupa un poco, porque sospecho que es la peculiar manera de decirme a mí misma que algo tiene que cambiar. Hace seis meses que no me acuesto con nadie. ¡Seis meses! Pero vamos a ver, tengo piso propio, sólo saco sobresalientes y...
¿dónde está el señor Ideal? Así por lo menos evitaría que mi madre me diera la lata.»

JACK
«Tengo veintisiete años, estoy soltero y vivo con Matt, mi mejor colega. Andamos juntos desde los ocho años, aunque entonces la vida era más sencilla. Me chiflaba la ropa de poliéster, y de mayor quería ser espía. Un día, cuando Matt me preguntó con quién me iba a casar, le dije que me enamoraría de una chica tan perfecta que ni siquiera podía imaginarme su nombre. Ahora, las cosas son un pelo más complicadas.
Sí, es cierto, me enamoré, pero la historia no funcionó.
Y además, estar soltero mola cantidad, es mucho más divertido.»

Han pasado quince años y el encuentro casual, nada menos que en una juguetería, los deja un tanto descolocados. Fred es ahora ejecutivo de marketing en una moderna empresa de internet y está a punto de casarse. Por su parte, Mickey ha abierto una floristería, empeñada en empezar una nueva vida en la ciudad, y se ha instalado con su hijo de nueve años en un modesto apartamento.
Con su encuentro, a ambos les surge la duda, ¿por qué el otro dejó de escribir, por qué nunca volvieron a verse? Y lo más importante y peligroso, ese amor, ¿les habrá perseguido hasta el presente?

Readable enough thriller

Mientras Amy y Jack están preparando su boda sus amigos, Matt, Helen, Stringer,Susie, han quedado un tanto descolgados. Libro anterior FINALMENTE JUNTOS

For all those parents that have had to read and read and read We're going on a bear hunt, this is for you.

The images are in the same vein, and the rhyme follows the same tempo, but it is about a parents night out san children on a pub crawl. Very amusing and a great parody of the original.

Mildly entertaining but a bit too stretched to be genuinely funny. A stocking filler you'll never glance at after reading it once despite the great drawings.

Wanted by Emlyn Rees is a 2014 Witness Impulse publication. I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Emlyn Rees really knows how to write a good thriller. An action packed plot with all manner of cold blooded bad guys keeps Danny Shanklin in world of hurt and fear for his family.

The Setup

Imagine you were framed and now sought after by several international groups, your life and the life your daughter, who is all you have left in the world, are at stake, and the world is about to be exposed to a horrific hybrid small pox virus by a terrorist group and for kick and giggles the serial killer that took the life your wife and son is beyond a doubt alive and well and still very interested in Danny and Lexie.

My thoughts:

With this many threads going at one time a story can become “ too busy”. But, in this case everything comes together nicely because the author keeps the spotlight on Danny and the events unfold in real time. The germ warfare plot is one that always makes me nervous. I am terrified of this becoming a reality, because in truth, some people will do anything for money and terrorist are more than willing to pay. This thought alone could keep you up at night. But, imagine trying to prevent an outbreak of small pox while being hunted for a crime you didn't commit and your face is all over the television to boot and your worst enemy in the world gets thrown into the mix as well as your teenage daughter and her angst . This makes for a taut, no holds barred suspense thriller that grabs you from the first page with the reminder what Danny has already lost then moves quickly into the present day nightmare he is in living in. The story is genius and plays upon our worst nightmares. It's very tense, so read this one when you can give it your full attention, because you don' want to miss any part of it.

You can't help but like Danny and feel for him because of all he has lost and the domino effect that keeps his daughter from living a normal life. We all like the protagonist to have principles and Danny does, but he will do whatever is necessary. But, even Danny has weaknesses and is not infallible. As with any good thriller there are plot twist and has an ending that will have you writing this author begging him to hurry up with the next book in the series. You will root for Danny all the way and hope he will get a little break, but alas, it looks like Danny still has some unfinished business. I can't wait to find out what happens next! If you like action packed thrillers you can't go wrong with this one. 5 stars

If you like to read about a character being chased constantly, this book's for you. Because there sure isn't much more that happens...

I got through about 60% of this book before I finally gave up. It had some promise, but seeing as the author wanted to take forever to advance the plot, I just couldn't handle it any more.

Danny is a former CIA agent who's since gone into the protection business. His handler sets him up with a meeting, but it all goes haywire as he's drugged and framed for many violent murders. The next several hundred pages are about his trying to escape. Of course, he periodically imagines finding those responsible and bringing them to justice.

Intermittently, we go back in time to a scene where he loses nearly everything...although we get to view that scene so infrequently, it's hard to gin up much interest. Especially when we're brought right back to his present condition of eluding 30,000 London police officers who think he's a mass murder.

I was interested to see how and why he was set up (or if he even was), who perpetrated the crimes and why, but after nearly 250 pages of him running around, I just lost interest.

Rees is een goede schrijver, maar dat wil niet zeggen dat de hoofdpersoon geloofwaardig is. Als je in 1 dag de belevenissen van 100 geheim agenten zonder kleerscheuren kunt beleven ben je toch wel een superkanjer. Voor mij nooit meer een Rees.

Not my normal genre but I am giving it a go.

En bra fristående uppföljare till "Tillsammans" av samma författare. Det är intressant att få veta vad som händer sen, även om det på det stora hela känns som mer eller mindre samma sak igen, men det är väl så förhållanden fungerar, kanske...

/SysterSara

En väldigt bra chick-lit-bok. Det är väldigt intressant att man får historien både från Amys och Jacks perspektiv.

/SysterSara

Excellent thriller with plenty of plot twists, a very pacey structure with many short chapters that regularly switch between locations and past and current events.

The story is centred around Danny Shanklin an ex American CIA agent now working freelance. When a job goes horrendously wrong in London the story really starts to kick-in and Danny turns in a "Jason Bourne" type performance when attempting to avoid the clutches of both the law and also those that put him in the situation in the first place.

The plot layout is used very well to flesh out Danny's character. His history is explained in a piecemeal way via various chapters sprinkled throughout the book, each building upon and describing a traumatic incident some years earlier. The historical story or "sub-plot" helps to explain some of the main story motivations. I thought the story was quite well written and an exciting page-turner. There is enough left open at the end of the book to make way for Danny's next escapade. To be honest, I'm quite looking forward to reading it

Recommended - Easy read½

I got this from the library because I had a vague memory of enjoying Come Together and Come Again seven years ago or so. Then I started reading, and remembered that I never managed to get through more than three chapters of The Boy Next Door. I was very close to putting this one down after about the same amount of pages, but I kept on going because I figured it had to get better.

It didn't.

There are quite a few characters in this story, and I usually like that. But to make it work the author have to know how to prioritize. You can't have fifteen characters and give them all the same amount of space. Unfortunately this is what Lloyd and Rees are trying to do, which leads to the fact that the characters become cardboard cut-outs with one, very stereotypical trait each. There's the Bastard Husband, the American Wife, the Spoiled Daughter, the Hysterical Sister-In-Law, the Oblivious Brother-In-Law, the Dead Child, the Naive Mistress, the Rugged Local Man and the Lovestruck Teenage Boy. The POV shifts between a few of them, but it doesn't help explaining their actions and motives. There are no reasons for anything! And I am completely indifferent to all of them. I couldn't care less what happened to them. The only one worthy of a little sympathy is the ten-year-old boy, and I usually can't stand kids in books, so that is an accomplishment, I guess.

Read one chapter, guess the ending, and I bet you'd be right. It's one of the most predictable plots I've ever come across.

But the most annoying thing about this book is that even though it only two years old, it already feels dated. This is because of the countless references to music and movies that might have been big in 2005, but are already mostly forgotten. Also, the just as countless uses of brand names makes me feel as if I'm reading a catalogue and not a novel.

I won't say that The Three Day Rule is boring, but it's just so pointless. Watch half an episode of any daytime soap, and you'll get pretty much the same experience, but you won't waste as much time.

I liked that each chapter revolved between the guy's and the girl's point of view.

I read this book rather quickly but I must say I preferred the parts that were set in the 1950ies to the story in the present time. I didn't warm to Laurie and thought the story was rather kitschy and sentimental. It was a nice and quick read though, so I'll still give it 7 points

I read two or three other books by the authors, all of which I liked better than this one. First of all I found several typos, which always annoys me to no end. Secondly, I thought it could do with a little editing. There s one scene where Ben gets out of the cold shower because there is no electricity and then wipes away the steam from the bathroom mirror. Somebody should have caught that.
And finally, I thought the setting to be promising, but the book didn't deliver on this promise. I didn't like *any* of the characters. The female main character is naive in fallign for a married guy. Then she just falls for the next guy without any reservation. I thought the romance between neither couple was very believable, and in fact, most characters were like caricatures of themselves. The kids were especially bad. It might be that 14 or 15 year olds feel the way described in the book, but I didn't like that every thought and every feeling had to be spelled out explicitly. Sometimes people, especially teenagers, are angry and just act without a good rationalisation or complicated explanation regarding the relationship with their parents handy.

I wanted to like this book, but I was actually quite disappointed.

Not the best Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees that's for sure.

Chick lit. Over een stel dat elkaar uit het ogen verliest, een eigen leven opbouwt en elkaar jaren later weer tegenkomt. Het einde hoef ik niet te vertellen, oude liefde roest immers niet.

Englisg translation of "Come together"

It took me a while to "enter" the book. I was finding it a bit boring, a lot of separate stories, and my head didn't want to make such a big effort :)
But then the story grabbed me, as usual the caracters were very real and I started caring for them.
Definitly an enjoyable read.½