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|  | Author: Robert Goolrick
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.99
as of 9/5/2010 05:41 CDT details
You Save: $13.96 (93%)
Seller: happyhourcollectables
Rating:  556 reviews
Sales Rank: 328
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 1565129776
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781565129771
ASIN: 1565129776
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 556
 A Dark, Romantic and Tragic Love Story August 14, 2010
Robert Silverstein (Reston, Virginia)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A wealthy industrialist meets his new bride-to-be in the cold Wisconsin evening and as soon as she steps off the train, both of their lives would forever be changed. Each of them are filled with deep and dark secrets that the author slowly discloses as the story unfolds. Each has their own reason for wanting this marriage to take place and in the end, both get more from this relationship than either of them had ever imagined. The tone of the book is as dark and cold as the Wisconsin winter, yet each of the main characters have redeeming qualities that make you hope they will ultimately find happiness with each other. In the end, they do find happiness together, but through a very long, painful journey that takes each of them to the very darkest corners of the places they were from. Not the greatest novel ever written, but certainly a book that will hold your attention and keep you involved until the very end.
 A dark and preverse read August 11, 2010
Kathleen M. Smith
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this book for my book club and am intersted to hear what my fellow book club members thought of the book. The book held my interest, but I found it to be disturbing an dark throughout.
Unputdownable August 11, 2010
Sharon Hurley Hall
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I couldn't put A Reliable Wife down. In this story, everyone has a hidden agenda and everyone finds the reality different from what they expected - that's the fun of it. I also found the portrait of small town life fascinating.
An agonizingly dark psychological horror story August 11, 2010
RandomizeME
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was left so conflicted by this debut novel 'A Reliable Wife' by Robert Goolrick. I couldn't stop reading it, but I so regretted starting it when I realized how agonizingly dark of a psychological horror story it was going to be. If you like your books happy and uncomplicated, this is not for you.
The characters in the novel are some of the most awful people I've ever met in a novel, and yet, the author managed to make me end up rooting for all of them to somehow have a happy ending. I was left completely heartbroken in the end, and yet, I had to agree with the author, how else could the story have ended so that at least some of the characters would be able to go on with their lives with some hope of happiness?
This story is so wrapped up in secrets. Yes, it starts out with successful businessman Ralph Truitt waiting for his mail-order bride. And yes, the mail-order bride Catherine Land is a fortune-hunter. But this is just the first layer, because they are more than that. Basically, expect the unexpected when you start reading. And expect to be reeled in and hooked, even as you react with horror with how awful to each other the novel's characters are - Ralph Truitt, Catherine Land and Ralph's step-son Antonio Morreti. They are all beautiful and terrible, hypersexualized and repressed, emotional and closed-off, restrained and violent, depraved and holy, hopeful and despairing, full of love and hate, full of bitterness and forgiveness ... such complete contradictions all at the same time...
One thing I can say without being conflicted about it - it's an amazing debut novel by Robert Goolrick and I can't wait for his next novel for sure.
Doesn't add up August 10, 2010
Usuallee (Augusta, ME)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I saw this in a bookstore and purchased it on a whim. Since it seemed to be the type of gothic romantic suspense that is right up my alley, and had gushing blurbs from seemingly every media outlet in the country, I thought I had a sure thing. It didn't live up to the hype.
The book starts off interestingly enough and at first I enjoyed the writing style. But as the tension was supposedly building, I was getting bored. I had three main problems with this book. First of all, the characters' actions just didn't ring true to me. I had major problems believing some of the things they did. It was more like the characters did what they did because the plot said so. Secondly, paragraph after paragraph of each character's self-absorbed angsty hand wringing just got to be too much. Some other reviewers have pointed out that this would have been better as a short story & I totally agree. And then, the climax was D.O.A., since it was handled in such a leaden manner that any potential for excitement just fizzled away.
There is enough here as a debut novel for me to maybe check out the author's next book. But I can't recommend this one.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 556
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