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Sheer Abandon
by
Penny Vincenzi (Goodreads Author)
A number-one bestseller from one of Britain’s most popular novelists, Sheer Abandon is an all-consuming story revolving around the consequences of a desperate act...
Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand...more
Martha, Clio, and Jocasta meet by chance at Heathrow airport in 1985 as they are starting off on separate backpacking adventures, and they decide to spend the first few days of their trips together in Thailand...more
Paperback, 638 pages
Published
April 8th 2008
by Anchor
(first published 2003)
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Why I didn't really like this book...
1. It could and should have been 300 pages. Instead, it dragged on for 627.
2. The author gives away important information early on in the book. Unless you are quite slow, you are going to know who the Mother and he Father of the abandoned baby are and you will be waiting rather impatiently for like 400 pages while the rest of the characters figure out what you already know.
3. I didn't like the writing style. The author jumps from character to character rathe...more
1. It could and should have been 300 pages. Instead, it dragged on for 627.
2. The author gives away important information early on in the book. Unless you are quite slow, you are going to know who the Mother and he Father of the abandoned baby are and you will be waiting rather impatiently for like 400 pages while the rest of the characters figure out what you already know.
3. I didn't like the writing style. The author jumps from character to character rathe...more
Simply amazing. The whole book was just one huge adventure, never quite sure of what was next. It was truly a heartfelt book, with human flaws so clearly decipted, but instead of feeling horrified, you cannot help but feel pity and love for them. Instead of wanting to strike out at them, I just wanted to protect them with a hug, telling them that it all will be okay. Especially Kate.
I loved this book, and it was definitely not what I expected. Not by far, and frankly that's a good thing. Sometim...more
I loved this book, and it was definitely not what I expected. Not by far, and frankly that's a good thing. Sometim...more
2 likes · like · see review
This novel was more difficult for me to get into (I probably would have given this a 2.5 star rating if possible). It could have been the political arena that it was based in as I have no interest in politics. The characters were difficult to grasp at first but once I figured out everyone's role in the story then I had begun to 'enjoy' it more. When he big secret is revealed (I was able to figure it out before hand), I began to wonder how the author would tie it all together for the ending. I wa...more
Jul 29, 2008
Bianca
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
someone with A LOT of time on their hands, perhaps someone in solitary confinement
Recommended to Bianca by:
no one
This book should be retitled "The Never Ending Story"! Holy lord I thought it would never end. It wasn't necessarily BAD but it may have been a lot better as a movie. Lord knows it was long enough to be the actual script. In an approximately 620 page book, I didn't get into the story or anything that seemed fun to read until about page 420!!! Even the ending was disappointing. If I'm gonna read a book this long I want the ending to be wrapped up in a pretty little happy ending bow. No such luck....more
Was really looking forward to reading this book since I have enjoyed several other Penny Vincenzi novels such as No Angel, Something Dangerous and Into Temptation, unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much!! The first 250 or so pages I had to force myself to keep reading, and reminding myself that the story was about a baby abandoned at birth in an airport. The only chapters that were any where near enjoyable for me were the ones that were actually about Kate who was the abandoned ba...more
I gave this 2 stars not because it had 600+ pages (I love diving into epic stories); not because the characters gave me no real reason to identify with them in any way (shallow, under-developed wimpy female characters - the only one with any balls being teenage Kate); nor because the plot was handed to me on a platter in the first chapter (should have quit while I was ahead)...
I generally like Penny Vincenzi's novels as beach or vacation reads, or just fun escapes once in a while, but this was...more
I generally like Penny Vincenzi's novels as beach or vacation reads, or just fun escapes once in a while, but this was...more
Sex, politics and a devastating secret … Penny combines these elements with the search of a sixteen-year-old girl for her birth mother, resulting in a novel that is both intoxicating and deeply moving. This is the story of three very different women—prickly, independent Martha, impulsive, fun-loving Jocasta and sweet, self-effacing Clio—who meet by chance at eighteen as they’re about to embark on several months travelling, and how, seventeen years later, their paths cross under extraordinary cir...more
1 like · like · see review
Cruel Abandono começa o seu enredo em 1986, quando uma jovem mulher chega ao aeroporto de Heathrow vinda de Banguecoque e dá à luz numa arrecadação, abandonando lá o bebé. Sabemos também que, no ano anterior, três jovens - Jocasta, Martha e Clio - tinham partido numa aventura pela Tailândia, pelo que o mistério relativamente à identidade da mãe é o motor que conduz a história, de volta ao presente.
Ao longo das páginas deste livro, vamos acompanhando a vida e a história destas três mulheres: as s...more
Ao longo das páginas deste livro, vamos acompanhando a vida e a história destas três mulheres: as s...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This author was fond of jumping back and forth from the past the to present at the beginning of the book, so that I was hoping that the issue of which of the three friends was the birth mother wouldn’t drag on the entire book (it didn’t). I know that fictional characters don’t have to be ultra-realistic, but sometimes these women seemed a little too cartoonish – the flightly one was so overly impulsive that she made ridiculous choices and then had no consequences for anything, and carful workaho...more
I throughly enjoyed this novel. I came upon Penny accidently last summer, started reading one of her novels and BAM! I was addicted.
This book had everything, romance, drama, humour and danger. Her charcters are the type you HAVE to be sympthetic to, apart from one or two. On my days off I'd get up extra early and read.....I simply had to force myself to put the novel down.
At one point I was actually reading and screaming at a particular charcater....they did something which annoyed me and I was...more
This book had everything, romance, drama, humour and danger. Her charcters are the type you HAVE to be sympthetic to, apart from one or two. On my days off I'd get up extra early and read.....I simply had to force myself to put the novel down.
At one point I was actually reading and screaming at a particular charcater....they did something which annoyed me and I was...more
May 16, 2011
Alice
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of big, thick, juicy trashy books
Recommended to Alice by:
I found it free on the street
Shelves:
chicklit
A big, juicy women's blockbuster in the tradition of Judith Krantz or Lisa Jewell. I have a huge soft spot for books like this, with a zillion characters and plotlines and births, deaths, marriages, et. cetera. This isn't as glamorous as the Krantzes that I read by the bucketload in college, and it's not as sexy as Jilly Cooper, but neither is it maudlin and suburban like Jodi Picoult. If you're looking for a good beach read, this is definitely it. I'll be working my way through Vincenzi's consi...more
Finally, I finished this book! Quite the soap-opera, roller-coaster. This story had a bit of everything thrown in, some of which I cared nothing about; probably because it had to do with the politics of British government. Still, I liked how there was quite a bit of substance to this family saga. I would have ended the story differently, but the ending left the reader with things to think about.
I wondered a lot about Martha's parents. To my mind, the book still ended with secrets and I wondered...more
I wondered a lot about Martha's parents. To my mind, the book still ended with secrets and I wondered...more
Holy mother of Moses, this book was too long. As I'm sure most people did, I figured out Kate's parentage in the first few chapters and spent the rest of the book feeling thoroughly annoyed at the fact that the author insults the intelligence of her readers by acting as though her plot isn't terribly transparent for another 500 pages.
I give this book more than just one star because I did appreciate her skills at developing characters that readers can identify with.
Other than that, don't waste yo...more
I give this book more than just one star because I did appreciate her skills at developing characters that readers can identify with.
Other than that, don't waste yo...more
Sheer Abandon is a soap opera in print. The reader knows that the characters will all be tied together somehow by the baby abandoned in an airport in the first chapter. Tension is built throughout the story but many of the plot developments are unbelievable coincidence though not always predictable. Vincenzi creates a very British setting with tabloid journalists, a failing health care system, and a budding new political party to challenge the establishment. Very little sex and language for such...more
I had just finished listening to Absolute Scandal and was mesmerized by it. I wanted something for my Kindle, and the library had this title. I got about 1/3 way through it and was just bored. The doc with the emotionally abusive husband was the most irritating. "Tell him to just shut it!" I also expected some big drama between Kate, the adopted young woman and Jocasta. It just didn't seem that interesting. I began another book, the Billy Boyle first in the series and already am much more intriq...more
this is another penny vincenzi that i really enjoyed,i thought that although there was no mystery to the plot i do think that this was intended,i think that the reader was supposed to be all knowing and was supposed to read the book in a way where they waited for everyone else to realise who the mother and father! my only criticism of this book is that i really didnt like some of the characters and therefore almost skipped over paragraphs dealing with them,other than that this book was just what...more
Finished this book yesterday. At one time I was really wondering why I kept on reading but after posting that, 1 day ago, I knew why. This book has its very good phases and some very boring ones. I liked the last 3/4th of the book and there was one thing I did not see coming. I like to be surprised and she managed to do that after all. Of course I did figure out who the mom and dad of kate were, very soon as most of the readers did, so being surprised was a nice thing which I did not expect anym...more
This was an excellent book! It took me a little time to get into it, but after the first bit I couldn't put it down. There are quite a few characters, and I admit I was referencing the character list at the begining of the book. But, Vincenzi brought all of the characters to life. The plot twists were great and usually unexpected. I really liked her overall approach and the way it as written, especially how the reader knew a baby was abandoned, but it was unclear which character had abandoned th...more
Overly long story about 3 posh English girls who meet on the first day of their gap year. One of them comes back pregnant and abandons the baby in the airport. 16 years later they are all successful in their chosen fields, and their paths cross again when the now teenage girl decides to start looking for her mother.
There were lots of clues as to who the mother and father were, and so when these are revealed this was no great surprise, but then the story moved on and actually got more interesting...more
There were lots of clues as to who the mother and father were, and so when these are revealed this was no great surprise, but then the story moved on and actually got more interesting...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
disappointing. this author was recommended to me by a library customer, but this epic soap opera was twice as long as it needed to be, and the characters were all self-destructive idiots. (don't want a divorce? try telling your boyfriend you can't have kids BEFORE you get married.) that said, it kept me riveted because i expected...well, i expected something out of the ending. i'm not sure what, but i never found it, and now i feel sheepish for wasting my time.
If you are looking for a meandering read chronicling a period of time in the lives of three adult women who share a common bond from 16 years earlier, than this book is for you! The book starts with the mystery of which of the women abandoned a baby girl at Heathrow Airport after a year of traveling Asia/Australia during their gap year.
The book illustrates the life struggles of the three women and the interesting way their lives become intertwined almost two decades later. This book was not fas...more
The book illustrates the life struggles of the three women and the interesting way their lives become intertwined almost two decades later. This book was not fas...more
This was a book I have had for about 3 years. I started it once and could not get into it and put it away. I picked it up again this year and got through about the first 75 pages and it grabbed me. I could not put it down after that. If you can make it through the beginning of the book it is worth the read.
The book was initially intriguing. It had a good assortment of characters, and a mystery. It would have been good beach reading, but lacked character development for a serious read. Also the "young woman/older wealthy man" trope does not appeal to me and did not add anything to the story.
Egentlig en god hovedhistorie, men der er alt for mange side-historier og udnødvendige bipersoner til at bogen fanger.
De første par kapitler er rigtigt godt skrevet, de ender så man hver gang tror at NU ved man ved hvem der er mor til den lille pige der blev fundet i et kosteskab i Heathrow, men så er det ligesom Penny Vincenzi mister taget i plottet, der intoduceres underlige sidehistorier og ikke relevante personer, der kun er med til at gøre bogen lang (610 sider). det er ærgeligt for det kun...more
De første par kapitler er rigtigt godt skrevet, de ender så man hver gang tror at NU ved man ved hvem der er mor til den lille pige der blev fundet i et kosteskab i Heathrow, men så er det ligesom Penny Vincenzi mister taget i plottet, der intoduceres underlige sidehistorier og ikke relevante personer, der kun er med til at gøre bogen lang (610 sider). det er ærgeligt for det kun...more
Though this book did drag in parts and the child parentage was strongly hinted at early in the book, I did for the most part enjoy the story. The author could have cut out about 100 pages of stuff and the story line would have been much more easy read.
I have The Spoils of Time Trilogy by Vincenzi, but will give myself a rest before delving into it.
I have The Spoils of Time Trilogy by Vincenzi, but will give myself a rest before delving into it.
It is wonderful to read a novel by a writer who is extremely gifted in character development. It is a realy long novel but I hated to put it down and I was sorry there was not more to read when I finished it.
Mysteries about the complexities of life-- What a great read.
Mysteries about the complexities of life-- What a great read.
I had a harder time getting into this novel and recognizing just who the characters were and what their relationships were. Once I was halfway through the book, I was ok. I just didn't enjoy this story as much as the 1st by this author. It must be an identity thing again.
A long and easy to read story with great characters, I loved it. Not too deep or complex, perfect to pick up and put down. Took a while to finish and there were moments where I wanted to fast forward but overall was a good satisfying read.
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I'm currently taking part in a Q&A Group here on Goodreads to discuss my latest novel, Sheer Abandon . To post questions, please visit: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/4.... I look forward to an active discussion together.
I was nine years old when I embarked on my storytelling career. I wrote my own magazine called “Stories”, which I copied out three times on carbon paper and sold for two...more
More about Penny Vincenzi...
I was nine years old when I embarked on my storytelling career. I wrote my own magazine called “Stories”, which I copied out three times on carbon paper and sold for two...more
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Jun 29, 2008 06:49pm