⋙ Libro Gratis Surfacing Kristin Halbrook 9780988585966 Books

Surfacing Kristin Halbrook 9780988585966 Books

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Surfacing Kristin Halbrook 9780988585966 Books

The Basics:

Katie is determined to hold together her perfect life, perfect boyfriend, perfect position in her sorority, even when her best friend is murdered and discovered in her teacher’s closet. She’s also determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her, even if it means enlisting the help of Josh, the ex who ties her to less-than-perfect times.

The Downside:

Such is the unfathomable depth of my fangirling for Kristin Halbrook, it can compel me to buy and read a book with a painfully vague, generic, dramatic-sounding one-word title and a similarly generic pair of pretty, backlit people kissing on the cover.

Seriously, that’s some powerful stuff.

To a large extent, this book belongs behind that cover. In all fairness, I know there are people who would be drawn in by said cover, and those people likely wouldn’t be bored by the obligatory descriptions of how sex is accomplished or gagged by the melodrama of the romantic dialogue. I’m not that person, so I’ll leave those parts alone.

The bigger problems are of the show-don’t-tell variety. Katie’s issues are over-explained in psychiatric detail without truly being felt. Similarly, her relationship with Josh goes back to a childhood friendship that we’re told about as an explanation for his more than angelic patience with her, yet we only ever see Katie at her worst with Josh for the vast majority of the text. Even a few small glimpses of Katie's better side and their better moments together would have gone a long way to ameliorate the general feeling that Katie spends most of the book making excuses to us for why she's so horrible and why Josh isn’t not entirely crazy for being attached to her, excuses that we can only swallow for so long without some kind of proof.

The Upside:

The mystery, though largely overshadowed by the romance, accelerates into a tightly twisting spiral of a finale. Just when it begins to feel as predictable as Katie and Josh's drawn-out love story, it takes a fresh turn. The ultimate villain, whom I shall not spoil, is exactly the right kind of gut-punch, and the love triangle, in spite of Katie's lack of appeal, has a good heartbreaker moment.

The interludes of experimental, stylized prose are the true stars of the book, freshly and poignantly illustrating Katie's shock and slow, sporadic processing of the loss of her friend. In spite of the overarching problems, these moments of intrigue or artfully painted feeling are thickly sprinkled through the short narrative, making for a quick and overall enjoyable read.


Tags : Surfacing [Kristin Halbrook] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A college Clueless meets Veronica Mars, Kristin Halbrook's new adult mystery is full of sexy romance and twists that will keep you guessing until the end. Katie Sawyer has spent the past three and a half years cultivating the perfect UCLA experience. She has the perfect boyfriend: a football star. She has the perfect social life: she's President of Delta Gamma. But her perfect best friend,Kristin Halbrook,Surfacing,Kristin Halbrook Books,0988585960,College students,Man-woman relationships,Mystery fiction,Romantic fiction,Adult & contemporary romance,Fiction - Romance,Fiction Romance Contemporary,Romance - Contemporary

Surfacing Kristin Halbrook 9780988585966 Books Reviews

Very suspenseful and kept you guessing. Great story and characters! Loved it!
I received an advance reader edition of this book from the author.

1.5 Stars

I have been procrastinating. I should have wrote this review weeks ago but I hate writing bad reviews. I feel like I should apologize or something for not liking this book. Maybe that is going too far but I really wanted to enjoy this book and I tried really hard but this was not the book for me. This ended up being the kind of book that you just cannot wait to finish. When I finished this book, I was so happy to be done just because I wanted to move on to something else - something I might actually like. I do think that this book could work for some audiences. I just couldn't relate to really anything in this book.

Katie is the president of her sorority. She is dating a popular boy in school and they make such a cute couple (or at least she keeps telling us how perfect they are as a couple). Her best friend, Chelsea, is murdered and shoved into a closet inside a classroom. Her body is discovered when it falls out of the closet during class at the beginning of the story. I had high hopes of the mystery in this book but Katie seemed more focused on keeping up appearances than anything else.

Did I put on waterproof mascara this morning? I simply couldn't remember. I hoped I had.

The above quote is a shining example of type of important stuff that runs through Katie's head during this book. I wanted to slap her. I wanted to shake her. I pretty much hated everything about Katie. I thought that this book was going to focus on solving the mystery of Chelsea's death but instead there is a lot of focus on putting on a fashion show, discussion of what Katie was wearing. Who cares what Katie is wearing? Who cares about putting on a fashion show? One of the sorority members has been killed - shouldn't that sorority skip the contest this year? But, no. Katie must look strong and keep up appearances.

If my best friend tries to look cute and put on a fashion show after my murdered body is found, I will haunt her.....forever. To be fair, there is some mystery solving in the book but it never seemed to take center stage. The only character that is remotely likeable is Josh but he constantly lets Katie treat him horribly throughout the book so I kind of wanted to smack him too.

To be fair, my life is so different than any of the characters in this book. I went to college but I never lived in a dorm and I was never part of a sorority. I wore sweatpants without any make-up during my college days. Okay, I will be honest that is usually what I still wear unless I have to put on real clothes. I never wear high heels but I do have a lovely pair of custom orthotics to put in my shoes - I am sexy like that. I don't remember ever trying to date anyone simply because we would make a cute couple. I would have kicked that jerky boyfriend of hers to the curb on about page 2 of the book. And you know what? I would have mourned the death of my best friend. I would have screamed and cried ugly tears for DAYS. I would have been a mess and I wouldn't have cared because my best friend would be DEAD. Not just dead but MURDERED.

Let's just say that I was the wrong audience for this book. I actually thought about quitting the book early on and I really wish I had followed through with that feeling early in the book. This is a really short book and I finished it hoping I would find something I liked in the book. The end of the book was better than the beginning but not enough to overcome my distaste for all things Katie. I cannot recommend this book to others.
The Basics

Katie is determined to hold together her perfect life, perfect boyfriend, perfect position in her sorority, even when her best friend is murdered and discovered in her teacher’s closet. She’s also determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her, even if it means enlisting the help of Josh, the ex who ties her to less-than-perfect times.

The Downside

Such is the unfathomable depth of my fangirling for Kristin Halbrook, it can compel me to buy and read a book with a painfully vague, generic, dramatic-sounding one-word title and a similarly generic pair of pretty, backlit people kissing on the cover.

Seriously, that’s some powerful stuff.

To a large extent, this book belongs behind that cover. In all fairness, I know there are people who would be drawn in by said cover, and those people likely wouldn’t be bored by the obligatory descriptions of how sex is accomplished or gagged by the melodrama of the romantic dialogue. I’m not that person, so I’ll leave those parts alone.

The bigger problems are of the show-don’t-tell variety. Katie’s issues are over-explained in psychiatric detail without truly being felt. Similarly, her relationship with Josh goes back to a childhood friendship that we’re told about as an explanation for his more than angelic patience with her, yet we only ever see Katie at her worst with Josh for the vast majority of the text. Even a few small glimpses of Katie's better side and their better moments together would have gone a long way to ameliorate the general feeling that Katie spends most of the book making excuses to us for why she's so horrible and why Josh isn’t not entirely crazy for being attached to her, excuses that we can only swallow for so long without some kind of proof.

The Upside

The mystery, though largely overshadowed by the romance, accelerates into a tightly twisting spiral of a finale. Just when it begins to feel as predictable as Katie and Josh's drawn-out love story, it takes a fresh turn. The ultimate villain, whom I shall not spoil, is exactly the right kind of gut-punch, and the love triangle, in spite of Katie's lack of appeal, has a good heartbreaker moment.

The interludes of experimental, stylized prose are the true stars of the book, freshly and poignantly illustrating Katie's shock and slow, sporadic processing of the loss of her friend. In spite of the overarching problems, these moments of intrigue or artfully painted feeling are thickly sprinkled through the short narrative, making for a quick and overall enjoyable read.